I hate - seriously - having to still be writing about the illegal and secret adulteration of rum with copious amounts of sugar. Even though half of all rums tested are relatively pure and sugar free, it still falls to but a few smaller distillers to proudly label the fact that their artisan rums are free of additives and/or coloring.
Sugaring is wrong, period and this is no longer subject to debate. The regulations are clear. Richard Seales is quite blunt about it: fraud and cheating he says. And this practice surely is exactly those.
But not according to the Caner
What price pride? Apparently this Lone Ranger seems to have been hurt by being outed for avoiding the subject? Or for priding himself on not adding water to hot overproofs? Or was it for criticisms of his wordy and relatively inaccessible, look-at-me blathering writing style? No matter.
Compare to the Pirate. When this gentleman became aware of the sugar issue, he did a complete turnaround and aggressively joined the worldwide effort to expose the sugar fraud. He deserves our plaudits.
But not the Caner.
Although we've seen a few vague references to sugar, he still refuses to see the problem - as made clear by this exerpt from a recent review.
Caner defends Rum Nation
Let's get real m'boy. Sugar is wrong period, no question about it. It smothers and smooths, takes the edges off to the point that profiles are destroyed. A truly great and honestly produced, well-aged rum doesn't need sugar. It's been added for years to cheap thin industrial rums to make them drinkable, so much so that the consumer expect that quality and sweetness go hand in hand - thus the so-called premiums are the worst offenders." Rum Nation...They’re not innovative – or “limited edition” – in the same sense that CDI or Velier or even EKTE is, but they are very consistent in their own way and according to their own philosophy, and I’ve liked them enormously... bought just about the entire 2010 release line at once.
Almost always good, always adding a little bit here and a little bit there to tweak things a bit... They catch a lot of heat for their practise of adding sugar (sometimes it’s actually caramel but never mind) to their lower- and mid-level rums (the Millonario XO in particular comes in for serious hate mail)."
That's horrible, but the distillers have been outed and properly rejected as the tests made it impossible for them to hide. Still, the Caner buys into the Big Three propaganda that "it's not really sugar, it's caramel".
Lissen up. If by "caramel" he means caramel coloring, he is dead wrong. True coloring is highly concentrated sugar burnt black - so potent and so bitter that thankfully a few drops are plenty enough to color a bottle of rum. Bitter!! And if he is speaking to food caramel - a completely different product - that indeed is a VERY sweet form of what? Of sugar and hint: just a illegal as adding the white or brown stuff. Illegal. Fraud. Cheating.
Look. I really hate to burst this self-inflated bubble, but sugaring is wrong and the main reason rum remains rogue rum (patent pending).
Get it right. Please. I'm tired...
http://thelonecaner.com/313/