#15 September 2014

The Far East Rum Diary - Le Journal du Rhum d'Extrême-Orient

Issue # 15 - August - September 2014 - Web Edition

The Far East Rum Diary (TFERD) is a collection of "rum worthy" news and events taking in place in Asia and beyond written by Philippe K.A. Buchle, French Rum Ambassador based in Hong Kong.

CACHACA OR
RHUM?

DARK RUM
OR
NAVY RUM?

NATIONAL
RUM DAY

INTERVIEW:
BOB LOUISON

MORE
RUM
NEWS

Cachaca Armazem Vieira Terra, one of the best in the world.

Tilambic 150, the 75% rum from Mauritius.

I have always assumed that if Cachaca was just another type of Rum it would simply be called "Ron". Not quite, because surprisingly, the Portuguese word for Rum is Rum and not Ron like in Spanish (not obvious if you are not from Brazil, Macau or Portugal).

Some would argue that Cachaca and Rhum Agricole are both made from fresh cane juice. They are more similarities like distillation method (column or pot still) and ageing that if required can take place in Limousin casks but they are also key differences.

First, during the fermentation, in particular the "caipira" process, 20% of the fermentation vat is permanently filled with toasted ground maize or ground maize and a small amount of soy bran and rice bran. (source: Brazil Ministry of Foreign Relations). An other example is Cachaca Jerominho Ribeiro stating that natural corn ferment is added to the mix to "reach the desirable features." The addition of cereal is unique to Cachaca making and does not exist in the Rum world.

Second, Cachaca is bottled between 38% and 48% and therefore is unlikely to be reduced by addition of water. Rum on the other hand and Rhum Agricole is roughly distilled to 70% alcohol and need to be reduced to 40-55% at the time of bottling (with perhaps the exception of overproof rums like the Tilambic Mauritian rum bottled at 75.5%).

Third, Rhum is never bottled right after the distillation process.

Last but not least, if Cachaca and Rhum Agricole have this distinctive grassy note and if Brazilian and French Caribbean cultures shared a common Latin heritage, they go separate ways when it comes to cocktails. Caipirinha is not Ti Punch and using Rhum Agricole to make the former or Cachaca for the later may sounds like heresy.

An authentic Caipirinha is made with Cachaca.

An authentic Ti Punch is made with Rhum Agricole.

DARK RUM OR NAVY RUM?

A generic Definition would be that Dark Rum can be obtained by ageing the rum or by adding caramel or other colouring agent in the rum.

Such a broad category would be of little use to anyone so let us look at a more refined definition.

A Black Rum, Dark Rum, English Rum or Navy Rum would refer to a rum made in an English speaking country, aged in charred oak barrels, possibly coloured or sweetened with caramel with the possibly addition of molasses or other agent (e.g. spices). This type of rum would typically look darker and be aged longer than a gold rum. The islands of Bermuda, Jamaica and Trinidad are known fro their Dark Rums and so is Guyana (Demerara) on the continent.

Dark Rums are often described as full-flavoured rums they may also be sweeter.

Appleton Estate (Jamaica), Angostura (Trinidad), El Dorado (Guyana) are making typical Dark Rums.

Appleton Estate (Jamaica).

El Dorado (Guyana).

NATIONAL RUM DAY

It would be fair to say that the National Rum Day 2014 was pretty quiet in Asia and beyond.

I certainly made a point to see some of the best mixologists in town and encourage them to promote rum in general.
It was also an opportunity to surprise them with rare Spanish and Mauritian rums from my private collection.

I noticed that several venues in North America offered to celebrate the special day with cocktails.
In my humble opinion, August 16th should be a good opportunity to promote rum itself, taken neat or perhaps with a bit of water.

If 95% of rum is either mixed (e.g. rum coke) or used in cocktails is there really a need to promote rum cocktails?

It would have been nice to have specific events like tasting, party or even rum dinner.

Let us hope that next year we will be able to do something in Hong Kong on that particular day.

INTERVIEW: BOB LOUISON

As I previously mentioned, I plan to talk to influential people working in or around the beverage industry in Asia and share their opion here. I met Bob Louison (BL) during the 2nd Hong Kong Rum Festival earlier this year and he later agreed to be featured in The Far East Rum Diary.

Bob Louison in Singapore.

You are a French bartender/mixologist turned consultant after working in UK and France.
You came to Asia 5-6 years ago, founded your company Spirit It and currently work between Asian cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul. Is that correct?

BL: To be more accurate, I have worked in cities like Paris, London, New York, and Ibiza before moving to Beijing in 2008, and after 6 months I launched my consulting company Spirit It.

I do consult and work all around Asia, in places like Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Guanzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, HK, Taipei, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bali and Tokyo. I also consult sometimes in Russia, in Moscow and St Petersburg.

For our readers who are not working in the industry, could you tell us what is bar consulting?

Bar consulting consist in providing expertise view, consulting and suggestion on the bar industry. It can cover different things such as:

Build and design a cocktail menu: classic cocktails, and creation of signature cocktails adapted to the venue itself (atmosphere, customer targets, and style of the venue)
Bar set up: recommend the best way to set up a bar to be more efficient, and help to get a swift work to ensure a quick service that will generate a faster delivery of drinks and then more revenue.
Training: Bar training of the bar staff on bar operations, cocktail knowledge, understanding of the bartender role, history of cocktails and bartending origins, customer service knowledge, hygiene rules, mixology, spirits knowledge, cost control, bar techniques, and more.
Bar design: Help a venue to get the bar designed, so all bar operations will be efficient at it’s best. Design of all stations (size, length, width, and what should be located behind the bar, and where they should be located.)
Guest Bartending: Provide guest tending shift to bring extra knowledge to a venue through the cocktails and techniques that the bartender will showcase during his shift at the bar who will hire him for an exclusive one or two nights shift.
Help source bar tools, ingredients and spirits: Maybe some venues don’t know where to access some type of barware, glassware, spirits, and some special ingredients. With the connections I have all around Asia, I can help the venues source that.
Staff sourcing: I can help venues to find their bartender when they need. It’s often very hard to find good staff, so we like to help the bars to find the right person for them. I have multiple connections all around Asia, and the world in the bar industry so I may be able to locate staff for the venues.

You also do Cocktail Competition, right?

This topic is close to my heart as I ran my very first Cocktail Challenge in Hong Kong earlier this year.

The scale was rather small without bells and whistles.

I didn’t do any competition for years. Last one was in Paris 7-8 years ago for Bacardi, and I finished in second position. I have been ignoring cocktail competition for many years as I didn’t found them interesting, but lately I have seen a rise on the global cocktail competition and started growing an interest about participating in one. I will be starting to some soon this year and next year I have decided. I don’t expect to win anything. I just want to do it for the fun of it, and to gain more knowledge.

From what I know the you have been running much larger public events.
Can you tell us more about these events and will you be doing more of them?

I have been organizing a lot of cocktail masterclass during 5 years in Beijing,China. Those included a number of 15-20 people per class, sometimes 30-40, and was running twice a week for 5 years. It was quite fun.
I also did some big event like the Hennessy Artistry event, making cocktails for 5000 people during a concert with famous artist was amazing.
I do regularly big events with Grand Marnier (all around Asia), Ravifruit (Asia & Russia) and Perrier (in Korea). Those are events where I bartending behind the bar as guest bartender for one night only in one city. I also conduct many masterclass for the brand itself educating the bartender specifically about that brand, to enhance their knowledge, and get them to be more interested to use the brand in the future in cocktails because of the brand’s characteristic and special values.

What are your favorite bars in Hong Kong?

Honi-Honi bar: I really like bar to be honest. Amazing décor, atmosphere with a cool and friendly staff.
The Blck Brd : It has good staff and good cocktails.
Wyndham the 4th: They have a great team of bartenders, they are doing a great job.
The Envoy: I like a lot this last bar that Antonio and Charlene opened recently.
Little Lab: It is a nice cozy bar, with local flavor included in cocktails, I like the concept, plus the bar team is cool and they will take care of you like if you were part of their own family.

I could go on forever, I think today the HK bar scene has grown and keep increasing to a level that is really exciting and interesting to witness. 2-3 years ago it was empty and without flavor in my opinion, but today it’s a boom of the bar industry with a real effort of the bartenders to connect all together, and work hard to raise the level of this industry. I have huge respect for them!

You probably tried dozens of rums? What are your top three?

I like a lot Dameoiseau, Clement, Plantation, and Appleton VX, Sailor & Jerry, Bacardi oakheart, havana selection de maestro, Pyrat. My favorite type of rum are rhum agricole.

What rum cocktail do you prefer?

Well my favorite in classic cocktail is the Pina Colada, simple and refreshing, the mai tai is one of my favorite too. Then now you can find a nice selection of signature cocktails based with rum all around the world. I’m always excited to try new ones.

As Rhum Ambassador, I have to ask you this, we know that the consumption of spirits in Asia is very different from one country to the next and that it is always evolving. So far, in Greater China, awareness and demand for rum is somehow limited. Beverages giants are promoting their respective brands giving some exposure to Spanish (Ron) and English Rum. French rum however (Rhum) is mostly unknown except perhaps in Japan thanks to the dedication of a few people like
Mr Tanaka. Have you seen some encouraging changes since you moved to Asia or do you think that (French) Rhum could remain a forgotten category until the end of the decade?

Well the market certainly developed so much in some part of Asia like Singapore, and Hong Kong. Of course Japan is the most developed market for all spirits categories. Korea is so limited as it is really hard to import any new liquors due to high government taxes. Indonesia and Malaysia are also difficult market due to the local religion prohibiting the consumption of alcohol.

I think it will take a long time to get there, but we see more and more local bars importing themselves bottles for their personal use in their venue. This shows the desire for the market to get access to more products, and that the local people are educated on the spirits and that there is a demand for it. In Shanghai you can find many rums, and in some bars in Beijing also. I think the leading market for rum in Asia will be SG, HK, and China. Korea could develop too since there is a big rum lover Mike Soldner who opened B28 in SG and in Seoul, and import by himself a huge collection of rum. That should help the market.

I concluded the interview by asking Bob about his plans for the near future and he seemed to be engaged for several months. Among other things he was planning for a masterclass in Seoul about aged gin spirits. I would like to thank Bob Louison for taking the time to answer our questions.