Bayou Rum Distillery

One of the big benefits of staying at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana, is that Betty takes responsibility to set up tours and restaurant visits for all of us!  Our last blog entry described a tour to McIlhenny's Tabasco Plant.  Today, January 23, 2018, Betty had us lined up for a tour of Bayou Rum Distillery, located in Lacassine, Louisiana, a 65 mile drive northwest of Abbeville.

Bayou Rum Distillery is the only privately owned rum distillery in the United States.  It sources the molasses and sugar needed for making its rum from the sugar cane fields and sugar mills nearby in Louisiana.

Bayou Rum Distillery makes four types of rum:

-  "Silver," a white rum;
-   Spiced, rum that is rested for up to 30 days with a special blend of creole baking spices, which imparts both flavor and an amber color;
-   Select, a darker rum that is aged in used bourbon barrels whose charred interior is the source for its dark amber color; and
- "Satsuma,"  a liqueur blended from Satsuma oranges and Bayou Select rum.

A cheeky alligator graces the label on the bottle for each of the types of rum:

Our RV'er group met at the distillery and were treated to a private tour by Gabby, one of the distillery's hosts:

She took us through the operations, explaining how a ton of raw cane sugar becomes a barrel of rum.

She also showed us the racks of used bourbon barrels where some of the rum is aged for 3 years.  Hanging on the near corner of the racks is one of the barrel lids.  Its charring is key to the development of the taste and color of the Select aged rum:

We finished up our tour at the distillery lab, where we learned some of the technical aspects of distilling.  It was also the spot where the distillery proudly displays a local artist's depiction of the cultural history surrounding rum distilling in the bayous of Louisiana.  Gabby pointed out that the painting even depicts, in the upper right hand corner, Lorrain Bridge, a wooden bridge of unique construction that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

Just before we moved on to the climax of our tour, we spotted the distillery's cute little alligator mascot standing quietly next to the painting, and he seemed a bit lonely and forgotten, so we crouched down to have a selfy with the friendly little fellow:

But enough about us.  Now about the rum.  On we walked to the tasting room, where we had a chance to taste each of the types of rum made by the distillery.  Kathy, Randy and Mouse could barely contain their excitement, anticipating the smooth taste of the rum.  Merlene and Dan seem to be adopting a more studied approach to their tasting:

Below, the rest of our group also seemed fully absorbed in their tasting: 

All of the styles of rum were delicious.  We preferred the Select and Spiced rums. The white rum, while smooth and tasty, didn't have nearly as much flavor, in our view.  Satsuma was just too sweet for our palate.  So we made a hard choice, bought some Spiced rum for ourselves, and bought some of the Silver white rum as the base for a fruit slushy we would share with the entire RV group at happy hour today.

Gabby's comment about Lorrain Bridge piqued our interest, so we stopped at Lorrain Park on our way back from the distillery.  The bridge sits in a scenic position on a bayou, here behind a striking cypress tree that has been decorated in memory of some local dear departed:

 Here is a clearer view of the bridge:

Betty, knowing that most of us are old, retired persons not from her area and might need help finding a decent place for lunch, made reservations for us at the Regatta LA Seafood and Steakhouse in Port Arthur, which was on our way back to Abbeville.  The restaurant is perched picturesquely on Lake Arthur and, as an added bonus, served us delicious local cuisine.  David enjoyed his duck and andouille sausage gumbo, and Kathy went ecstatic over her crawfish etouffe.

After lunch, we stole a few minutes to walk along the waterfront of Port Arthur, admiring the cypress trees growing in the shallows of the lake:

Back in our Jeep, driving home, we talked about our experience.  While it was nominally just eating and drinking at commercial retail establishments, we had learned a great deal about the sugar cane industry that is the backbone of this area, and the rum and other (legal or otherwise) distilling businesses that grew as an adjunct to the production of sugar and molasses.  Not only that, we continued our exploration of Cajun cuisine, and David was able to add yet another gumbo to his record of "a restaurant every day, a gumbo at every restaurant."

Stay tuned as we continue to eat and drink our way toward Mardi Gras in this colorful corner of our country!