Mauritius
A brief history of Mauritian rum
Rum production inMauritius dates back to the 19th century. At that time, there were about forty distilleries in operation. Today there are less than ten.
Sugar cane was introduced by the Dutch who cultivated it for the production of arak. It was during the French and English occupation that production changed direction and the cane was exploited to the full.
In the early 2000s, Mauritian law, which dates back to the British colonial era, changed. It is now possible to distil below the former legal alcohol levels which prevented the production of aromatic rum.
Since then, the historical distilleries have started to produce quality rums for export (notably Grays with its New Grove brand, Medine with Penny Blue, and Saint Aubin). In addition, new distilleries have been created, generally of a more modest size: Chamarel, Oxenham, Labourdonnais...
Since 2010, rum export revenues from Mauritius have more than doubled, making it a key sector for the Mauritian economy.
There are 3 types of rum in Mauritius: traditional rum (the historical distilleries), agricultural rum (the new distilleries) and finally arranged or spiced rums.
Our classification of rum brands from Mauritius
We find brands associated with specific distilleries: Chamarel, Labourdonnais, Saint Aubin, New Grove (Grays distillery), Penny Blue and Pink Pigeon (Medine distillery), Bougainville and Lazy Dodo (Oxenham distillery).
Besides these, there are also brands that do not specify the distillery of origin of their rum: Arcane, Emperor, Beach House, Gold of Mauritius, Mauritius Club, Rom Club.
Finally, some rums unknown in Europe are intended for the local market: NPK Rum and Starr African Rum , for example. These are rums intended for cocktails, rather poor in flavour because they are distilled at a very high alcohol content at the end of the column still. You'll probably come across them if you go to the local bars. Read less
