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| Commercial Clairin Vaval |
Clairin, a traditional rum made in Haiti,
the spirit is beginning to appear in the United States. Clairin is a regional spirit that is
unregulated in its home country, Clairin occupies a distinct place the spectrum
of rums It even stands apart from other sugarcane
distillates like rhum agricole or Brazilian Cachaca. Caribbean rum culture is well known, but
little is said about Haitian Clairin, despite the country housing more than 500
local distilleries. This booming doing it yourself distilling scene makes Haiti home to some
of the most diverse rum production in the world.
To make Clairin, sugarcane is
hand-harvested and carted to the press. The resulting juice is moved to tanks
where it ferments for the most part spontaneously. There is no certification for Clairin, but it
is largely organic because there is commercial farming or pesticides used in
these remote villages. Natural inoculation
of wild yeast from the plant requires longer fermentation than commercially
produced yeasts. Longer Fermentation
time allows for more complex flavors and there are no two batches of Clairin that
taste the same.
Single distillation also helps, retaining
flavors that would be lost from further refinement. Clairin is also an unaged
spirit much like the Cachaca once was in its local origins in Brazil.
In
this world of unlicensed distillers, unlike commercial bottling sold by
regulated producers, raw material varies between Clairin distillers, as does
the quality of the spirit. Bad Clairin can simply lack character, though
in extreme scenarios, if poorly made, could contain poisonous levels of
methanol. To be productive and make the
leap to a commercially successful operation, many of the methods and facilities
will have to be improved to get a consistency to the product.
