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| Maggie Campbell |
Maggie
is the head distiller and president of Privateer Rum Company. Wondering what she was going to do with her
University of Colorado philosophy degree, took a family trip to Scotland, where
she visited a local whisky distillery. She said that “It opened my eyes that this is
an actual job people do.”
She
saw spirits producers, a serious and driven group with fastidious attention to
detail and a reliance on chemistry as her people. After visiting lots of
distilleries, working as an assistant and receiving a diploma in craft
distilling technologies from the Siebel Institute , she landed
her current role at Privateer Rum in Ipswich, Mass.
“As
someone who never set out to make rum, it has been amazing,” the
33-year-old says. Rum is global, multidimensional and so very different from
other spirits categories. All the rums
she makes are unfiltered and unsweetened, and each, she vehemently believes,
needs to be accessible. “The point is to have people drink them,” she says.
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| Privateer Rum |
Boston has a long and historical
connection to rum, and like many of the colonial distillers from the same area,
Maggie is trying to do it her way and not just another copy of the Caribbean
Rums. “We want to capture the North
Atlantic maritime style, with its great meso-climate for aging, including the humidity
swings that affect how it develops and evaporates, and the push and pull of the
oak.” Temperature-controlled fermentation near Beantown is a breeze, retaining
delicate aromas and super unique expressions.
Our founder’s ancestor,
the original Andrew Cabot ,1750-1791, was a merchant, rum distiller and
successful American privateer during the American Revolution. His fleet totaled
more than twenty-five ships including the True American, for
which our rum is named. We carry
on this spirit of New England independence and gritty determination by
dedicating ourselves to making only the finest rums possible.
Maggie Campbell is a
prime example of American Rum makers with the grit and drive to do it her way
and not compromise her goals and quality of her rum.
