Independent bottler Bira! is putting Vancouver on the rum map with its limited releases of rare global sugar-cane spirits

The taste of a 15-year-old spirit from a historic distillery in Guyana woke Karl Mudzamba’s tastebuds up to rum. The Zimbabwe native was playing pro rugby in New Zealand when a friend brought him the bottle. One sip and he thought, “Wow, I wonder what else is out there,” he recalls. “So I got curious, and started trying as many rums from around the world as possible.” Among them were some unusual regional, small-batch artisanal bottlings.

Now based in Vancouver, Mudzamba has continued to chase his passion for unique, flavourful global rums by starting Bira! Rum. When it launched four years ago, it was the only so-called independent bottler (IB) of rum in Canada.

Bira! bottles stand out on a bar or liquor store shelf. Clean, modern labels, featuring the outline of a dancer from Mudzamba’s Shona culture, describe production details about each rum and its origins. “At the beginning I actually tried to find the ugliest bottles I could,” Mudzamba laughs, noting that his wife and business partner, Natasha, pushed for the attractive, modern packaging. “To show that it’s not about the bottle, but what’s inside.”

True craft spirit

Long established in the world of Scotch whisky, independent bottlers are key in bringing rare drams and offerings from small or defunct distilleries to market. IBs typically bottle spirits in an authentic, unadultered state: very small-batch or even single-cask expressions, no colouring or additives (common and legal in much of the spirits world) and frequently at a higher alcohol by volume (ABV) to showcase signature flavours and aromas. Like many IBs, Bira! does not chill-filter its spirits (a common industry practice to ensure spirits don’t go cloudy when chilled, but one that many believe strips some flavour and texture from the liquid).

Bira! is a brand that wants to reach beyond the Caribbean and West Indies to find rarer rum styles, including those distilled from fresh sugar-cane juice or syrup, as well as stellar molasses-based rums. Bira! rums defy the misconception that rum should be sweet, fruity and served in umbrella-garnished cocktails. “When I pour a taste, people say, ‘This is not rum.’ People think rum is like the wild cousin of the spirits world, but it can sit at the table with the most elegant Scotch or Cognac.”

The first Bira! release was from Fiji; Mudzamba is casting his eye to Asian producers and recently did a tasting of the Mexican sugar-cane spirit charanda. As an African, Mudzamba takes particular pride in two releases from South Africa’s Mhoba Rum, a sugar-cane-juice distillery near Kruger National Park that he recently visited. “That’s the fun part of this whole business for me: going to a distillery and meeting the people,” Mudzamba raves. “The distiller there is a genius. He grows the sugar cane, cuts it by hand, built all his own equipment … craft is an overused word in spirits, but this is as craft as you get.”

Cultural spirit

Canadian imbibers are unlikely to sample such spirits without an IB as middleman. With a current day job and professional background in international container shipping, Mudzamba has the required savvy to bring them to market. The Mudzambas and a small cadre of trusted tasters sip global samples to select future Bira! releases. They import small batches of around 1,000 litres that are tested and bottled in Canada. Nothing is added except perhaps a bit of water, once the Mudzambas target an ideal ABV for neat sipping.

Rave reviews on influential global blogs have helped put Bira! on the rum map. In Vancouver, The Keefer Bar, The Shameful Tiki Room and Calabash Bistro are spots with Bira! behind the bar, and half a dozen private liquor stores in B.C. plus several in Alberta stock its bottlings. (Find a listing at birarum.com.)

When Mudzamba guides tasting and educational sessions for the drinks industry and the public, he returns to the meaning of that Shona figure on the label. Bira, the cultural ceremony from which the brand takes its name, is a family gathering for Zimbabwe community. Generations eat, drink and dance from dusk to dawn, with elders acting as spiritual guides to relay messages between the living and ancestors.

Evoking Bira means “that when we share a drink, have a conversation, we can get deep and spiritual,” Mudzamba says. “Rum is about connection. Rum is about community.”

—by Charlene Rooke