Testing the limits
The world of rum is already diverse compared to all other spirit categories. However, even with all the widely recognised diversity, there are still some contemporary spirits – cousins to rum, if you will – that are so close they are difficult to ignore.
Cachaça is a self-contained sugarcane spirit category cousin – sufficiently defined to stand separate. What about an alternative source such as panela, or rapadura (aka chancaca, piloncillo, jaggery or gur) that does not fall into any widely recognised camp?
It is worth pointing out that some producers attempt to use sorghum or sugar beet to make their ‘rum’ and this is outside the field of play – whatever spirit arises from using these sources, it is not rum. Under UK/EU/ US regulations, rum is made from sugarcane juice, a syrup made from sugarcane juice, or molasses. The grey area surrounding the use of panela (as the catch-all term) is that it is not a regulated process.
The danger is that some production processes may have some level of refinement – a step that removes the flavour connection to the source – and refined sugars are also a ‘no-no’ as far as being an acceptable source. Using pure sugar may be enough to allow the yeast to produce ethanol, but other elements need to be present to enable an organoleptic connection to the source – an essential requirement in identifying a spirit category.
Evaporated sugarcane juice is produced from boiling down freshly squeezed sugarcane juice until it becomes a solid. The process raises the sugar content by volume, preventing spoiling – the same reasoning behind making a syrup. It offers a shelf-stable product that can be used outside of sugarcane harvesting season. The simplified process allows the panela to retain the sugarcane flavour characteristics, albeit with the boiling making some inevitable changes.