Foamy head on rum and coke

[Toxxyc]

OK so I'm pretty sure this has been answered before, but I can't find it. I like rum, both neat and with coke. I have friends who all want to have "rum and coke" with rum I'm making, and I've made a few good rums before. However, they all lack that distinctive foamy "head" on top of the drink when you pour coke on it.

So, ignoring the fact that "decent spirits should be consumed as is" and blah blah blah, what gets that foamy head on the rum? I've made a rum before, using 50/50 brown sugar and animal feed molasses (great stuff), mixed with water and nutrients and fermented down to an 8% ABV wash. This I distilled slowly and pulled good hearts, so the base spirit was good.

I then sweetened it with molasses (food molasses) and some sugar to a nice dark, sweet rum that I ended up spicing. I thought the sugary molasses would create the foamy top I wanted in the rum, but it didn't. At all.

So how does one get that foamy head on the rum?

[Saltbush Bill]

Do all Rums do that or only some ? Ive noticed that Bundaberg Rum does it.......my own Rum seems to do it to a lesser extent but only after its been on oak for a long time......maybe it has to do with oaking.

[Toxxyc]

Do all Rums do that or only some ? Ive noticed that Bundaberg Rum does it.......my own Rum seems to do it to a lesser extent but only after its been on oak for a long time......maybe it has to do with oaking.

I know Captain Morgan's Dark Rum does it (yes, but I like it). I've also seen some other dark rums do it, like The Kraken (one of my more favourite sipping rums). I've read online and found no specific answer, but someone else also mentioned that it could possibly be due to the aging on oak, so maybe you're on point there.

When you say "on oak for a long time", what do you mean? I know in terms of whisky, "a long time" usually means YEARS of aging, like 3 years or more. I know this differs from region to region as well as spirit base, but I'm in South Africa so the climate will help with extraction quite a bit (I know it doesn't equal aging, just saying). I'm totally open to aging on oak for a few months, perhaps even a year or more, but I need to know how long I'll be locking it up for...

[Saltbush Bill]

I notice it becomes more noticeable after a couple of years .....both Rum and UJ.

[Toxxyc]

OK so years it'll be. Also, what's UJ? Sorry, I'm new.

[Expat]

OK so years it'll be. Also, what's UJ? Sorry, I'm new.

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... f=14&t=725

[Toxxyc]

Ah, thought you meant the UJSSM, yes, just wanted to make sure, thanks!

[8Ball]

I may have read a thread on here where some one added a little dunder to their rum for a foamy effect. Not sure.

[Hogo]

Hi,
I have done a bit of reading on this over the years and I'm pretty sure that they use caramel, this gives a bitterness that offsets the sweetness of the coke giving that 'rum'n'coke' flavour. I also think they use an aged, heavy style rum.
And if you're making your own caramel, the longer you cook it, the more intense the bitterness and darker it will be.

Hope this helps.

[contrahead]

That reminds me; I haven't made any caramel coloring for 8-9 years. Don't use any. It's super easy to make though. You could make enough to color a gallon of spirit, with a spoon of sugar, drop of water and a blowtorch. Just heat it up until it turns almost black. A few drops goes a long way, for tinting purposes.

what gets that foamy head on the rum?

You probably don't need your highball blowing up in your face. But your question made me think of a reaction that kids were getting a few years back, when everyone was dropping 'Altoids' or “Mentos” into liter sized Diet Coke bottles - making them erupt or geyser up.

There seems to be no consensus on why the reaction works though.

Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi apparent have abundant CO2 and extra phosphoric acid. Mentos and Altoids candies both have Gum Arabic as an ingredient. One of the candies also usually has a pitted or pock marked surface. Some believe that the pitted surface encourages bubble nucleation. Others believe that Gum Arabic dramatically reduces the surface tension of the liquid, which makes it much easier for the CO2 to escape.

Possibly the reaction requires of all three to work well: extra CO2 and /or phosphoric acid, pitted surface for fast bubble nucleation and Gum Arabic to change the surface tension.

[Toxxyc]

Aww man, I saw this quote pop up in my feed and hoped someone had solved the foamy head thing for me. Bummer. I still can't replicate it (but the rum I make these days tastes awesome), but I also don't really care anymore.

[Yummyrum]

Aww man, I saw this quote pop up in my feed and hoped someone had solved the foamy head thing for me. Bummer. I still can't replicate it (but the rum I make these days tastes awesome), but I also don't really care anymore.

Thats the attitude Toxxyc

Long as you like it … they can all go …..

[HDNB]

suspect the ph is raised with sodium hydroxide, the dark rums that foam all contain trace amounts of sodium.

it would play into the saponification chemistry, assuming they are heavy into the rum oils and tails oil talked about on a few rum recipes here.

iff'n i was guessing, any how.