Rum is a drink with sugarcane behind it — and a long history, at times quite a dark one. Rum is one of the most popular spirits in the world. And also one of the least regulated in terms of production.
Strictly speaking, rum is a spirit obtained by distilling fermented sugarcane juice or by-products of sugar production from the same sugarcane, primarily molasses. So, to call a spirit rum, only two things are required in its production: sugarcane and distillation. And since distillation is an inevitable requirement for any spirit — you can read more about that here — the only thing that makes rum unique is sugarcane.
Rum can be produced anywhere, although, of course, the largest and most famous production centers are associated with the tropics and islands. Rum can be distilled either in pot stills or in column stills; the only requirement is that it retains some flavor connecting the drink to sugarcane. The alcohol level can range from 20% to 80% ABV. Aging can range from none at all to many years. The vessels used for aging can also be extremely diverse, from used brandy barrels to glass. Various additives and flavorings are also largely unrestricted.
As a result, the world has an enormous variety of rums in terms of strength, style, and place of production — and no single, clear classification system.
The only thing that unites all these diverse drinks under one name, the thing that makes them rum, is the raw material: sugarcane.
And that is where we will start, because without sugarcane, rum is not rum.
Sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum. Actually, modern sugarcane varieties are various hybrids, but for our purposes this is not particularly important. It is a perennial grass. A very tall grass, growing from 2 to 6 meters. Sugarcane has two properties that are important for our story. It is about 15% sugar, and it requires a tropical or subtropical climate.
The homeland of sugarcane is New Guinea. The Polynesians began cultivating it around 8000 BC. It is one of the earliest domesticated plants. They primarily used it as livestock feed. And, of course, they also simply chewed the sweet stalks themselves. The Polynesians traveled extensively, exploring the world around them, and the inhabitants of their homesteads, including sugarcane, often traveled with them. So, sometime around the 12th century BC, sugarcane reached Southeast Asia, and by the 10th century BC, it had reached India. That was where the remarkable potential of sugarcane was finally recognized, and people began producing sugar from it. Persian and Greek texts from the 6th–4th centuries BC mention Indian “honey” obtained without bees. By the 5th century AD, India had developed a method for producing crystalline sugar, which was easy to store and transport. Pure sweetness was highly valued in those days, and sugarcane, together with the technology for producing sugar, began an active journey westward — to the Persian Empire, and from there to Egypt and the Mediterranean. By the 7th century, Spain, Italy, and Portugal were growing sugarcane and producing sugar, but only in small quantities, because there were few suitable places to grow it, and the whole process was labor-intensive. But in the 15th century, Europe — primarily Spain and Portugal — moved westward, expanding its territories through colonies in the West Indies. As soon as Spain established itself in the Canary Islands, and Portugal in Madeira and São Tomé, they began growing sugarcane there, and ships loaded with sugar started heading to Europe. There was serious money to be made from sugar, because pure sweetness was still rare and highly valued, and there simply wasn’t enough sugar to go around. This was not like today, when some governments impose additional taxes on sugar and sugar-rich products, trying to protect their populations from obesity and diabetes. Back then, sugar was a luxury.
And then Columbus discovered America, and already on his second voyage, he brought sugarcane to the Caribbean islands. In 1501, the first sugarcane harvest was produced in the New World. The climate of the Caribbean islands turned out to be ideal for it, and soon sugarcane was growing everywhere. In 1508, sugarcane appeared in Puerto Rico; in 1509, in Jamaica; in 1511, in Cuba — and so on, until it had taken over practically all the islands. The Portuguese began growing sugarcane in Brazil.
Ships loaded with valuable sweet cargo headed for Europe. Plantation owners were making money hand over fist.
But sugarcane does not grow itself, and it certainly does not turn itself into sugar. The work was hard, and in those days, without mechanization, it was also extremely labor-intensive.
And this is where the dark part of rum’s history begins — slavery.
The African continent became a source of cheap labor for the sugar plantations of the New World.
The cane grew, ships loaded with sugar sailed to Europe, and the plantation owners grew richer.
So, how exactly do you get sugar from sugarcane? The cane is harvested, crushed, and the juice is pressed out. It is heated to coagulate and remove proteins. Then the liquid is evaporated. The crystallized sugar is extracted. What remains is a considerable amount of molasses — a thick, viscous liquid that, among other things, still contains a substantial amount of sugar. And then someone among the plantation owners had the thought that this molasses was simply going to waste. Could it perhaps be put to some use? More specifically: could it be turned into alcohol?
Alcohol made from sugarcane was being produced in India and Persia long before the appearance of rum. Marco Polo also mentions “sugar wine.” But this was more like mead than a distilled spirit.
The idea of making a mash from sugar and distilling it first occurred to the Portuguese in Brazil. But it was the French in Barbados who really turned it into a large-scale industry. The rest of the Caribbean soon followed. Rum — although it was not yet called rum — was initially pretty poor quality, and it was produced mainly for slaves, to keep them from causing trouble. Work hard all day, get your ration of rum, and quietly go to sleep until the next working morning. The white population, meanwhile, continued drinking brandy, fortified wines, and other quality beverages brought from Europe.
As for the name, nobody really knows where the word rum itself came from.
When rum first appeared as a drink, the Portuguese called it cachaça — and, in fact, that is still what they call their own version of rum today. The Spanish called it berbaje, while the English called it kill-devil, which gives you a pretty good idea of the quality of early rum.
There are several theories about the origin of the word rum:
-From “rummage” — the English name for the compartment on a ship where rum was stored.
-From “roemer” or “rummer” — a large drinking glass used by Dutch sailors.
-From “brum” — the name of a Malaysian alcoholic drink, possibly shortened by Dutch sailors.
-From “Saccharum” — the Latin word for sugar.
-From “Rumbullion” — an early term for rum, probably formed from a combination of the Spanish word rheu, meaning “stalk,” and the French bouillon, meaning “to boil.”
We will never know the truth now. Whatever the origin, eventually rum became rum everywhere. And only cachaça kept its own name.
But let’s get back to the early days of rum.
By this time, the colonies — especially in South America — had started growing grapes and producing their own wine. And they became so successful at it that they began exporting wine back to their metropolises. Wine merchants in Spain, Portugal, and France got worried about their market share and demanded that their governments somehow put an end to this outrage.
The governments responded by banning the import of alcohol from the colonies.
England had no significant winemaking industry at the time, for obvious geographical reasons. But the country was going crazy over gin — you can read more about gin and the Gin Craze here — and England also introduced a ban.
However, nature abhors a vacuum. At this time, the colonists of New England were suffering badly from a lack of alcohol. Importing alcohol from Europe was expensive, and not everyone could afford it. Grapes refused to grow in New England. There wasn’t enough beer to satisfy everyone’s needs, and beer could hardly satisfy the demand for strong spirits anyway. So they turned their attention to rum.
But they didn’t bother importing rum itself, especially since Caribbean moonshine was not exactly famous for its quality. Instead, New Englanders began importing molasses and distilling their own rum from it.
There was enough for domestic consumption — and for trade. And what a trade it was! Rum, along with goods purchased with rum, was shipped to Africa, where enslaved people were purchased and transported to the Caribbean. There, they were sold to plantations for cash and molasses. The molasses was shipped to New England, where it was turned into rum. And the whole thing went around again. Or, more accurately, around a triangle. The sadly infamous Triangular Trade.
As much as 80% of New England’s exports consisted of rum, and the prosperity of the region was based largely on this drink. And New Englanders did not neglect their own consumption either. Before the American Revolution, the annual consumption amounted to about 14 liters of rum per person, including infants. Rum also became one of the causes of that very American Revolution. In 1733, Britain passed the Molasses Act, followed by the Sugar Act of 1764. These laws imposed crippling taxes on molasses imported from non-British colonies. And New England was buying its molasses from French colonies. The whole well-established business was going down the drain. How could they not rebel?
Sailors quickly became major consumers of rum — especially pirates and the British Royal Navy.
Water was a major problem for navies in those days, especially on ships sailing in tropical latitudes. They didn’t know how to desalinate water yet. It was stored in wooden barrels, where it quickly went bad. Illness and death from contaminated water were common. Of course, strong spirits are very good at disinfecting water. But European brandy and whisky were expensive, and there simply wasn’t enough of them to go around. And where were pirates supposed to get it anyway? They could only take it from ships they had just robbed, which obviously wasn’t enough to meet their needs. After all, besides disinfecting the water, you also simply want something to drink. So cheap Caribbean rum was a real find for pirates.
The British Royal Navy had exactly the same problems. Of course, as long as they stayed relatively close to home, there was no problem replenishing supplies of beer for the sailors and strong spirits and wine for the officers. But once they sailed farther away, they found themselves in exactly the same situation as the pirates. When Britain captured Jamaica in 1655, with its extensive rum production, the naval supply officers were so delighted with this cheap strong spirit that rum quickly became the official drink of the Royal Navy. And it gave birth to grog. You can read more about that here.
However, from the second half of the 18th century, events began taking place around the world that would change the situation on the rum market.
In 1757, England suffered a major grain failure. The beloved English gin suddenly had nothing to be distilled from. There was barely enough grain for bread. But people still had to drink something. So they turned their attention to rum. By this time, the average quality of rum had improved somewhat, thanks to improvements in distillation and the application of another great idea to rum: aging in barrels.
England already had plenty of distilleries, so the English began importing molasses from the Caribbean and making their own rum in port cities such as London and Bristol.
It was also around this time that rum punch became extremely popular in England — rum diluted with sweeteners and spices. Possibly because, although the quality of rum had improved, it was still pretty rough, and its unpleasant taste had to be disguised somehow.
The 19th century brought dramatic changes to the economic foundation of rum production. Slavery was becoming economically unprofitable, and Britain banned the slave trade in the metropole in 1807, and in the colonies in 1833. France did the same in 1817 and 1848, respectively. Production of cane sugar — and therefore molasses — began to decline because the cheap labor force was disappearing. But the biggest blow to Caribbean sugar came from Napoleon, who introduced sugar beet production in France. By 1839, more than 450 small French factories were producing over 32 million kilograms of sugar a year. The price of sugar collapsed. And rum moved from being a by-product of sugar production to becoming a product in its own right.
In 1827, the Scotsman Robert Stein invented the continuous distillation column. It was soon improved and patented by the Irishman Aeneas Coffey, and became known as the Coffey still. This marked the beginning of the production of lighter, more highly rectified rums. Of course, not only rum. But that is what we’re talking about right now.
In 1889, Enrique Schueg y Chassin, one of Bacardi’s partners, saw a demonstration of a distillation column at an exhibition in Paris. He immediately bought one and brought it back to Santiago de Cuba. And although some other rum companies — for example, West Indies Rum Distillery — also quickly embraced the new technology, it was Bacardi that became the pioneer and leader in producing clean, light, dry rums, using column stills, filtration technology, and special yeast strains. And Cuban bartenders opened up a whole new world of possibilities for rum in cocktails.
The Great Depression of the 1930s hit sugarcane plantations and rum distilleries hard. However, World War II practically removed Scotch whisky from the market, and American producers once again turned their attention to rum.
The next obstacle for rum producers was the extraordinary post-war popularity of vodka and vodka-based cocktails. And here, producers of light, clear rums such as Bacardi pulled ahead.
In the 1980s and 1990s, sugar production — and consequently rum production — in the Caribbean began to decline. Tourism was developing rapidly on the islands, and it was becoming more profitable than producing cheap sugar, whose price had fallen dramatically. This decline was slowed down by millions of dollars in grants from the European Union poured into the rum industry, and also by the fact that rum had finally said goodbye to its plebeian past and moved into the category of prestigious drinks. Premium rums took their place alongside cognacs and single malt whiskies.
Nevertheless, sugar production in the Caribbean continues to decline steadily. And rum producers are being left without molasses. Many of them have even started growing sugarcane themselves. Growing sugarcane is easy enough. But you can’t exactly produce sugar you don’t need just to get the by-product you actually do need. So more and more rum producers are switching to making rum directly from fresh sugarcane juice. If this trend continues, traditional rum made from molasses may soon become a rarity.
That was the history. Now let’s talk about modern rum production technology.
First of all, sugarcane is grown. Sugarcane is a perennial grass, so you don’t even have to plant it every year. You cut it, and new cane grows back in its place. In the Caribbean, the crop is harvested once a year. In South America, sometimes even twice a year. However, the crop itself is renewed every 6–10 years.
When the cane is ready to be harvested, the field is often set on fire to burn off the leaves — and also various unpleasant arthropods, such as scorpions, that like to settle in the cane. Because of the high moisture content, the fire does not have time to damage the rest of the plant.
In the past, cane was cut by specially trained people using machetes. A good cutter could harvest up to three tons of cane a day. But a machine can do the job more efficiently than even the best cutter, so today, harvesting is done primarily with mechanical harvesters.
The harvested grass is chopped into small pieces, and the juice is pressed out. Sugarcane is approximately 75% water, 10–16% sugar, and 10–16% fiber. So the yield of sweet juice is quite high.
At this stage, you can already make a rum mash directly from the juice. This type of rum is produced mainly on the French islands, and Martinique is particularly famous for it. This rum is called rhum agricole. It produces a light rum with a pronounced grassy, sugarcane flavor.
Martinique rum even received AOC status in 1996. But if we leave Martinique aside, the share of rhum agricole in the vast ocean of rum is extremely small.
And that makes sense. Why use sugarcane exclusively for rum if you can make sugar from it and then make rum from the waste product? Sugar, of course, doesn’t command anything like the prices it did during the days of the slave trade and the Triangular Trade. But it is still a perfectly marketable product. So most of the world’s rum is made from the molasses left over from sugar production. This type of rum is called traditional rum.
To produce sugar — and therefore molasses, because molasses is what interests us for rum — the sugarcane juice is evaporated, producing a syrup containing about 30% sugar, known as liquid sugar. The syrup is purified, and a small amount of crystalline sugar is added as a seed for crystallization. The syrup is brought to a boil and then allowed to cool slowly. The sugar crystallizes, and the sugar crystals are separated by centrifugation. In the past, they simply let the molasses drain through gaps in trays. The process is repeated a couple of times. Sugar goes to the market. Molasses goes to the rum producers.
The molasses is diluted to the required concentration, yeast is added, and it is allowed to ferment. The same thing is done with fresh sugarcane juice. The result is a 5–10% ABV fermented mash. Besides ethanol, yeast produces all kinds of aromatic compounds — aldehydes, alcohols, esters, and so on. These are what give rum the flavor of rum. Fermentation can take anywhere from 24 hours to two weeks. This is the rum maker’s choice. The longer the fermentation, the more compounds that contribute aroma accumulate.
Next comes distillation. Here, too, producers have a wide range of choices, depending on what kind of rum they want to make — light or heavy. Light rum contains relatively low levels of additional compounds, while heavy rum contains high levels. Heavy rums can contain three times as many of these additional compounds as light rums. For heavy rums, producers use pot stills or a single distillation in a column still. For light rums, they use double or triple distillation in columns. Again, as a rule, heavy rums undergo longer fermentation. Light rums are clear and pale, with a very mild flavour and aroma. Heavy rums are darker, with a pronounced molasses flavour.
By the way, even with triple purification, the strength of the product coming out of the distillation column should not exceed 96% ABV — 95% in the United States. I am not talking about the strength of the final product in the bottle, but about what comes out of the rectification column. Otherwise, it would be considered a spirit suitable for vodka or gin, because it would no longer contain enough of the additional compounds characteristic of sugarcane. For example, India produces a lot of alcohol from sugarcane, but most of it is not made into rum. Instead, it is made into neutral spirit, which goes into vodka and gin.
Light rums are traditionally produced in former Spanish colonies — Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Heavy rums are traditionally produced in former British and French colonies — Barbados, Martinique, Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana, and the Virgin Islands.
The next stage is ageing.
The colour of a quality rum is determined by ageing, because after distillation, rum is colourless and transparent, just like any other distillate. However, nothing prevents a producer from colouring unaged rum with caramel, so colour alone doesn’t tell you much.
Many white rums are not aged at all. They are simply diluted to the desired strength and bottled.
The idea of ageing rum came about during its transportation from the West Indies to Europe. Naturally, rum was transported in barrels, and during the journey, it became more refined, acquiring colour and additional flavour.
Traditionally, rum is aged in ex-bourbon barrels — barrels that previously held American whiskey. Bourbon is aged in new American oak barrels. After just one use, these barrels are no longer suitable for bourbon producers, so they can only be sold to someone else. And rum producers found them very useful. When bourbon barrels are made, they are charred. Charring caramelizes the sugars in the wood and enhances the vanilla flavours transferred to the spirit. Rum producers have three options: use the barrel as it is, char it again, or scrape off the existing char. Each option produces a different flavour. Some producers also add charred or uncharred oak chips to the barrel. This speeds up the extraction of compounds from the oak into the rum and reduces the required ageing time. However, aging in a barrel is not only about extracting various compounds from the oak. It is also about slow oxidation, caused by oxygen gradually penetrating through the pores of the oak. Without this, rum tends to be rougher and simpler. Some producers simply add oak chips directly to rum in a neutral container, such as stainless steel, with the corresponding result.
The flavour also depends on where the barrel containing the rum is stored. In the warm, humid tropical climate of the Caribbean islands or South America, rum matures about three times faster than it would in a cold climate, say, in Britain or Sweden. And the flavour will also be different, all other things being equal.
And, of course, you don’t have to age rum at all. You can simply add burnt caramel to it and give it the colour of aged rum. Without, of course, giving it the flavour of aged rum.
Rum can also be treated with charcoal filtration. This technique was introduced into rum production by Don Bacardi. Charcoal filtration is used for white rums to remove various off-flavours and pigments. As a rule, either unaged rums are filtered, or high-quality white rums are filtered after aging.
The final stage that can change the flavour of rum is blending. Most rums are blends. Blends of rums processed or purified in different ways, aged for different lengths of time and under different conditions, and so on and so forth.
Various additives can also be added to rum at this stage to change its flavour — flavourings, spices, and other ingredients.
And, once again, caramel may be added to adjust the colour to the desired shade. And since some producers filter aged rum through charcoal until it becomes completely colourless, you can tell very little about the properties of a rum from its colour alone.
So, rum allows for enormous variation at every stage of production, and there are no universal regulations governing rum styles or even the names of those styles. Again, every country has its own rules. Still, rum can be divided into several broad style groups. They are fairly loose categories, but they give us at least some idea of the enormous kingdom of rum.
Light — silver, blanco, white, platinum — are colourless, transparent rums. As a rule, these are unaged rums, diluted and bottled immediately after distillation. But this category also includes higher-quality rums that have been aged for up to three years in oak barrels to soften and refine the flavour, and then filtered through charcoal.
Golden — gold, amber — are rums with an amber colour. In the best-case scenario, this is rum that has spent several years in a barrel, acquiring colour, softness, and roundness. In the worst-case scenario, it is simply rum with caramel added. If the label does not explicitly say that the rum is aged, assume that the colour has been added.
Dark rums — just as with amber rums, this is primarily a description of colour. The rums can be aged in barrels — and that can mean practically anything, from a full barrel to oak chips — or simply colored with caramel. There are no regulations. You have to read the description.
Aged rums are rums that have definitely been aged in barrels. The barrels can be ex-bourbon, but also ex-cognac, whisky, sherry, and so on. The length of ageing also varies.
Overproof rums — any rum with an alcohol content above 50% ABV. For high-strength aged rums, the term “barrel proof” is more commonly used.
Spiced rums — rum with additions such as ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and so on.
Flavored rums are rums with all kinds of flavorings — coconut, banana, strawberry, and so on.
Martinique agricole rhum is rum made from fresh sugarcane juice, as opposed to the majority of rums made from molasses. The French island of Martinique is particularly famous for this style. Martinique rum received AOC status in 1996 — the only rum with a geographical designation — and its production and quality are strictly regulated. It cannot be distilled to more than 75% ABV, in order to preserve the aromas of sugarcane. Rhum agricole blanc, or white agricole rum, must be aged for at least three months, either in a neutral container — most commonly stainless steel — or in old barrels. Rhum agricole ambré, or amber agricole rum, must be aged in oak barrels — most commonly ex-American whiskey barrels — for at least 18 months. Rums labeled VS must be aged for at least 3 years, VSOP for at least 4 years, XO for at least 6 years, and hors d’âge for at least 7 years. Only the highest-quality vintages may carry a vintage date.
Rum, especially aged rum, is often enjoyed on its own — either neat, or with ice or a little water. It is worth keeping in mind that many rums are bottled at significantly higher strengths than 40% ABV. And these high-proof rums can actually benefit from the addition of ice or water. The water doesn’t dilute the aromas out of such a strong drink; it simply makes it softer and easier to drink.
And, of course, rum is the base of countless cocktails. You can read about some of them here.
