When The Monk Prays For Rum

Which was the first spirit you had? Which was the first cocktail you had? I am sure most of us would have been baptised with rum or rum with coke. Sure we would have had some memories or some idiotic incidence to relate to. Does it ring a bell — Three Idiots?

We had been laid down with just one brand and the Monk had many names for reference. Known as the devil’s drink for warming one up in cold climes, rum was given as ration to sailors and voyagers.

In India, rum was made stronger and darker because of our colonial link; identified as a winter spirit or drink. It was never a spirit as one would find in the Indies, Mexico or for that matter in the Philippines.

Rum has its lineage called Old Glog — a rum spirit mixed up with sugar to kill its hardness and make it more palatable. It had its medicinal value to prevent scurvy or the black blood among seafarers.

In India we haven’t explored the industrial rum or Rhum Agricole. Rum definitively falls into two categories: Demerara Rum and Rhum Agricole, each unique and delicious in its own right.

Demerara Rum is produced from fermenting molasses, resulting in a sweeter, rounder, and usually darker rum, while Rhum Agricole (the French term for this spirit, as it is generally distilled on the French-colonized islands of the Caribbean) is made directly from the sugarcane juice yielding a much more vegetal, savoury, and lighter final product.

Though sugarcane had travelled from India to the Caribbean via the Portuguese and it’s sad to see that rum is called an international spirit from the Caribbean islands. This eventually put Cuba and the Caribbean in the centre when it came to rum.

A decade back, rum lovers finally got a chance to taste different rums (read rhum) from international market with brands like Ron Zacapa, Mount Gay, Havana 7 and Pyrat coming to Indian bars. This elevated the Indians’ experience of this spirit. But eventually the excitement and consumption died down due to registration fees and the consumption patterns were lopsided and brands had to pull back from the Indian market.

So we went back to the Monk (dark rum) and the Bat (white rum).

The Monk has an interesting history. It was the most iconic and popular alcohol in India as it was everyone’s drink. One can associate it with the best of times taking you back to the wild and free times. Even when one had the malted whisky, it was rum for the road and a peg for old time sake.

The home brand came to India in 1935 and went for commercial sale from 1954. The brewery was set up by Sir Edward Dyer and taken over by Meakins in 1930 and the Mohan’s took it over in 1949. The popular brand of Monk was launched in 1954 by Ved Rattan Mohan who was the then CEO. When he was in London. he learned the distillation process from the Benedictine Monks. The rum is matured in vats for seven years and infused with spices before being bottled and marketed.

Another story that makes the rounds comes from Himachal Pradesh. According to this version, a rum-loving British monk would be seen lurking around the barrels belonging to the company. He would apparently taste the rum in its ripening season, and hang out with the master distillers. Over time, the monk became a bit of a rum expert himself and offered valuable advice to the distillers at Mohan Meakin who dedicated India’s first brand of rum to the benevolent monk.

It was a monopoly for Meakins till around 2016. Then, the Venezuelan rum brands Diplomatico and Kraken were the game changers along with gin. What gin did a couple of years ago; rum is now doing in 2021. With home grown companies finally releasing their rum brands.

In the present scenario, customers are the king and they like to experiment with anything new. Think of times when Md. Rafi and Kishore Kumar songs were preferred, but now everyone listens to everything. This is the trend happening with spirits/alcohol where consumers want to try everything. But there is a word of caution. Many brands get picked up for the first time because it might come with a cool story on social media, but the reality of survival comes after that.

Are we ready to pay higher prices for brands when we are attuned to a less priced one? Cost is a big factor when this rum spirit is processed – labour intensive, takes three years to mature, angels share, labelling, bottling, corks and excise laws which make it expensive.

But still the party is going to make heads turn as more brands are popping up. I have a feeling the Monk and the Bat are going to rule the roost by looking into the spending and consumption pattern of the customer.