Visiting Foursquare Rum Distillery

All in all, a lovely and informative post about one the Project’s favorite and extremely outspoken distillers. We have known Richard for almost a decade and have maintained an ongoing dialogue with him for those many years.

He has always been honest and forthright, especially when speaking about the mal-regulated rogue’s gallery of what is euphemisticallly labelled “rum”, but which contain all manner of unlabelled additives and adulterants like glycerol, cheap sherry, tons of sugar, artificial flavors and spices and the like.

Because Seale and Foursquare do NOT do so, but instead provide a pure and unadulterated rum, honestly labelled and giving the actual age of the youngest rum. That Foursquare does so is not cause to call Richard a “purist” – I’d rather refer to him as honest and law abiding.

Seale himself has made clear that most of what is labelled “rum” is actually tricked up with additives to achieve impossible flavor profiles. He considers this cheating. And what do I mean by “most rums”? More than half of the 550 rums tested by ALKO, the Swedes, Drejer, and a number of rum webmasters – all summarized in our Master Sugar List for secretly added sugar have revealed large amounts of secretly added sugar. Examples? How about Zacapa, Zaya, Diplomatico, most of the Plantations, et al. All presented as “premium” but only insofar as the premium amounts of sugar added to make ostensibly lesser rums taste smoother and older than they really are.

The truth is that most of what passes for “rum” should be properly labeled “Sugar Flavored Rum”, at least in the United States.

Richard Seale is anything but a purist; to the contrary he is one of the few larger distillers who produce completely honest and unadulterated pure rums (these include Appleton, Mount Gay, Barbancourts, most of the agricoles, et al.). Richard’s leadership promoting the honest production and labelling of rums has taken hold and is now widely recognized.

Fortunately the cheating and secret alteration has now become well known, although fewer recognize that this practice violates our regulations regarding the Standards of Identity and regulations re labelling.

But back to you Josh – what a wonderful opportunity you had to visit a number of distilleries. If you get a chance I’m sure most of us would love to hear more about what this certification actually means beyond a basic understanding of the general principles of the production of rum from harvest, through fermentation, distilling, cooperage and aging.

Thanks again…