Business View Magazine | May 2019

152 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2019 Louisiana Spirits The Home of Bayou Rum AT A GLANCE LOUISIANA SPIRITS WHAT: A rum distillery WHERE: Lacassine, Louisiana WEBSITE: www.laspirits.net R um is a distilled alcoholic drink made from sugarcane, which is a type of grass. Cane products, such as juice, syrups, sugars, and molasses, are turned into rum by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is drinkable as is, or aged in oak barrels. Rum production occurs worldwide with top producers in the Caribbean, Philippines and India. This fact triggered an idea among three friends in Louisiana - brothers Tim and Trey Litel and Skip Cortese - who wondered, one day, while sitting in a duck blind near the Lacassine Wildlife Refuge, why there wasn’t a vibrant domestic rum business in the United States, given that the Bayou State is one of the largest sugarcane