Sipping tradition: How a family-owned distillery is bringing Puerto Rican sugarcane back

A trip to the idyllic island of Puerto Rico may include a tour of the popular Bacardi distillery just across the bay from the iconic Old San Juan area.

It's natural that when visiting the place responsible for producing more than 70% of the rum sold in the U.S., you would immediately think of Bacardi, the largest rum distillery in the world.

Outside of rum-producing mega-corporations like Bacardi or Don Q (produced in the southern town of Ponce), there has been a resurgence of small, artisanal brands.

With just a bit more planning, you can venture off the beaten path and discover a unique rum and distillery experience.

About 22 miles west of San Juan in Vega Alta is San Juan Artisan Distillers (SJAD), the first and only Puerto Rican distillery growing its own sugarcane and producing its own rum.

After the Great Recession, founder and president José "Pepe" Álvarez, originally in the agriculture industry, thought it was time to try something different.

His son and head distiller, José Roberto Álvarez, explained: “There had been a long history in Puerto Rico of sugarcane planting. We exported sugar all over the world.”

Though the sugarcane industry collapsed by the 2000s, Puerto Rico “used to be covered in sugarcane farms.”

“There even was a train that went around the island, picking up sugarcane from the farms and taking it to the sugar mills. So, it's a very nostalgic and cultural aspect of our heritage that completely disappeared,” Álvarez said.

Their goal was to create a higher-quality product by sourcing it from sugarcane juice, a French style of making rum.

As operations took in 2017, tragedy struck when Hurricane Maria demolished 50 to 70 acres of their sugarcane farm.

With that setback, in the interim, they launched their Tres Clavos brand – originally using sourced rum from the Dominican Republic following Maria, but using locally sourced fruit – which is inspired by chichaíto (Puerto Rican moonshine).

Once back on their feet, the Tres Clavos brand became a Caribbean blended rum as they started using half of their own rum and half from the Dominican Republic.

When the sugarcane farms recovered, they were able to launch their Ron Pepón brand, made completely from their own sugarcane juice, which has a grassy, fruity and “more funky” flavor profile than rum that is widely traditional on the island.

Álvarez says American culture is also much more familiar with rum made from molasses or sugar, which highlights more caramel and vanilla notes.

Disposing of the waste after making rum from molasses or sugar is also more difficult, costly and harmful to the environment than disposing of used sugarcane juice.

Tour guide Alejandra Torres Zayas explained that historically, producers would dispose of the waste into the ocean, not realizing the environmental hazard. Now, there are government-approved ways to dispose of it, but because of SJAD’s method, they are able to put it back in the land and use it as fertilizer.

Their efforts have been paying off. SJAD’s Ron Agrícole earned a gold medal at the Fifty Best White Rums 2021 and double gold in 2022 .

Those who do make the visit outside of San Juan to the distillery see firsthand the “family vibe” and “personal attention,” Álvarez believes.

“People really like to see the whole picture, the farm, the milling, the distillery, the manufacturing,” Álvarez said.

People always “arrive happy and leave happier.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sipping tradition: How a family-owned distillery is bringing Puerto Rican sugarcane back