High ester rums have been the obsession of the rum community for the past couple of years, creating an explosive interest in rum marks that can really pack it in, with many rum lovers even headed down the surprising rabbithole of white rums to have these esters at their purest, least mellowed expression.

For those that have been in the rum scene for long - that includes rum producers themselves - that must've been quite shocking. It's once widely thought that these high ester cane spirits were meant for other purposes beyond sipping, finding their buyers in the likes of cosmetic-makers and confectionary producers, not in the slightest would it have been designed for the appreciation by rum aficionados. It was simply deemed not balanced nor representative of the distillery's desired characteristic flavour profile - and that's not some sort of backhanded dare, it's in fact much to the chagrin of rum producers to have to give the market what it wants!

High ester rums have never been more interesting to rum lovers.

But if we are talking about high ester rums, which really can be, and is, produced in numerous rum-producing countries (take Savanna from the Reunion Islands with its Grand Arome style; Heavy Type marked Caroni from Trinidad, and then more recently the Long Fermentation Type or LFT from Barbados' Foursquare), we have to talk about the most recognisable of them all - Jamaica's high ester rums.

So how does Jamaica produce its high ester rums?

We're pretty fortunate to get a deep dive into the topic with one of the best folks on the topic - LM&V's Export Manager, Daniele Biondi. In a masterclass held recently where Dan took us through Hampden's 8 Marks collection exploring the various styles of Hampden's rum - with a comparison of unaged and 1 year ex-Bourbon aged marks head to head, he took some time to delve into the history behind Jamaica's high ester rums, covering how it's produced, it's history and also why interestingly, Jamaica has even a legal limit imposed on how high a rum's esters can clock before it is illegal to be exported!

Who better to take us through the topic of high ester rums than LM&V's Export Manager, Daniele Biondi.

With Jamaican high ester rums - there are two secret ingredients that we need to talk about. Broadly, the way they achieve a high ester production lies largely in an infinite-soup-esque method when it comes to fermenting the molasses and sugarcane juice.

One, dunder, the leftover residue from rum distillation, is often added back to the fermentation vats. Two, muck, the leftover residue from the fermentation, are placed into "muck graves", alongside spoiled fruit and other vegetal matter to be broken down by bacteria. The constant upcycling of these biomaterial, alongside open air fermentation vats, allows bacteria to feast on the matter and produce a whole range of organic acids and molecules, some which recombine into esters.

It's these esters that give the rums much of their character - aromatic chemical compounds that gives our brain the perception that we are eating certain fruits of flavours

Dan showed us a video taken by one of the distillery's staff that demonstrates the "live fermentation", and it looked nothing short of a witch's brew from a cartoon.

Using Hampden as an example, Dani tells us that although Hampden has the ability to take its ester count to the (legal) limit and likely more, that doesn't mean that the estate (can and should) only produces what Dan calls "ester nuclear bombs"? No! In fact, how ester-y a rum is depends largely on for whom the rum was produced for. Back during the colonial era, much of Hampden's rums was meant to be sold outside of Jamaica - to marketeers, distributors, blenders, clients, sailors, and even perfume makers in Europe.

Interest In High Ester Rums Are Hardly Anything New, Yet For Very Different Reasons.

The high ester counts of the rum was the result of these market forces - the blenders in Europe wanted higher ester rums to be blended with other cheaper, easily available types of spirit that were available.

Dan was particularly proud to show off an order sheet for Jamaican rums, dating all the way back to 1928.

A big hand behind this trend would be the curious case of the Jamaican Rum-Verschnitt. Germany was a big importer of these rums during the late 1800s, being a hit amongst the people. However, the love for rum halfway across the globe had led to the decline of domestically produced spirits.

In a protectionist move, the German government imposed huge import duties on foreign spirits.This included the beloved flavourful Jamaican rum. 

An example of Jamaican Rum Verschnitt. Source: ddr-museum.de

A workaround German blending houses found was to get a barrel of high ester rum, as back then, it was believed that high esters meant more flavour (which while reductive, wasn't entirely wrong either). Using said high ester rum, German blenders would blend the rum imported from Jamaica with German-made neutral spirit, and repackaged the rum as Jamaican Rum - more specifically, Jamaica Rum Verschnitt.

Profit was to be made, where at times, 90% of the blend was just neutral grain spirit, with the other 10% being this secret sauce.

An excerpt detailing the ongoing practice in Germany from a report by the West India Royal Commission; 1897.

The demand for high ester rum was booming - with more esters in the rum, blenders could get away with adding less to their blends. An arms race of sorts started amongst the Jamaican rum producers, where a chemist eventually found a way to create rums as high as 6,000 gr/hlAA.

Why Would The Government Be Involved?!

Only a few rum distilleries were capable of this feat however, some hailing from Trelawny, where the Hampden Estate resides.

The credit for the 6,000 gr/hlAA ester rum breakthrough has been attributed to H. H. Cousins in 1906. Source: Boston Apothecary.

By the 1930s, the Jamaican rum market was oversaturated with cheap rum that had no demand - some blamed it on the high ester rums. The Jamaican government had to intervene and put an end to this never-ending ester race, with the help of the "rum pool, a body of rum producers that coordinated in 1932. The Rum (Ether) Control Order of 1935 was passed, which limited the ester content to be capped at 1,600 gr/hlAA".

To this day, this order is still in effect, with Hampden Estate, Long Pond and New Yarmouth being the only rum distilleries that produce this absolute-limit ester rum.

 

@vernoncelli