JaRiMi Calls it: Premiumization IS sugaring...

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Capn Jimbo
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JaRiMi Calls it: Premiumization IS sugaring...

Post by Capn Jimbo »

To a degree, most of us have considered this...


...but JaRiMi recently said it quite well in the Appleton 30 thread:
"Oddly consumers and collectors alike enjoy top quality old Malt Whiskies and Bourbons, with no expectation to find them sweet - and they even pay much, much more for old single malts than for rums. Same actually for Cognacs - the older the cognac, the less likely you are to find any sugar added...and yet it is loved, adored, respected - and bought at very high prices. Go figure..

The only reasons today's "rum fans" expect old rum to be a sweet, glycerine-smooth liqueur are A) cause they know nothing much about what Rum actually is like, and B) because the market is filled with this overpriced garbage they have the audacity to call "rum".
I responded there:
"...my recent review of our now 510 sugar tests reveal - not surprisingly - that it is the premiumized rums that tend to be most frequent sugared, and with more sugar to boot. It begins to appear that the primary use of sugar is to produce an extra sweet, rich, and smooth bodied concoction designed to justify its high price and marketing stories."
Now my friends, there is nothing - nothing - like seeing this horrific fact revealed in the actual tests. Here are the rums scoring from 20 to 44 grams of sugar - a truly amazing amount of phony sweetening:


Grams. . . . . Rum
  • 20 Abuelo Anejo 7 yr: 20
    20 Bacardi 8 yr: 20/20
    20 Bielle 2003: 20
    20 Plantation Belize 7 Single Cask: 20
    20 Plantation Grenada 1998 Old Reserve: 20
    20 Plantation Guatemala Gran Anejo: 20/20
    20 Pusser's Blue 54.5%: 20
    20 Ron Barco 15: 20
    20 Ron Barco: 20
    20 Ron Zacapa Centenario 23: 20/23
    20 Rum Nation Panama 21y: 20
    20 Zaya (Trinidad): 20
    21 Captain Morgan Spiced Gold: 21-22
    21 Diplomatico Single Vintage: 21
    21 Ron Zacapa 23 Sistema Solera: 20.5
    21 Rum Nation Demerara No. 14: 21
    22 Bacardi Spice: 22
    22 Cubaney Centenario: 22
    22 El Dorado 21 Year Old: 22
    22 El Dorado Spiced: 22
    22 Havana Club Especial: 22
    22 Noble Selected: 22
    22 Plantation Barbados Grand Reserve: 22/0
    22 Plantation Gran Reserve Barbados: 22
    22 Ron Zacapa Gran Reserva: 22
    23 Ocean's 7 Mellow: 23
    23 Puntacana Club XOX 50 Anniversary: 23
    24 Diplomatico Single Vintage 2000: 24
    24 Diplomatico Single Vintage 2001: 24
    24 Dzama Nosy-be Prestige: 24
    24 Kaniche XO: 24
    24 M&S Gingerbread: 24 (“likely from Cognac Ferrand”)
    24 Marks & Spencer Gingerbread: 24
    24 Plantation Grenada 1996 Single Cask: 24
    24 Plantation Grenada 1998 Old Reserve: 24
    24 Plantation Jamaica - Guyana 1991 Single Cask: 24
    24 Plantation XO 20th Anniversary: 24
    24 Pyrat XO Reserve: 24
    24 Pyrat XO Reserve: 24
    24 Pyrat XO Reserve: 24
    26 Atlantico Private Cask: 26
    26 Bermudez1852 Aniversario 12 Anos: 26
    26 Diplomatico Ambassador: 26
    26 Don Papa: 26-29
    26 Kraken Spiced: 26
    26 Reimonenq RQL: 26
    26 Ron Zacapa Centenario XO: 26
    26 Ron Zacapa XO (newer wide bottle, taper to top): 26
    26 Ron Zacapa XO: 26
    26 Ron Zacapa XO: 26
    26 Rum Company 10 yr: 26
    26 Selvarey Cacao: 26
    27 Abuelo Anejo: 27
    27 Abuelo Centuria: 27
    27 Pusser's 15 yr: 27
    28 Ron Zacapa Centenario Etiqueta Negra: 28
    28 Vizcaya VXOP “21” (not years): 28
    29 Abuelo Anejo 12 yr: 29
    29 Opthimus 15 OportO: 29
    29 Plantation 20th Anniversary: 29
    29 Plantation 20th Anniversary: 29/0
    29 Professor Cornelius Ampleforth's Rumbullion: 29
    29 Pusser's 15 yr: 29
    29 Pyrat Pistol: 29
    29 Pyrat XO Reserve: 29
    30 Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva: 30
    31 El Dorado 15 Year Old Finest Demerara Rum: 31
    31 El Dorado 15 Years: 31
    32 Angostura No. 1: 32
    33 El Dorado 21 yr: 33
    34 Origenes 25 Malt Whisky finish (Tomatin): 34
    34 Ron Quorhum 30 yr: 34
    35 El Dorado 12 yr: 35
    35 El Dorado 12 yr: 35/39
    35 El Dorado 15 yr: 35/0
    36 Dos Maderas PX 5+5: 36
    38 El Dorado 15 yr: 38
    38 Ron Zacapa (old, woven straw band only): 38
    38 Ron Zacapa Centenario Sistema Solera 23: 38
    39 Dos Maderas Luxus: 39
    39 El Dorado 12 Year Old Finest Demerara Rum: 39
    39 El Dorado 25 1986: 39
    39 Plantation Trinidad 1989 Single Cask Abel: 39
    41 Chairman's Reserve Spiced: 41
    41 Diplomatico Exclusiva: 41/0
    41 Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva: 41
    41 Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva: 41
    41 Ron Zacapa Centenario XO Premio Platino: 41
    41 Ron Zacapa Gran Reserva: 41
    41 Ron Zacapa Gran Reserva: 41/0
    41 Ron Zacapa XO (old wide bottle, bottom taper): 41
    42 Ron Millonario Solera 15 yr: 42
    43 Pusser's Decanter John Paul Jones: 43!
    44 Diplomatico Exclusiva: 44
    44 Ron Centenario 30 yr: 44
    44 Ron Millonario XO: 44
As we slither up the sugaring scale, from 21 grams into the 30's, and then especially into the 40's - it becomes perfectly clear that the more "premium", the more marketed, the more expensive, and...

The more sugar. The point:

"Premiumization" IS sugaring. To make things even worse this doesn't even address the addition of flavoring extracts (like Matusalem 15-18-21), glycerol or actual cheap shite sherry.

Until now, we just suspected this. Now we KNOW it.




*******
A new additional list is here, not alphabetical, but by sugar in grams. It is breathtaking and a must see. Please, please, please scan it and post what you find and conclude. Thanks...
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1663
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Another example of premiumization by sugaring...

  • Bacardi
    Superior (white): 0g
    Gold (mixer): 0g
    Black: 8g
    8 Year: 12g
    Reserva Limitada: 15g
    Maestro de Ron: 19g
Get the picture? Premiumization IS sugar and marketing. The more premium, the more expensive, the greater the use of sugar (to create phony sweetness, smoothness, and/or body), and the probable use of other additives. As so well demonstrated by Richard Seale at many of his presentations, sugar and phony flavorings are used to make a cheap, younger rum taste much more complex and older than it is.

He calls it cheating and it is. Thus few actually know what real and pure rum - like whisky or bourbon - tastes like.

The beauty of the Master Sugar List is that now this long term use of sugar to premiumize rums becomes crystal clear. Oddly enough, sugar also works to dull the rum and mask its natural flavors (as per Che's test, see the Sugar section).

Stay tuned for more examples.
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

A look at El Dorado shows the same...


El Dorado:

3y: 2g
5y: 9g
8y: 12g

And now into the premiums...

12y: 35g
15y: 35g
21y: 22-33g

And now a super-premium...

25yr: 39-51g

The allegedly older and more expensive premiumized rums are just loaded with sugar. Keep in mind that even small amounts of sugar (under 5 grams had notable effects in Che's study), significant effects at 10g, and anything over 20 tended to obliterate and dull the rum's actual qualities, and to create a sugar dominant, heavily masked product.




*******
Be sure to read Che's amazing study of how various levels of sugar affected two otherwise pure and superior rums (Havana Blanco and Seales). Shocking but true:
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1134
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Post by cyril »

this is a tragedy :(
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Post by AK9 »

Imagine how many casks of 25+ year rums are wasted. its beyond belief.
Instead of bringing these to the market they are wasted with sugar....
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Sugaring is bad, but age claims are much worse...


Personally, I doubt most of the age claims. Having been doing this for nearly a decade, I'm simply amazed at how often some promoter claims to release a new brand of twenty years rum that was "discovered" in "a dusty corner of an abandoned warehouse". Wow, what a find! Again. Mind you without proper managment and combining of evaporating barrels, after 20 years there'd be little if any rum left (after the Angel's share losses of say 7% a year). That fact alone kills their silly stories.

If the majority of rums are secretly altered and adulterated in the face of regulations and laws, you can bet your silk underwear that age claims - completely unregulated and unsupervised - are mostly unsubstantiated marketing, "trust us" claims. Short of a few honest distillers, I don't.

In my opinion (and as stated by Seale about a certain rum) "...there may be a teaspoon of 23 year old rum in there". My belief: the so-called super old rums are almost all super frauds, and are likely composed of blends of mostly younger rums (with perhaps a touch of older rums), highly sugared and altered with flavorings to appear and to taste like the truly aged rums they are not, but which they claim.

The decision between 20 years of extremely costly and actual aging and management, or adding twenty-five cents worth of sugar, glycerol, flavorings and sherry is a no brainer. And we suffer the consequences.
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Post by AK9 »

Would not be surprised. Is there any test that could verify a drinks average age?




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Capn's Log: none that I know of. If only there was.
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Post by Blade Rummer »

Capn Jimbo wrote:A look at El Dorado shows the same...


El Dorado:

3y: 2g
5y: 9g
8y: 12g

And now into the premiums...

12y: 35g
15y: 35g
21y: 22-33g

And now a super-premium...

25yr: 39-51g
Pretty damning stuff and something I would love to hear DDL address but who are we kidding? What I find surprising is that the 8 yo absolutely tastes sugared whereas the 5 yo doesn't at all. I always figured anything under the 8yo would be fine.

How anyone can justify adding up to 51g!!! of sugar to what is reported to be a 25 yo spirit boggles the mind, and yet, I'm sure we'll still see glowing reviews of these premium spirits online. Imaging doing the same to a 25 yo scotch!

The way I see it, there's 2 ways to read this data :

1. As rum ages and is marketed more and more as a "premium" spirit, the expectations of a soft, sweet drink lead the producers to add sugar (in other words : Age leads to sugar).

2. Instead of aging the spirit for x amounts of years, sugar is added in higher and higher amounts in order to replicate the effects of long barrel aging on the spirit. (Sugar leads to age).

There was a time I would have been firmly in the first camp and would think anyone in the latter camp a conspiracy nut.

Now, I'm not so sure.
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Post by NCyankee »

I'm very disappointed in the Pusser's 15 yr. Glad to see that the regular Blue label 80 proof is only 6 grams.
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Blade Rummer wrote:
The way I see it, there's 2 ways to read this data :

1. As rum ages and is marketed more and more as a "premium" spirit, the expectations of a soft, sweet drink lead the producers to add sugar (in other words : Age leads to sugar).

2. Instead of aging the spirit for x amounts of years, sugar is added in higher and higher amounts in order to replicate the effects of long barrel aging on the spirit. (Sugar leads to age).

There was a time I would have been firmly in the first camp and would think anyone in the latter camp a conspiracy nut.

Now, I'm not so sure.

Blade, I couldn't agree more. The sugar tests have been absolutely devastating by exposing what you have so correctly observed. And sugar is just the beginning - there's glycerol, sherry, and artificial flavorings/spices (like Matusalem's vanilla and prune, cinnamon, etc.) as well.

Not to mention that unlike Canadian Whiskey for example, not a single rum - not one - is aged under bond in government locked warehouses. Age is whatever the fack they can get away with. As Seales noted: it's amazing how many 20+ year rums just happened to be "found" and released. Sure.

The addition of the sugar is Exhibit A with the increasing amounts with claimed age - to me - providing confirmation of exaggerated age claims.
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Post by Guevara88 »

It seems the only way 'out' is to identify the brands which at least don't obviously alter/cheat/create stuff and sell it for 50+ bucks per bottle.

I am a little torn since some of the sugary brands still produce products of decent taste. The palate is sometimes fooled while the brain knows that the currently perceived taste is due to craftmanship in the lab not in the aging cellar.

Regarding the proof of age the only way would again be - a lab. I am quite sure that the amount of specific substances in the final product can tell about the time it spent in an oaken barrel. I will consult a food analytics chemistrian I know and ask her how to conduct a small experiment on a couple of rums which may be of interest.

At least I should be able to provide some information on the possibility of age proof.
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Post by The Black Tot »

In my experience Guevara, the problem is much simpler from a consumer perspective.

The most democratizing test we have is Mr Drejer's sugar test, since it is so easy and cheap to do...

...however, I would put good money on the fact that the biggest offenders on the sugar list are whipping the backs of researchers as we speak to come up with sweetening methods (which will probably end up a lot less healthy than sugar!) which aren't detectable by specific gravity tests. It has been a golden era of exposure for rum fans who actually want to know, but I'm not very confident about how long it will last.

Despite this, as I said above it may be amusing work I suppose to deconstruct rum in a science lab, but as consumers I think it is in our interests instead to think in broader terms. I think the more important thing the sugar tests tell us right now is not so much what rums are altered and how, as what COMPANIES and PEOPLE are in the business of screwing/deceiving us.

I think it's more valuable to pay attention to what companies own what brands, and to learn to boycott the products made by those who would seek to cheat you. To buy the brands who are honest and never cheat you, and to pour these great drinks for your friends and show them that they too can buy affordable honest rum for the same price as fake rum. This is where the rubber hits the road on industry change.

You really never know with real rogue rum. It could take off tomorrow. The whiskey/whisky boys are piling more and more people into a shrinking pond, the pressure could release laterally into premium rum in a heartbeat. Which is why I'm in a stocking up phase.

Sometimes the ethics of buying rum are a grey area - Take El Dorado, a product of Diamond Distillers Ltd in Guyana. Is it as bad for the politics of rum to buy an ED15 and support this company as to buy a bottle of Z23 from Diageo? Certainly not - for one thing, DDL's profits have a side benefit of helping to maintain some of the most important antique rum stills in history (despite the fact that we're all frustrated by DDL's unwillingness to make single barrel, cask strength, long-and-properly aged, non-filtered releases available to us from these wonders of the world). I'd buy an ED15 before a Z23 any day of the week, but I'm still nagged by the fact that an ED15 purchase sort of validates their sugar addition strategy, and ultimately sends them the message that we want sugar in our rum... like I say, grey area.

Even if they come up with an undetectable sweetener right now, the sugar tests have taught us WHO to trust and who not to trust, which in my view is the big takeaway. Even after we can't test, we'll still know who are the stinkers and who are the white knights of rum.

I think it's far more productive to learn who owns what, to alter your politics, and start voting with your rum dollars for what you believe in as soon as you can than it is to get into the lab and find out whether you're being screwed with a 9" or a 9.2" appendage.

On the "but I like the taste" argument, I have found it worthwhile to find ethical substitutes. For me, for example, I found that when I have the urge for a sweeter rum, I can go to Seale's Rum Sixty-Six, which has at least 12yrs of true tropical barrel aging in its creation. It's got nice caramel notes and it delivers what I used to like about the Zee rums without being dishonest about it's provenance, and I get to support Richard's company, which I feel great about.

When you buy from Foursquare, from Cadenhead's, from Berry Bros, from Bristol, from Velier - you don't have to take your stuff to the lab - these guys have built their reputations on the truth.

So do I need a lab? Nope, I just need to learn who can be trusted and buy my rums from them, and avoid the scammers.

In some ways I think taking a Zee rum into a lab is like doing an analysis of a Donald Trump speech - We know it's BS from the get go, why are we wasting our time trying to parse out just exactly HOW MUCH BS this is? Just avoid the thing entirely and put your efforts into hunting down something genuine instead.
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Two necessary comments...


One: once again the Tot has eloquently expressed the state of things, and especially an observation that perhaps the "Who" may come to be more reliable than "What". Interesting observation.

It was already observed by Cyril as I recall, that Z23 has moved to fructose rather than sucrose, as less is required; still, all sugars will show up on the hydro tests.

Two: and a big, big rewelcome to Guevara, whose contributions here have been immense; particularly his amazing study of the comparative effects of sugaring, and which showed that even small amounts of sugar not only alter, but are quite detectible (See sugar section for his terrific testing results).
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