Rum School

“Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum…” They’re not the words most of us sing to ourselves as we make our way, stone-cold-sober, to a car-park - even if that car-park is located by the waterside in a seaside town - but it was the little ditty I hummed to myself the other day as I strolled through Salcombe.

Why? Because under my arm I had a bottle of Hesperus - a fine and delicious rum made by… Well, made by me! And a very proud and delighted amateur rum-maker I was too.

Martin Hesp and his bottle of rum

It’s not everyday a chap has the chance to make something so special and to have the honour of naming it with any moniker they please. I was going to call my rum Wreck of the Hesperus after Henry Wadsworth’s famous poem, but then I remembered that a couple of years ago I’d walked to that very same car-park with another bottle under my arm. On that occasion it was filled with an excellent gin which I’d spent the day making, and I’d given it the full Wreck appellation because the title of Wadsworth’s poem is the only thing in literature that gets close to my name. 

Not that the naming thing matters in the slightest, because the only people who’ll ever get to see and taste these wondrous tipples are a few of my pals back at home.

No, the whole point of my two little forays into the world of distilling is that on both occasions I’d enjoyed a truly wonderful day out. One or two readers may recall how we carried a report about Salcombe Distilling Co.’s excellent Gin School in these pages - now the ever innovative team has launched a new Salcombe Rum School experience.  

Like Salcombe Gin School, it is located at their stunning waterside distillery on Island Street in Salcombe - said to be one of the world’s only distilleries directly accessible by boat.

Salcombe Rum School allows enthusiasts to learn about the art of rum distillation and cask ageing, distil their own 70cl bottle of rum and create a bespoke rum cocktail.  Salcombe Rum School runs every Thursday afternoon (2pm - 5pm), and costs £110 for one person or £160 for a shared experience for two, and can be booked at salcombedistilling.com.

At this point a churlish or mean person might question the cost - a notion which I’d knock into touch straight away, because both the gin and the rum schools offer an experience which I’d say represents a truly great afternoon out. The classes provide a truly immersive experience which is filled with so much that is interesting, you go home with something far more fascinating and extensive than just a bottle tucked under your arm. 

Salcombe Rum School gives the enthusiastic student something they can cherish for years and years to come. Certainly, looking back to my afternoon with the same team at their Gin School, I can say the experience led to me to think about gin in a new and altogether more learned way. There is a genuine reason why it has won ‘Best Small Visitor Attraction’ at the South West England Tourism Excellence Awards. When I taste a gin and tonic nowadays, I am so much more aware of the flavours of botanicals and aromatics than I was previous to my day in school. I now know what I like and what to look out for. 

I am sure this same knowledge, borne from the experience of actually making the stuff, will apply with rum. 

Commenting on the recent launch of Salcombe Rum School, co-founder of Salcombe Distilling Co., Howard Davies, told me: “Since its launch in 2017, our award-winning Gin School has welcomed over 10,000 visitors - which of course has been wonderful for the team here and for the town.  

“So we began to think about launching a Rum School last autumn after we introduced Salcombe Rum ‘Island Street’, an outstanding transatlantic spiced gold rum which is a blend of single estate gold rum, produced here at the distillery, with the finest exotic rums and spices from the Caribbean.  It has proved extremely sought-after and this, combined with the huge popularity of Salcombe Gin School, led my fellow co-founder Angus and I to launch Salcombe Rum School, allowing others the opportunity to learn how to create their own rum in a fun and relaxed way.”

And the team does take a very pleasant and relaxed approach - although that doesn’t mean you don’t learn an awful lot along the way. That is partly because head distiller, Jason Nickels, who heads-up both schools, is such a good communicator. 

Head distiller, Jason Nickels

During the session we were offered a complimentary Salcombe Rum cocktail on arrival - although, sadly, I had to demure because of having to drive later in the day.  Next, we were ushered through to Salcombe Distilling Co.’s ‘still room’ where Jason told us all about rum production. He also explained how the distillation process works on the larger traditional copper-pot rum stills - mini versions of which we’d be using in the company’s research and development laboratory which houses a specially designed classroom.   

There was plenty to learn - many of us wanted to know more about the origins of the famous Caribbean spirit which, centuries ago, was the fruit of so much dubious forced labour in the island sugar plantations (see panel). Basically rum is like any other spirit - it is created by heating a sweet liquid (made from sugar cane in rum’s case) that has been semi-fermented. The steam rising from this beer-like liquor in the large boiling container known as the ‘still’ travels through copper pipes where it is rapidly cooled, resulting in a condensation which is the extremely strong high grade alcohol that is the basis for the final product. 

It was a process we were to see for ourselves in Salcombe Distilling Co.’s laboratory. Guided by Jason and his assistant Harry, we students were given a small still each (or one between two - a lot of couples attend both the rum and gin schools) in which a very basic rum spirit had already been placed. Around us on each side of the lab were large shelves and tables containing all manner of spices and botanicals - our job was to read the guidance on all these flavourings then begin to compile our own recipe. 

Did we want a sweeter rum, or something spicier and more fruity? By being creative and picking from the range of botanicals supplied, we were able to collect a pile of carefully weighed flavourings in a dish, which we eventually added to our still. Once this was done, the heat was turned on and we waited for that magical trickle of pure white spirit to start flowing slowly into our collection jars. This wait gave us the chance to name and create a personalised label for our finished rum - which in turn was eventually decanted into a 70cl bottle, then placed in a white wooden presentation box.  

Because the stills produced slightly more than 70cl my fellow students were able to take small glass jars of their rum back to the cocktail bar where the highly experienced mixologists produced special individual rum cocktails, having studied which botanicals and flavourings had gone into each distillation.

As I was driving, I was eventually able to enjoy my recommended cocktail at home - and very good it was too. I was a little sad, though, to have missed the opportunity of sampling some of the company’s exclusive cask aged Salcombe Rum ‘Island Street’ which, Howard told me, was created in honour of the transatlantic trading history of the Salcombe Fruiters. 

Small stills for students at Salcombe Distilling Co’s Rum School

He explained that, first a gold rum is produced by fermenting molasses, a process which is then followed by further distilling and ageing in the company’s Island Street HQ.  Hand-sourced three year old pot-still gold rum from Jamaica and three year old column still rum from the Dominican Republic are then blended with the Salcombe gold rum, along with a unique spiced pineapple distillate, to produce Salcombe Rum ‘Island Street’.

If I had described my day as a ‘rum old do’ at the beginning of this article you might have been given the wrong idea - as it is, you’ll understand exactly what I mean, and why I enjoyed the experience so much.

To book a place at Salcombe Distilling Co.’s Rum School or for more information, visit www.salcombedistilling.com. 

RUM - A Brief History

The earliest evidence of rum production dates back to the Caribbean in the early 1500s. It goes without saying that the West Country always had quite a close relationship with the drink, given that our sailor-folk had more than a hand in the shameful slave trade which gave rise to the sugar plantations which were developed with the help of forced African labour on the other side of the Atlantic.

Sugar plantation ruins in St Lucia

Indeed, I have been to some of the rural plantation parishes of northern Barbados and heard local people speaking with a dialect that could be traced directly to the South West of England.

However, historians believe that the Spanish and Portuguese sailors were the first to ferment and distil sugarcane byproducts, creating what we now know as rum. During the 16th century, the drink was widely used as a trading currency in the Caribbean region, particularly in the British and Dutch colonies. 

The production of rum spread throughout the Caribbean, with the British and French settlers setting up distilleries to produce the spirit for their own consumption. By the late 17th century, rum had become one of the most popular spirits in Europe and the Americas. 

In the 18th century, rum production began to spread to other areas of the world, such as India, South America and the United States. By the 19th century, it had become the most popular spirit in the USA and remained so until the early 20th century.

Site of an old sugar plantation in St Lucia