All of these three classes above mentioned vary in flavor. It is said that there are no two plantations in Jamaica which produce rum of the same flavor. The output of rum from each place is influenced by the peculiar bacterial flora of that place, and by the methods employed in fermenting and distilling.

Rum is, of all kinds of distilled alcoholic beverages, the most fragrant, and makes the greatest mass effect upon the olfactory nerves. Only connoisseurs of the highest character can pick out the shades of flavor to a certainty, but no one would be misled in respect to the character of the goods, as a rule, even if he were not a connoisseur.

It is a material of this character, so highly flavored, which is so valuable in the stretching of rums; that is, by mixing them with spirits made from any given source, and thus using the genuine article merely as a flavor to the whole mass. The legitimate trade in rum has almost been destroyed, it may be said, by this system of admixture and adulteration.

Average Composition of Jamaica Rums

The above data show in striking contrast the difference between the "common" or "clean" rums of Jamaica, and the flavored rums or those made carefully with "dunder." There is little difference, as is seen, in the alcoholic strength, the salts, the total acids, the higher alcohols, the furfurol, and the aldehydes; the great difference is in the volatile acids and the esters. It is easy to see that the flavoring matters must belong chiefly to those two classes.