2024 Rum Week Preview
Courtesy Blackland
Starting Wednesday, September 25, Blackland Distillery’s tasting room will be transformed into a paradise for rum enthusiasts. With a specialty tiki drink menu, experimental rum flights, and exclusive bottles of both white and barrel-aged Blackland Rum, Rum Week is a can’t-miss event.
To preview the event, we chatted with Ezra Cox, Master Distiller at Blackland. Ezra has been a brewer and distiller for more than 25 years, and his spirits have made Blackland synonymous with smooth and innovative spirits that reflect North Texas’ culture and terroir.
Q: Why don’t we see more local distilleries make rum?
A: The big picture is that it just is not a big category of spirits. It is kind of geographically-centric. We are not in the Caribbean. If we were sitting in Corpus Christi, we may be a little more heavy on the rums. You don’t see rum being made in the Midwest because there isn’t a market for it there either. You are starting to see it more and more, though. Rye whiskey 10 years ago was the thing. Gin seems to be having a strong resurgence. I feel like rum is being talked about more now. People, I think, come here and they expect to see bourbon, gin, and vodka. They do not expect to see rum here.
Q: Why is rum underrepresented?
A: Geography is a big part of it. In the Midwest, rye [whiskey] is more popular because it grows there. It is interesting to look at the evolution of spirits. Malt whiskey is king in Scotland because barley grew great there. Bourbon is huge in the U.S. because corn is ubiquitous here. Rum is made out of sugar products. All spirits arguably evolved over time based on their original geography.
Courtesy Blackland
Q: What do you like about rum?
A: I love all spirits. I love variety. Rum is just another great spirit that you can enjoy. I hand it to my staff, and they know what to do with it. The first rum anyone tries is probably Bacardi. You might try something different that has a good reputation and find that it has more flavor than Bacardi. So you really get into it. For me, it is the search for flavor.
Markus, Blackland’s owner, is about quality and not doing things as fast as possible. There can be an aging aspect to rum. We always differentiate between white and brown spirits. Brown spirits all go into a barrel. Those things take time. What we are working on here with rum is closer to what you might find at a nice tiki bar. That’s what we are trying to do.
Q: Describe the rum you make.
A: We have two spirits that I feel we don’t have to do the same every time. We only sell them here. Barrel-rested gin is the one we’ve done since the beginning. That one I play with a little year to year. I’d say over the past several years, it is a little more consistent process. Rum is one we have played around with and will continue to play with. It has evolved.
We started traditionally. We did some stuff with molasses. We have legal definitions for rum. There is no point in making it if it doesn’t meet the legal definition. It has to be made from some sugar product. Rum is pretty open after that. Not all spirits are. There are many sources of sugar. We started with molasses. A big part of the reason most rum exists is because of the sugar. There has been a sugar industry for many hundreds of years. There are a lot of byproducts that have no value that become rum essentially. One byproduct is molasses. You end up with this excess molasses product. What do you do with it? So most rum comes from molasses.
The past two to three years, we’ve used a specific sugar called muscovado sugar. About four years ago, we released our Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon. We used 10 different sugars to play with the concept. One sugar was a huge standout. We wanted to make a sweet bourbon, but it needs to be elevated. Sugar is a big player. That was the sugar. When we went back to make rum, we thought it would make great rum. There are probably not a lot of people using muscovado sugar in general. It comes from the coast of Madagascar. It looks like brown sugar, but the aroma profile is amazing.
Q: Does sugar make it to the final product?
Some of that is a factor of flavors that give the impression of sweetness. If it is actually sweet then it is added later. Many rums are sweetened. The barrel can add sweetness. That could be due to maturation from the barrel. This year, we made four rums for the bar. We do a white rum. We do barrel-aged rum. We do two processed rums, including a dark sweet rum. I add some muscovado sugar back to it. That’s a good one. It makes it darker. We do a spiced rum where we take a finished rum and do a botanical extraction that gives it clove, allspice, and cinnamon flavors. Kind of what you would expect from fall spices.
Q: Is interest in rum growing?
A: I think the future is bright for rum. It evolves and matures. It seems like it is changing all the time. For some people, grandpa drank scotch, dad drank bourbon so they don’t want to drink bourbon. As long as the spirits industry stays strong, people branch out into spirits that aren’t as well known. Part of it is travel. They go down to the Caribbean and realize how good rum can be.
Rum Week runs through Saturday, October 5.