Mount Gay Rum: breaking barriers in science and spirits
Trudiann Branker is the first woman to lead Mount Gay Rum’s blending room. She discusses the importance of supporting more women to pursue STEM subjects, how she balances tradition with modern influences when making rum, and her commitment to ensuring the next generation of master blenders can continue the 300-plus-year legacy of Mount Gay Rum.
In 2019, Trudiann Branker made history by becoming the first woman master blender for Mount Gay Rum in the brand’s 300-plus-year history. It marked not just a significant moment for the Barbadian brand, but for its island home of Barbados, too.
“Being the first female master blender from Mount Gay is quite an accomplishment, but the bigger accomplishment is ensuring that I am not the last female master blender that Mount Gay has,” Branker stressed in the latest episode of The Spirits Business Podcast.
Science and education have been key driving forces behind Branker’s success in the rum world, particularly her background in chemistry.
It is known, however, that the percentage of women pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and careers is significantly lower compared with men. In the UK, for example, according to stemwomen.com, only 31% of core STEM students in higher education were women in 2023.
“I was always very interested in the sciences,” Branker said. She studied chemistry at Howard University before entering the local beer industry in Barbados. “It was really there that I was able to then hone in by participating in different areas, specific to growing that organoleptic ability to taste, the ability to nose, to understand how each step in the process then impacts the final product,” she added, and continued: “That was really one of my specialities, you know, really understanding fermentation and what happened behind fermentation, and where those congeners are built before they’re nurtured through distillation and maturation.
“For me, it’s very much a circular process where I discovered what could be, and then went on to really hone the specific skills needed to be able to be a meaningful part of this industry.”
Branker believes representation matters enormously when it comes to encouraging more women to pursue STEM fields. Branker credits influential women who paved the way before her, such as Joy Spence, master blender at Jamaican rum Appleton Estate, for the improvements she has seen across the industry during her career so far.
“Not only do we hold them in a minority, but in addition to holding them in a minority, we are often not put in a position, or not all given a position or a platform where we can say something about what we do, or can encourage persons to be part of this industry and to go into it by choosing that path,” Branker said.
“We still got some work to do, as I sad at the beginning; [we’ve] definitely still got our work cut out for us, but [there are] definitely major differences between a decade ago.”
The full podcast episode with Branker is available to listen to on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.
Alternatively, use the Acast link below.
Recent episodes have included Georgie Bell, co-founder of independent whisky bottler The Heart Cut, Dan Szor, founder of English spirits producer the Cotswolds Distillery, and a live recording of a panel discussion focused on supporting and safeguarding women in hospitality, which is also available to watch on YouTube.
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