Does Colour Matter?

When you pour yourself some rum, the first thing you learn about the rum is the colour. Before you learn how it smells or tastes, you see it first. That beautiful, light, caramel looking colour will get your mouth watering in anticipation, preparing you for how it will taste.  So what does the colour of a rum actually tell you about the quality of the spirit?

 There is a very common misconception in the rum and aged spirits world; 'This rum has a darker colour; therefore it is older, therefore it is a better-quality rum.' If you've ever been told this, unfortunately it is a total myth. 

 Let's break down what actually gives rum its colour. Look at that rum you're sipping on now, with its golden brown hues shining through your glass. Well believe it or not, this rum began its life as a colourless spirit, completely clear, looking just like water. All that colour came from the barrel that the rum was maturing in for years. (Or from an artificial colouring, we will come back to that later.)

 There are many factors that play a part in how quickly or how intensely a rum gets its colour. Whilst one of these being the time it has spent in a barrel, there is also:

• Capacity and size of the barrel

• Type of oak used for the barrel

• The temperature and climate of where the barrel rests

• The char and toast level of the barrel

• How old the barrel is 

• What the barrel was previously used for

• The initial ABV% of the spirit when it enters the barrel

Because of all these factors and many more, it makes it almost impossible to know exactly what to expect from the rum based off its colour and makes it even more difficult to try and compare the quality of rums based off colour. It is a perfect example of 'Never judge a book by its cover' or 'Never judge a rum by its colour.'

 Now, not every rum only gets its colour from the barrel it was aged in. There is an artificial, caramel-like colouring called E150 that is sometimes used in the rum and aged spirits world. This additive will be used to manually control the final colour of a rum before being bottled. This is done for a few reasons, it can be done to play into the consumer misconception of darker=older=better or to keep a uniform and consistent looking product for the bigger, larger scale brands.

 So back to the original question, what does the colour of a rum actually tell you about the quality of the spirit? Well, ultimately, nothing. It tells you that it was aged in an oak barrel, after that there are just too many factors that come into play. When judging a rum, does colour matter? Nope.

By Lucas Bucton - May 2024