Here at The Rum Project we are keenly aware of old myths (like the Preacher's "...it's all good" mantra) but humanity keeps plodding along with the monkey's shuffling their feet, and the Wolfboy draggin his rear paws, and - somehow - new myths start to take hold.
The latest: "Pot-still funk".
The early adopters are really diggin on this new term. It makes them seem hip and on the cutting edge. They slip it into their usual, "...it's all good" commentary so as to intimate an edgy but pleasureable sensation. Like going down on your girlfriend - before she showers!
Mmmm, mmm good! Pot-still funk!
But I hate to tell ya, it just aint' so, Jo-Jo. The truth is that most rums are column-stilled, way fewer are actually a blend of a little pot-still with a lotta thin column product, and a mere handful that are actually pot-stilled. Furthermore, experienced column-stillers will tell you that it is perfectly possible to pull off fractions at different levels to get a kinda, sorta approximation of, yup, a pot-still.
The "funk" is simply not from the pot-still, per se. So what then?
Think Jamaican style and think dunder. What's "dunder"? Dunder is the leftovers from a distillation that are recycled by (a) being added, in part, to a new fermentation or wash for distillation, or (b) into an honest-to-goodness pit. That's right, a big pit in the ground that is chock full of old dunder that gets nastier and nastier over many months (if not years).
It is nasty, nasty stuff.
Now it's nasty because it continues to ferment and create hundreds and hundreds of new esters (future aromas and tastes) that simply aren't present in ordinary rum (which contains maybe 30 or 50 esters). OTOH, add some dunder to a new ferment, let it go for a good fermentation and you may end up with 1500 esters. And when you take a whiff of these high ester rums you'll get - wait for it...
Wait for it...
Funk! Aha! Want to know what the funk I'm talkin about? Sure you do. Take a good snort of Pusser's Blue Label. Or Smith & Cross. Or most Jamaican style rums. Indeed it is this "funk" that is a key characteristic of the Jamaican style. Now to be fair it's possible to get a "funk-lite" kinda impression from a complex rum, but this is really a "faux funk".
Hey! Stop that! You think I get paid for this? Funk, no..."Funky, funky, don't listen to the monkey!
Feee, fiii, faux Funk. Feel your girl, feel that funk.
Feel the music, don't go flat...
Funky, funky, dat's where it's at!"
