Community & Business
23 December, 2022
Sweet partnership wins big national rum award
A JOINT venture between one of the North’s largest sugar cane mills and a local distillery has brewed success, with Devils Thumb Distillery’s and Far Northern Milling’s alcoholic collaboration being named the Best Cane Spirit at the inaugural Australian Rum Awards recently.
Devils Thumb Distillery is already well known for its internationally acclaimed gin but its focus on quality rum production sparked the partnership with the Mossman Mill, run by Far Northern Milling, and birthed the cane spirit. The spirit has a special raw ingredient of sugar cane juice.
Devils Thumb co-founder and head dis-tiller Mark Norman said cane spirit was made by fermenting and distilling sugar cane juice which was then bottled and sold as unaged spirit or put into barrels for further ageing.
According to Mr Norman, Far Northern Milling’s Peter Dibella has been instrumental in providing access to all the raw ingredients used in Devils Thumb’s cane spirit.
“Far Northern Milling has been an icon-ic business in the Mossman region since 1894 however Devils Thumbs Distillery is the first distillery to produce rum from cane juice in the history of the mill,” Mr Norman said.
Upon hearing the news about the award, Mr Dibella congratulated the team at Devils Thumb and was proud of Far North Milling’s partnership with the distillery.
“Congratulations to Mark and his team for achieving this fantastic result for Best Cane Spirit at the 2022 Australian Rum Awards,” he said.
“Far Northern Milling (Mossman Mill) is proud to be associated with Devils Thumbs Distillery and to support them in any way we can.
“Seeing the natural, first expressed sugar cane juice converted to a high value product in our local region is something we can all be proud of.
“We look forward to a long-term relationship with Devils Thumb Distillery and look forward to seeing them develop and market more high value products.”
From the outset, the defining nature of Devils Thumb and its growing range of gin, cane spirit and aged rum products lies in its native Australian quality, ingredients and distinctive, Far North Queensland sense of place.
