The trends behind rum's success

Rum’s success has been somewhat overshadowed by the roaring success of its cousin gin, despite making significant strides in both value and volume growth.

Few, arguably, realise the category has many of the strengths that make other alcoholic drinks popular with consumers – heritage, provenance and premium variants.

Two segments within the category – gold and dark – are driving rum’s growth at 14.7% and 13.5% respectively, CGA OPM MAT data to 19 May 2018 shows.

Within that period, golden rum added £46.1m in terms of value and dark rum £13.1m. However, white rum is in continued decline, with value down 0.6%.

Even with this one blip, many are ready to decorate rum with the title of ‘the next big thing’ in spirits on account of the category’s overall growth.

Standard rum is putting in a good performance, with volume sales up 7.3%. However, the category is making the most of premiumisation – top-line products now account for 23.6% of the sector’s volume share, which has risen by 17.8% during the past four years, says CGA OPM MAT data to 19 May 2018.

Additional cases of rum​

On the whole, the category has sold an additional 138,000 nine-litre cases in the past four years, growing at 9.1% in value and 5.5% in volume, according to the same CGA data.

Drinks market analyst IWSR forecasts the spirit will grow sales to 3.5m nine-litre cases by 2021, driven by its ability to touch on key trends such as provenance.

Yet, these stories have been slow to come to the fore of the category, with brands more often than not playing on rum’s party credentials, as well as the simplicity in which it can be mixed with sugary drinks.

Semiotics for the category have mostly been around the sun, sea and sand of the Caribbean.

Although these credentials are true of rum, the category also has depth similar to its more serious cousin whisky, making it the most diverse spirit on the bar, with appeal to a broad range of palates.

Yet, therein lies the biggest problem for rum; it is one of the easiest and most approachable spirits – offering easy steps from entry level (white or gold rum mixed as a long drink) to the more challenging with dark sipping rums served neat or over ice. But too few understand the category enough to tap into the stories around it.

Rum is made from sugar cane by-products, including molasses, or is made directly from the juice of sugar cane before being fermented and distilled. The distillate is then aged in oak barrels.

In the Caribbean​

Rum is mainly produced in the Caribbean and Latin America, but a small amount is also produced in places such as Fiji, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa and even the UK.

Though production is spread far and wide, the spirit’s heritage lies within the West Indies, where it is believed the first distillation took place in the 17th century.

There is no single standard for rum, nor is there an accreditation as with whisky. However, it can be broken into seven categories: white rum, gold rum, flavoured rum, spiced rum, dark rum, premium rum and overproof rum (see The seven wonders of rum, below).

With all this in mind, it is clear rum has the opportunity to see sales boom beyond what has been predicted, though to do this, the category needs to balance its interesting stories with credible liquids and move into a new lower-tempo social occasion.

A move to a wider variety of serves – away from coconut, pineapple and cola – and into a sophisticated space by playing on classic serves such as the Old Fashioned and the Boulevardier, is essential.

This could be an easy transition for rum, considering the category already accounts for one in three cocktails served in the on-trade. This trend is predominantly led by the Mojito, a serve that holds 13.6% of the cocktail market, CGA’s Mixed Drinks Report for the first quarter of 2018 shows.

With so much to offer, it’s time rum steps up and experiments in areas beyond beach parties and looks to tap into other occasions.