Learnabout rum
Plain explanations of how rum is actually made, written so that a first-time drinker can follow them and a distiller cannot fault them. Where a subject touches something about our own production we have not verified, we say so rather than fill the gap.
Published articles
Three different starting liquids that all come from the same plant, and what each one does to the finished spirit. No, one is not automatically better than another.
MaturationWhat a cask finish actually meansA second cask, for a shorter time, after the main maturation. What it can and cannot do, and how to read a finish claim on a label.
CategoryRum finished in an agave cask, explainedIt is rum. The agave is the barrel. Why that is not tequila, not mezcal, not an agave spirit, and what the cask actually contributes.
The rest of the map
These are the subjects this section will cover. They are listed rather than published because a thin article that exists to occupy a search result is worse than an empty slot. Each goes up when it can be written accurately end to end.
The legal definition, the two-year rule, and what separates the Australian category from the Caribbean one.
Batch versus column, congeners, and why a pot still leaves more of the raw material in the glass.
Sugar to alcohol, the organisms doing it, and why ferment length and temperature shape flavour.
Heat, humidity and evaporation. Written without the year-equivalence arithmetic that most brands use and cannot support.
Every element on a bottle front and back, and which ones are regulated.
Why it describes the youngest spirit in the bottle, and why some releases carry none.
Where the term comes from, what strengths qualify, and how to drink one.
Why an unaged sugarcane distillate may not be labelled rum in Australia.
What a barrel record holds, how a bottle resolves to one, and why records publish only once verified.
Plain definitions for the words that appear on this site and on other producers’ labels.
A method that does not require you to pretend to be an expert.