OnTap Magazine

AGAINST THE GRAIN THE GREAT SOUTH AFRICAN I f you had to associate a revolution or rebellion with an alcoholic beverage it should really be rum. Your thoughts might instantly go towards marauding anti-establishment pirates, but in fact the reasoning lies in etymology. e most probable origin of the word rum is the old English word ‘rumbullion’, which was slang for ‘uproar’. And much like the beer revolution was born due to an uproar and revolt against bland macro-brewed lagers, the rum revolution in South Africa is a direct result of people rebelling against wishy-washy mass- produced versions of a spirit that has an incredibly exciting palate and history. COMPLEX FLAVOUR PROFILES When exploring the history of this spirit it’s hard not to get sucked into its romantic past, with tales of pirates, rum runners, and iconic authors. Rum is so much more than an industrial product to be mixed with coke. It’s a noble distillate whose avour pro les are almost endless. Imagine aromas and avours of caramel, complex wood and spice notes, orange zest, tobacco, tropical fruit or hints of coconut and marzipan. Many people rightly argue that rum is the ultimate spirit with its ability to age beautifully complex avour compounds while also remaining playful and creative. e International Spirits Challenge recently concurred with that statement by awarding e Supreme Spirit Champion to Foursquare Rum Distillery in Barbados. So where is the rumbullion in South Africa? You might have noticed an explosion of the gin section in your local bottle store. Well if you look really closely you will just about see the beginnings of a rum revolution, with the local South African producers starting to gain ground. Brent Perremore, an awarding-wining bartender who has represented South Africa twice at the World Class bartender championship, sums up the emerging rumbullion perfectly: “People are into avour,” he says, “and mainstream rum is not exciting”. Trevor “ e Prof” Bruns from Whistler Rum, based in the Free State, concurs. “ e typical rum shelf contains three or four brands with most of them falling below the R200 price mark, but with monotonous avours,” says Bruns. “ is situation is clearly changing rapidly though. ere are already ve distilleries in the country that only focus on rum production.” THE SOUTH AFRICAN ADVANTAGE So what is rum and what is fuelling this rebellion against the bland? Rum is sugarcane juice or by-products, such as molasses, which is fermented, then distilled in a way that allows you to taste the raw material used. “In Southern Africa, we have a large sugar cane industry,” says Geo Woollatt of Tapanga, an estate rum from KwaZulu Natal. “ is gives us the opportunity to produce rums using either molasses or fresh sugarcane". is alone, however, is not enough to set South African rum apart from the world. "A big advantage OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS WE’VE SEEN EXPLOSIONS OF CRAFT BEER, CIDER AND GIN. MURRAY SLATER LOOKS AT THE NEXT BOOZE CRAZE HITTING SOUTH AFRICA’S BARS: RUM. 34 | Spring 2018 | ontapmag.co.za