Rum Fire White Overproof Rum from Hampden Estate in Trelawny, Jamaica was awarded its first medal last Wednesday, September 21, in a blind tasting competition held in San Francisco, California. The annual event, held in a different state every year since its inception in 2006 and facilitated by the Ministry of Rum, whose headquarters are in Chicago, awarded rums this year from 13 countries. Seventeen gold, 14 silver and five bronze medals were handed out this year. The judges agreed that this was the hardest competition they have judged to date. The four other medal recipients in the Overproof category were all distilled at South Pacific Distilleries Fiji. Rum Fire was the only Jamaican brand in the category to be awarded a medal.

In this blind tasting, judges are served samples of each rum in uniform tasting glasses. Each spirit was then judged on aroma, initial taste, body and finish, by a panel of industry professionals, including consultants, mixologists and spirits journalists who have demonstrated their expertise with sugar cane spirits. Each judge awarded points for each of these attributes then gave an overall score of 0 to 100 points for each spirit. The scores for all of the spirits in each category were divided by the highest score. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded according to the natural grouping of the results.

While there are other respected tasting competitions in the US and Europe, this is a unique opportunity for sugar cane spirits to be judged on their own merit by people who know sugar cane spirits and share their passion with the industry.

Reacting to the win, Director of Marketing at Rum Fire Christelle Harris described it as a phenomenal achievement for the seven-month-old Rum Fire, which has been on the local market since March 2011.

She stated: “We are very excited about this, our first medal, as the achievement will provide Rum Fire with the opportunity to enter the overseas rum market in a much easier fashion because Rum Fire now has a name in the international marketplace. What is even more interesting is the timing of this medal, which coincides with last Saturday’s staging of the Rum Fire race day at Caymanas Park, for which we have received very positive feedback from members of the public who attended the race day. We are proud of our first award and so grateful for the support, encouragement and warm welcome from the Jamaican public.”

Harris noted that the team at Rum Fire will be working assiduously to ensure that the product continues to satisfy the palates of everyone, from connoisseurs and social drinkers to chefs and mixologists worldwide.