LAST year’s widely advertised “best job on earth” at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia could have been offered by this spot on Samui. Visitors from around the globe packed in to see and taste if a lifetime of free rum on a paradise island would beat one without a rum distillery.

There were no thoughts of job openings, though, when delegates to the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) meeting, held during the 2010 Samui Coconut Fair, visited Magic Alambic Rum Distillery at the south of Koh Samui in Namuang, between Lamai and Taling. The 250 delegates from over 25 countries visited Alambic to check one of the finest coconut end products: coconut rum.

The basic purpose of the APCC meeting was to explore more products one can make out of coconut and the technologies available.

APCC consists of 17 countries in Asia-Pacific but over 25 countries participated in the meeting, including Russia, which isn’t even seen as coconut land.

“This is a global international conference and it’s taken very seriously. Our main task is to diversify, add value and increase production of coconut products,” said Romulo N. Arancon Jr., executive director of the Indonesia-based APCC. “Coconut rum itself is a unique new product,” he added.

Mr. Arancon also noted: “There seems to be so many different ways people are using coconut in their cooking here (Samui) that many of them seem original to the island.”

Arancon said coconut water might be the next popular dehydrated sports energy drink that the world will be drinking. And Thailand could well produce this. After all, Arancon pointed out, “most of us know the history of the sport drink Red Bull, whose origin is also Thailand.”

For Magic Alambic Rum Distillery, interest in coconut rum could mean some serious future schooling and consulting opportunities; after all, it’s the only rum distillery in Thailand.

Alambic director Elisa Gabrel said their coco rum uses ingredients that are sourced locally including not only coconut but also sugar cane. “Depending on the seasonal rainfall, we use trusted suppliers from the whole breadth of the Thai mainland.

Our experience allows us to immediately know if the sugar cane meets our high standards and we have been known to turn deliveries away. We are not a large wholesaler and believe
in quality over quantity,” Ms. Gabrel said.

“In contrast to industrial distilleries, we carefully select our sugar cane by mixing three types of cane so that we obtain agricultural rum of exceptional quality. After we have extracted the sugar cane juice, we let it ferment without either yeasts or molasses. Once the fermentation process is completed, the fermented juice is distilled in a special alembic, which was expressly made in France for distilling sugar cane without either colorants or fruit essences,” Gabrel added.

The rum produced using this process is placed in a stainless steel vat for a period ranging from six months to six years in order to refine its taste.

It’s then bottled at the strength of 40 percent ABV [alcohol by volume], in accordance with Thai regulations.

“Our rum is bottled on the premises, and for our flavored agricultural rum we use only natural juices – pineapple, lemon, orange and APCC’s favorite – coconut,” Gabrel said.

After digging little deeper, it comes clear why there aren’t more rum distilleries around.

Legal process is a daunting task; the stock could be verified by Bangkok authorities without a warning and by local regulators within a day’s notice. Alcohol must be clear in color, which means that process has to be going 100 percent right every time; otherwise, it means that the product can’t go to the market.

Frequent visitors are the salt of the business as rum is sold from the premises as well as from Samui hotels, bars and restaurants around the island.

Magic Alambic gets its regular visitors from around the world, rarely from big groups like the APCC, but its three fully equipped bungalows and the pool invite customers for quieter, enjoyable nights.

If you want to travel there by yourself, the easiest way is to turn toward the beach next to Namuang waterfall crossing, follow the road about two kilometers and turn left. Drive 150 meters and it’s there.

Running a rum distillery on Samui is maybe not necessarily the best job on earth but also not crucially too far from it. More info can be had by visiting its website www.rhumdistillerie.com.