The odds of winding up with a rum that has any added sugar is much lower than you would think

Paul,

That's great, but says more of what rum you normally purchase.

If you only count rum called "Spanish" styled,  aka rum from former Spanish colonies, I'm sure the percentage would look completely different.

Stefan:

Very interesting point. In my 30% tally, this includes all 3 styles. I can tally up the Spanish style rums, but that is a bit trickier in my spreadsheet.

Stefan:

From checking my spreadsheet again, I found 138 Spanish style rums that are unflavored. You are right. A whopping 45% of them have added sugar.

Paul,

I had expected around 75%, but that it was as "low" as 45% is once again an effect of what you purchase I believe.

 I don't have a spreadsheet like yours. Instead I just checked what I have on my shelfs right now. There's 25 different bottles of Spanish styled rum of those is 4% (1 btl) surely without added sugar. 40% (10 btl) is Cuban rum of which maybe some is without added sugar. The rest, 56%, has definitely added sugar.

Stefan:

Yes, my analysis on this is based upon all of the rums that I have purchased. Since I live in the USA whereby there is an embargo on anything from Cuba, I only got to try one Cuban rum, Havana Club 7 Year at a bar. It was definitely dry and I looked up other reviewer's to find out that it had 6 gpl of added sugar. Still dry in my book, but not zero sugar. So this one was part of the 45%.

Paul,

In Cuba they have a rule that says maximum 15gpl, but most of them has as far as I know around 5gpl or no added sugar at all.

A good bit of my Spanish style rums came from Flor De Cana and Dictador, with most of these having zero added suagar. Rums from Don Pancho in Panama also helped to lower my percentage.

After my first year on this site, I realized the evils of added sugar. They won't last long in an opened bottle and they adversely affect my internal plumbing. So for these two reasons, I deliberately began purchasing rums to minimize any added sugars.

I think Eldorado has come a long way but it's no wonder they were adding sugar!

Kevin, El Dorado is actually an English style rum from British Guyana that somehow gets away with adding sugar. And thanks to the EU, this new ruling forces them to keep the added sugar at 20 gpl or less to qualify as being labeled rum. 

In the USA, their 12 to 21 year old rums have anywhere from 22 to 39 gpl of added sugar. Since I cannot get the EU versions where I live, I just stick with El Dorado 8 Year that has only 8 gpl of added sugar. For me, 8 years is optimum aging for rums in the Caribbean.

Paul, I recently tried their 12yr and that seemed better than before and their 15yr although IMO think there's way less added sugar it seems watered down for some reason which maybe why it also seems to have a lower alcohol content than the 12 & 8yr so will not be going there again. The 8yr is again IMO unchanged which is good. Not touching the 21yr at all. Between the 8 & 12 it's a toss up. I go back and forth and can't seem to settle on either one??? Which I like since I get bored easily!

I did not think that Cuba allowed the use of additives. What is the source citing sugar added? I don't have solid facts, but I am curious. Anything that can be shared is appreciated.

DB,

Well, I've tried to read their DOP without finding anything.

Around a year ago I read that max sugar was 15gpl. The fatrumpirate have written 20gpl some years ago and CocktailWonk says no additives in his book.

So it's probably that added sugar isn't allowed and that the allowance of sugar is so called natural sugar.

Cause there is sugar in their products.

According to HC's own site is the only one without sugar, the Proffessional D. All others have between 4-10gpl except for Pacto Novio that have more, but still below 20gpl.

Some examples: 7yo-4gpl, SdM-5gpl, 15yo-5gpl, Union-7gpl, Maximo-8gpl, Tributo-10gpl

Thanks Stefan, I appreciate that summary!