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From sugar cane juice
to rum |
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Alkhôl, “subtle essence”,
is a word with an Arabic
origin. Indeed, after conquering Egypt, Arabic people diffused the distillation
techniques. Rich knowledge transferred to Occidental Christian people thanks
to the writings inherited from the middle-east scholars. The alchemists from
Middle-Age when distilling wine extracted this precious liquid. They named it
acquae vitae, brandies and considered it as a long life
elixir.
The first stills were glass-made or ceramic-made. As of the 15th century, copper-made
stills emerged and enabled a better distillation capacity.
The production and the consumption of brandies expanded in Europe. Rapidly, the
settlers took benefit from the fermentation and the distillation of sugared products
stemming from the sugar cane field. As of the beginning of the 17th century,
sugar cane brandies are available under different designations such as guildive (French
deformation of the English: kill-devil), tafia or rumbullion. |
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From a crude alcohol to a
noble spirit
At the beginning of the 18th century,
the Dominican priest Jean-Baptiste Labat consecrated
all of his energy at improving this liquor he qualified as “strong,
violent, good value, rude and unpleasant”. He set up a ingenious
still allowing the production of a much more refined brandy. This
device remained used until the 20th century. Father Labat is said
to be the “father or rum”.
In Reunion Island, the principal
drink of Creole people at the beginning of the colonisation was
the fangourin, fermented sugar cane juice but not distilled.
In 1704, stills to distiller fangourin are identified so as to
obtain brandy. This brandy was there named guildive,
tafia or arack.
The word of rum went in use only after 1688. It came from the English
rum, abbreviation of rumbullion. It has been only one century since
this term has been usually employed. |
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Conquering
the world
Considered as vulgar drinks for a long time, sugar cane brandies belonged to
slaves and sailors rations. During the 16th and 17th centuries, pirates,
buccaneers and sea adventurers hired their most of their crews by getting
the sailors of national navy drunk in ports. Once too much drunk to respond a
call, these sailors became deserters et did not have other choice than enrol
with freebooters.
As of the middle of the 18th century, the quality of rums improved tremendously.
The exportations towards Europe and especially towards England largely grew.
Around 1740, English people consumed principally rum as a punch. The
term “punch” tended to derive from the Hindustan “panch” meaning “five”.
Its recipe contained 5 ingredients: rum, tea, sugar, lemon and
cinnamon.
Quickly rum consumption extended to Northern countries and Germany. The most
fervent addicts to rum were the North-American people: they even developed their
own production with molasses.
In France, the leap of the French Island production was impended
because of the royal government will to protect wine brandies.
It is only at the end of the 18th century that metropolitan cafés
began to serve brandies. |
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A new actor
on the international scene: Bourbon Island, the future Reunion
Island
At the beginning of the 19th century,
France lost 2 of its main rum production colonies: Saint-Dominguez
and Island of France. Thus, Reunion Island redeveloped ist economy
and became the newly French sugar and rum
island.
As of 1815, the sugar cane harvesting experienced in Bourbon Island
a tremendous growing. The island had, to an international extent,
a important role in the improvement of the sugar industry thanks
to the actions of the Desbassyns Brothers.
In 1815, Charles Desbassyns settled the first modern distillery
on its own estate in La Rivière-des-Pluies. Exportations
of Bourbon sugar cane stood from 21 tons in 1815 to 72 000 tons
in 1861. |
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The
Reunion Island distilleries: history and innovation
The history of the distilleries
of Reunion Island is closely linked to those of the sugar refineries.
After an euphoria period, during which the number of plants growed
at a quick pace, the sugar industry experienced a rude crisis from
1860 until 1914. Small plants had to close down or to integrate
next-door bigger plants.
On 189 existing plants in 1830, only a group of twenty remained
around 1914. This concentration kept on developing in 1970’s
until reaching the final number of today’s 3 plants. Though,
this huge reduction of distillery plants did not impact the production
capacity. On the contrary, these days, the production capacity
rises at the highest levels of quality and quantity it has never
reached in its whole history. |
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