Is Sorghum Rum a Thing?
While browsing the overnight rum news, I found an article entitled, “99-year-old B.C. farm distills Canada’s first limited edition Agricole Rum.” Naturally, I was intrigued, as agricole rum requires cane juice, and Canada’s provinces aren’t known for their sugarcane agriculture. (For those new to the rum fold, sugarcane requires a much warmer client than Canada possesses.)
Three sentences into the article, I groaned, Oh look! Another “sorghum” rum.
Le sigh…
I understand the argument that sorghum is a grass and, like sugarcane, can be pressed to produce a sweet juice that can be fermented. However, sorghum is not sugarcane. ChatGPT’s answer to “Is sorghum sugarcane?” reads,
No, sorghum is not the same as sugarcane, although they are related plants within the grass family (Poaceae).
Key Differences:
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a grain plant typically grown for grain, syrup (sweet sorghum), and forage.
Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is primarily grown for sugar extraction.
This distinction matters as the overwhelming majority of the various legal definitions of rum require rum to be made from sugarcane. To wit:
European Union 2019/787: Rum is a spirit drink produced exclusively by the distillation of the product obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of molasses or syrup produced in the manufacture of cane sugar or of sugarcane juice itself.
US Standard of Identity for rum: Rum” is an alcoholic distillate from the fermented juice of sugarcane, sugarcane syrup, sugarcane molasses, or other sugarcane byproducts...
CARICOM Rum Standard: Obtained exclusively by alcoholic fermentation and distillation of sugarcane molasses, sugarcane syrups, sugarcane juices, or cane sugar produced during the processing of sugarcane...
A brief aside, more information about the above regulations and all Caribbean rum GIs can be found in chapter 17 of my book, Modern Caribbean Rum.
I’m not the first person to address this topic. Wayne Curtis also tackled it back in 2016 for ADI’s magazine: Making Sense of Sorghum Rum | Distiller Magazine
To be clear, I have no issue with a sorghum-based distillate, and I like seeing innovative products from small distillers. Just call it something other than rum. Rum has enough challenges, with people misunderstanding what rum is and what makes it unique. Further muddying the waters by mislabeling a product as rum isn’t OK in my book.
Also, from a flavor perspective they are uniquely different. Sorghum has a way more earthy funk than sugarcane — it's not even close.
Agreed. I'd very interested in trying this spirit and comparing it to an actual Agricole Rum. It's like Tequila, Mescal, Sotol. Different spirits, from different produce, valuable in their own right, that may be similar in character but should not be referred to the same thing.