Complete Guide to Rum (Book Review)

"The Complete Guide to Rum: An Authoritative Guide to Rums of the World"; Edward Hamilton; #1572432055; Triumph Books; 336 pages; c1997; $59.99.

Edward Hamilton has long been considered an expert on rum, and he runs the "Ministry of Rum" website (http://www.ministryofrum.com). Those two facts might lead the average reader to assume this is a fine book, perhaps the definitive book on rum. But, in the end, it just isn't a fine book, and doesn't begin to live up to the title on the cover.

Until a few years ago, if you ventured into a bookstore outside North America, assuming they actually stock a rum guide, this was likely it. If your local store doesn't have a rum guidebook, and you ask to order such a thing, this is likely the book they will recommend, even though the volume is now out of print and the author hasn't any copies left to sell on his website. Save your money (and you will save a good bit since the volume is insanely priced, even before becoming "out-of-print"). While the cost might be appropriate for a giant, impressively-illustrated coffee-table book, it could hardly be more out of place on this little work, published as part of the "Complete Pocket Guide Series" - though at 20x10 cm., few pockets would accommodate the volume.

In some respects the book is now out of date, but it wasn't that impressive when new. It is not that mediocre rums are given great coverage within, but rather that countless rums are not mentioned in the book. For the record, Flor de Cana is mysteriously absent. This in itself is reveals some limitations of the project, but consider that Santa Teresa (Venezuela), El Dorado (Guyana) and Zacapa (Guatemala), are all also missing. In fact, as one browses the work, it becomes obvious that virtually all Central American & related-regional rums are absent. This is perhaps because the book is so incredibly biased towards French island "rhum agricole" (agricultural rum; rums made from fresh sugar cane juice not molasses; essentially, a method derived from ingenuity in the face of a molasses shortage, a method adapted from the French cognac processes...) that fine rums are excluded, apparently by definition, not based on quality.

"Authoritative", if it means anything at all on the cover of a guidebook, should mean something more than one’s redefinition of a word (rum is rhum). The book is really not a guide to rum (some types of "rhum", maybe). The book is cluttered with tangential tidbits that merely make the work less interesting; there is also an abundance of vague praise, which often has little to do with the marqee or the quality of the drink. The author doesn't so much compare and contrast rums, or even evaluate, as he does offer unspecific comments on every rum included in the work, and a certain snobbishness. And, he has no opinion (least not one he will put into print - same as on his website) regarding which rums are best or why, and a guide should be able to offer something in this regard.

While it was probably a hell of a lot of fun to research this publication, it just cannot be considered a good book on rum, let alone the authoritative guide, as stated in the subtitle of the work. The 5-star book reviews found on the sites of various online booksellers are not likely the result of proud owners of this guide, and in all likelihood are the product of people connected to the book and/or the website.

While not authoritative (and they don't claim to be), there is very decent online information from: Peter Hlousek's Rum Pages (http://www.rum.cz) & some good reviews from low key RnD (a.k.a. Dave Russell & Roger Pattison's) Rum Reviews (http://www.rndrumreviews.com).