When was rum created

Brandy was one of the early spirits to step up and fill the need for lower volume with a higher punch, but as the trade routes allowed for increased supply of sugar a new spirit became a fast-favorite of slave traders, slaves and explorers alike. Given the perfect climate of Barbados, explorer Richard Ligon brought in sugar cane expertise from Brazil including equipment, slaves and, most importantly, distillation know-how.

In less than 10 years the sugar barons of Barbados became some of the richest in the world, with a prospering sugar and rum export industry. While the poor drank it straight, others began mixing it with sugar, lime and other ingredients to make early rum punches and cocktails.

As time went on, there are indications of the spirit also being referred to as Rumbullion or Rumbustion. Both of these terms meant upheaval or violent commotion — likely for the effect that this spirit had on those who drank it. Eventually shortened to Rum we have our modern name for this spirited drink. Around this same time in the mids there were roughly 3, colonists living in New England. When they first settled, roughly 20 years earlier, there were dreams of a mediterranean bounty coming from this new world.

It was a tough revelation and to make matters worse there was also a beer shortage in England. They started to try to make alcohol from anything that grew there…pumpkins, apples, twigs, you name it.

Some of it was somewhat successful but nothing scratched their itch for drink the way the introduction of rum from Barbados and the other Caribbean islands did. Yay rum! You see, rum was much cheaper than the little bit of brandy they were importing due to the shorter trade routes and cheaper ingredient base of molasses given, outside of wartime, it had relatively low demand compared to the supply available.

Plus, rum was quite a bit stronger. Cheaper and stronger?! Rum quickly became the drink of choice in New England, warming the colonists from the inside during the cold winters and lessening their reliance on European imports.

Soon enough those clever New Englanders got the idea to import molasses, a by-product of the sugar making process, from the islands instead of rum and start distilling themselves. This is now the late s and towns like Salem, Newport, Boston and Medford became rum distillation epicenters with over distilleries by the mid s.

As New Englanders perfected their craft of rum distillation, making it some of the most affordable alcohol on the market, they began to seek more sales outlets. Enter, again, the slave traders who now had an unquenchable thirst for this spirit. Some distilleries in New England were even known to make higher alcohol versions of rum specifically for the slave trade. The ugly answer known as the triangular trade was an act of moving slaves, molasses and rum between Africa, the Caribbean and the Colonies, and sometimes Europe.

This trade route was incredibly profitable and it continued to provide the Colonies with the molasses they were demanding in order to create the rum. Historians have even argued that it was not the tax on Tea that pushed the colonists to war, but the Molasses Act of The Molasses Act, imposed by the British, placed a heavy tax on sugar and molasses coming from anywhere except the British sugar islands in the Caribbean not Barbados.

Another result of the Molasses Act was that it gave way to home grown drinks like American whiskey, which were not taxed by the British. Rum was also a favorite of the British Royal Navy. The addition of water, and lemon juice, minimized the overall effect on the soldiers, and provided a significant health benefit.

This change did not come across so well. Further, by the 19th century, the British substituted the lemons with limes, believing incorrectly that limes were better than lemons for scurvy. One of the more amusing stories we came across during our research was that of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson. The Officers and crew respectfully wanted to return his body to England, but they had to take certain measures to maintain the body without the risk of making others ill.

Nelson, this highly decorated and accomplished leader, was placed inside a cask of rum. Upon arrival in England, the cask was opened and all that remained was the pickled body of Lord Nelson, no rum remained in the cask. It then discovered that the sailors had drilled a hole at the bottom of the cask to get at the rum that was inside.

One theory is that it came from the Latin word for sugar, saccharum, but it may just as well have resulted from someone attempting to pronounce his own name after imbibing too much of this deceptively powerful liquor. Barbados and Puerto Rico both claim to have invented rum in the seventeenth century. Within a century there were nearly distilleries in New England alone.

Rumbullion or Kill Divill, as rum was called in colonial times, is made from sugar cane that is crushed, boiled down into molasses, fermented, and then distilled. Prohibition goes into effect in the United States, banning the manufacturing and sale of alcohol, and the Bacardi bottling facility in New York shuts down.

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In a landmark consumer rights court case, in , the New York Supreme Court declared:. This same year, the prophecy of El Coco becomes a reality when, 98 years since it was first planted by the family outside the Bacardi distillery in , the beloved palm withers and dies.

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