Ingredients
What is in the bottle
- Molasses from Surinamese sugar cane, the fermentable base
- Cultured distiller’s yeast
- River water from the coastal plain, treated
- Column-distilled cane spirit, redistilled to a light, clean style
- Years of tropical cask maturation in charred oak
- Alcohol by volume: 40%
To serve, neat
- 50 mlBorgoe 8 or Borgoe Extra
- a tumbler or a small snifter
- 1large ice cube, optional
- no mixer, so you can taste the vanilla and dried banana
To serve, the Paramaribo way
- 50 mlBorgoe 82
- 150 mlcola, or Fernandes ginger or red soft drink
- a tall glass packed with ice
- 1wedge of lime, squeezed and dropped in
Directions
- Know what you are drinking: Borgoe is made by Suriname Alcoholic Beverages in Paramaribo, from the molasses left after Surinamese cane is milled for sugar. It is a distillery product, not something to make at home.
- At the distillery, the molasses is diluted with water to a fermentable wash of around 15 to 18 degrees Brix and pitched with cultured yeast.
- Fermentation runs warm and fast in the tropical climate, typically two to four days, producing a wash of about 7 to 9 percent alcohol with the estery, banana-like character of cane.
- The wash is distilled in a continuous column still to a high-strength, light-bodied spirit, which is the style that has dominated Surinamese and wider Caribbean production since the twentieth century.
- The new spirit is reduced with water and filled into charred oak casks, where Suriname’s heat drives an angel’s share far above the European rate, so the rum takes on colour and vanilla notes quickly.
- Mature casks are blended to a house profile and given an age or a number: Borgoe 8 is the eight-year expression, and Borgoe 82 is the everyday blend that mixes with cola in every Surinamese bar.
- It is reduced to 40 percent with treated water, filtered and bottled in Paramaribo.
- To drink it neat, pour 50 ml into a tumbler at room temperature and let it sit a minute; add one large cube if you want it longer. To drink it as most Surinamers do, build it over plenty of ice with cola or Fernandes and a squeeze of lime, and stir once.
Technique
- Rum is Suriname’s oldest industry: cane and its distillate ran the Dutch colonial economy, and the Marienburg plantation up the Commewijne River still stands as a rusting museum to it.
- Tropical ageing is not the same as northern ageing. A five-year tropical rum has lost far more volume and picked up far more oak than a five-year cask in Scotland, which is why the numbers are not comparable.
- Do not chill the bottle. Cold shuts down the ester aroma that makes cane spirit worth drinking neat.
Substitutions
- Outside Suriname, Borgoe is stocked by Dutch and Surinamese grocers; if you cannot find it, another light column-still Caribbean rum drinks in the same register with cola.
- For the same role in a mixed drink without alcohol, Surinamers pour Fernandes soft drinks over ice with lime.
Variations
- Borgoe 82, the workhorse blend for cola.
- Borgoe 8 and Borgoe Extra, older and darker, drunk neat.
- Mariënburg, the fiercer high-strength rum many Surinamers keep for toasts.
History
Distilled in Paramaribo from the colony’s plantation cane industry, whose Marienburg estate on the Commewijne was Suriname’s largest sugar works.
Frequently asked questions
What is Borgoe Rum?
Borgoe Rum is a wine & spirit from Suriname: surinamese rum from cane molasses, drunk neat or with cola. Distilled in Paramaribo from the colony’s plantation cane industry, whose Marienburg estate on the Commewijne was Suriname’s largest sugar works.
How long does Borgoe Rum take to make?
Borgoe Rum takes 5 min of preparation and 5 to 8 years cask ageing at the distillery of cooking. The recipe makes 1 bottle, 700 ml. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Borgoe Rum?
Yes, within limits. Outside Suriname, Borgoe is stocked by Dutch and Surinamese grocers; if you cannot find it, another light column-still Caribbean rum drinks in the same register with cola. For the same role in a mixed drink without alcohol, Surinamers pour Fernandes soft drinks over ice with lime.
What is the most important thing to get right in Borgoe Rum?
Tropical ageing is not the same as northern ageing. A five-year tropical rum has lost far more volume and picked up far more oak than a five-year cask in Scotland, which is why the numbers are not comparable.