The Caribbean island is 30 × 80 kilometers in size - just a third of the size of Mallorca. Like nearby Guadeloupe, Martinique is an overseas territory of France and therefore part of the EU. In the primeval forests of the Montagne Pelée, it still presents itself as a tropical natural jewel, as it was when the Europeans arrived. Between curtains of strangler figs, tree ferns and poinsettias up to four meters high, large bromeliads and small orchids shine on veteran trees.
Thorns cover the trunks, vines make your feet stumble. It gurgles everywhere, the ground steams. Closer to the coast, oversized rubber trees, purple ginger, bright purple bougainvillea and red flame trees crowd the island. Île aux fleurs, flower island, is what the locals call their island. What grows like weeds on Martinique makes every flower boutique envious: pink porcelain roses, bright red flower reeds, orange-yellow lobster claws and parrot's beak.
In the 17th century, settlers from Europe began to clear the wild jungle and plant fields of sugar cane. For four centuries, its juice has been transformed into a world-famous spirit. Since 1996, the world's only Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) has protected the Rhum Agricole from the French Caribbean island of Martinique.
"Dépi nou sa bwè an ponch, dépi nou za trapé an boulézon, nou ka divini an nònm" - "You don't have to kill a lion to become a man - you have to drink rum," is the popular saying in Martinique. The French Caribbean island in the Lesser Antilles has been living to the rhythm of its cult drink for centuries. Rum is the number one drink not only in the economy, but also in the lives of the locals - and sets the pace for the day.
Through the day with rum
t starts early in the morning at five o'clock. A sip of rum, called "décollage" or "mise à feu", gets you ready for work. For the first break at nine o'clock, people in Martinique enjoy a punch, either "sec", "dry" with pure rum, or "feu", with rum, lime and 13 grains of sugar. The "Ti-Lagoutte", the small sip of rum, makes it easier to keep going until the lunch break at eleven o'clock in the morning, until the "Ti Punch" starts lunch and the "Ti 50%", a half-full punch mixture, concludes the meal.
In the afternoon, the small rum breaks "L'Heure du Christ" at 3 p.m. and "Ti Pape" at 5 p.m. follow. If you're thirsty for rum in between, you can enjoy a "Ti-Feu" with "Feuer", a dry "Ti-Sec", a "CRS" (Citron-Rhum-Sirop) or a "Pété-pied", which will have everyone longing for a siesta in a flash. The fact that "Ti" comes from the French word "Petit" for "small" seems to be more of a rumor given the well-poured glasses.
The evening begins with a second "Ti Punch". The day in Martinique ends with a "Partante". Rum in Martinique is drunk warm, without ice, but at room temperature. "This allows the aromas to develop better," explains a waiter. The famous "Planteur" - one third each of rum, pineapple juice and orange or other fruit juice on crushed ice - is drunk almost exclusively by tourists. The Christmas liqueur "Shrubb" contains rum and orange peel.
Twelve rum houses with seven "smoking" distilleries, which produce the noble rhum agricole on the island, and a distillery for traditional rum ensure that the supply never runs out. In the past, sugar cane was mainly grown for the export of cane sugar, but today it is used almost exclusively for rum production.
Rum production
The principle of production is similar at all rum factories on the island. If you don't book a guide, you can use the smartphone app at Rhum J.M, for example, to get to know the stages of rum production up close with all your senses. Jean-Marie Martin's distillery, Rhum J.M for short, has been distilling its famous rum in a sheltered valley behind palm trees and bamboo close to a spring since 1845.
Rhum J.M cultivates three varieties for its rhum agricole - "canne bleue", "canne rouge" and "canne paille". The canne bleue, which is particularly juicy and rich in sugar, is considered particularly noble. In addition to sugar, the reddish canne rouge also contains subtle tart aromas, while the light yellow canne paille delivers fresh notes of grass. Teasing them out and combining them perfectly is the great art of distilling. The digital tour leads from the source past the sugar cane sample garden to the three sugar cane mills where the juice is pressed from the sugar cane.
The fibers produced during pressing are recycled and later dried and used as "bagasse" to fire the distillation ovens. The second station is the chaufferie, the boiler room of every rum factory. In the chaufferie, the sugar cane juice is heated to 60° Celsius. This process is important to make the sugar accessible to the yeast, which later converts it into alcohol. After chaufferie, the third stage is fermentation. This involves adding yeast to the heated juice.
It converts the sugar in the juice into alcohol, producing what is known as vinasse. This fermented juice has an alcohol content of around five to seven percent by volume. It is left to ferment for 18 hours in large concrete, steel or wooden vats. At Rhum J.M, this takes place in 23 large, numbered vats. Thanks to the natural yeast, fermentation takes place without any additives. Fermentation is an important step in rum production, as it influences the taste and aroma of the rum.
The duration of fermentation, the temperature and the type of yeast used play a decisive role in the final result. After fermentation, the vinasse is distilled to increase the alcohol content. Rhum J.M uses column distillation for this. A total of three distillation processes are used in Martinique: Alambic, private and column.
Column distillation
Column distillation is most common in Martinique. The alcohol escapes at the top as vapor, which is collected and cooled. The raw rum is 60 to 62 percent by volume - and used to be enjoyed at this level! Today, spring water is added slowly and gradually during maturation and the raw rum is stabilized for at least six months.
As a result, it loses around one to two percent alcohol by volume per week. Rum production ends on August 31 each year. This is required by the regulations for the protected AOC designation of origin. It is then still at least 40 percent by volume.
The private distillation
Private distillation is still practised in Martinique by some small, family-run distilleries. In this process, the fermented sugar cane juice is heated in a simple still consisting of a pot and a helmet.
The steam is then passed through a cooling coil, where it condenses back into liquid rum. Private distillation enables the production of very aromatic rum with a rather low alcohol content.
Alambic distillation
Alambic distillation lies between column distillation and private distillation. It is used in medium-sized distilleries and enables the production of good quality rum with a medium alcohol content.
In alambic distillation, the fermented sugar cane juice is heated in an alambic, which consists of a pot, a helmet and a cooling coil. The steam is then passed through the cooling coil, where it condenses back into liquid rum.
Colonnade distillation is most common in Martinique.
Maturation The fourth major stage of rum production is maturation in a damp, dark cellar. The wood of the barrels in which the rum matures has a major influence on the taste and aroma of the rum. Oak barrels are mainly used in Martinique. These barrels can be new or used and may have previously been used to store other spirits, such as bourbon or sherry.
The longer the rum matures, the more complex and intense its flavor becomes. Most rums from Martinique are matured for at least three years, but some premium rums are also stored for significantly longer.
Rhum Agricole and Rhum Traditionnel
Two types of rum, very different in production and taste, are produced in Martinique. However, only the rhum agricole is actually distilled from fresh sugar cane juice. Rhum traditionnel, also known as rhum industriel, is produced using the cheaper molasses. This sugar cane syrup is a by-product of sugar production. The rum only turns brown when it is stored in oak barrels.
For example, J.M uses barrels from the United States that were previously used for the production of bourbon whisky. The rum rests in the barrels at J.M for eight years. For special editions, the rum is placed in an additional barrel in the ninth year, in which Cognac, Calvados or Armagnac were previously matured. This gives the rum additional nuances in taste.
Habitation Clément: rum and art on the plantation
Many of the former rum factories with their own sugar cane cultivation, known as habitations in Martinique, have now opened their doors to visitors, offering tastings and free guided tours and up-close insights into the island's history. The Fondation Clément is particularly interesting. Bernard Hayot's 160-hectare estate, which made world history with the Gulf War meeting between Georges Bush and François Mitterrand, combines rum production with art and culture in an exemplary manner.
In the former distillery, black and white photographs tell of the everyday life of the workers and the processes of rum production. In the estate park with its palm grove, a botanical garden reveals many a gruesome detail from the life of the slaves. Anyone who dared to speak or was unruly in any other way was tied to the fromager tree.
Slowly, over hours, its spikes dug into the skin, deeper and deeper into the flesh. "Blood" screams in red letters in the green next to it. The largest open-air art exhibition at Habitation Clément is considered the largest in the French Caribbean. And is one of the few places on the island that does not conceal the horrors of the past.
This article appeared in
issue 4-2024
BAR NEWS magazine as single issue
