Who knows the answer to this one?

I have been baffled how sugar bomb rums with 30-49 gpl of added sugar don't last long once opened, whereas flavored rums with 50 gpl or more of added sugar seem to last forever. Granted, flavored rums are no longer considered true rums, and some may go as far as saying any rum with 20 gpl or more of added sugar is no longer a rum. Does anyone know the answer to this? Is 50 gpl of added sugar the threshold that separates rums from liqueurs?

Interesting question to which I don't have the answer either. Though sugar also works as a preservative 50 gpl seems far too little to do the trick here; jams need 40% sugar or more to let that work. Of course alcohol and maybe even some added spices have preserving qualities as well or maybe even real preservatives are added in spiced rum in order to keep the flavours as intended.

100 gpl separates rum from liqueur. I think Riise has a rum with 95g sugar. Rum aromas are contained in the rum through the distillation process. I think they are more volatile and evaporate with the alcohol. The added flavors are not that volatile, they were added directly into the liquid or through contact with the liquid. It should be something like that.

Interesting point about jams having 40% sugar. Once opened and left in the fridge for a long period of time, the sugars will begin to crystallize. This also has me wondering how much preservatives are added to flavored rums. Since 45 gpl of added sugars is the highest level that I have encountered for any spirit declaring itself as a rum, I used 50 gpl as my own cutoff for declaring a rum as Flavored or Spiced. However, it is probably a lot more than 50 gpl. That is also amazing that Rise can declare it's heavily sugared spirit as a "rum" with 95 gpl of added sugar. Malibu Coconut "Rum" has 100 gpl of added sugar.

Riise is strage: A.H.Riise Centennial Celebration 76g A.H.Riise Non-Plus Ultra Very Rare Rum 82g A.H.Riise Royal Danish Navy Rom 66g A.H.Riise Royal Danish Navy Rom 96g I wonder, is it possible to separate the sugar by using the fridge? I should try it.

vomi1011: Sounds crazy, but putting a rum in the fridge to try and get the excess added sugar to crystallize just may work. However, I would say that the odds are against it. I no longer buy rums with more than 20 gpl of added sugar with a few exceptions. I like my coconut rums and a few spiced rums like Chairman's Reserve Spiced (that also contains bois bande!) and these all have high amounts of added sugar. As for those A.H.Riise rums you mentioned, I browsed quickly through a few of the reviews on here. Folks either love them or hate them, but they have overall average decent ratings. We cannot even get them in the USA, thank goodness. And I always thought that one's sweet tooth could only be found rampant in the USA.

I haven’t any answer to your initial question Paul and not any experience of those sugarbombs mentioned. Besides that I’m still a strong representative for the EU definition of Rum which we’ve discussed here earlier. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate a sweet rum based “Other Spirit” now and then, especially if it’s having an high ABV that balancing the sweetness.

Stefan: I only wish that the USA would adopt the EU definition of rum!

I tried to crystallize Dos Maderas 5+5 in my fridge, but without success. I think I would need liquid nitrogen to do that.

Who knows the answer to this one? vomi1011 user image

vomi1011: When I mentioned a "long time" for jams to crystallize in the fridge, I should have specifically stated at least two months. I am not sure if nitrogen would help, but an oxygen rich environment certainly would help. The air that we breathe is only 20% oxygen, with nitrogen making up the bulk of the 80% remaining. I still remember this from my days of scuba diving, but I only had one chemistry course in college. Adding sugars to rums is like adding too much cayenne pepper to food. One can add all they want, but good luck taking it out. If you figure out how to remove sugar from rum, you should patent your method. Good luck with it!

Vomi: note that alcohol would be frozen solid (melting point @ -114 C) at liquid nitrogen temperature (-196 C) and you need your substrate to be liquid in order to crystalize something. On the other hand you get something like rum ice cream. I think dry ice (-78 C) might work.

So I put Zacapa 23 to a dry ice container for some 10h to find no crystalization of the sugar. The rum was extremely thick, like a dense syrup. It was a very interesting experiment. At this point I see no hope to crystalize the sugar rapidly by cooling the rum. I don't think lower temperature would do the job much better as the alcohol was already course to frozen in my experiment. We still need to test slow crystalization for some months in the fridge. Maybe distillation of already distilled rum could help us to get rid of the unwanted sugar :) what do you think?

Who knows the answer to this one? kudzey user image

The heat will destroy the flavors, which is why I loved the idea of freezing. I'll leave this in the freezer for a few months, let's see if something changes.

I'm very curious if this would work. Crystalization of sugar relies on supersaturation of the liquid. One needs to prepare a sugar- rich liquid, putting so much sugar that it almost doesn't solve anymore. To form sugar crystals one needs to evaporate some of the liquid so that the sugar-to-liquid rato is higher than the saturation limit. I understand that decreasing the temperature should also decrease the saturation limit, the question is whether our sugar-bomb rums are close to this limit at room temperature. I observed some liquors (i.e. cointreau, see the photo, there certainly are some white sugar crystals) crystallizing at room temperature, especially in the place where the cap touches the bottle. Those liquors, however, might have two or even ten times more sugar than our sweet rums. This is why I am doubtful if this research project will be successful.

Vomi: By the way, glass is rather smooth, it can be difficult to start crystalization on it. Maybe you can try inserting some porous rod for crystalization core, like wool string, ice cream wood stick or metal nail.

Thanks for all of the wonderful ideas everyone! But I have now come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with overly sugared rums is either to not buy them in the first place or store them with your other liqueurs at the back of your cabinet. Once sugar is added to rums, you are stuck with it. I did show crystallization where the neck meets the cork on a bottle of Clement Creole Shrubb, more so than from a bottle of simple syrup or orgeat syrup. I no longer buy that brand of shrubb and now stick with the J.M. Rhum version which has a LOT less added sugar.

Hi guys, in the end Paul found the answer! Don't buy sugar bombs if you don't like it! Sugar does not crystalize because of the temperature (ok. over 100°c sugar will melt) it's more of the dryness, that's why sugar crystals will be found around the cork or neck. A bit of liquid stays there, the alcohol and water part dissolve and the sugar stay back. So, the only way to remove the sugar is to redistill the whole thing, like kudzey mentioned. To your question, maybe 40% alcohol and 50 + gr. sugar is the perfect preservations mixture. I use the Clement Creole Shrubb to flambee fried bananas as a dessert. Great for a vanilla ice cream topping.

Thanks, Rene!!!

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