JULY-AUGUST_2016-FinalLR

ROUSES.COM

PROFILE

traditional botanicals that are in gin. It

makes it great for martinis, gin and tonic.

ROB:

I’m interested in howyouwent fromrum

to whiskey. LA 1 was the first legal, Louisiana

produced, AGED whiskey since Prohibition.

What made you decide to do a whiskey?

BETH:

That was the brainchild of my

husband Tom and Tyson, our master

distiller. I was not a whiskey drinker until

we made our whiskey, and it was so good

and smooth. I do like a good drink made

with the whiskey, but I prefer it on the rocks.

ROB:

Location has a lot to do with whiskey

distillation. How does Louisiana’s geography

and weather affect whiskey distillation?

BETH:

It helps out quite a bit. It speeds up the

aging process. It’s so hot we don’t turn on the

air conditioning in the

warehouse.We

just use

the natural heat to heat up the barrels.

ROB:

For how long?

BETH:

We age the whiskey for one year.

ROB:

I’m not sure our readers outside

this area are familiar with legend of the

rouxgaroux, the Cajun werewolf, and

namesake of your rum. Can you give us

some background?

BETH:

Our partner Jennifer Peltier, is

the one who came up with the name

Rougaroux. She’s not even from south

Louisiana! She grew up in Arkansas.

It’s such a fun story, and it describes the

culture here so well because it’s the Cajun

boogieman. You have the Sasquatch, and

different areas of the country have their

own version of the boogie man. Well, here

in the sugar cane fields and in the swamps

we have rougaroux, which is the Cajun

boogie man. We thought with the story we

could follow along the lines of our product.

Rougaroux has a curse that lasts 101 days, so

we thought let’s do a clear rum over proof

rum that’s 101 proof. The rougaroux comes

out on full moon so lets name our dark rum

Rougaroux full moon. The 13 pennies we

thought, how cool is that? The legend has it

that if you place 13 objects outside the door

or window, the rougaroux can only count to

12. 13 wards the Rougaroux away because it

gets confused. It can’t count past 12.That’s a

fun story. We even have 13 pennies outside

of our distillery.

ROB:

Share the difference between your

Rouxgaroux rums: Full Moon Dark,

Sugarshine and 13 Pennies? Would you

recommend one over the other for certain

cocktails, say a dark and stormy or a daiquiri

or mojito, or is it more a matter of preference?

BETH:

The Full Moon is more of a whiskey

sippers rum because it’s very smooth. It

makes a great dark and stormy, and it

mixes well. It also tastes great on the rocks.

Sugarshine is our clear rum. We call it rum

moonshine. It’s very bold. 13 Pennies is our

praline rum. It has a nice pecan flavor to

it —we use local pecans, of course. It’s got

a little bit of sweetness to it from the cane

syrup—we get that up the road in Schriever

—and the right amount of vanilla. It’s great

for mixed drinks, and of course it’s great to

cook with. I use it for Bananas Foster, crème

brulée, when I make a pecan

pie.We

actually

have pralines that we sell from the distillery

that they make with the praline rum.

ROB:

You mentioned your master distiller

here in Thibodaux.

BETH:

Yes,Tyson Frizzell. Let me introduce

you.

ROB:

Hi, Tyson What does the master

distiller do?

TYSON FRIZZELL:

I come up with all the

recipes and design the proofs. A proof is the

alcohol content.

ROB:

How do I become a master distiller?

It sounds like a great job.

TYSON:

The best way would be to get a

fermentation background or a chemistry

background. Of course it’s very important

to have a good palate.

ROB:

What is the distilling process for each

spirit?

TYSON:

The basic process of distilling is you

brew the wash or mash, which is where you

convert the starch into sugar, then you add the

yeast,which converts it to alcohol.You’re taking

that percentage of alcohol and evaporating it.

For the whiskey we blow 160 proof. For the

vodka you have to be over 190 proof.

ROB:

Can anyone see how all of this is

made?

BETH:

Absolutely. We’ll give you a tour of

the actual process of distilling any of the

spirits we make. We have tours Monday

through Saturday, and our tasting room is

open, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,

10am to 6pm, Thursday and Friday, 10am

to 8pm, and Saturdays noon to 8pm.

ROB:

Thank you for your time.

BETH:

Cheers.

“We live in the middle of sugar cane country. The raw ingredient

for our rum is right outside our doors. The rice for our vodka, gin

and whiskey is grown just two hours away in Reyne. ”