Clairin is a strong spirit, similar to rum

Rum

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

, made from cane sugar. Clairin is only produced in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

.
Clairin is produced during the same process of distillation as rum, although it is not refined to separate the different alcohols produced by fermentation

Fermentation (biochemistry)

Fermentation is the process of extracting energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, using an endogenous electron acceptor, which is usually an organic compound. In contrast, respiration is where electrons are donated to an exogenous electron acceptor, such as oxygen,...

 and exhaustion.

In both Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...

's novel Tell My Horse (p. 213) and Jacques Roumain

Jacques Roumain

Jacques Roumain was a Haitian writer, politician, and advocate of Communism. He is considered one of the most prominent figures in Haitian literature. Although poorly known in the English-speaking world, Roumain has significant following in Europe, and is renowned in the Caribbean and Latin America...

's Gouverneurs de la Rosée (Masters of the Dew) clairin features prominently in a vodou ritual, however, it is consumed outside of that context as well.

External links

• Description of manufacture