Rum Style

Three types of rum are known on Mauritius: the traditional molasses rum from the old distilleries, the juice rum of the newer houses, and rhum arrangé, in which something is left to steep in the rum. The south mainly produces the latter two.

Juice rum tastes fresh, grassy, and slightly peppery, with sugarcane and green fruit. Depending on the barrel, wood, spice, and dried fruit can join in, yet the cane note remains as a thread running through. The island's molasses rums, by contrast, are rounder, darker in their sweetness, and heavier in the mid-palate. Chamarel and Saint Aubin differ in scale: Saint Aubin describes its microdistillery as small, with a hand-operated mill, while Chamarel distills on an estate of around 400 hectares using both pot and column stills. Both grow their own cane, and that shapes the style of the south more than any piece of equipment.

Rhum arrangé is a rum in which fruits, spices, or vanilla pods are left to steep. Legally, it isn't rum, since rum may not be flavored within the EU. Its legal designation is spirit drink, or liqueur if it contains enough sugar and at least 15 percent alcohol.

According to retailers, Saint Aubin infuses its Rhum Vanille Extra Premium with vanilla grown on its own estate. Chamarel also offers liqueurs with vanilla, coffee, coconut, mandarin, and pineapple.

The difference between the styles thus lies in the raw material and the intervention: juice provides freshness, molasses provides warmth and depth, and infusion adds a second, foreign note. Anyone comparing bottles should therefore read the designation first, and only then the description.