Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399
UP St. Croix may be the largest and quietest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, but the staff at the Cruzan rum distillery has been keeping busy. They ran the distillery 24/7 for 300 days last year, increasing production to fi ll the 40,000 barrels aging in their warehouses now. On a visit to the island this February, THE TAST- ING PANEL was able to meet the people, places and products of Cruzan rum, and get some pointers on how to use it properly in cocktails. After a fi rst day spent enjoying the island's tropical offerings—snorkeling, shopping in Christiansted, watching hermit crab races at an ocean-side brewpub and, of course, sipping rum—we were in the right frame of mind to learn about St. Croix's tastiest export. We were greeted at the distillery by PR and Tour Direc- tor Karen Nelthropp, who with her brothers, Vice Presi- dent Don and Master Distiller Gary, comprise the seventh generation of the Nelthropp family making rum at Cru- zan. (The name, pronounced KRU-zhan, is the local way of denoting someone or something from St. Croix.) Karen described the family's and the island's history. Though it was once the number one sugarcane-produc- ing island in the Caribbean and is still dotted with more than a hundred bases of windmills that were used to grind cane, the crop hasn't been grown commercially on St. Croix since the 1960s. Cruzan imports most of its high-grade molasses (the byproduct of sugar production) from Guatemala, which is brought in by tanker to the nearby port of Frederiksted. And in recent years, they've stepped up deliveries. "We're told that aged rums are going to be a huge mar- ket, so we're aging as much of it as possible," said Karen Nelthropp. Though they used to bottle the product for the local market on the island, they no longer do so, in part because they need the warehouse space for all the extra barrels. "We've always been considered the cleanest rum on the market," says Gary Nelthropp as he guided us through the distillery. The molasses is column-distilled to a very high proof to achieve this clean, light-bodied fl avor pro- fi le. Instead of a sterile, high-tech environment you might envision producing a light spirit like Cruzan, most of the distillery's equipment was built by the Nelthropp siblings' father and looks its age, with old-school dials and gauges rather than new-fangled computer terminals. There are no lab coats in sight. That doesn't mean the distillery isn't effi cient. The water used to reduce the rum to proof, for example, is collected rain water, which Karen says is soft and low in minerals. Another unique feature of Cruzan is that they use air and a touch of rain water to condense and cool the rum during the distillation process, rather than circulating a great deal of water, a precious commodity on the island. Cruzan products on the market include nine fl avored 6 / the tasting panel / july 2009 story and photos by Camper English Gary Nelthropp monitors distillation. Cruzan Cruzan is Cruisin' is Cruisin' Now part of the Beam Global portfolio and sporting a bold, updated look, St. Croix's famed rum sails into new waters