Richard Seale |
In the desperate and
pathetic attempt to find a “tradition” of sweetening in Jamaica (and presumably
Barbados) Rum it is now being claimed (by the usual suspects) that caramel color
was hitherto incompetently made and so contained large amounts of residual
sugar which sweetened the rum. {A little
background - Genuine caramel color is made from heating sugars and does contain
some residual sugar but as it has a bitter taste and a potent dark color, it is
used to color spirits not to sweeten them.}
Caramel Color has
long operated in a legal framework which specifies its use only as a means to
adapt color. Today, EU spirits specifications e.g. Scotch, Rum will indicate
that caramel can be legally added as means of “adapting” or “adjusting” color.
That is to say, if caramel affects flavor, it becomes an illegal flavoring. The
draft EU rules now offer further clarity and specify that caramel color
"does not correspond to the sugary aromatic product obtained from heating
sugars and which is used for flavoring purposes”.�
The European Technical Caramel Association (EUTECA) created a decision-tree, to distinguish the food additive color “plain caramel” and aromatic foodstuffs (Burnt sugars) by a simple yes/no decision cascade - see attached. If it affects flavor, it is not caramel color.
The European Technical Caramel Association (EUTECA) created a decision-tree, to distinguish the food additive color “plain caramel” and aromatic foodstuffs (Burnt sugars) by a simple yes/no decision cascade - see attached. If it affects flavor, it is not caramel color.
Jamaica has long
operated in the same legal framework for what is caramel color. - the 1942
Jamaica Excise Act does not simply say caramel can be added, it says it can be
added as ‘coloring matter’. The Act specifies the purpose to its addition. Even
the Caricom Rum Standard describes Caramel color as “a wholesome coloring
matter widely used in the liquor and beverage industry”. Famed Jamaican Rum Blender J Wray &
Nephew used to source their caramel color from the London firm of White
Stephenson - I think they got the genuine article. But lets humor this nonsense for a moment.
Caramel color has
long been used in rum and its historical use included adjusting the color of
bulk un-aged rum to the specification of the English buyer. We can see from the
historical records - see attached - that a large amount of caramel was used to
meet the color specification (Lovibond #19) causing an obscuration of up 1 1/2
degrees of UK proof. According to the attached record - a change from 140 UK
Proof ( = 80% abv) to 138.5 Proof ( = 79.14%) - an obscuration of 0.86%. That
will correspond to about 5 g/l of added solids.
Now our caramel color analysis shows that about 20% of the solids in
caramel color are residual sugar. Now lets humor this nonsense, by assuming our
caramel maker is so incompetent that 50% of the solids are sugar. Now this is
going to cause a big problem because our poorly made caramel will not give us
the right color intensity. And if we have to add more, we are going get
rejected by the buyer for excess obscuration - see the attached of possible
faults. Contrary to the claims, we can see from the attached that obscuration
faults are avoided and “care” is taken in "preparing the color". Our
rum producers take the very care they stand accused of omitting.
But we will continue
to humor this nonsense. So now our inept
caramel color has added 2.5g/l of sugar to our 80% abv rum (instead of the
usual 1 g/l). And by some miracle our pale rum has passed the buyer.
Next step is dilution to 40% abv. That brings us to a whopping
1.3 g/l of sugar in our rum (instead of the usual 0.5g/l). And from that “tradition” is coming the
argument to allow sweetening of Jamaica Rum up to 20 g/l. Lets not humor this nonsense a moment further.
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