Angostura ferments, distills, ages and blends its rums on the island of Trinidad in the West Indies. Angostura has been in the rum business for over 100 years, and  follows the traditional methods for making rum which have been used for centuries. The machinery and technology may have evolved, but the basic process has remained the same.

The basic principles of rum making are quite simple and use three ingredients – sugar cane, water and yeast. The juice of the mature sugar cane plant or molasses is used as the raw material for the fermentation process. Angostura  Rums use only high quality Molasses with a high sugar content which imparts its flavour.

Molasses is diluted with water to reduce the sugar content and the pure yeast culture is added to the mixture. The addition of yeast and sugar creates a spontaneous reaction which produces the alcohol and a range of by-products – called congeners – which give rum its unique aroma and flavour. Angostura has used the same unique yeast strain for more than sixty years.

Distilling separates the alcohol and congeners from the fermented mixture and concentrates them to make the actual rum. Angostura uses a multi-column, multi-tray, continuous distillation. The unique configuration and design of the columns at Angostura compared to many other distillers allow the company to produce finer, more delicately balanced rums.

After distillation comes ageing. Angostura ages all of its rum for the minimum time stated on the label. Today all the ageing of rum is done in oak wood barrels that were previously used  for bourbon, with some used for sherry.

Blending is the secret of fine rum. It allows the master blender to use many different types and styles of rum to create a particular blend. The skill of blending involves mixing light and heavy rums of different ages which have been carefully analysed and selected by the blender for their specific characteristics.