The Rise of Rum Part 1: Spice is king
Today is National Rum Day, so what could be better than to bring the first installment of our three part Rise of Rum series which looks in depth at this growing category.
Today is National Rum Day, so what could be better than to bring you the first installment of our three part Rise of Rum series which looks in depth at this growing category.
Rum is on the rise, with value sales up 12% to £583m in the past year alone.
The Caribbean tipple owes its recent success in part to the rising popularity of spiced and quality aged sipping rums, as consumers trade up on quality.
Flavoured/spiced rum is driving the majority of growth, accounting for 32.9% of growth, up from 29.6% last year.
White remains the largest rum category, accounting for 35.3% of value sales, but is down from 39.3% this time last year.
Mark Dent, retail manager at Birmingham-based wholesaler and retailer The Drinks Emporium, which has one of the largest and most esoteric rum ranges outside of the capital, says spiced rum is now "king".
He said: "For us, spiced rums are top, followed by aged and then white rum. Historically, white rums have led the category because they are popular with bartenders and don't add colour to cocktails.
"But recently the purity of rum has taken front seat in the same way as gin. Customers want sipping rums or a quality spiced rum with a splash on ginger beer or cola."
Rum's appeal is expanding outwards, with producers from non-traditional rum-making countries getting in on the act and tapping into rum's quintessential craft roots.
"Historically, rum has been made on small Caribbean islands with reduced populations. But there are new rums coming out from the US and Japan and they are cashing in on craft in a positive way because they're not from traditional rum producers. Owney's NTC Rum is great, as is Ryoma from Japan. There are lots of fantastic really small batch rums coming out of places like New York," Dent said.
Visit harpers.co.uk tomorrow for Part 2.
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