Proprietor Reed Walker serving draft rum cocktails at Union Market (Photo: Cotton & Reed)
Americans have been raising toasts with rum since before there officially was an America. The spirit was developed in the Caribbean islands in the 17th century, and the first rum distillery in the British colonies opened on a very different island in 1664: the one now known as Staten. Now rum is the latest drink to be caught in the craft-beverage boom.
Washington has its first rum distillery in Cotton & Reed, which opened in Union Market this year. The duo behind it, Reed Walker and Jordan Cotton, became friends while working as strategists for NASA and the aerospace industry. They discovered a shared passion for spirits at work happy hours, and decided to leave their desk jobs to start a distillery. With distiller Chas Jefferson, they produce a line that ranges from white rum to spiced varieties.
Walker provides an overview of the history of rum in America and the agricultural impact of one of its principal ingredients, sugarcane. He traces the process by which sugarcane becomes rum, the cane’s cultivation and processing, the dynamics of fermentation, and the science of distillation.
Samples of pre-fermented and fermented rum mash, white rum, and rum-based cocktails offer a taste of the popular drink’s past and present.
