“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest— / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! / Drink and the devil had done for the rest— / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” – Robert Lewis Stevenson, Treasure Island (Chapter 1, 1883)
Just a Tasting Room
Unrelenting sun sparkling on blue waves as they lap at white sand; palm trees and dense greenery further up the beach, with chairs and shade umbrellas (probably rented) dotting the sandy landscape; the perfect setting for rum drinks.
Sandy, Oregon, is no beach. If you’re heading to or from Portland via Mt. Hood Hwy (Hwy 26), you’ll go through Sandy, a cute mountain town of ~13,000 people that lies 28 or 29 miles from Portland’s city center. Sandy offers enough restaurants and pubs to make it a logical place to stop if it’s a mealtime, which is how Ben and I wound up visiting the Just Rum distillery on an early fall afternoon.
As is typical for that part of Oregon, it was overcast and intermittently rainy as we were passing through Sandy, heading to Mt. Hood Brewing at Government Camp. The sign for Just Rum Distillery, Bar and Restaurant caught my eye. I’d seen it before, but this time, we weren’t really in a hurry, and it was about lunchtime, anyway.
Unless I’m already a regular, I find that stepping into any tasting room right after opening can feel a bit awkward. I usually spend a couple of moments glancing around, trying to decide if this is a place I want to spend some time (and money) or not. In this case, this also caused me to notice the barrel sticking out of the wall, with several taps for Boring Cider. Most of those were listed around 4.5% ABV, providing a lower-alcohol option for anyone not in the mood for a rum tasting or cocktails.
Just a Distillery
Fortunately, Jon Crosby, Master Distiller, happened to be manning the bar. He quickly recovered from the surprise when I asked if he’d be amenable to an impromptu interview, and we spent the next hour or so chatting, between his distilling tasks and attending to other customers.
John HasBrouck, founder of Just Rum, claims a three-generation distilling legacy. The short version of the story seems to go something like this:
John’s great-grandfather, John Oliven Hale, kept his family afloat during the Great Depression partly from the proceeds of distilling sorghum liquor from a pot still. John J. Hale, John HasBrouck’s great-uncle and the namesake of Just Rum’s Uncle John’s Cut, took up home distilling in a tiny pot still that’s currently on display in the Just Rum tasting room. When he passed, he left the still to his great-nephew.
HasBrouck’s own distilling adventure was sparked by a bottle of particularly interesting rum from Ecuador. He was already in possession of the antique pony keg pot still from his great-uncle, and with the acquisition of some sugarcane juice, he had the tools to start a new hobby. The hobby grew (they do that), and in 2018, John HasBrouck and Greg Madsen founded Just Rum Distillery.
In 2019, Jon Crosby met John HasBrouck when the latter was running a booth at the Gresham Farmer’s Market. Jon was more of a whiskey guy, and had been designing cocktails for quite some time, so he wasn’t short on spirit-related opinions. But John convinced him to try the rum based on its deep oak notes that are, indeed, a bit reminiscent of a bourbon. Three hours later, Jon’s wife convinced him to leave and get food, but afterward, Just Rum was the only rum that Jon stocked at home.
Later, when the vagaries of pandemic economics had done for Jon’s job, he re-connected with the folks at Just Rum, where he is now the master distiller. Incidentally, Jon also owns The Boring Cider Company.
Uncle John’s Cut
To meet the federal definition of rum in the US, rum can be distilled from “…the fermented juice of sugarcane, sugarcane syrup, sugarcane molasses, or other sugarcane by-products.” Distilling from sugarcane molasses tends to yield a product with more brown sugar notes, al la Ron del Barrilito 3 stars. By contrast, the various expressions of Just Rum are fermented from sugarcane juice, using a steel pot still. We didn’t taste every rum in the lineup, but we bought a bottle of Uncle John’s Cut, their still strength white rum.
From the strength (122 proof, ~61% ABV), I kind of expected Uncle John’s Cut to taste a little like Bacardi 151. It does not. Due to being made from sugarcane juice instead of molasses, and the fact that it’s not spiced or wood aged, Uncle John’s Cut offers an agricultural profile reminiscent of cured grass in late summer, very like a rhum agricole.
Rhum agricole
Rhums agricoles (French agricultural rums) are produced from fresh sugarcane juice, on specific islands in the French Caribbean, and they are protected by geographic indicators; which indicator seems to depend on whether the island of origin is Martinique (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée), or Guadeloupe and Marie Galante (Production Geographical Indicator), or one of the other islands in the French Caribbean.
Uncle John’s Cut is not a rhum agricole, nor does it even claim to be a similar style. But if you’ve had cachaça (a Brazilian spirit fermented from fresh sugarcane juice) or rhum agricole, Uncle John’s Cut will hold some familiarity.
Drinking notes
Ben’s tasting notes:
Grass
White pepper
Tea
Hint of vanilla
Maybe Kangra (green tea floral and bitter note)
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There are plenty of more sophisticated cocktails you can mix with Uncle John’s Cut (Jon Crosby recommended using it in an El Presidente), but I’ve found it also makes an interesting take on rum and cola. Mine was 40 ml of rum, 7.5 oz Coca Cola Classic, in a glass with a large format ice cube and a slice of dried lime peel. ¡Salud!
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