APPLETON ESTATE RUM TOUR

When Vince and I went to Jamaica last April, we did several side trips and one of those was to Appleton Estate in Nassau Valley.  During this tour, we were showed around the factory that has been producing world renowned handcrafted Jamaican rums for over 260 years.

As an introduction, we were greeted by Paz the Donkey who showed us how it was to manually extract and collect sugar cane juice.  Basically, sugar canes were put into a machine, and Paz, wearing a yoke attached to the machine, goes around in circles, causing the machine in turn to press into the sugar canes and squeeze out juice, which will then drain down to a vessel.  Obviously, now that we're living in modern days, Appleton Estate no longer uses animals for this process but has automated machines which can extract more juice in an expedient manner.  At one point, two volunteers were called to be the tour group's "donkey" and perform Paz's manual labor, after which we were given a small cup of sugar cane juice that our "donkeys" had extracted ☻

We were also taken to the heart of the factory, which is the distillation area.  Our tour guide showed us the machines they use and explained to us various fermentation methods.  This is the part of the factory where smoking and taking pictures are not allowed ;)

After distillation, rums were then filled into handcrafted oak barrels and kept inside to mature for up to 30 years and beyond.  Only the finest American oak barrels are used to transform these rums into a smooth mellow spirit and touched up with complex flavors of coffee, vanilla, cocoa and hazelnut.  Ageing of the wood plays a role in the development of the rum's golden brown color and delicate sweet taste.

We were then led back to the reception area for rum sampling.  There were 13 kinds of flavored rums available to try.  Our tour guide had been stressing out early on the tour that most people waste pure, fine, high-grade Appleton Estate rum by mistakenly mixing it with cola chaser.  Hence, he made sure to let everyone in the group know how to tell which Appleton Estate rums are meant to be enjoyed by itself.  I'm not sure though if anybody paid attention to that, because I could tell then that almost every one, including Vince, was already excited to try the tempting rums.  Hehe!

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You can read about my Jamaican escapade here:

I BEG YOUR PARDON MAMA WHAT DID YOU SAY

You can read about my other travel stories here:

TUESDAY TRAVEL

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