you sayin' I is a drunkard,
you doh want me to marry yuh daughter.
Yuh doin' me a favour,
I ain't want yuh daughter
she too damn ugly anyway.
More rum for me,
more rum for me, more rum for me."
Over the last few years in the Caribbean, we have had our traditional griots, the calypsonians composing odes for the Love of Rum. They are not the first. The rum disciples-Bound to Drunk, Fig and Oil, Waltz, Bughole, and Souse sang these odes almost daily from seven a.m. at Merwin's rumshop- they groaned, the sipped, they knocked back, but they never chased- that would be breaching the code of honour. Like prescription medicine it was one shot every three hours, or whenever they got back from a hard day's mountain toil, scraping the last drops from the worn glasses just as they scraped the earth of the ground to pluck hard yams and cassava, days, hours, moments, before- their memories faltered so I cannot vouch for accuracy. They courted rum with an intensity with which they did not even court their lovers (I call them lovers although I am sure that rum sponged all the love out of any relationship they managed to cultivate). They pursued her sweetness morning, noon and night, they spent their last few dollars on one more shot of Special Dark and they often indebted themselves, or rather, bankrupted themselves in order to ensure that there was always one "last" bottle at home. The calysonians have echoed this unwavering passion in their songs- Poopa Leendi's "Rum Oh" laments "Rum Oh, whey yuh dey? Clarke's Court is gonna kill dem boy.. we drinking rum till we die!" In Trinidad and Tobago, chutney soca is characterised by tunes which feature rum: "Girl you know I was a drinka- you cant change me no way!" and "Bar Man give me a bottle of puncheon". One of the more popular songs over the past few years was Bunji Garlin's " You could bring it in a bottle, you could bring it in a glass, you could bring it in a cup, you could bring it in a flask, I want me rum in the morning, I want me rum in the evening". Rum is our tonic, our spiritual viagra.
The word rum comes from the latin word saccharum- meaning sugar. Others say that it is a shortened form of the word rumbullion- meaning uproar or tumultuous.The first distillation of rum took place on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean in the 17th century. Plantation slaves first discovered that molasses, a by-product of the sugar refining process, could be fermented into alcohol. Later, distillation of these alcoholic by-products concentrated the alcohol and removed impurities, producing the first true rums. Tradition suggests that rum first originated on the island of Barbados- a 1651 document from Barbados stated, "The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor".
The popularity of rum is undoubted. Its flavours are strong, deep and meaningful, the opposite of vodka. It comes in many different strengths and flavours. Light rums are usually used as the base for cocktails and other lighter alcoholic drinks such as mojitos and pina coladas. Rum can also come golden or spiced and flavoured (ie Clarke's Court Lemon Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum) and it can also come aged, as dark rum with a molasses or caramel flavoured overtone. I am more interested, however, in the lack of popularity in premium rum- carefully aged rums which are assiduously produced. I say this because in the Caribbean a rum connoisseur is known as a "rumbo" and someone who likes rum a wee bit too much is swiftly regarded as an alcoholic of the lower class, part of the great unwashed. The upper classes,even in the Caribbean, tend to drink Courvoisier, Moet & Chandon and more recently, Johnny Walker Black, in the up market clubs and at all-inclusive parties, These spirits are all imported, and their popularity arise undoubtedly because of colonial reasons because to be honest, apart from Moet, JWB and Courvoisier cannot even come close in a taste test when placed alongside the good old sugar cane extract. Is it possible that rum can occupy a hallowed spot in our Caribbean cultural establishments, can we lift it out of the rumshops and into clubs, tikibars and megabars as ubiquitous as bubbly or other fine spirits on the tables of celebrities and rockstars? Will we have rappers endorsing our Caribbean's finest in their hits?
We certainly already have the product. A cursory search on the internet revealed that there are long existing vintage rums. El Dorado Superior is a vintage liqueur. 10 Cane Rum was commissioned by the House of LVMH five years ago - that's Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey- it uses the copper pot stills legacy of premium cognac and is distilled twice for that extra special flavour. Like cognac, it is aged in oak barrels. It won't be long before each island produces its special blend of premium, high quality, gold label rum. Cuba has already invested in a 50 million distillery for golden aged Havana.Euromonitor International charts a 17.9% volume rise in global rum sales to 119.7m 9-litre cases over 2001-2006, broken down into a 15.9% increase for white rum (to 37.1m cases) and an 18.8% increase for golden and dark rum (to 82.6m cases). Italy and Spain are the market leaders for these exports and there is the feeling that it is the product to replace flagging whisky sales. Rums are certainly sexier, what with the rise of specialist tiki bars that even the royals love to frequent- Mahiki being case in point. It is certain that to take the product to the next level, that our local industries need to capitalise quickly on the premiumisation of the brand that was started by products such as Cacique and Barcello. Are any of our islands investing in the rum industry in a significant way. The smaller islands, with boutique industries, are ripe for producing signature brands imprinted with handcrafted quality. Or are we simply content to let this liquid gold penetrate the market as smuggled goods in overproof form?
And even on a most basic level, can our love for premium spirits be transcended to rum? I mean, after all, it is not in every region in the world that these lyrics would be considered acceptable or even popular:
"Rum kill mih mother,
rum kill mih father,
rum kill mih whole family.
Rum kill mih brother,
rum kill mih sister,
now it want to come and kill me.
But I doh really care what people say...
oh, ah drinking today and ah drinking forever..."
(Pic from http://www.zazzle.co.uk/)
Interesting article, it is just unfortunate many back in Grenada don't see it or have to capacity to envision it, in the say way as you. That said, I see great potential in the future of Caribbean rum.
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