Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 1364
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
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 Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:51 pm Post subject: Caramel and Sex: How much is enough? |
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With regard to sex, there may be no limit. With regard to rum...
Whilst going through the usual glazed-eye, late night and maddening research, writing, more research, more writing, more discovery, and repeated rewriting and editing...
One thing kept jumping out at me - with regard to caramel, just how much is enough?
Consider scotch whiskey: the regulations specify bitter, dark spirit caramel, commonly used for coloring of spirits, cosmetics, foods and drugs. Now it made sense to me that (a) it wouldn't take much of this very dark coloring and (b) who'd want to add bitterness to the product anyway?
I was right. The actual amount according to whisky expert, Ian Wisniewski, is 0.01% or less!
| Quote: | In his article, entitled Caramel Keg (Whisky Magazine, Issue 22, pages 52-54):
"Adding caramel is usual for blends, and hardly unusual among malts, in order to achieve colour consistency between batches, as even the most rigorous cask selection results in colour variations... The amounts are negligible: around 0.01% of the total, or less... As being able to detect spirit caramel is a breach of the regulations..., the explanation lies in the barrel." |
That's less than a third of one cup in - are you sitting down - 1000 bottles of whiskey! Not much. Now let's consider rum:
1. "Rum" as defined in both the US/UK may use caramel for purposes of coloring only. Like whisk(e)y, "caramel" is also defined and regulated as spirit caramel, ie caramel coloring. And like whisk(e)y, this requires truly miniscule amounts (0.01% or less).
2. Light and medium sweet baking caramels are regulated for exactly what they are - sweet, concentrated sugar - regulated under "sucrose". The addition of light and medium caramels amounts to sweetening and flavoring a rum, and must be so labeled as "flavored rum" or "rum liqueur".
3. In truth, ostensibly pure "rum" is often secretly adulterated by the addition of unlabeled light and medium baking caramel to add undeserved sweetness, body and smoothness. This phony practice is possible only due to the lack of enforcement and/or adequate testing.
The horrible sweet tooth, er truth, is that "rum" is commonly tweaked and altered to achieve marketable flavor profiles that the base rum simply doesn't have, and in many cases could never have. As regards this sorry state of affairs...
Enough is enough.
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