Kicking Mule Rum
A bold new spirit for River Road
Lucie Monk Carter
Kicking Mule Rum Tom Kliebert
You could easily pass up River Road Distillery if you didn’t know what you were looking for. Around the corner from Paulina Elementary School, just behind a bed and breakfast on Highway 44 and Kliebert Road, sits an old perique tobacco barn that has been in the Kliebert family for over one hundred years.
The idea for River Road Distillery came about the way many epiphanies do: during rum-soaked conversations with rum-soaked friends. Surrounded by sugarcane fields in his ancestral home of Paulina, Louisiana, it didn’t take much for Tom Kliebert to imagine a new purpose for the barn: namely, a rum distillery. Kicking Mule Rum soon manifested as a venture to turn Louisiana sugarcane into something drinkable.
A distilling novice (but an expert drinker), Kliebert sought out the expertise of Luis and Margaret Ayala, Austin-based rum consultants and publishers of Got Rum? magazine, who specialize in helping small craft distilleries get their feet (and whistles) wet. Through a series of phone calls and emails and molasses samples shipped back and forth, the Ayalas helped develop a formula to get the distillery up and running, producing rum made with Paulina sugarcane.
Two years of tinkering and securing the necessary permits later, the distillery launched its flagship Kicking Mule Rum in 2014, an easy-drinking white rum that smoothly subs in for tequila in traditional cocktails.
So what does a Louisiana-style rum taste like? That’s a hard question to answer, said Kliebert, especially when many people have only experienced the big-name rums. “Our rum is not a Bacardi,” he said. “Don’t order it with Coke.”
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Boasting a distinctly vanilla taste with notes of almond, honey, and pepper, Kliebert believes his white rum is best enjoyed in a fruity cocktail or neat, as he prefers it.
Most recently, River Road Distillery released its Kicking Mule Spiced Rum, an amber, cinnamon-laced take on a traditional spiced rum with a Louisiana kick. But it’s no Fireball, Kliebert insisted. “Rums have such different profiles. They run the gamut from something neutral to something that’ll choke you to death,” said Kliebert. “We like to think we’re somewhere in the middle.”
The middle ground allows room for play and discovery, which Kliebert and his wife use to full advantage. Together, they conceptualize many of the cocktail recipes attached to their bottles or served in local restaurants.
From using Steen’s syrup as a replacement for simple syrup to incorporating El Guapo bitters into their take on an old fashioned, the focus is on local.
Distributed by Paul Bologna Fine Wines, Kicking Mule is available across the river parishes, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and even in New Orleans; and it retails in local specialty supermarkets like Matherne’s, Calvin’s Bocage Market, and Calandro’s. In fact, Calandro’s relationship with Paul Bologna and its reputation for stocking local products helped bring Kicking Mule Rum into the Baton Rouge market.
“Rums have such different profiles. They run the gamut from something neutral to something that’ll choke you to death,” said Kliebert. “We like to think we’re somewhere in the middle.”
Blaise Calandro III, manager of digital marketing at Calandro’s, said the store has been stocking Kicking Mule at both of their Baton Rouge locations for the last year and has formed a relationship with Kliebert’s River Road Distillery team.
“We’re always interested in working with these folks and continuing to promote Louisiana agriculture and products,” he said. “They’re doing something local, and we are too. I think people on the whole appreciate that. And it’s a really good rum.”
Baton Rougeans can try Kicking Mule creations on cocktail menus at Beausoleil, Goûter, and City Pork or head to the distillery for a tasting, where the rum retails for around $20.
Kliebert said the demand for his locally produced, small-batch product is growing and that he’s producing it at near full capacity. A legal professional by day, Kliebert runs River Road Distillery part-time and has no plans to ramp up production beyond what he can handle himself. He sees room for growth in experiments with flavored rums and even aging his rum in oak bourbon barrels to give it a more rounded finish.
As it stands, Kliebert’s son tastes each batch of Kicking Mule; his daughter provides legal and design help; and his wife, a CPA, handles the accounting. In a new century, the tobacco barn is home again to a thriving Kliebert family operation.
For a full getaway, check out the Klieberts’ neighboring bed-and-breakfast Auberge du Chêne Vert at aubergeduchenevert.com.
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