How is rum made?

Rum is made from sugar cane: from molasses or syrup left over from making cane sugar, or from the juice of the sugar cane itself.

Those three raw materials are named by European Regulation 2019/787 in category 1. The regulation explicitly says that rum is distilled exclusively from these raw materials.

Rum from sugar cane juice is called rhum agricole in the French overseas departments; the Martinican appellation Rhum de la Martinique is exclusively such a cane-juice rum.

When molasses or cane juice is fermented, alcohol arises from the sugars; only the fermented wash goes into the still.

Aroma compounds also form during fermentation. Researchers at the Technische Universität München saw the content of ethyl esters, important fruity aroma compounds in rum, rise clearly during fermentation.

How long the fermented mash stays also counts. Research by the Université de Bourgogne showed that molasses resting on the yeast lees for three months gave more long-chain esters in the distillate.

A pot still distils per batch, a column still distils continuously; both are used for rum.

The pot still works with separate batches of fermented wash. The column still, also called Coffey still, works continuously. Which of the two a distillery uses affects the composition of the distillate.

In the research of the Université de Bourgogne, rum from the column still was chemically more uniform in composition, while rum from the pot still preserved more of the effect of the yeast sediment.

According to European Regulation 2019/787, rum must be distilled to less than 96 percent alcohol, so that the distillate retains the recognisable characteristics of rum.

The limit is in the same sentence as the raw material: rum is made exclusively by distilling the fermented sugar cane product, and the distillation must stay below that 96 percent.

For rum with a protected origin, the designation traditionnel or tradicional may be added, among other conditions if the distillate stays below 90 percent and the rum is not sweetened. Rhum de la Martinique is distilled at between 65 and 75 percent, which according to the French institute INAO contributes to its own aromas.

The European regulation prescribes no maturation for rum, so rum may also be bottled without any contact with wood.

Anyone who does mature rum in casks gets aroma compounds from the wood. In mature rum the researchers in Munich found, among other things, vanillin and other phenols that come mainly from the wooden casks.

Origin rules can require maturation, though. With Rhum de la Martinique, the blanc rests without wood, élevé sous bois matures at least 12 months in wood and vieux matures at least three years in wood.

Rum on the bottle has at least 37.5 percent alcohol, without flavouring or added alcohol, with only caramel for colour and at most 20 grams of sweetener per litre.

Sweetening is only allowed to round off the flavour. Flavouring is not permitted, and no alcohol may be added either, diluted or undiluted.

In Bathmen there are 400 rums with a known alcohol percentage, from 39 countries, with Jamaica, Cuba and Barbados as the largest countries of origin. We do not sell spirits to people under 18.