Mhoba Rum Distillery – Producing Pure Single Sugarcane Rum
I was never a big fan of rum; mostly because it was drunk by pirates or people, who behaved in a piratical manner. On the odd occasion, after a hot day spent on a boat, I would order a rum and coke at the local watering hole because it seemed to be the only thing.
If you think that my snobbery is silly you are quite right. The problem is that modern marketing techniques are so effective.
We are often consuming a product because our brain tells us it relates to a certain part of our personality or a desire to be like the person in the advertising campaign.
This is crazy! Even more crazy is that we are so focused on the psychological aspects that we forget about the taste.
A few years ago, I discovered a small batch craft distilled spirits. Exploring the realm of artisanal rum, gin, vodka etc has been a truly amazing journey. The key word here is artisanal.
In fact, every single boutique spirit in which I have indulged was produced by somebody, who loved what they did and spent many hours perfecting their art. So, it was with much delight that I received a call from my office to say that a box of Mhoba Rum had arrived for my tasting.
Mhoba Rum – Small batch artisinal rum
This craft rum is pot-distilled by Jan Viljoen and Robert Greeves on the outskirts of Malalane in the heart of the cane growing area of the Crocodile River Valley in Mpumalanga.
“Mhoba Rum is what is termed agricultural rum from the French term ‘rhum agricole’ as opposed to most traditional rum, which is often mass produced from molasses, the by-product from refined sugar production,” explains Robert. (This is taken from their website)
“Mhoba Rum is 100% pot-distilled and therefore is termed Pure Single Rum, the rum equivalent of a Single Malt Whisky.”
Jan adds, “Great care is taken to produce our rum and our only ingredients are sugarcane juice, water, toasted oak and time. No flavourants and no colorants are added.”
Mhoba produces both a white rum and dark aged rum. The character of these rums is very distinct and very different from large scale, mass produced rums that are touted in every liquor. The flavours of these rums are amazing and deserve careful attention. Of course, in the interest of good journalism, we had to have more than a few sips. In fact, as passionate foodies, my friends and I spent an afternoon and an evening doing some very careful and thorough research on these rums.
I remember when, as a child, I first sucked on a piece of raw sugar cane. It was awesome.
And so too was my first sip of white rum. It took me straight back to the side of a KZN road where my father had stopped the car to pick up a few pieces of sugar cane that had fallen off a truck.
Robert says, “The unique character and taste profile of our rums is due to several factors specific to our location and style of rum making. Referred to as ‘terroir’, the local conditions such as climate, soil type and the varieties of cane that thrive in our area help contribute to form the distinct ‘sugarcane’ flavours and aromas common to all of our rum.”
The Mhoba rum distilling process is time consuming, but allows a much more refined raw rum spirit than would be possible with large scale continuous distillation processes, which do not separate any of the distillation fractions.
Each individual concentrated rum batch is then checked for taste and aroma before being blended with other suitable batches and local rock-fissure water to achieve an ideal ageing concentration.
The rum is then rested, mellowed and aged on using toasted virgin American white oak until the rum has acquired the optimum flavour, aroma and colour from the interaction with the toasted oak.
We found notes of coffee and grass on the nose. On the palette, this rum has an initial sharp taste, perhaps because of its level of refinement, but it quickly becomes smooth as silk and envelopes your mouth like a velvet jacket.
My favourite mix for the white rum was sliced and crushed fresh lemon with smashed ice and a dash of soda water. I particularly enjoyed the dark rum with equal measures of coke and soda water, a few cubes of ice and a slice of lime.
I chased my friends out before the bottles were empty. Call this piratical? Yes, but I wanted to enjoy the rest of the Mhoba Rum at my leisure.
For more information, call 013 791 0000 or visit www.mhoba.com.
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