Welcome to the Master Sugar Tests ...

[Capn Jimbo]

Rogue Rum is "rogue"...


...mostly because it is one of the few major categories where dishonesty and deception is common and almost the norm. Age statements are unreliable. Most rums are secretly adulterated with unlabelled sugar, glycerol, vanilla and other flavoring, excessive use of coloring or actual dark food caramel, glycerol and even wine.

These are used mostly to alter young, thin and inexpensive rums to taste and appear aged. These rums are often further "premiumized" via all the usual marketing ploys to look and sound expensive, to justify their premium pricing. The biggest offender though is...


Sugar

The most common culprit is sugar which is added to both young and aged rums. While a bit of sugar may smooth a young, harsh rum, even so-called expensive premium rums often use massive amounts of sugar. Indeed these "rums" should really be considered liqueurs. Legally all should be labeled "Sweetened Rums".

As our own "Che" (Guevarra88) demonstrated, while a touch of sugar can smooth a new harsh rum, the use of sugar in aged rums actually has a deleterious masking effect that destroys any authentic complexity. When you unknowingly drink an altered rum, you are really experiencing hidden sugar and artificial flavorings, not rum.

Compare to single malt whisky, Irish whiskey and bourbon whose laws insist on purity, and whose lovers would dream of altering these fine, pure spirits.


Flat Ass Bottom Line

In this section you will find a single compiled list of all current sources of reasonable tests including ALKO, the Swedes and those of Johnny Drejer. The big news though is that Johnny's method changes the whole ball game. Why?

Simple. His method - for the very first time - was designed to be inexpensive, easy and accurate. Enough so that for a lousy $17 you too can easily test your own rums. That's exactly what we intend to do with The Great Rum Test in this section.

A number of our posters including Moi, and also the Fat Rum Pirate, are now committed to testing our collections. Together, we surely own most of the rums available today. As rums continue to be tested, the results will be added to the master list, where all rum tests appear in a single alphabetical list that is easy to consult by all rum lovers via the internet.


A pure rum hero: Johnny Drejer

This is a HUGE breakthrough. No longer will the distillers be able to hide behind the general lack of knowledge and your ignorance, knowing that their rums were not tested by the Finns (ALKO) or Swedes. Johnny Drejer changed all that, which makes him a modern hero in our world of rum.

The trends are clear. At least three webmasters are now reporting sugar (Dave Russell, Moi and now the Fat Rum Pirate). Other webmasters can be expected to follow.




*******
One last note: I have always had great suspicions in re: Canadian Whiskey (which by law IS allowed to add almost anything up to 9% of volume). Although David de Kergommeaux (author "Canadian Whiskey, Whisky Magazine) claims that few of the Canadian distiller engage in the practice, my own tastings lead me to believe otherwise. We'll soon see.