http://www.americanheritage.com/events/art...i-pirates.shtml


“Rum is an American term,” the Prohibitionist’s Textbook proclaimed in 1877, “applied to an American invention.” Born in the seventeenth century, rum was one of the first mass-market products manufactured in the New World, and rum making was, after shipbuilding, one of the most important industries of the early colonies.

In his spirited new book, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails (Crown, $24), the travel writer Wayne Curtis enshrines rum in the pantheon of things American. “Rum,” he says, “is the history of America in a glass.”

Rum has a democratic personality that suits an American drink. Of all the spirits it is the least likely to forget its lowly origins. What were those origins? Sugar cane, which had come over with Columbus, thrived in the West Indies. At first planters discarded molasses, the tar-colored byproduct of their sugar refineries. Someone, probably on the island of Barbados, got the idea of letting the stuff ferment and then distilling the mash to produce a drinkable quaff along the lines of brandy. Rum began its life, Curtis notes, as “the distilled essence of fermented industrial waste.”

Rumbullion, as it was called, alias kill-devil, was described in 1651 as “hot, hellish, and terrible.” “The old-fashioned rum Jefferson and Adams ordered would have been cloying, greasy, nasty-smelling stuff,” Curtis reports. Colonists, like generations to come, disguised the flavor in mixed drinks: mimbo, bombo, syllabub, calibogus, and the widely popular flip (beer, rum, and molasses, foamed with a red-hot poker).

Pirates loved rum in any form. Blackbeard, who ravaged shipping off the Carolinas in the early 1700s, had a legendary fondness for it. “Among his cocktails,” Curtis tells us, “was a potion of gunpowder mixed with rum, which he would ignite and swill while it flamed and popped.”

No real-life pirate, though, sang, “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest/Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” Robert Louis Stevenson originated that familiar ditty in Treasure Island. “If I'm not to have my rum now,” Billy Bones laments to young Jim Hawkins, “I'm a poor old hulk on a lee shore.”

Sailors in His Majesty’s Navy were likewise fond of their ration of rum. So fond that Adm. Edward Vernon decreed that onboard rum be diluted four to one with water. This drink, known as grog, was doled out twice a day in the British Navy from 1756 until the custom was finally retired in 1970.

Northern colonists also downed their share of rum, which in 1700 cost about $4 a bottle in current dollars. The average citizen drank five to seven shots of the crude spirit every day. Efforts by the Crown to regulate the molasses trade, and with it the prosperous New England distilling industry, contributed to the tension that culminated in the Revolution.

Curtis dismisses the conventional wisdom about a triangular trade by which New England rum was exchanged for African slaves, who were shipped to the West Indies to produce the molasses that went into making the rum. “Horrifically elegant,” he says, but “as an historical fact, it lacks only one thing: truth.” Rum did not play a large role in the slave trade. The theory was promoted in the nineteenth century by Southerners who wanted to point the finger of hypocrisy at New England abolitionists and by temperance advocates looking for yet another evil to hang on strong drink.

During the nineteenth century, rum faded, a “relic of the old economy.” Grain, formerly in short supply, became increasingly available for making spirits. There was no reason to import molasses to brew what was considered an inferior drink. Whiskey and beer reigned throughout the 1800s.

In 1919 the temperance army won its ultimate victory with the ratification the Eighteenth Amendment. As Curtis notes, “Prohibition, it turned out, was the best thing to happen to rum.” Drinkers were driven south of the border, especially to Cuba, where they made the acquaintance of the rums of the Bacardi family. Using filters of sand and charcoal, the Bacardis produced a light, dry, elegant rum that won new fans.

With repeal, the drink was in a perfect position to retake a respectable chunk of the U.S. market. “This three-hundred-year-old spirit emerged from its century-long slumber into a bright new day.” The daiquiri, “a perfect blend of lime, sugar, rum, and ice,” became popular. The marriage of rum and lime actually went back to the British Navy’s addition of citrus juice to sailors’ grog rations in order to ward off scurvy.

By the end of World War II, rum was suffering another of its periodic falls from fashion. Vodka came in, and “the future belonged to the transparent.” Yet rum was already poised for its most baroque comeback yet. The new trend began in a tiny saloon in Hollywood called Don the Beachcomber and was amplified by the Trader Vic’s chain of grog shops. By the 1950s it was a national sensation—the tiki bar.

“The tiki movement was in large part a reaction to the times,” Curtis notes. The ersatz South Pacific atmosphere created by thatching, wooden masks, and palm tree trunks was a pleasant diversion in “the era of Wonder bread and iceberg lettuce.” At the core of the movement was the tiki drink, a powerful concoction that invariably included rum. Devotees were invited to rearrange their cranial components with drinks like “Pele’s Bucket of Fire,” the “Molucca Fireball,” and the “Aku-Aku Lapu.” The popular “Zombie” contained five varieties of rum, along with lime juice, bitters, maraschino liqueur, and absinthe, Curtis tells us. “Perhaps it would be wise to locate the coroner before serving this,” a recipe book suggested.

Picking up Curtis’s book is like walking into a bar and sitting down beside a tippler who’s full of stories and knows how to relate them with good humor and sly wit. He’s adept at passing on the most fascinating parts of the tale and not ever boring you. For instance, we learn that a Mai Tai was the first thing Patty Hearst wanted after being sprung from her Symbionese Liberation Army rap.

Through it all, Curtis is delightful company. His obvious affection for both rum and history will beguile many readers into conducting some field research of their own.

—Jack Kelly writes often for American Heritage magazine and is the author of Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics—A History of the Explosive That Changed the World (Basic Books).

Rightly so he included Rum in a Pyrotechnic writing. 151 Rum properly contained and fused is an impressive explosive. When consumed by soldiers produces a pyrotechnic like effect. And if enough is consumed makes projectile hurling seem like babies spitting milk....

Rum; cheap alternative to amusement park rides.....

Same thing happens when consumed by ME!

Good stuff that demon Rum!
The darker the better!



BTW, this thread outta be in the History forum.

good point.

Rum, the true champion of tropical drinks.

Vacations wouldn't be the same without it.

When I was stationed in the Philippines while in the service, I used to consume a lot of the local rum. It was rumored to have horse shit and other delectable goodies mixed in it. But for the equivalent of only 25 cents for a quart bottle, you could get staggering drunk even if you were broke before payday. You could always bum a quarter from a buddy and get fucked up just as good as if you were drinking Jack Daniels or some other premium booze. Those were the days alright.

Rum 101
The Basics of Rum . . .
From Sugar Cane in the Fields . . .
To the Rum in Your Glass
"There's nought no doubt so much the spirit calms
as rum and true religion"-
Lord Byron

Sugar Cane
Fermentation
Distillation
Aging
Blending and Bottling
Alcohol Content
Cachaca
Rhum Agricole
FAQ

Sugar Cane

Rum distinguishes itself from other spirits by the plant from which it is made.In the US, rum is defined as a spirit distilled from the fermented juice of sugar cane, sugar cane syrup, sugar cane molasses or other sugar cane byproducts at less than 95% abv and bottled at at least 40% alcohol by volume.

Sugar cane, a member of the grass family has its origins in Papau New Guinea but this hearty plant is grown in tropical climes around the world. The sweet juice of the mature plant is extracted by pressing the hard stalk in mechanical mills.

Some distilleries use this fresh juice while others use the by product of the sugar refining process known as molasses as the raw material for the fermentation process.





Fermentation

The addition of yeast to the sugar cane juice or molasses converts the available sucrose to alcohol in a process called fermentation. Typically this takes about a day but some distilleries use yeast that takes as much as ten days. To make other spirits, the starches found in grains must be cooked and then enzymes are used to convert the glucose to sucrose which can be fermented. The resulting fermented wine contains only about 10% alcohol by volume.



Distillation

To concentrate the alcohol in the sugar cane wine, the wine is boiled while the vapor is collected and condensed. The earliest pot stills resembled a tea kettle with a long spout and were capable of distilling only a few liters of alcohol at a time. Modern continuous stills are vertical columns about 10 meters high and are capable of distilling as much as 20,000 liters per day.

In the French islands, spirits made from sugar cane juice are typically distilled to a relatively low distillation purity resulting in a heavier tasting spirit.

Since molasses contains higher amounts of sulphur than does sugar cane juice, spirits distilled from fermented molasses are generally distilled to a high distillation purity to reduce the congeners that have been concentrated in the molasses.




Aging
Immediately after distillation, the fresh or raw spirits contain small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas formed during fermentation which gives the spirit a hot harsh taste. Although some connoisseurs prefer fresh rum, most consumers prefer the more elegant taste of an aged spirit. Today, almost all rum is aged in used oak barrels that once held whiskey or bourbon. Aging can last from one to thirty years or more, making rum one of the most varied of the distilled spirits. During the aging process the rum acquires a golden color that changes to a dark brown with time.



Blending and Bottling

Although some rum is bottled directly from the still, most rum is aged and then blended before it is bottled for consumption. Once the spirit is bottled the benefits of age are arrested and little change occurs.



Alcohol Content

The bottled strength of rum depends greatly on consumer preferences. While some rum is bottled at about 40% alcohol by volume, other rums are bottled at the strength at which it was distilled or aged.



Cachaça

In Brazil, Cachaça is a spirit made from from fermented sugar cane juice and typically distilled to between 40 and 45% alcohol by volume. In Brazil, rum is a spirit made from fermented molasses but in the US, cachaça is considered rum and must be labeled as such.

Rhum Agricole

In the French West Indies, rhum agricole is made from freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice and then distilled to about 70% alcohol by volume.




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