A Visit to Sugar Sand Distillery - America's Only Estate-grown Sugar Cane Farm Distillery

Driving through tall green sugar cane stalks swaying in a gentle breeze, you find a hidden distillery, a one of kind operation.  Sugar Sand Distillery is the country's only estate-grown sugar cane farm distillery where the sugar cane is grown, processed, distilled, and sold at the same location. In this case, Lake Placid in south central Florida.  Founder Don Davies grows four acres of cane on a former 10 acre citrus grove. The cane stalks are fed by a hydroponic system that delivers water and nutrients directly to the base of each plant; a by-product of Don’s decades of experience in the fertilizer industry.  The distillery opened in April 2018 and offers numerous spirits based on proprietary cane juice and corn mash recipes. These include small-batch rum, whiskey, vodka, limoncello and moonshine.  

Their rum is extremely rare for a U.S. made rum as it is made from sugar cane juice in the French Rhum Agricole method - and not molasses, cane syrup, or sugar crystals.  And if you are interested in regenerative farming you have to respect a micro distillery that grows and processes its produce onsite. 

The Rhum Agricole process begins with harvesting the sugarcane and crushing it quickly to prevent oxidation and spoilage. Traditionally the cane is crushed using a roller mill but Sugar Sand uses a special device that peels the cane before crushing that leads to a cleaner juice. This juice or "vesou," is filtered and quickly prepared for fermentation.  A common anecdote explains that sugar cane and its juice has a "shelf life of soft serve ice cream". At Sugar Sand, this fermentation takes place in open, stainless steel tanks and typically lasts 24 to 72 hours.  The fermented juice, or "vin," is then distilled using a wood-encased copper pot still.

During my visit I sampled a healthy range of their offerings. These are available to purchase at their tasting room or at The 301 brewstillery and eatery located in nearby Sebring. 

Lake Placid Rum (White Rum): Taste the true spirit of rum. Expect sweet grassy and herbaceous aromas with textured core and a slightly smoky finish.  

Lake Placid Rum (Aged Rum): This is the White Rum aged four to five years in new American oak barrels freshly sourced from Kentucky. This oak treatment mellows the and rounds out the spirit providing a little more smoke and some caramel. But no baking spices - still spirit driven and not oak driven,  

Lake Placid Spiced Rum: This spirit is made starting with their White Rum augmented with spices and caramel colorings. It's slightly sweeter than the White Rum with a kaleidoscope of spices.

12 Hour Shine (White Shine): This is a combination corn and cane moonshine that is slightly sweeter than the White Rum. Unbelievably easy to drink with a sweet texture and easy finish.  

12 Hour Shine (Aged, Midnight Shine): Like the Aged Rum, this spirit takes the White Shine and is aged in new American oak barrels. Here you will get slight baking spices, more body and a rounded finish. Excellent. 

Crane Vodka (Lemon): This is a limoncello-like vodka with distinct lemon flavors and an oily texture. will love our lemon-flavored Crane Vodka.  Made from infusing the skins of locally grown lemons.

Hammock Gin: This is a juniper thin gin using six botanicals and sipping rather easily. 

Louisiana's Three Roll Estate: Rhum Agicole From Cane to Glass

Louisana is the second most abundent producer of sugar cane in the United States, following Florida with over 1,500 thousand short tons of harvested sugar. Baton Rouge's Three Roll Estate provides a small portion of this figure through their sugar cane estate. They are also a certified Farm to Table producer through their Cane to Glass process where the sugar cane is grown on a single estate in the delta and crushed at their mill as it passes through three steel rolls. The juice is then fermented and distilled in the French Caribbean rhum agricole style which provides a more grassy and intense rum. 

Their signature product is the Three Roll Estate Rhum Agricole Premium Rum which is produced once a year at harvest where the sugar cane juice is fermented 90 minutes after pressing. This rum is the truest expression of the Cane to Glass process and is the rum we purchased after our visit. It's extremely smooth, yet intense with plenty of vegetable and grassy notes and even a bit herbaceous. They also bottle a Three Roll Rhum Agricole White Rum from the juice fermented during the three-month harvest. 

Another product worth considering is the Three Roll Rhum Agricole Brazilian-Style Rum produced by fermenting the cane juice with yeast sourced from Brazil. A Cachaça throughout. The one rum I didn't care for was the Three Roll Rhum Agricole Dark Rum where the cane juice is processed into sugar and the molasses byproduct is fermented and aged in French oak vats, before being finished in American oak. I think the oak overwhelms the white rum and loses the fresh grassy and honey notes. 

It appears our future may entail more visits to Louisana so we looking forward to returning and spending more time in the tasting room and perhaps a visit during harvest. Cheers and thanks to theCompass Craft Beverage Finder. 

10 Cane Rum Review - Marketing Trumps Quality

A constant at our local ABC store is the bright orange label of 10 Cane Rum, sitting prominently at eye level on the shelf. The distillery is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton - which explains the marketing power. After several years of browsing I finally forked over the $30 to discover for myself, what the marketing buzz was all about.

The rum is produced in Trinidad using the "rhum agricole" technique - the first press of the sugar cane juice and not molasses - and allegedly requires the juice from 10 cane stalks to produce a single bottle of rum. This rum is then aged one year in new French oak and blended with a small dose of older Trinidadian rum. 

The rum pours a pale yellow and the nose, sweet alcohol.  Not a lot going on at this point - sweetness and burn. This trend continued on the palette with no noticeable flavor profile rising forth - just a general sweetness of brown sugar followed by a slow burn. Adding a few drops of water actually suppressed the sugar, but not the alcohol. Conclusion: not at all worth the price. You may ask, if the rum isn't anything special, why the almost empty bottle. The short answer - makes a decent (yet expensive) mixer for the Hemingway Josie Russell.