Long Pond
The history of Long Pond
The Jamaican distillery of Long Pond is one of the bases of the very funky style coming from the parish of Trelawny. Its history dates back to 1730, when Simon Peter Clarke, an officer in the British Navy, was deported to Jamaica for being guilty of banditry. His cousin Simon had already been there since 1722, as an emissary of the crown. The son of this cousin, also named Simon, inherited the "Retirement" estate at the same time.
In 1753, the family established a sugar mill equipped with a distillery on the estate. The first written records of rum production appear in 1780. Various owners succeeded one another until 1921. That year, the Scottish company Sheriff & Co bought a lot of estates, of which Long Pond was a part, and built its factory/distillery there.
Between 1945 and 1949, the concentration of properties continued, and other surrounding estates were attached to Long Pond. In 1953, the Canadian multinational spirits company Seagram was looking for a distillery capable of producing its already famous Captain Morgan, and thus acquired the Long Pond distillery. After the purchase of Vale Royale in 1955, Long Pond was renamed Trelawny Estate and now has a total of 17 estates.
Over time, Seagram turned its attention away from Jamaica to larger production units. In Latin America, it found more profitable, more modern distilleries equipped with large multi-column systems. The Jamaican distilleries that kept their traditional methods and pot-stills found themselves in financial difficulty in this context.
The Jamaican state to the rescue of its distilleries
To save these giants weakened by competition, the whole was nationalized in 1977. The management of the distillery and the sugar factory were separated, but were now under the banner of the National Sugar Company of Long Pond. In 1980, the company National Rums of Jamaica was created and took care of the distillery part.
The year 1993 saw a semi-privatization, when several financial companies entered the capital of Long Pond. Since 2009, the National Sugar Company of Long Pond no longer exists, so the sugar factory and the distillery belong to different owners. The Everglade Farms (also owners of the Hampden distillery) inherited the sugar factory, and NRJ kept the distillery part.
Throughout its long existence, Long Pond has never had its own brand of rum. It has always operated under theold British colonial system, selling only in bulk to large multinationals, local brands and European traders.
The beginning of the third millennium
In 2012, the distillery was forced to suspend its activity for renovation, and was asked in particular to improve the treatment of its effluents. In 2017, Maison Ferrand bought WIRD, in Barbados, and thus inherited a third of NRJ. The company is now managed by the Jamaican state, Demerara Distillers Limited and United Caribbean Rum Limited, a holding company of Maison Ferrand(Plantation Rum).
Work on Long Pond was completed that same year, and the distillery began running again in July. But a serious fire occurred in 2018, which mainly affected the fermenting building. 65,000 liters of fermented molasses ready for distillation were lost, but above all the wooden vats and their unique ecosystem went up in smoke. Alexandre Gabriel, the owner of Maison Ferrand, does not accept this fate. He had 35 vats reproduced by a Mexican craftsman who usually makes tequila.
In 2021, the first Long Pond branded rum(ITP 15 years) is born. Finally, in 2022, the distillery is fully operational again.
Production at Long Pond
Long Pond produces molasses rums ranging from light to heavy. It thus covers the whole spectrum of Jamaican rum. Fermentations vary in length (from 48 hours to 4 weeks) depending on whether they are for light or heavy rums.
For heavy rums, fermentation is done in the open air, in wooden vats. There were about 50 of them before the 2018 fire. Today there are 24 (12 vats of 450HL, 6 of 180HL and 6 of 135HL), and this number should eventually increase to 63. Native yeasts are used to transform sugar into alcohol. The process lasts 2 to 4 weeks.
The molasses to be fermented is mixed with vinasses (dunder) and possibly with muck. Muck is a kind of biological reactor, a mixture of vinasses, bagasse, fruits, distillation residues, rinsing water from distillation apparatus, fermentation tank bottoms, etc., resting in the open air in cement tanks. Its contribution in terms of bacteria and acidity makes it an essential ally in the production of very aromatic "high esters" rums.
For the light rums, the fermentation is done in three large 1800HL vats, using cultured yeast.
The distillation is only in pot-still at Long Pond. It used to have a double Blair column, which is no longer in use since 2010. Today, 2 Blair pot-stills and 3 John Dore double-twisted columns do the work. They date from the 1960s - 1970s and are all set up and assembled in different configurations.
The marks of Long Pond
Like all Jamaican distilleries, Long Pond classifies the different rums it can produce using a system of "marks". These marks designate a particular profile, accompanied by a concentration in aromatic molecules (esters expressed in g/hlap).
LRM 50-90
ITP/LSO 90-120
HJC/LIB 120-150
VRW/IRW 150-250
OCLP/HHHS 250-400
LPS 400-550
STC♥E 550-700
TECA 1200-1300
TECB 1300-1400
TECC 1500-1600 Read less
