El Dorado has over a dozen different stills of various kinds, allowing them to get different aromas according to the use of one still or another.
I had the opportunity during my visit to see all of them and this absolutely helped me to understand the quality of their rum which is a subtle blend of rums issued from different stills and aged from 3 to 25 years old.
There are 2 mains types of distillation : the continuous distillation (coffey stills, Savalle, 5 columns…) and batch distillation (pot stills)
Continuous distillation
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Savalle stills made of 4 columns : the boiler, the purifying, the rectifier and a small one aldehyde column. This Savalle can produce 9 different types of rums.
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The EHP wooden coffey still is the last operating still of its kind in the world and produces flavorful medium-bodied rums
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A 5-columns still made of an analyser, a pre-rectifier column, an Exhaust column, an extractive column and a rectifier, and which produces light rums and neutral alcohol
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Coffey stills made of metal (stainless steel and copper) and more efficient than the wooden one
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Tri Canada which produces a neutral alcohol
A Batch distillation
3 kinds of pot stills which produce very aromatic heavy-bodied rums :
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Double wooden pot still – Port Mourant (from 1732) made in copper and wood
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Single wooden pot still – VSG produces slightly lighter rum than the double pot
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High ester pot still produces sweet rums
The degree of alcohol issued from pot stills is between 84% and 86% whereas the column distillation produces an alcohol of 90-95%
Next stop : the distillery of Saint Lucia, which produces Chairman Reserve, 1931, Admiral Rodney, Bounty and a lot of other products…
Kiss kiss boum boum
LOLO
