to fill one bottle.
Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of…Rum
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A Brief History of Rum
Today, 80 percent of the world’s rum is produced in the Caribbean. All spirits start with a plant, and rum starts with a species of grass called sugarcane. But it took sugarcane almost 10,000 years to make it to the Caribbean. And it wasn’t until the mid-1800s when it started tasting decent. Up until then, it was harsh.
Here is the short story. We know sugarcane is indigenous to South Asia, and it is believed that the sweet grass was first domesticated on the island of New Guinea around 8000 BCE. India is known to have first extracted and crystallized the sugary plant around 350 CE, and from there trade merchants brought it to Africa and then Spain.
By the 1400s, there was a huge demand for the “sweet salt” (sugar) in Europe, so the Portuguese began planting sugarcane on the Island of Madeira. They soon realized that it was an extremely labor-intensive task in all processes of growing, harvesting, and production. Slaves were therefore imported. In 1493, Christopher Columbus attempted to bring sugarcane seedlings to the Caribbean, but they did not survive the voyage. Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez was on the ship with Columbus and settled in Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the tiny islands around them) to be of service to Spanish knight and soldier Nicolás Ovando y Cáceres, who a couple years later became the governor of the Indies.
In the 1501, Pedro de Atienza was the first to successfully import sugarcane seedlings to Hispaniola. He harvested his first crop four years later. In 1511, on behalf of Spain, Diego Velázquez conquered Cuba, bringing Hispaniola sugarcane with him. In 1518, a royal decree from Charles V (ruler of the Spanish and Holy Roman Empire) licensed 2,000 slaves to be imported to Hispaniola to work the sugarcane fields.
1595 engraving with modern watercolor of African slaves processing sugarcane to make rum in Hispaniola. © Everett Historical / Shutterstock
And in 1523, another royal decree imported 1,500 slaves to Hispaniola and 2,500 to other Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Portuguese took their production to Brazil and by the mid-1500s, there were almost 3,000 sugar mills. The Dutch started taking sugarcane seedlings to plant on any Caribbean island they could. Barbados and the islands around the Dominican Republic were among the first. By the 1600s, rum in daily rations was common for the Royal Navy.
In 1758, George Washington campaigned for the Virginia House of Burgess by offering free Barbados rum to voters, and he won. In the 1700s, the Caribbean Islands were losing money on their tobacco and cotton crops due to America growing their own, so switching to sugarcane crops solved this problem. Thus began a mass production of Caribbean rum.
In 1810, the first hospital in Sydney, Australia, was financed by local businessmen in return for a contract that licensed them to import 60,000 gallons of rum to sell. The hospital was called Rum Hospital. In addition, in 1862, Don Facundo Bacardi began filtering his Cuban rum through charcoal.
The Top Ten Things to Know About Rum
1.Early America was funded by rum sales. In 1657, the first rum distillery was built in Boston.
2.In 1664, a rum distillery was built in New York City.
3.The Royal British Navy gave sailors a daily ration of rum from 1731 until 1970.
4.Bacardi’s first distillery was in Cuba, not Puerto Rico.
5.No one knows where the word “rum” came from.
6.Eighty percent of rum comes from the Caribbean, but it can be made anywhere in the world.
7.Rum is made from fermented sugarcane juice, sugarcane syrup, or sugarcane molasses, which comes from squeezing, cutting up, and mashing sugarcane stalks. To this day, in many parts of the world, the cane is still crudely harvested by hand with machetes.
8.“Rum and Coca-Cola” by the Andrews Sisters was the number-one song in 1945. The most popular rum cocktails are the Daiquiri, Mojito, Hurricane, Rum Punch, Mai Tai, Dark ’n Stormy, Cuba Libre, Zombie, Planter’s Punch, Piña Colada, and Hot Buttered Rum.
9.Barbados Mt. Gay is the oldest rum company in the world. They have held the oldest surviving deed, dating back to 1703.
10.Brazil grows the most sugarcane in the world and has over 2,000 nicknames for rum.
Types of Rum
There are six categories of rum: light (also called white, silver, or platinum), gold (also called amber), dark (also called black), añejo (also called aged or premium), overproof, and flavored.
Light Rum
Some light rum is distilled and then poured directly into the bottle. This light rum (also called fresh rum) is raw. Fresh distilled rum contains trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas, which makes the rum taste harsh. This is probably close to the way rum tasted in the 1600s.
Most light rum is aged up to a year in oak barrels previously used for aging American and Canadian whiskey. Aging light rum gives it a better taste for a commercial market.
The most popular light rum in the world is Bacardi. Bacardi’s distillery is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and produces 100,000 thousand gallons of rum a day. That amount equates to filling an Olympic-size swimming pool in one week!
Gold Rum
Gold rum is light rum that has been aged in oak barrels until it reaches a golden color. The aging mellows the light rum, resulting in a light-to-medium-bodied rum. It is then filtered and poured into bottles.
Dark Rum
Dark rums are made from the thick black by-product of sugarcane called molasses. After distillation, they are aged in barrels.
Añejo Rum
Añejo is the Spanish word for “aged.” Añejo rum is light rum that has been aged. There are no guidelines for how long to age rum, so the process ends when the rum master determines it is ready. The result is dark, smooth-sipping rum. Añejo rums are compared to Cognac.
Overproof Rum
Overproof rum is just what it sounds like. To be considered overproof it has to be bottled 100 proof or more, which also means bottled at 50 percent alcohol by volume or more. The number-one overproof rum found in most bars is Bacardi 151.
Flavored Rum
Flavored rums are infused with a myriad of flavors. Almost every rum brand has a portfolio of flavored rums.
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Other Things to Know About Rum
Rhum vs. Rum
If you find yourself looking at rum labels, every once in a while you will see rum spelled “rhum.” Rhum is short for rhum agricole, which just means that the rum in that bottle was made from fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice and not with by-products like molasses.
