Rum Additives - What Key Countries Allow
Many discussions among rum enthusiasts concern additives in rum. To many, additives and “sugar” are synonymous, but it’s not quite so simple. Questions about which rums contain additives appear weekly in online forums. While some people maintain and share “rum sugar lists,” they are not without issues.
Accurately reporting which brands and expressions contain additives is a Sisyphean task. However, there is value in collectively reporting the regulations (or lack thereof) surrounding additives in key rum-making countries. The infographic below provides a high-level summary of the sweetening regulations of several key rum-producing countries. There’s much more to additives than just sweetening, though, and more countries to consider. Continue reading past the infographic for the regulations in 24 countries and regions, sorted alphabetically.
Out of Scope: Spiced/Flavored Rum
The discussion that follows is from the perspective of products specifically labeled “rum” rather than spiced rum, flavored rum, rum specialties, and so forth. They are all legally distinct products that have different requirements. By definition, all spiced rums are flavored, and most are sweetened, so we expect them to contain additives. As long as the product is labeled properly, there is no issue with them. See Is Bumbu Rum? It Depends for more on this topic.
A Word on Terminology
The meaning of additives may seem obvious, i.e., anything added to the spirit after distillation or aging. But it’s not so simple in practice.
The overall consensus across many regulations is that there are three distinct types of additives:
Caramel
Flavoring
Sweetening
From the European Union’s perspective, caramel and sweetening are allowed, but not flavoring. In contrast, the equivalent passage in the US regulation cites “Coloring, flavoring, and blending materials” and allows for all three up to a threshold.
Key details from the EU, US, and CARICOM rum definitions are included at the end of this story.
Types of Rum Regulations
Rum regulations fall into two categories based on their objectives and the location where they are enforced, i.e., where the rum is produced and where it is sold.
Geographical indications (GIs) set specific requirements a rum must meet to be labeled with a protected name like “Jamaica rum.” GIs are created and enforced by the country of origin and may not be recognized in other countries unless international bilateral agreements exist.
The other type of regulation is a rum standard of identity, which defines what can be called “rum” regardless of where it was made. These regulations are typically more lenient than GIs. For example, rum made in Barbados can be sold in Jamaica as “rum” but not as “Jamaica rum.” In the absence of a GI, we can safely assume that rum made and sold in a country follows that country’s rum standard.
While a country may have its own rum standard, many countries elect to follow a rum standard defined by a group of countries. The European Union (2019/787) and CARICOM Rum Standard (2008) are two examples.
Chapter 17 of Modern Caribbean Rum contains very detailed looks at all aspects of Caribbean GIs and rum standards.
Per-Country Additive-Related Rum Regulation Summaries
Antigua & Barbuda
Antigua does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Australia
Australia does not have a GI nor any country-specific regulations specific to additives.
Barbados
Barbados does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Brazil
Brazil’s Identity and Quality Standards for Cachaça notes:
Added sugars, up to 6 grams per liter of sucrose, are allowed.
No dyes, extracts, or wood chips may be use for coloring, except for caramel.
The addition of any ingredient that changes the natural sensorial characteristics of the final product is prohibited.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica does not have a rum GI, but the country’s rum standard (NCR 122-1991) allows the following:
7.3 Sweeteners: Only sucrose, glucose or dextrose, honey, or concentrated sweet wines are allowed as sweeteners.
7.4 Colorants: Caramel or other authorized natural colorants are allowed.
7.5 Flavors and flavorings: Wine, extracts, infusions, spirits, and mixtures of plant materials like fruits, seeds, and roots are allowed up to two percent by volume to enhance aroma and taste.
7.6 Sweeteners, flavorings, and flavorings: Shall not substantially modify the typical flavor and aroma of the rum.
Cuba
Per Cuba’s GI application to the European Union:
In the production of “CUBA” rum, only sweetening and coloring are authorized in the following terms:
Sweetening with sugar syrup from cane grown and processed in Cuba. The permissible limit of sugars in the finished product may not exceed 20 g/L expressed as invert sugar.
The addition of Type E150a caramel coloring, with the aim of uniforming the color of the final product, in quantities that allow avoiding any modification of the organoleptic characteristics of the product.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic’s GI states:
Additives (plant-based components added to rum independently of the distillation process, in the form of infusions, extracts, macerations, caramel, etc., may be used in the formulation. These additives influence the product’s organoleptic characteristics, such as aroma, color, and flavor. Additives may only be added in a maximum proportion of 5% of the total volume of the finished product, ensuring that they do not alter the characteristics of Dominican rum.
French Departments (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, Guyane)
All French rum-making departments have GIs with wording that (in English) states:
Finishing methods are permitted so that their effect on the obscuration of the agricultural rum is less than 2% vol. The obscuration, in particular linked to the extraction of wood or to the adaptation of the coloring by the addition of caramel, expressed in % vol., is obtained by the difference between the actual alcoholic strength by volume and the gross alcoholic strength by volume.
Essentially, it states obscuration up to 2% ABV is allowed and that wood extracts and caramel coloring obscuration sources. However, the wording does not seem to explicitly rule out other obscuration sources. That said, AOC compliance involves a tasting committee, and adding something not customarily used would likely be noticed.
French Guiana (Guyane)
See French Departments.
Grenada
Grenada does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Guadeloupe
See French Departments.
Guatemala
Additives are not addressed in Guatemala’s GI, but the country’s rum standard (COGUANOR NGO 33 01) notes:
6. Raw Materials
6.2.1 Sweeteners: Honey from bees, concentrated sweet wines, and other sweeteners safe for human consumption are allowed.
6.2.2 Caramel and other dyes suitable for human consumption are allowed.
6.2.3 Flavorings: The use of extracts, essential oils, infusions, spirits, and mixtures of vegetable origin such as fruits, seeds, and roots are allowed.
Guyana
Subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard. Guyana’s GI registered with the EU effectively echoes the (EU) 2019/787 regulations.
Demerara Rum is not flavoured and is only sweetened to round off the final taste of the product up to a maximum of 20 grams per litre.
Elsewhere, the GI states:
The flavours may only be up to a maximum of 2,5 % of the volume of the finished product, and the rum must be free from added colouring matter (except where the colour is derived from wood during maturation or from caramel derived from sugars).
Per a question presented to Demerara Distillers Ltd, the flavours (not flavouring) in this section refers to caramel.
Haiti
Subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard. Haiti’s registration for a collective mark (HaïRum, Nov. 4, 2021) notes:
Only E150a caramel may be added for color. The resulting obscuration must be less than two percent of the alcoholic strength.
Jamaica
Subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard. While additives are not directly addressed in Jamaica’s GI, the Jamaican Excise Duty Act says:
“(1) Except as may be otherwise permitted by the Commissioner, nothing shall be added to any spirits in a distillery save colouring matter or water.
(2) No rum shall be coloured with any colouring matter save cane sugar caramel.”
Martinique
See French Departments.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua does not have a GI, but per its rum standard (NTON 03 035 12):
None of the following practices are allowed:
a. The addition of dyes to caramel
b. The addition of artificial essences (flavors)
c. Any practice aimed at replacing natural aging in white oak containers.
Panama
Panama does not have a GI, but its rum standard (DGNTI COPANIT 28-2001) states:
3.2 Rum can be softened by adding sugar or neutral alcohol. Color can be modified with caramel.
3.3 The following practices are authorized:
3.3.2 Using caramel from the dehydration of commercial sucrose or glucose.
3.3.3 The use of sucrose, commercial flavorings, glucose, and natural flavorings.
Réunion
See French Departments.
St Lucia
Subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard. St. Lucia’s GI does not explicitly reference sweetening but notes:
Plain caramel colour may be used to make slight colour adjustments to ensure colour consistency in the final blend.
St. Vincent
St. Vincent does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Suriname
Suriname does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Trinidad & Tobago
T&T does not have a GI but subscribes to the CARICOM Rum Standard.
Venezuela
Additives are not directly addressed in Venezuela’s GI, but the country’s rum standard (COVENIN 3040-93) notes:
4 Materials, Design, and Manufacture
4.1 The use of natural sweeteners such as fructose, sucrose, glucose, and others approved by the health authority is allowed.
4.2 Only caramel may be used as a colorant.
4.3 To improve the aroma, color, and taste, the addition of caramel, fresh or dry fruit macerations, bark, maceration of oak chips, and other approved substances is allowed.
Caricom Rum Standard
The following countries all subscribe to the CARICOM Rum Standard, last revised in 2008:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The 2008 CARICOM Rum Standard notes:
Flavored rum has added natural flavoring materials. Flavors may be added up to a maximum of 2.5 percent by volume of the finished product, with or without sugar, and bottled per the excise laws of the country in which it is sold.
A separate WIRSPA document to clarify the interpretation of the standard notes:
Sweetening in rum
… Despite national or individual practices which may vary, the Caricom rum standard has never addressed nor sought to limit this sweetening.
The question of ‘Additives’
…While the CARICOM standard is silent on additives in its present form, our clear joint understandings are that additives such as glycerine, prune wine, vanillin, flavoured wood chips and such are not permissible practices. Where we become aware of such practices, we work with our producers to ensure such practices are promptly stamped out…
IMPORTANT: There has been some debate about the meaning of the wording in the CARICOM standard “…Rum shall be a spirit drink…which consists solely of mixtures of the above distillate.” This reference has been mistakenly interpreted as a prohibition on additives and/or sweetening. In fact, it was inserted many years ago at the request of the US spirits industry specifically to prevent non sugarcane distillate being used in rum production and mirrors similar language in the US standards of identity for rum.
A similar confusion arises from the definition for flavoured rum in the CARICOM standard, which contains language referring to flavours and sweetening. This definition, introduced in 2008, is often touted as demonstrating a restriction on sugar in all other rum. In fact, this definition was taken from the US standards of identity, almost word for word, and was intended to enable US products which permit flavouring to be sold in the Caribbean without being declared in violation of the standard.
A revised version of the CARICOM Rum Standard is currently under review as of June 2025.
European Union Rum Definition
All European Union countries subscribe to the rum definition in (EU) 2019/787:
(d) Rum shall not be flavoured.
(e) Rum may only contain added caramel as a means of adjusting the colour.
(f) Rum may be sweetened in order to round off the final taste. However, the final product may not contain more than 20 grams of sweetening products per litre, expressed as invert sugar.
Now, what exactly does flavoured mean? Per (EC) No 1334/2008, it is:
Products not intended to be consumed as such, which are added to food in order to impart or modify odour and/or taste; made or consisting of the following categories: flavouring substances, flavouring preparations, thermal process flavourings, smoke flavourings, flavour precursors or other flavourings or mixtures thereof;
As for sweetening, the (EU)2019/787 definition reads:
(a) semi-white sugar, white sugar, extra-white sugar, dextrose, fructose, glucose syrup, sugar solution, invert sugar solution and invert sugar syrup, as defined in Part A of the Annex to Council Directive 2001/111/EC (17);
(b) rectified concentrated grape must, concentrated grape must and fresh grape must;
(c) burned sugar which is the product obtained exclusively from the controlled heating of sucrose without bases, mineral acids or other chemical additives;
(d) honey as defined in point 1 of Annex I to Council Directive 2001/110/EC (18);
(e) carob syrup;
(f) any other natural carbohydrate substances having a similar effect as the products referred to in points (a) to (e);
Simple, no? Aren’t regulations fun?
United States (Including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands)
The US uses Standards of Identity rather than GIs. However, with regards to rum, regulation CFR 5.155 notes:
Coloring, flavoring, and blending materials that are not essential component parts of the distilled spirits to which added, provided that such coloring, flavoring, or blending materials do not total more than 2.5 percent by volume of the finished product…
What exactly are “Coloring, flavoring, and blending material”?
…a harmless substance that is an essential component of the class or type of distilled spirits to which it is added; or a harmless substance, such as caramel, straight malt or straight rye malt whiskies, fruit juices, sugar, infusion of oak chips when approved by the Administrator, or wine, that is not an essential component part of the distilled spirits product to which it is added but which is customarily employed in the product in accordance with established trade usage.
In other words, just about anything goes if you assert it’s established trade usage.
Wrap Up
If I’ve overlooked something, or you believe my interpretation needs revisiting, drop a note in the comments or email me via the contact link on the Rum Wonk Substack.
Thanks a lot for the article! For someone who’s not deep into laws and regulations, this stuff is seriously hard to keep track of.