rum comes from byproducts of the sugar
industry like molasses the Caribbean and
Latin America produce much of the
world's rum light rums are the base for
cocktails like the minty mojito Amber
rums are medium bodied and aged for
flavor they're often drunk straight As
is dark Ro the strongest tasting of
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all this fine Amber rum is the product
of a long and complex process that
begins with the Harvest of mature sugar
cane
plants the cut Cane goes to a Sugar Mill
where they wash it then crush it to
extract its sweet
juice they boil it down this produces a
kind of molasses that then goes on to a
centrifuge machine that draws out excess
moisture rum making really begins here
in these distillation Towers
this is where ferment made from molasses
distills into raw
rum to make ferment molasses mixed with
water and yeast Heats in open tanks for
about 30 hours this converts sugar into
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alcohol here's a sample straight from
one of these tanks notice that foamy top
layer that's fermentation in
action before distilling the contents of
the tank technicians first test a sample
in this glass still steam heats the
ferment and releases alcohol Vapors that
condense at the top of the
column as they travel down the still
spiral the vapors cool and condense even
more the liquid that collects in the
beaker is 80%
alcohol it's the same process inside the
distillation Towers on a much larger
scale
the ferment must reach
176° F to distill into raw rum then it's
stored in these 13,000g containers until
they test it for
Quality these gas powerered boilers
provide the Steam Heat for the
distillation
Towers workers monitor the distilling
Towers day and night this facility can
produce more than 10,000 gallons of raw
rum a day all stored in these gigantic
silos from there the raw rum goes into
charred Oak barrels it's mixed with
water and left to age anywhere from 1 to
12
years the charred wood produces Esters
that give the rum color flavor and Aroma
the longer it ages the more intense the
flavor technicians perform tests on the
sample at the distillery's laboratory
closely monitoring the aging
process first using a hydrometer they
measure the amount of alcohol in the
samples to make sure it's in the
standard 50%
range next they smell each sample to
make sure the Aromas are in
Balance they keep a journal of all their
observations quality control is the key
to producing a consistent flavorful
product
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once it is aged the rum is bottled it's
a fully automated process first they
sterilize new bottles in a sodium
carbonate solution then a conveyor moves
them to a filling station that can
process 150 bottles a
minute rotating Wheels deliver the
bottles to a lever system that raises
them up to the nozzles on pneumatic
pumps they fill up with ROM more than
72,000 of them each day
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next aluminum bottle caps come down and
shoot right onto the bottle tops a
piston valve pushes down on the caps and
tightly seals each
bottle next stop labeling first a
spinning roller applies glue to panels
set on a rotating
wheel the panels pass a dispenser and a
label glues onto
them another rotating wheel grabs the LA
cbles from the panel and transfers them
onto the bottles sponges press them
neatly into
place as the bottles convey out of the
labeling station brushes smooth out each
label finally the bottles lower into
boxes 12 at a time to ship to customers
all over the
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world