Strength Rum
When you think of Navy strength rum, think overproof gunpowder test. See, the Royal British Navy used to give sailors a daily “tot” of rum. A tot is about eight ounces (one cup). To make sure the rum was not cut with water (its strength weakened) they would put some rum on gunpowder and attempt to ignite it, and if it ignited, the rum was over 114 proof (or over 57 percent alcohol).
Fun Facts About Rum
›Rum has gone by many names such as: Barbados water, demon water, grog, kill-devil, Nelson’s blood, rhumbooze, rumbowling, rumbullion, rumbustion, and splice the main brace.
›On January 15, 1919, at the U.S. Industrial Alcohol Company in Boston, Massachusetts, a cast-iron tank holding 400,000 gallons of molasses ruptured, creating a sixteen-foot-tall sticky tsunami through the Atlantic railway station, lifting a train off the track, injuring a hundred fifty people, killing twelve horses and twenty-one people, until it finally rested as a lake of molasses in North End Park.
›Bacardi has the largest rum distillery in the world, located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you visit by cruise ship, skip the expensive excursion to tour the distillery. Instead, just pay twenty-five cents to ride the ferry. You can see the distillery where the cruise ships dock.
›August is National Rum Month.
›Most rum is produced in the Caribbean and almost every island produces rum.
›Jamaica’s Wray & Nephew overproof rum is the world’s highest proof rum at 63 percent.
›In 1943, the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck drank cachaça, and in the same theater feature, Saludos Amigos (Spanish for “Greetings, Friends”) Disney introduced a new character from Brazil named José Carioca.
›The most expensive rum is a 1940 bottle of J. Wray & Nephew. It is valued at $54,000.
South of the Border: Tequila
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A Brief History of Tequila
The history of tequila is a short one. In the 1300s, the Aztecs used the agave plant to make an alcoholic beverage called pulque. In 1531, Spanish settlers—with knowledge of distillation—distilled the pulque. They called it mexcalli (mezcal).
Farmers loading harvested blue agave for tequila production; 2013 Tequila; Jalisco, Mexico. © T Photography / Shutterstock
In 1758, Spain’s King Ferdinand VI issued a land grant to Don Jose Antonio de Cuervo to cultivate the blue agave plant in the town of Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico. In 1795, Spain’s King Carlos IV granted a permit to produce tequila commercially to his son Jose Guadalupe de Cuervo. (Spanish King Carlos III prohibited alcohol, so it took thirty-seven years to start commercial production). Tequila was known as “mezcal de Tequila” until 1893 and was sold by the barrel. Cuervo’s first bottled tequila was sold in 1906. The Cuervo family in modern times is wicked wealthy.
Today there are over 2,000 brands of tequila. Celebrities who have their own tequila brands include George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, Sean Combs, Mario Lopez, Carlos Santana, and Sammy Hagar.
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