Agricultural rum vs. traditional rum: a match at the top
Rum is a brandy made from sugar cane . So far, nothing complicated. However, its variations are almost infinite. Add to that the fact that it can be enjoyed in many ways (on its own — with or without ice —, in a cocktail or even arranged ), so that this famous doubt invades you when choosing THE bottle that you need: agricultural or traditional rum ? As at Halto, we tend to appreciate the subject, we have prepared this summary with little onions: enough to become (almost) an expert on the main differences between these two families of spirits . 👇🏻
Traditional rum, the oldest
First of all, a clarification is in order: "traditional rum," "industrial rum," and "candy rum" all mean the same thing. And you'll soon understand why.
Industrial rum originated in the 17th century in the Caribbean. It is produced using a very syrupy, dark brown liquid obtained after extracting sugar from cane juice: "molasses." It is therefore a by-product of the sugar industry, which is then transformed into cane wine. This wine is then heated and distilled through stills to preserve only the alcohol.
When it comes out of the still, traditional rum is colorless: it is then called "white rum." However, there are also traditional brown or amber rums, whose color may be the result of aging in barrels, or the addition of caramel.
Agricultural rum, sugar cane in its pure state
A good dose of resilience
In the 1870s, disaster struck in the French West Indies: beet sugar, a newcomer to the market and inexpensive to produce, caused the price of cane sugar to plummet. Threatened with total extinction, rum makers and some sugar refineries decided to change tack: the juice from their sugar cane, called "vesou" in Creole, would henceforth be directly distilled.
Knowing how to get the most out of it
This is how so-called "agricole" rum appears, which is not made from molasses, but rather from pure cane juice. To prevent the sugar from degrading at high speed, the cane fields must be located near the distilleries. This allows the plants to be crushed within hours of harvesting, to extract the juice and quickly ferment it. This geographical constraint explains why the agricultural category represents less than 10% of global rum production: its manufacturing cost is on average three times higher than that of molasses rums.
On the distillation side, most agricultural rums are produced in column stills. While white agricultural rums are well known, the varying aging times in oak barrels give rise to other colors: straw (around 12 months), amber (between 18 and 24 months), or aged (at least 3 years). However, it's forbidden to rely on adding caramel to improve the color of these spirituous liquids!
