Tim Lamb: CEO and co-founder of Burdekin Rum
TRL: What was the biggest challenge you faced in launching your rum brand, and how did you overcome it?
One of the issues with Australian rum is the fact that we’ve got a two-year-in-wood rule (similar to scotch whisky). What we can sell as an unaged rum elsewhere in the world, with the name rum or rhum – in Australia, it’s got to actually have been sitting in a wooden container for two years for me to call it rum. So for Burdekin, in our products that are less than two years old in wood, we call them ‘cane spirit’ – virgin cane spirit for the unaged and vintage cane spirit for the aged less than two years. Even though we can call them rum like everyone else in the world. Also, Australia is a high-wage country as well, so you know, relative to say the Philippines or Mexico in producing rum, we have a significantly higher cost base so we must play in the premium side of the market.
TRL: How do you see the rum market evolving in the next 5-10 years, and what trends do you think will shape the future of the industry?
I would answer this in two parts. Firstly, I think there’s a huge focus on consumers around sustainability, and the number one thing that Rum has above all the other spirits (given its involvement in sugarcane production) is that the actual production of sugarcane results in a reduction in CO2 in the atmosphere. I think that is the number one marketing we should all be doing in the Rum world: if you want to be environmentally friendly, you drink rum.
Secondly, rum has a tradition going back hundreds of years across Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean, French and English cultures. I really think there’s an opportunity for innovation in space and specifically around provenance or terroir. Cane rum specifically can only be produced in sugarcane-producing countries. I think the most significant thing would be to really promote those traditional sugarcane regions – and Australia is one. And then I think consumer palates will develop, with this education, and the farm-to-bottle, sustainable nature of rhum/rum will become evident in consumer preferences.
TRL: Can you share a personal experience or moment that significantly influenced your brand’s direction?
Early on, we did a brand exercise, and we all talked about the moment when you’ve invited someone to your house, and you’re about to serve them a drink, or you’ve gone to the bar, and you said, “I’ll get the drinks” for everyone. At that moment, you’re in a bit of a risky situation, and everyone is expecting something special to be served. As a team, we really took that to heart and wanted a Burdekin Rum or Burdekin cocktail to be the drink that inspired everyone and could be appreciated by all who taste it.
TRL: How do you balance tradition with innovation in your approach to rum-making or marketing?
On a mission to capture the endless flavours and fragrances all around us in North Australia, we look beyond tradition. We incorporate the best influences and techniques from traditional French Caribbean and beyond. Burdekin Distillery’s spirits deliver a fresh take on Australian rum.
In terms of traditions, we look primarily to French Caribbean style rum/rhum Agricole style – obviously, we don’t call it that as it’s a controlled name, but we use some of the systems that you might find in Mauritius or in Martinique, where we try to source the cane and molasses as close as we can to our distillery. Most of our rum we describe as having an “elegant, refined” flavour profile. We try, and we’re not seeking to be a big, heavy ester style of rum, so we are in the more restrained rum flavour profile.
Having said that, our product very much reflects our north Australian terroir and its climatic conditions, cane varieties and our interpretation of the traditional methods outlined above.
TRL: What are some recent initiatives or products you’ve launched that have been particularly impactful?
Burdekin Rum, a premium Australian distillery based in North Queensland, has been awarded World’s Best Unaged Rum 2025 at the prestigious San Francisco International Wine & Spirits Competition for its Second Giru Cane Rum, the “Coral Sea Strength”. This single-origin unaged rum received 98 points, a Double-Gold medal, and was named a finalist for Best of Class – Unaged Rum. On 10 November 2025, this rum was officially crowned the World’s Best Unaged Rum. The award-winning spirit is an unaged rum made from locally grown Burdekin sugarcane, cut and crushed in Giru, North Queensland. From farm to bottle, it’s a true expression of the region’s terroir.
In Spring 2024, we cut whole sticks of local Giru sugarcane. Crushed in the paddock, we applied our
signature yeast blend and distilled in a single pass in our Frilli hybrid still. Bottled at British Navy (Coral Sea Strength) of 54.5% strength, this is one for aficionados. True French Caribbean style, it retains signature Burdekin elegance, but at higher proof with a more intense flavour. A limited edition of 600 bottles only, with a further 600 bottles destined for the USA market.
TRL: How do you educate consumers about your rum, and what’s the most important lesson they should take away?
As you know, there’s a huge variety of rums and Rum and cane rums around the world. For us, we have an elegant, refined flavour profile, perhaps less estery and drier than many traditional Rum styles. We have no additives at all, and our spirit reflects our region. Our spirits are able to be sipped neat or on ice, but pair equally well with cocktails, with fresh cane providing an aromatic nose.
As a sugar cane producing country, I think Australia, and Burdekin specifically, has got a provenance statement we can make. We don’t have the constraint of a GI, so we can innovate more than traditional rums. We do have a paddock-to-plate, farm-to-table type of provenance. For us, there’s no distillery 400 kilometres north or South – so we have the Burdekin cane, which is the highest brix, the highest quality cane in Australia. So I think for us we have a real opportunity to talk about that terroir and provenance, and especially in cane juice rum. Tasting Burdekin is the taste of Australia.
TRL: How do you manage quality and consistency as your brand grows and enters new markets?
The founders own the site at which our Distillery is located, and we have recently opened our purpose-built distillery. We have a great relationship with farmers who provide cane to us, and so our quality and consistency in terms of feedstock process, etc, is really well managed. We also source our mineral water from underneath our farm, which we cut our spirits with.
I think education of our representatives and agents in offshore markets – we will need to spend some time doing that as we grow, so they understand our process.
Effectively, as a single-origin north Australian product gives us a high-level of consistency, reflects our terroir and the quality of our brand.
TRL: Can you share a collaboration or partnership that helped elevate your brand to new levels?
Look, I think Dawn Davies and the whisky exchange in the UK have been fantastic for us. We got some samples to Dawn, and obviously we had a positive view of our own juice, but after her tasting, the whisky exchange took us on, and they’ve ranged all our distillery editions as well. I think that we’d rather be in the best venues and best retailers in each market, rather than taking a blanket approach to retailing. When you talk to the staff in the whisky exchange, they are all extremely knowledgeable. They’re known for quality spirits and really looking after their consumers. That’s the exact sort of collaboration that we love to undertake in each market we’re in.
TRL: What is your long-term vision for your rum brand, and how do you see your role in the evolution of the rum industry?
We are a super/ultra premium brand, and we want to bring the beauty and botanicals of North Queensland, Australia, to the world and be known for our spirits of provenance.
TRL: What’s one piece of educational advice you would give rum lovers to better understand the spirit?
I would listen to those parties who understand rum well and read their writing – Virginia Miller in the USA, Dave Broom in the UK, Matt Pietrek of rumwonk.com, Fred Siggins journalist in Australia and then listening to people like Dani Dalla Polla, Garnett Phillip, Mitch Wilson, Mr & Mrs Rum in Australia, Pavel Ungr in Czechia, Walter Aguilar of Colombia. Lastly, go to a rum congress and meet and chat to some people!
TRL: How can people learn more about you? Website? Social media page?
https://www.instagram.com/burdekinrum
https://www.facebook.com/burdekinrum
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