Juicing the wheels of change

IN THE past, sugar cane has been grown to make sugar while its byproduct, molasses, has been salvaged to make rum. Rum producers have added flavours and spices to their molasses to create a signature brand identity over the years, but what they all have in common is the need for molasses.

This has always been the case. Like the song says, “you can’t have one without the other”, the problem is that Jamaican sugar cane farmers cannot produce enough molasses to feed the demand for rum.

At the moment, 50 per cent of the molasses used to create Jamaican rum is imported from elsewhere. Rum producers have struggled with these limitations for years until one of them decided to create their own solution.

National Rums recently began growing sugar cane for the purpose of making rum – not sugar, just rum. If successful, this alternative action might be the game changer Jamaica needs to rejuvenate its sugar cane industry by further adding to the employment pool for local farmers and agricultural workers.

Rum is already distilled successfully from sugar cane juice in the French-speaking Caribbean as well as in Brazil. Their national clear rum, Cachaça, used to make the popular Brazilian cocktail caipirinhas, is a prime example of what distilling cane juice can do.

If National Rums’ experiment is successful, they will begin to secure more land for local farmers to grow sugar cane for the sole purpose of rum production, alleviating Jamaica’s dependence on molasses and opening the Jamaican rum market to exciting new possibilities.

With the Ministry of Agriculture firmly behind them, National Rums have all the encouragement they need to solve Jamaica’s molasses problems and keep our favourite spirit in high demand the world-over.