Color Variation in Rum
Two slightly different shades of Montanya Platino
You're not seeing things and this isn't one of those tests to see if the sneakers are grey or green! The two Platino bottles pictured in this blog post are slightly different colors (although we understand if it's not obvious to everyone's eye). Over the years, we’ve gotten occasional questions about why the colors of our rums sometimes differ between batches.
The first thing to understand is that variation in color doesn’t mean a mistake has been made or indicate a problem with the rum. From the beginning, we have relied on barrel aging and, for Montanya Platino, filtration to produce the color of our rums. For some of our rums we also add a tiny touch of caramelized honey (we’re talking less than .04% of the bottle) that, while minimal, can affect color.
For our dark rums, variations between barrels and even batches of honey can cause differences in color. For Platino, the primary factor is filtration.
In the past, we filtered Platino with a coconut husk carbon filter that naturally resulted in a small amount of variation. Now that we have transitioned to a pine-based lenticular filtration system, we expect a more consistent color in less time. For the bottles pictured above, however, the color variation is a result of supply chain challenges caused by the pandemic. Many of the filtration supplies we use were directed to vaccine production (hard to argue with that!), and as a result, the rum on the left has a little more of the natural color that comes from aging rum in oak barrels.
We could achieve more consistent color profiles for our rums by relying on artificial coloring or excessive processing, but have always chosen to use real, whole ingredients and no artificial additives of any kind. We also prioritize taste over color, and our distilling crew monitors the flavor profile of every barrel we bottle. We don’t want filtration to remove the benefits of aging the Platino either.
Another way to look at it is that the differences in color are one indicator that, by supporting Montanya Distillers, you truly are buying small batch, craft distilled rum—not a spirit made in a factory where every detail is controlled by computers!
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