THE MOST AROMATIC VOLCANO IN HAITI [1/4]

CLAIRIN CASIMIR

Haiti, the third-largest country in the Caribbean Sea, is situated in the middle between Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. According to www.volcanodiscovery.com, Haiti has two inactive volcanoes, but according to sundayrumor.com, there are three, and one is active, very active. Its name is Clairin, and it is spread all over 500 small distilleries. This particular one, Casimir, comes from the southwest of Haiti, from village Baradères.

From the outside, the whole eruption process is packaged in a cardboard box with drawings on it and does not appear to show the real nature of this rum. But if we look carefully, it is showing how this volcano works. Human labor. In Haiti, everything is hand  made, and it is not just a commercial storytelling thing. This thing is real. Sugar cane is hand harvested and transported with mules to the distillery, where the only “modern” thing is the diesel powered grinder that turns sugar cane into sugar juice. Bagasse,the rest from pressed sugar cane is used later for heating the boilers of the distillery’s pot.

Wild fermentation lasts five to seven days, and during that time sour oranges, natural leaves, and herbs like lemongrass and anise are added to the juice. Why? To prevent bacteria influence on the fermentation which is with wild fermetation common occurrence, and to start aroma eruption later which will create in combination with high content of sugar in Hawaiian sugar canes a high proof. Some consider this method outdated, some consider it as an artisian method, but one thing is sure. They are producing one really special rum/rhum.

Rum or rhum, it is really difficult to say, because technically it is quite similar to rhum agricole on the one side. It is the French-speaking island, it is produced from fresh sugar cane juice, however it differs from rhum agricole due to lack of “technology” and wild fermentation. It is Pot Still Proof. After destilation , it goes directly into the bottle. No mixing with water. It is a wild 53,6% vol. thing, the (un)controlled thing…it is an eruption. The eruption that is waiting on us to pull up the wooden cork from the crystal cleared 700ml bottle and to explode.

What happens when we pull out the cork from this 40 € volcano, produced in 2018, we will see next Sunday.