Rum

I've been interested in rum for a while now, but I haven't done too much research into it yet. I've read a number of websites, particularly reviews for what's worth buying. Even though this is my first book on rum, I would not really recommend it for people just starting out.

The book is a beautiful hardcover and is broken into three main parts: history; production; and a lengthy listing of a hundred or so rums, their flavors, and mixing with them. And pictures. Lots of beautiful pictures.

The history section is very brief. A few paragraphs have to suffice for several decade's worth of happenings for each major Caribbean island. It jumps around back and forth a lot. I imagine it's pretty similar to how ice cubes feel in a cocktail shaker. I'd describe this section as The History of Rum for People Who Don't Want to Read about the History of Rum.

The production section is equally brief, but in a different way. If the history section treats the reader as being simple and having a short attention span, this one assumes you already know how rum is made or else are a chemistry student and can absorb the high-level discussion. It leaves much to be desired for those who just want to know how rum is made.

Once the token sections are out of the way, we get to what seems to be the real purpose of this book: a section where one page (including a large, color photo of the bottle) is dedicated to a given rum, the distiller, a bit of background information on the brand, the general flavor, and how it works with a few simple mixes (coconut juice, ginger beer, clementine juice, cola) and a cocktail for each major style. This seems to be the most useful part of the book and, as such, it is the largest section. It is also the part that will become the most useless over time as brands or distillers cease to exist or alter blends, or as new rums enter the market. It'll still be relevant for a couple more years, but the clock is ticking.

However, the most useful part of the book for me was a one-page flavor map which plotted all of the listed rums on a vertical and a horizontal axis. Rums are plotted based on their characteristics: Oaky & Rich, Soft & Sweet, Light & Fresh, Crisp & Dry. In one, quick glance, I could see what flavor of rum I preferred based on the ones I've tried (Oaky & Rich non-Jamaican English style).

Overall, I can't really recommend this book, unless you specifically know you don't care about rum history and production and just want a brief description of a hundred or so rums. The list is pretty good as far as quality and popularity go. There are a few cocktail recipes as well, but those are everywhere on the internet. This book also works fine as a coffee-table book for guests to flip through while you're doing something else. As a general book about rum, though, it falls short. To use an analogy a rum-drinker may appreciate: a lot of emphasis has been placed on the beauty of the bottle, there's a hint of something on the nose, but the body is thin, the flavor simple, and the finish short; it definitely could use more refinement in the blending and a few more years in the barrel.