There’s an old joke that says drinking rum in the morning doesn’t make you an alcoholic, it means you’re a pirate.
I tried to keep this in mind and channel my inner sea rover after being invited to a weekend tasting event at the Wedgewood Hotel for several blends of top shelf Venezuelan rum at the ungodly hour of 11 a.m.
It has to be said that the demon rum suffers from a bit of an image problem. For starters, people still refer to it as “the demon rum,” an indignity other refined spirits certainly don’t have to put up with.
But then again most of them don’t owe their popularity thanks to human slavery. Rum is distilled from sugar cane, and early Caribbean sugar production was so labour-intensive that slaves were often literally worked to death. The rum trade and the slave trade basically went hand-in-hand for generations. As far as lingering PR problems go, it’s kind of a biggie.
There’s also the issue of being widely considered more of a cocktail ingredient than something you enjoy on its own. When was the last time you saw someone order a shot of Bacardi at the bar? Noted imbiber and author Kingsley Amis once wrote that “the sign of a serious spirit is that it’s profitably or even preferably drinkable neat or with a little water,” and these days most people only ever drink rum after first adding Coke, fruit juice or egg nog. Although ideally not all together.
Last but not least, many people now prefer to drink the more recently invented light rum — also known as white or silver rum — which is more thoroughly distilled to remove impurities and consequently flavour, than they do the real thing.
White rum is still much better than red rum
This could soon change. While there are still plenty of rotguts of the "15 men on a dead man's chest" variety available, there are many others that are made just as carefully and lovingly as fine tequila or single malt scotch.
Take Diplomático, which is no so-so bottle of rum. The award-winning distillery, whose master blender Tito Cordero was recently voted the best in the world, are expanding into Canada with a selection of six different rums. Options range from four-year-old Añejo, which has a hint of brown sugar and oaky spice, to Reserva Exclusiva, a fruitier and very expensive tipple that is aged for 12 years, and Hacienda Saruro, a sweet liqueur made with vanilla and honey.
Turns out that sipping dark or golden rum can be just as pleasant as good scotch, although you still probably don’t want to do it first thing in the morning.
