Look. As The Compleat Idiot of Rum I'm expected to either know nothing, or conversely to know everything. Some believe my e-nickname is just a put on, but in truth sometimes it fits.
Like now. The arguments and concerns over the use of flavor, in particular "natural" vs "artificial" flavor go something like this...
1. Is the rum flavored or not?
2. If it's flavored does it use "natural" or "artificial" flavors?
3. Does it make a difference?
Let's take these in order. According to the US/UK and Caribbean regulations a product labeled "rum" is allegedly simple: made from cane juice, syrup or cane molasses. Products labeled "flavored rums" are those that contain "natural flavorings". But not so fast. In the US, the additives clause allows addition of substances to a "rum", which are considered essential or traditional, including bitter caramel coloring up - together up to 2.5% by volume.
Bottom line: the "additives clause" provides a gaping loophole in which flavoring substances can be slipped in without having to label the product as a "flavored rum". As a result most rums are so tweaked and contain unlabeled flavorings and additives. Fortunately there are some truly pure rums that are simply magnificent - I live for them.
Now let's address "natural" vs "artificial".
Most of us idiots think of "natural" as meaning, duh, from "nature". Natural vanilla flavoring? We assume that real vanilla pods are picked from the Vanilla orchid plants, the vanilla beans are removed, the essence is extracted and appears in a little, but very expensive bottle of real vanilla extract. Straight from nature with very little manipulation or processing. Nothing "artificial" here!
Silly us.
Although such real extract exists (and is owned by all good cooks) most of what we'd call "natural" and "artificial" flavorings are very different. Both. Flavoring is a multi-billion dollar industry, staffed by secretive "flavorists" (chemists).
Their job is to try to infer nature's own aromas and tastes by isolating what they think are the key chemical compounds, usually just a couple, that mimic nature's own. Like banana? How 'bout some yummy isoamyl acetate? Or maybe you'd prefer a deep, rich limonene, er, orange. There's a couple problems with this:
First of all, nature isn't that simple or transparent. Any given aroma or taste may actually be represented by hundreds of compounds as only nature can combine in an actual fruit or spice, and in ways that we will never really understand or duplicate. Just picking out the most blatant one or two compounts isn't quite the same. And trust me, if you've smelled or eaten a ripe banana or cherry, the chemist's version isn't even close.
Second, the "flavorist" - let's call them "con-coction artists" - is also concerned with fooling the greatest number of people possible. They are concerned with "anosmics" (people with dull senses) as well as "supertasters" (those who are overly sensitive). They are concerned with something they call the "sensory space" and conduct extensive sensory taste and aroma tests. And their con-artistic objective?
Third, the real (pun intended) difference between "natural" and "artificial" flavors is minimal. In both cases the "concoction artist" decided what the key chemical compound was, and either extracted it from the plant, or created a synthetic equivalent. Then - and note this - mixed this selected chemical compound with from 2 to 100 or so other ingredients to make the flavoring, and to keep it "fresh" for maybe a hundred years. Ugh!"The art side of flavouring is not duplicating nature in the raw, but making a flavour that lives up to the publics expectation. This is often very much different to the natural, its as if the consumers (us) have a preconceived idea of what to expect and judge a flavour against this. We remember the best flavour we ever tasted."
If labels were really honest, they'd have to be longer than the bottle. Flavorists are extremely secretive and the actual ingredients are rarely even listed. It's a turkey shoot.
Bottom line:
What you think of as "natural" is rarely what the industry or our government allows to invade your bottle of rum. You're really thinking of something more akin to "organic" and straight from nature, really natural and relatively pure. Not a chemists cheap shit version of it.
The real problem we face in rum, and food for that matter, is that the many tons of phony flavors - whether "natural" or "artificial" (or even blends of the two) - have become so common that the consuming public has actually forgotten what the real thing was, and actually prefers the "concoction artists" lab version. The "public expectation" that flavorists everywhere have toiled so hard to alter, and have done so.
Which is why rum remains a rogue spirit...