If you are still thinking of Rum is terms of “Rum and Coke”… you are living in the past.
Rum has always mixed easily with fruit juices and soft drinks to create cocktails like piña coladas, daiquiris, mai tais, and the famous rum and coke. Now Rums are going up in class and are challenging the elite sipping spirits like Brandies, XO Cognacs, Single Malts and Bourbons.
Rum is mostly made by distilling fermented sugar cane, usually at 80 proof. Rum has been distilled throughout the Caribbean since Christopher Columbus brought the plant to the West Indies in 1493. By 1775 mainland Americans were drinking four gallons of rum per person annually, and on British ships it was the base of the daily grog ration.
Rums are now promoted to stand on their own, to be savored straight or with a splash of water to bring out all their complex flavors. Adams Liquor Handbook, a respected Spirit Industry Publication that keeps track of everything related to the spirit industry, reports that Rum, with an 11.5 percent share of the U.S. brown spirit market, outsells brandies (6.6 percent), Scotch (7.7), and American whiskies (9.0).
Americans now consume 134 million 9-liter cases of Rum per year, overwhelmingly white or silver rum mixed into cocktails, according to the Adams Liquor Handbook. Bacardi, with its main operations in Puerto Rico, sells an astounding 43 percent of all rum in the U.S., 38 percent under its own brands.
No wonder www.ACorkAbove.com sells more rum then any other spirit. Rum Brands like Zacapa, Zaya and One Barrel have developed real cult followings. Their fans have very strong opinions on these Brands.
If you are still stuck on “rum and coke”… you are missing a whole exotic world of Rums. Try some of the sipping Rums out there - you will be pleasantly surprised.
