Oliver Rum Factory ENG

Our main goal at Taino is to share the Dominican folklore and history through the products we offer. We believe that experiences around the pillars of the Dominican culture transmit more than what words can say. Rum is in every corner of the Dominican Republic from dominos to banchata. With smiles and with tears Dominicans drink and toast.

Rum production started in the Caribbean after slaves in sugarcane plantations started using molasses and making their own distillate. The happiness that rum would bring to their miserable and cruel lives was reflected in the name that was given to the product, Rumbullion, that is an old English word for tumultuous and loud noise. By the end of 17th Century rum was extremely popular and had displaced brandy and whiskey in all American colonies. Ironically it then served as an important trade good. The precious liquid would end up in being used to buy more slaves in the triangle trade with Europe and Africa.

Juanillo Oliver an adventurous and high spirited Spanish young man arrived to cuba as part of his military duty. Once his service was over he decided to stay and start a family. He settled near the town of Placetas and there he started grow tobacco and sugarcane. He had found a passion for Rum while during the war he had to clean his wounds with alcohol, the smell of rum not only healed his body but also his soul. He found himself discovering a passion for these spirits that would change the way he saw life.

As he was a true craftman he tried new techniques and developed various different rums. By 1874 he created his first reserve of What would start to be the family legacy. Oliver Family had to flee Cuba in 1961 and were scattered around America. By 1990 Don Pedro Ramon Lopez Oliver, a great grandson of Juanillo, had compiled the secret formulas of the Family’s legacy rums. Determined to find a new home for Oliver and Oliver he chose the Dominican Republic as the place to build the factory. Place where part of the family had settled. Ever since the Oliver adopted its new home they have continued to grow and develop new and old techniques.

Sugarcane is harvested once a year during the dry season. It can grow up to 2 meters high. The same plant can be cut up 6 times before it is replaced. Sugarcane is crushed to make guarapo from which sugar Crystals are produced the remaining syrup is called molasses.
Either guarapo de Caña or molasses can be fermented into beer. As we add water and yeast to start the fermentation these small organisms would eat sugars and produce alcohol.

The fermented beer or wash can have around 6 to 10% alcohol in fermentations that last from 24 hours up to 10 days.

It is then distilled to achieve 80 to 90% alcohol. This is when we heat up the fermented juice inside a pot still or a column still to evaporate All the aromatic compounds and as well as alcohols and later cooled to recover as a crystal clear liquid. This first spirit is called aguardiente or flema. It has a strong and funky smell of sugarcane that will evolve into a very refined and rich spirit once matured.

The ageing of rum is done in Used bourbon barrels made of American white oak. These are charred and toasted to Desired levels selected by the maestro ronero. Different distillates and different casks would allow the maestro ronero age the fresh distillate into a more complex and unified blend of scents and flavors.

What is then so special about Oliver Rums? that is the care and selection in every stage of the process. Handpicked distillates would later be carefully crafted and blended into most refined spirits found in the Caribbean. Solera method allows ageing longer times and achieving amazing harmony between casks of different origins. The use of European oak to soften and mature some distillates and enrich with Oporto, sherry wine and malt whiskey finishes.

If you wan to know more about Oliver Rum, we invite you to book a tour at our Oliver Lab: https://instagram.com/tainogourmet?ut...