If you think white rum mostly rhymes with Bacardi and high school parties, you're not alone. White rum typically forms the base for cocktails and is rarely drunk neat for its taste – unlike dark rum. Until recently, at least.
But before we tell you about the new trends in white rum, we should cover the basics first: the difference between dark and light rum.
The difference between dark and light rum
Dark rum is rum that, after distillation, has aged for several years in oak barrels, absorbing the taste and color of the wood. Often, caramel coloring will also be added to the rum to achieve an extra deep, dark tone.
White rum is often unaged rum or 'new make' that has not been aged in oak barrels after distillation. However, white rum is not by definition unaged. In fact, white rum can also be aged rum that has been filtered to remove color, allowing it to be used in many different cocktails.
But regardless of whether a white rum is new make or has had its color filtered out, it typically hasn't been something you'd drink neat – at least not with pride.
The new, 'raw' rum type
But that picture is changing. In recent years, new types of white rum have entered the market, changing white rum's status from a mere mixer rum to also include connoisseur gourmet spirits.
These new white rums focus on the experience of the 'raw' rum before it is exposed to the barrel, and on what sugarcane type, distillation method, and terroir do for a rum's character. It is not least Caribbean Renegade in Grenada, with its nerdy, unaged pre-cask bottlings, that represents these new white rum releases. Here, the rum is categorized by sugarcane type, distillation method, and even by which field the sugarcane was grown in.
Romdeluxe has also released a series of unaged rums – sometimes also called 'new makes' – from both Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, while 1423 recently launched a series of unaged SBS bottlings, SBS Origin. Here, one can taste how the well-known SBS bottlings taste in their 'original' form before they take on character from the barrel. These new white rums thus focus on rum as a raw product, possessing enough individual character and distinctiveness to be enjoyed on its own merits.
The trend is that more and more white, unaged rum bottlings are coming onto the market, which are exciting products in themselves. Thus, white rum is a versatile entity that has evolved to encompass everything from mixer rum to gourmet products.
So if you haven't yet tried these new types of white rum, you have plenty of exciting taste experiences awaiting you!
Cheers!
