Today, August 16, is National Rum Day. Quite a few years ago, rum was a very popular drink — at least with the crowd I associated with. Rum and Coke was popular and most gatherings usually featured a few pitchers of Daiquiris. Some of my friends were very fond of Myers dark rum, and drank it over ice.
Rum has been a staple of the economy of the Americas just about from its founding. Today, people put run into various cocktails, punches and mixed drinks.
Some form of rum has been distilled since the third century, but it wasn’t until the 17th century that colonizers started growing sugarcane in the Caribbean that it’s popularity really took off. Molasses is a byproduct of sugar production and rather than let this excess go to waste, it was distilled into booze.
It was initially called “kill devil” because of its high alcohol content — and — its less than savory taste. But the process of fermenting and distilling molasses became more sophisticated and the concoction became significantly more enjoyable.
The etymology of the word “rum” is still debatable, but most agree that it is probably derived from the terms rumbuillion or rumbustion — both mean an upheaval. But the term was eventually shortened to rum.
Rum production spread throughout the Caribbean — and beyond, to islands such as Bermuda and Jamaica, becoming one of the most popular spirits….. it was even used as currency in some places.
Rum became so popular in America that it eventually contributed to 80% of the exports from New England, and a tax on sugar in the 1760s led directly to the American Revolution.
Of course, like many/most labor-intensive industries of the early American colonies — sugarcane (and rum) trade was based on slave labor and rum’s popularity contributed to the slave trade in America.
But we have a bit of rum in our house — some of it purchased in the Caribbean while on cruises. It still makes great drinks and you can drink it anytime. One good thing about it is that drinking rum before noon makes you a pirate, not an alcoholic.
— 30 —