Where's the rum!? Well, on today's episode, we learn a little history about rum and where you can find some.
Rum
SPEAKERS
Michael Kashey, Connor Brekke
Connor Brekke 00:07
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Ombibulous, a show where we discuss a variety of topics about alcohol. From beer styles, the brewing process, distillation, in spirits and even liquor laws, there's a fascinating world to discover. On today's episode, we discover the history of rum. Joining me today is Michael Kashey of Thomas and Moriarty's here in downtown Mandan. I'm your host, Connor Brekke. Let's all raise a glass to The Ombibulous.
Connor Brekke 00:42
Welcome back to the show everybody. Today... the question is... where's the rum? Well, luckily, we have an answer for you. I'm joined again with Mr. Michael Kashey. And today's episode, we're going to go through a little bit of history about rum, and where you might be able to find some hint, there's a place in Mandan. Alright, so rum, what is rum in short?
Michael Kashey 01:06
So basically, rum is going to be a once again a distilled spirit that's going to be made from sugarcane or a byproduct of like sugarcane production. So either a sugarcane juice or molasses, which is going to be what's leftover when you boil sugarcane down.
Connor Brekke 01:25
And then the name rum is kind of uncertain, I suppose. There's a few, few ideas out there where it came from. One of them being, I believe the word rumbullion. The beverage of boiling sugarcane stocks.
Michael Kashey 01:40
Yeah, that, to me seems more like the... what would be most likely the actual origin of the word rum. But honestly, who knows?
Connor Brekke 01:52
It's a mystery.
Michael Kashey 01:52
It's been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, probably actually even longer than we even think.
Connor Brekke 01:58
Yeah, cuz anything alcohol, it's like, "oh, here's something let's ferment it." And "poof" there there you go.
Michael Kashey 02:03
Well, then distilling is possibly older than we thought, as well.
Connor Brekke 02:09
So rum is fermented from molasses sugar cane, and then are there... like how do you get it to that fermented stage? There's different types of yeasts?
Michael Kashey 02:21
Yeah, so you can either do... most distillers or a lot of distillers, I should say are going to use like a specific yeast strain. And then other distillers are going to actually basically do an open air fermentation where they allow all of those random, wild natural yeasts to get in there. And then those are usually get, you'll have like a little bit of a funk to those because usually though, but, actually once again, rum is insanely confusing. So I don't want to say that this type is going to yield this type of rum because as soon as you get in into this still, it's going to be a totally different rum. Rum is... it's a wild card, there's no legislation, really with the exception of rum agricole. So rum can be produced anywhere, any kind of flavor profile, it's... it's a bit of a nightmare trying to decide what, what kind of rum is what and how to classify it.
Connor Brekke 03:17
And then of course, you you have to ferment it, and then in goes to the distilling medium. So it can be done in either pots or columns.
Michael Kashey 03:26
Yep.
Connor Brekke 03:26
As you said, there's no real standard. It's just kind of whatever they feel like.
Michael Kashey 03:31
Yeah, and then... the different types of stills are going to have a different flavor profile as well. So if you're doing something, like and it's gonna be the same with whiskey or anything else, but you tend to notice it more in rum I feel if you do like a pot still, you're gonna have a little bit more of that kind of funk to it. It's almost like a grassy kind of kind of like... like how IPAs have that dankyness to them, really common with Jamaican rums. You do a column still it's going to be a little bit lighter and tend to be sweeter.
Connor Brekke 04:04
Then generally these are aged in barrels of some type?
Michael Kashey 04:07
Yeah, so this is once again, where rum gets super confusing, because some rums are bottled directly. Some rums are aged for two years, eight years, 10 years, so they tend to be like an amber color. Other rums are aged for six to seven years, or 10 years, and then they're filtered out to where there once again, a clear rum. So with a rum, you'll sometimes have a older rum that is going to be clear, like a brand new spirit would. And there's no rhyme... well, there's no rhyme or reason as far as I know as to why.
Connor Brekke 04:47
You mean there's no "rum" or reason?
Michael Kashey 04:49
Oh no...
Connor Brekke 04:50
I couldn't resist.
Michael Kashey 04:50
No puns.
Connor Brekke 04:52
...Um, so like, I guess this is just me and maybe other people, but as soon as I hear rum I always think of pirates. Can't help it, I guess thanks uh... Disney and Johnny Depp for that maybe. But...
Michael Kashey 05:05
Yeah, it's kind of kind of inevitable now. The thing with rum is everybody was drinking rum. Not not just pirates. But I think because we tend to look at seafaring people, seafaring people? Seafaring jobs? What would what would a pirate be??? Seafaring individuals as drinking what was kind of common in the areas that they were going to. And we saw a lot of piracy in the Caribbean. So they would have been drinking a lot of rum. But so was the Navy too. The British Royal Navy, actually, until 1972, I believe? Don't quote me on that year, but they got rid of their rum ration. One, it was distilled, so it would last longer than water or beer. And then two, it was plentiful because of the ironic, unfortunately, the slave trade in the Caribbean area. So there was a lot of rum being produced at that time.
Connor Brekke 06:05
And then I believe this specific period is in the 1600s-ish. I do remember seeing a date about that. And then rum was basically a sailors ration in the Royal Navy.
Michael Kashey 06:18
Yep. Yep. They called it the the black tot? No, the black tot was the last the last, like rations that they did. But they had went from... they started diluting it. Oh god I can't, late 1700s I believe with with lime...
Connor Brekke 06:38
Grog? The 17... let's just call it the mid 1700s.
Michael Kashey 06:42
Well, Grog was kind of a sloppy kind of a mess. But later on it be ended up being diluted a little bit more with lime, sugar, and then a little bit of water, which is kind of what created the trinity of... especially Cuban cocktails, rum, lime sugar. So if you're a Daiquiri freak, that's where that came from.
Connor Brekke 07:05
So we go from a bunch of pirates drinking rum on the ship, and... you know... looting and all that stuff. But what is rum today? How much has changed since then.
Michael Kashey 07:14
Well, from what I've seen, I think rum is expanded because it's being produced a lot more. 60 some countries, I think, almost every single continent with the exception of Antartica is producing rum. So we're getting a lot more experimental. We're beginning to see more blenders and most rums are blended. So they're bought, they're bought from a distillery and then they're blended from a different producer. So we're starting to see I think a lot of different types of flavor profiles get introduced. And then we're also seeing new or old styles being resurrected. We have one by one of my favorite producers called plantation Reverence Stiggins, and it's going to be a old... it would have been Victorian era style rum that would have been infused with uh... pineapples. So it's a really juicy, rich, delicious rum that had basically been wiped out for 200 years and is now back in probably one of the best runs you'll ever have.
Connor Brekke 08:20
There's something called Batavia I think, would you mind telling us a bit about that?
Michael Kashey 08:25
Yeah, so Batavia or Batavia Arrack, a-r-r-a-c-k... and that's going to be important in a second, this is going to be an Indonesian sugarcane spirit is very similar to rum. And if you would look at old punch recipes, they're going to be calling... actually, they won't call for rum, they're going to call for batavia, batava arrack. This is going to be made from sugarcane. But it's also going to use a red rice yeast to kind of kickstart the fermentation. So it's going to be super, super funky. One of the best descriptions I've seen of it described it as a mix of horseradish, and vanilla. And then just one day it clicks. It's weird because I felt the same way. But all of a sudden, like one day, I was like, wait, this is actually really, really good. It's like something you've never had before.
Connor Brekke 09:16
That is a very interesting combination.
Michael Kashey 09:18
It doesn't taste like horseradish, and vanilla, but it's like the concept of mixing horseradish and vanilla. It doesn't work... but all of a sudden, like, "Hey, I get this." And then we had somebody who asked for a glass of arrack. And I was like, "Yeah, no, we have that." And I start pouring this like, "That's not right." I'm like, "well, this is" and arrack is with one "R" is Middle Eastern, like almost like an ouzo, kind of a black licorice spirit. So specify between Batavia or arack if you're looking for that.
Connor Brekke 09:53
Okay. Good to know. So we've talked about the history of Rome and stuff. I'm sure people want to, want to get one right now. So like how... what are common ways to serve it and you kind of like etiquettes or anything that people should know.
Michael Kashey 10:07
It's gonna depend on the rum. Some rums are perfect just sipping on the rocks. Other rums are... really accent a cocktail well. Some rums are rum-esque, I should say. Spirits are better being used like as a spice and a cocktail just a little bit.
Connor Brekke 10:27
Then as far as what you guys have to offer, what do you have on your guys's menu?
Michael Kashey 10:31
I think right now our rum selection actually is the smallest it's been in a while. I think we only have about 10, maybe 15 rums. But it It ranges from our like ones that we would use in our cocktails like the the Real McCoys which are fantastic and they're good on their own. But they're they're made made really well for cocktails and then we have others like Barrel who is a blender who's won a ton of awards. That would be something that you would typically sit on the rocks are neat if you can handle a like... 120 proof rum.
Connor Brekke 11:07
Then do you have a favorite way to serve room or drink it yourself?
Michael Kashey 11:10
It depends on the rum. Some rums I'm going to happen a cocktail. The Daiquiri, however, is my all time favorite cocktail. If I go to a place that's known for their cocktails the first drink I'm going to get doesn't matter what season it is... t's going to be a Daiquiri. Others, like I, have Muay Thai like a classic Muay Thai don't don't need that pineapple or passion fruit give me, give me tart give me nutty, give me a little sweet give me some better.
Connor Brekke 11:38
Muay Thais are always good.
Michael Kashey 11:40
Yeah, they... an underrated drink that unfortunately got, got ruined with the disco era.
Connor Brekke 11:46
Well we kind of learned a bit of history about rum and what the deal with pirates is and everything. So if you're curious about rum, I can't really I can't really name a better place than to come down here, Thomas and Moriarty's and try rum and get a cocktail get a Daiquiri and get a Muay Thai. So again, thank you for hosting me at your guys's place again, much appreciated.
Michael Kashey 12:08
Any time.
Connor Brekke 12:09
And come on down for a drink. Until next time, cheers.
Connor Brekke 12:14
The Ombibulous is made possible with Castos, giving creators the tools to connect with their audience and community. The music is courteous of Pond5. With over 25 million royalty free stock videos, music, photos and sound effects, there's something for every creator. Today's episode was recorded at Thomas and Moriarty's is in downtown Mandan, North Dakota. I would like to thank Mr. Kashey for his time, and the use of his facility to make this episode possible. Fot the latest updates, videos, photos and web links to our guests, please consider checking out our Facebook page, The Onbibulous podcast. And of course a big thank you to all our listeners. Thank you for all of your support. Until next time, cheers!