This is what rum consists of: production & ingredients

Rum is a popular alcoholic beverage that uses few ingredients to make it. You can find out exactly what is contained in rum and where its color comes from in this article.

Rum - ingredients for making

The list of ingredients needed to make rum is quite short.

• Very high quality rum is made from sugar cane. In most cases, however, molasses is used for the production. Molasses is a waste product from sugar production. It is a viscous, dark brown liquid.
• In addition, yeast and water are required for the production.
• The molasses is made to ferment by adding yeast.
• As soon as fermentation is complete, distillation begins.
• The distillate is then diluted with water until the desired drinking strength is reached. The distillate itself has an alcohol content between 65 and 75 percent without the addition of water. According to this, the rum has between 40 and 54 percent by volume.
• In order to be called rum, the drink must have at least 38 percent by volume.
• If the rum is filled with water immediately after distillation and adding water, you will get white rum. However, the alcoholic drink is not yet mature enough. Such rum is well suited for mixing cocktails.
• The rum only gets browner when it is stored in wooden barrels. After a certain time, before bottling, it is then diluted with water. Depending on which wood is used, the rum gets its own taste.

Storage of rum in barrels

As a rule, a good rum is stored in oak barrels.

• These are mostly barrels made from white oak wood. The barrels are burned out inside beforehand.
• Depending on the manufacturer, the storage in these barrels extends over different periods, which are usually named on the product.
• A little bit of the taste of the barrel is then transferred to the rum. The drink also has a slight sweetness, since the white oak has a high vanilla content. In addition, the rum turns brown over time.
• The rule of thumb applies: the longer a rum is stored, the better its quality.
• However, the color of brown rum does not always come from the wooden barrels. Very often a little sugar color is simply added.
• By the way, it is allowed to sweeten the rum by adding sugar. In some types of rum, so much sugar is added that the limit to the liqueur is almost reached.

In our next post, we'll look at gin and the ingredients of making the alcoholic beverage.