The Royal Commission on Whiskey and Other Potable Spirits 3. A Vindication of the Patents Still: Mr. Man's Testimony

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THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON WHISKEY AND OTHER POTABLE SPIRITS        

3. A VINDICATION OF THE PATENT STILL:  MR. MAN’S TESTIMONY

We are now into the third article of this series. It focuses on the various kinds of rum produced in the British Colonies, not just in Jamaica, and on the way consumers’ taste had been veering towards more neutral, rectified spirits. We’ll discover that the major producer was not Jamaica, but Demerara, and that even the iconic Navy rum was made from Demerara rum. About the definition of rum, the opinion of the first witness, Mr. Man, is radically different from that of Mr. Nolan, which we read in the last article. Then, we’ll get back to highly flavored rums. Using these, in Germany they produced the so-called Rum Verschnitt (more or less, blended rum). It was a cheap, very popular spirit, made mostly from potato spirit and with a little highly-flavored rum. As far as I know, in Germany a little production of Rum Verschnitt continues to this day (see: https://mixology.eu/en/the-roots-of-german-rum/). 

TWENTY- FOURTH DAY, Tuesday, July 7th, 1908. Mr. Frederik Henry Dumas Man, called 

12992. What is your firm? – E.D. and F. Man, Colonial Broker.

12993. That is a firm of old standing, is it not? – It dates back to 1793.

12994. How long have you yourself been in business?  – Twenty-nine years.

12995. What is the nature of your business?  –  We deal in Colonial produce – sugar, rum, cocas, etc. We have got from three-quarter to seven-eighths of the rum trade, and a small fraction of the sugar trade.

12996. Is your trade exclusively in Jamaica rum?  – Not at all – any rum.

12997. But a large quantity of it is Jamaica rum?  – A large quantity of it is Jamaica rum.

12998. How is that rum that you sell produced? – In various ways. The Jamaica rum is, I think, entirely made in a pot still. The rum from the other countries is chiefly patent still, but there is more than one patent still. There is the Coffey still and some other still.

12999. Are you speaking of rum produced from the other West Indian islands?  – Yes.

1300. In which islands, so far as your knowledge goes, is the patent still employed? – It is employed both in Demerara and Trinidad. Those are the two chief producing countries, besides Jamaica.

13001. Have you any knowledge of a patent still being employed in some of the West Indian Islands?  — Oh, yes. Trinidad uses nothing but a patent still.

13002. But other than Trinidad?  — I think St. Kitts uses one, but I am not quite sure. We do not hear much about how it is made; we only have to test the quality.

13003. Is there much variation in the quality of Jamaica rum? – Tremendous.

13004. Could you give us some indications?  – From 2s. 6d. a gallon; just now it is very high and ranges from 3s. up to 8s.

13005. That is for Jamaica rum itself?  – Yes.

13006. From the island of Jamaica?  – Yes.

13007. How do you form an opinion of the value of the rum? – Simply by smell. We mix two parts of water to one of rum and compare it very carefully with other rums. The water brings out the flavours.

13008. You do not use any chemical analysis?  – No.

13009. You are employed by the Admiralty, are you not? – Yes, we buy their rum.

13010. Do you buy all the rum for the Navy? – Yes, all.

13011. Has the consumption of rum varied very much of late years?  –  It has been steadily increasing lately.

13012. Can you give the Commission some information with the reference to that?  –  I think it is nearly half a million gallons more last year than the year before.

13013. Can you give us any information as to the cause of that increase?  –  We put it down to various causes, one is the suspicion that has lately been cast on whiskey, and people are beginning to find out that rum is a very wholesome spirit.  

13014. I suppose that increase is mainly an increase in Jamaica rum? – No, I should not say so. I should think it was more in the other sorts. I do not think Jamaica rum has increased materially. It has slightly.

13015.Do you mean by “the other sorts” the varieties produced by the patent still?  – Yes, what we call proof rums. There are two sorts – Jamaica rum is one sort and then everything else is proof rum. Proof rum necessarily is sold by the proof gallon which varies according to strength.

13016. Where is it manufactured?  – Chiefly in other parts of the West Indies – Demerara and Trinidad, but also Cuba, Mauritius, St. Kitts, Barbados. Most of the sugar-cane growing countries produce rum.[So, the growth in rum consumption in those years regarded mainly rum made by patent still. Consumers preferred it to pot still rum maybe because it was a more neutral spirit, low in congeners. And something similar, a commissioner had said earlier, was happening to whiskey. It would appear that in that period the public’s taste was evolving towards rectified, lighter spirits, easier to drink. It is indeed also the period of the great, lasting, worldwide success of the Ron Lìgero made in Cuba]

13017. Can you give us any information as to the rate of increase in the varieties of rum as compared with the increase in Jamaica rum?  – No, it is very difficult. The Board of Trade returns do not distinguish.

13018. I gather from your précis that you regard rum as a very wholesome drink?  – I have always believed so. I am told it is food as well as drink, and that if you take too much in the West Indies it does not have a bad effect, whereas if you take too much whiskey or brandy you are a dead man. That I hear from people who have lived out there all their lives.

13019. Then you make some remarks in your précis with regard to “low wines,” and you say they should not be allowed to be exported from Jamaica. Are they exported as a matter of fact? – Yes, they are.

13020. Would you tell the Commission what these low wines are? – I am not a practical distillery in any way, but I believe it is the first running and the last running of a wash, and the result is most unsatisfactory.

13021. For what purpose are these low wines exported? – For sale in this country as Jamaica rum. To compete with the proper article they are sold to a lower price, and the tied house people, and this sort of people, who want to put in the lowest priced articles, buy them.

13022. I understand that they come from Jamaica?  – Yes.

13023. So your point is that a considerable quantity of inferior rum is exported?  – It is a small quantity only – a few hundred puncheons a year are exported from Jamaica.  

13024. You desire to see that stopped? – For the benefit of Jamaica I think it should be, because people who taste them and are told it is Jamaica rum would probably never touch Jamaica rum again.

13025. Than you state that a good deal of rum is fraudulently sold as Jamaica rum which is not Jamaica rum at all? – That is the supposition. The idea is to call everything Jamaica rum.

13026. What rum have you in your mind as regards that statement? – What they call Vatted rum, that is, mixtures of rum; for instance Demerara and Mauritius are mixed together, one being an uncolored rum and the other a heavily-colored rum. They are brought down to a medium color, and are sold as Jamaica rum in public-houses.

13030. The Demerara rum is distinctly inferior? – I would not like to say it is inferior, but it is a different style; it is more neutral and not so highly flavored. It is generally considered inferior, and the price is inferior to Jamaica rum.

13031. How do you account for that difference?  – I expect it is the soil and the different manufacture of the sugar. In Trinidad and Demerara they make a very superior sugar, and that means to say they take so much more stuff out that there is very little left for rum, whereas in Jamaica they think more of the rum than the sugar.

13032. Do you sell rum that comes from other islands than Jamaica?  – Yes.

13033. Did you hear Mr. Nolan’s evidence yesterday?  – No, I unfortunately was not here. I have read a little of it.

13034. Mr. Nolan recommended and pressed on the Commission that no rum coming from the West Indies should be allowed to be sold as rum unless it was made in the pot still? – That is Mr. Nolan’s idea, I know.

13035. You are interested in the question generally. What would your view be about that? – I think that is ridiculous. Some rum made in patent stills is quite equal to some made in pot stills. To brand only one sort as rum and the other as something else is, to my mind, ridiculous.

13036. Do you think that would generally be the view of the people who are engaged in the trade of rum generally and not confined to Jamaica rum? – I am sure that would be their view. We once supplied the Admiralty with Jamaica rum (they usually take Demerara and Trinidad) and the sailors did not like it so well. 

13037. But you sell more Jamaica rum than anything else, do you not?  – No, I do not think so. It varies according the crop. Sometimes there is a big crop of Jamaica rum, and sometimes a big crop of Demerara …

13038. You do not know which predominates?  – What we call the proof rum, that is rum other than Jamaica.

13039. The bulk of the Navy rum, what is that?  — That would be proof rum – not Jamaica.

13040. Proof rum, I take it, is an expression of your own over there?  — A trade expression. It means to say that the rum is sold per proof gallon.

13041. But that rum is largely patent still rum?  — Chiefly patent still rum.

13054. Could you tell me what pineapple rum is? – Pineapple rum is a rum having a pineapple flavor produced not artificially in any way, but by the soil. There are certain soils in Jamaica which produce a rum that is known as pineapple rum. It has the flavor of pineapple.  [We have now a testimony which does not concern rum directly, but the use of molasses to make gin. I find it extremely interesting though, as it sheds lights on how the spirits industry worked in the past.]

Mr. Richard F. Nicholson, recalled

13302. I should like to know whether you insist on gin being made from corn? – I do.

13303. You do not think it is possible to make it from molasses? – I think it is possible – in fact, from 1808 to 1810, when there was a scarcity of corn in the country corn was prohibited for distillation, and the London distillers, and even the Scotch distillers, had to go to molasses. I must tell you that I can see by our books that the molasses they used in those days were a very high grade of sugar. I see that from the very large produce they produced per cwt. , so it was a very high grade class of sugar and not what we understand as molasses to-day. During that period whiskey and gin and all home spirits had to be produced from materials other than corn, so no doubt it would be possible to make gin from molasses, but in the interest of the consumer I take it is advisable that gin should be produced from corn. It is generally recognized as a corn spirit, and I look upon it as unfair competition for certain traders to use inferior articles in their manufacture without declaration.

Well, I hope you have found this stuff interesting; more to come in the next articles.

Marco Pierini