It’s home to Demerara sugar, musician Eddy Grant, the world’s largest single-drop waterfall and some of the finest rainforest on the planet – and yet Guyana still remains a mystery to many people. ‘Erm, is that in Africa?’ seems to be a standard response in London, despite the fact that this English-speaking country was once a British colony. In fact, Guyana (not Goa, Ghana or Guinea) is to be found on the northeast coast of South America, bordered by Suriname, Venezuela, Brazil and the Atlantic.

Having said that, the Guyanese generally consider themselves to be of a Caribbean rather than a South American persuasion – which is why you’ll see Guyana included in WIRSPA’s roll-call of Caribbean rum-producing countries. 

And yet just when you think you’ve got Guyana nailed, there’s the country’s melting pot of cultures to consider too – Africans, Indians, Chinese, Europeans and indigenous Amerindians have all played a part in shaping a country where you might start the day with plantain and saltfish, have noodles and cassava bread for lunch, and finish up with a curry accompanied by calypso music.

You can smell it a mile off, the

sweet tangy aroma of molasses

Which leaves things about as clear as the muddy waters of the Demerara River. Except that everyone’s heard of Demerara sugar, the crunchy brown stuff that is one of Guyana’s biggest exports. And as any booze-hound knows, where there’s sugar, there’s generally rum. And in Guyana’s case, that rum is El Dorado. 

El Dorado was launched internationally in 1992, but Guyana’s Demerara region has been producing both sugar and rum for 300 years. At one time, there were more than 200 little distilleries in operation in the region, producing the characteristically rich, full-bodied rum that was a key part of the Navy blend given to British sailors as their daily tot.

‘We are all here because of sugar,’ explains El Dorado’s managing director Komal Samaroo. ‘My ancestors came from Uttar Pradesh, while his,’ he says, gesturing at operations manager and star of the WIRSPA ads, George Robinson, ‘will have come over from Africa as slaves. At the peak of the sugar plantation work in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the planters were so powerful, they even told the governors what laws to make.’

DEMERARA & DIAMONDS

Over time, however, the distilleries were gradually consolidated into one company called Demerara Distillers Ltd, which now has one distillery, the Diamond Distillery, in Guyana’s capital Georgetown. As well as making El Dorado, the Diamond Distillery is now the Caribbean’s largest exporter of bulk rum and alcohol to Europe and North America, capable of producing 26 million litres of alcohol per year.

And you can smell it a mile off, as the sweet, tangy aroma of molasses rolls thickly down the road outside, enveloping the cars, horse-drawn carts and herds of goats that graze on the verges.

But it’s not just the sugar that makes this distillery unique – it’s also the stills. The Diamond Distillery is the only distillery in the world that still uses wooden stills – two pot stills and a coffey still to be precise – along with four column Savalle stills and two metal columns.

‘All of our premium rums have wooden components in them, that’s why they stand out,’ explains distillery manager Carl Kanto, as he leads the way across a plank balanced precariously over the steaming wooden pot still. ‘In a metal pot still you get faster heat transfer, and therefore less fluctuation, whereas wood is a better insulator, creating more reflux and a more rounded spirit.’ The heavier body and fuller aroma that results from the wooden pot still is an essential part of all the El Dorado blends aged eight years and above.

The other wooden still, the EHP coffey still, looks like something Willy Wonka would have dreamed up. Comprising a series of moveable plates, stacked like a chest of drawers, it allows Kanto to control how high to allow the vapours rise within the column, and therefore the flavour profile of the distillate. The very fruity result – raisins, apples, pears and prunes – is then used in every El Dorado in the range except the 3yo. He maintains, however, that the wood itself – a native hardwood called greenheart – has no effect on the flavour of the rum.

It looks like something

Willy Wonka dreamed up

Where wood does affect flavour, of course, is in the ageing process. El Dorado rums are aged in second fill ex-bourbon barrels which arrive as individual staves from the US, before being re-assembled at the distillery’s cooperage, filled and stored in a warehouse on-site. The age of the barrel, the part of the tree it comes from, and the char make a huge difference to the final spirit, a fact made clear when we taste eight unblended rums from the barrel.

First up are four barrels of ‘Diamond White’ rum (no, not that kind of Diamond White), dated 1999. Made using the metal coffey still, these DW rums are the lightest in style, varying from fruity sultana notes to more spicy flavours of cardamom, aniseed and tobacco. Two 1998 barrels of ‘Skelton White Rum’ from the French Savalle still start showing richer ginger cake, cocoa and orange notes, while a pair of 1997 barrels of ‘Extra Light Coloured Rum’ from the Savalle still differ hugely, with one big on mocha, rum and raisin flavours, while the other oozes super ripe tropical flavours of mango, caramelised pineapple and crystallised oranges. This is only a selection of eight barrels – the DDL warehouse contains 50,000. The skill required to select from such varied and unpredictable results, and mix them into a consistent blend is mind-boggling.

But not everyone is looking for a blend – on this visit I’m also accompanied by Nick Strangeway and chef Mark Hix (see interview, http://imbibe.com/article/the-odd-couple), who are in search of a single barrel of rum to take back to Hix, their bar and restaurant in Soho. Strangeway doesn’t waste much time, homing in on the fruitier versions of the DW and ELCR rums.

RUM RANGE

In the meantime, there’s yet more tasting to be done – the El Dorado range includes a white 3yo, 5yo, the new 8yo, 12yo, 15yo, 21yo and 25yo. (In El Dorado’s case all age statements referring to the youngest rum in the blend.) We also sample a trio of bottled single barrel rums and a spiced rum that may soon be getting a re-vamp, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

What’s striking throughout the tasting, is how these rums develop with a bit of time in the glass – the 8yo shows lovely mellow notes of soft leather and pipe smoke. Another winner for me was the 12yo, with its dense, silky blend of spicy Christmas cake and ripe banana bread.

When it comes to drinking the stuff, a time-honoured Caribbean recipe is the Swizzle, a mix of rum, lime, sugar, bitters and soda. If you want to be geeky about it, this should be served with a swizzle stick made from the Quararibea turbinata tree that is native to the Caribbean and also goes by the name of the Swizzle Stick Tree.

But if you’re ‘limin’’ in the rum shops of Georgetown, you’ll more likely be sharing a bottle of the 5yo simply with some ice and either a splash of soda or Coke, accompanied by some plantain chips on the side.

Back at camp, Strangeway raised the bar further by rustling up a punch (see recipe) and some Daiquiris using the 3yo, lime juice and muddled sour cherries from the market, while Hix flambéed some tiny, outrageously ripe bananas in the 12yo and served them with coconut rice. 

‘Guyana is a country with tremendous resources – sugar, gold, diamonds, rice and rainforest - but we do a lousy job of PR,’ admits Komal. ‘But we’re starting to look at exporting hydro-electric energy and drilling for oil, and we are doing more to encourage eco-tourism – I think we can expect to see a lot of change in the next few years.’ But Guyana remains one of the poorest countries in South America, so organisations like IPED, a not-for-profit micro-financing company founded by Demerara Distiller’s chairman, Yesu Persaud, to help kick-start small businesses, remain vital. A recent injection of cash from WIRSPA has also given the rum industry a fillip, as it aims for more international recognition.

‘But it’s not all work,’ grins Robinson over another glass of 5yo. ‘Between 7am and 4pm we Guyanese work hard. But then it’s time to get down to the rum shop with your friends, and do some limin’!’