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Rum
is a
distilled beverage
made from
sugarcane
by-products such as
molasses and
sugarcane
juice by a
process of
fermentation
and
distillation.
The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged
in
oak and
other casks. While there are rum producers in places
such as
Australia,
India,
Reunion Island,
and elsewhere around the world, the majority of rum
production occurs in and around the
Caribbean
and along the
Demerara
river in
South America.
Some major rum
brands
include
Bacardi,
Barbancourt,
Brugal,
Captain Morgan,
Appleton Estate,
Havana Club,
Stroh,
Matusalem,
Mount Gay,
Bundaberg,
Myers,
Malibu Rum,
Gosling's,
Cruzan,
Pusser's,
Flor de Caña,
Don Q, and
Ron Zacapa Centenario.
"Overproof" rums, such as Wray and Nephew, contain a
higher alcohol content.
Rum is produced in a variety of
styles.
Light rums
are commonly used in
mixed drinks,
while golden and dark rums are appropriate for use
in cooking as well as cocktails. Premium brands of
rum are also available that are made to be consumed
neat or
on the rocks.
Rum plays a part in the culture of
most islands of the West Indies, and has famous
associations with the British
Royal Navy
and
piracy. Rum
has also served as a popular medium of exchange that
helped to promote
slavery
along with providing economic instigation for
Australia's
Rum Rebellion
and the
American Revolution.
Origins of the name
The origin of the word rum is
unclear. A common claim is that the name was derived
from rumbullion meaning "a great tumult or
uproar". Another claim is that the name is from the
large drinking glasses used by Dutch seamen known as
rummers, from the
Dutch word
roemer, a drinking glass. Other options
include contractions of the words saccharum,
Latin for
sugar, or arôme,
French for
aroma. Regardless of the original source, the name
had come into common use by May
1657 when
the General Court of Massachusetts made illegal the
sale of strong liquor "whether known by the name of
rumme, strong
water, wine,
brandy, etc.,
In current usage, the name used for a
rum is often based on the rum's place of origin. For
rums from Spanish-speaking locales the word ron
is used. A ron añejo indicates a rum that has
been significantly aged and is often used for
premium products. Rhum is the term used for
rums from French-speaking locales, while rhum
vieux is an aged French rum that meets several
other requirements.
Some of the many other names for rum
are Nelson's Blood, Kill-Devil,
Demon Water, Pirate's Drink, Navy
Neaters, and
Barbados water.
A version of rum from
Newfoundland
is referred to by the name
Screech,
while some low-grade
West Indies
rums are called
tafia.
History
Origins
The precursors to rum date back to
antiquity. Development of fermented drinks produced
from sugarcane juice is believed to have first
occurred either in ancient India or China, and
spread from there. An example of such an early drink
is brum. Produced by the
Malay people,
brum dates back thousands of years.
Marco Polo
also recorded a
14th-century
account of a "very good wine of sugar" that was
offered to him in what is modern-day
Iran.
The first distillation of rum took
place on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean
in the 17th century. Plantation
slaves first
discovered that
molasses, a
by-product
of the sugar refining process, fermented into
alcohol. Later, distillation of these alcoholic
by-products concentrated the alcohol and removed
impurities, producing the first true rums. Tradition
suggests that rum first originated on the island of
Barbados.
Regardless of its initial source, early Caribbean
rums were not known for high quality. A
1651
document from Barbados stated "The chief fuddling
they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil,
and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot,
hellish, and terrible liquor".
[edit]
Colonial America
After rum's development in the
Caribbean, the drink's popularity spread to
Colonial America.
To support the demand for the drink, the first rum
distillery in the colonies was set up in
1664 on
current day
Staten Island.
Boston, Massachusetts
had a distillery three years later. The manufacture
of rum became early Colonial New England's largest
and most prosperous industry. The rum produced there
was quite popular, and was even considered the best
in the world during much of the
18th century.
Rhode Island
rum even joined
gold as an
accepted currency in Europe for a period of time.
Estimates of rum consumption in the American
colonies before the
American Revolutionary War
had every man, woman, or child drinking an average
of 3
Imperial gallons
(13.5
liters) of
rum each year.
To support this demand for the
molasses to produce rum, along with the
increasing demand for sugar in
Europe during the
17th and
18th centuries,
a labor source to work the sugar plantations in the
Caribbean was needed. A
triangular trade
was established between
Africa, the
Caribbean, and the colonies to help support this
need. The circular exchange of slaves, molasses, and
rum was quite profitable, and the disruption to the
trade caused by the
Sugar Act in
1764 may
have even helped cause the
American Revolution.
The popularity of rum continued after
the American Revolution with
George Washington
insisting on a barrel of
Barbados rum
at his
1789
inauguration. Eventually the restrictions on rum
from the British islands of the Caribbean combined
with the development of American
whiskey led
to a decline in the drink's popularity.
Naval rum
Rum's association with piracy began
with
English
privateers
trading on the valuable commodity. As some of the
privateers became pirates and buccaneers, their
fondness for rum remained, the association between
the two only being strengthened by literary works
such as
Robert Louis Stevenson's
Treasure Island.
The association of rum with the
British Royal Navy
began in
1655 when
the British fleet captured the island of
Jamaica.
With the availability of domestically produced rum,
the British changed the daily ration of liquor given
to seamen from French
brandy to
rum. While the ration was originally given neat, or
mixed with lemon juice, the practice of watering
down the rum began around
1740. To
help minimize the effect of the alcohol on his
sailors, Admiral
Edward Vernon
directed that the rum ration be watered down before
being issued. In honor of the
grogram
cloak the Admiral wore in rough weather, the mixture
of water and rum became known as
grog.
The Royal Navy continued to give its sailors a daily
rum ration, known as a "tot," until the practice was
abolished after
July 31,
1970.
A story involving naval rum is that
following his victory at the
Battle of Trafalgar,
Horatio Nelson's
body was preserved in a cask of rum to allow
transport back to
England.
Upon arrival, however, the cask was opened and found
to be empty of rum. The pickled body was removed
and, upon inspection, it was discovered that the
sailors had drilled a hole in the bottom of the cask
and drank all the rum, in the process drinking
Nelson's blood. Thus, this tale serves as a basis
for the term Nelson's Blood being used to
describe rum. The details of the story are disputed,
with some historians claiming the term originated
instead from a
toast to
Admiral Nelson.
Colonial Australia
Rum became an important trade good in
the early period of the colony of
New South Wales.
The value of rum was based upon the lack of coinage
among the population of the colony, and due to the
drink's ability to allow its consumer to temporarily
forget about the lack of creature comforts available
in the new colony. The value of rum was such that
convict settlers could be induced to work the lands
owned by officers of the New South Wales Corps. Due
to rum's popularity among the settlers, the colony
gained a reputation for drunkenness even though
their alcohol consumption was less than levels
commonly consumed in England at the time.
When
William Bligh
became governor of the colony in
1806, he
attempted to remedy the perceived problem with
drunkenness by outlawing the use of rum as a medium
of exchange. In response to this action, and several
others, the New South Wales Corps marched, with
fixed bayonets, to Government House and placed Bligh
under arrest. The mutineers continued to control the
colony until the arrival of Governor Lachlan
Macquarie in
1810.
Caribbean light rum
Until the second half of the
19th century
all rums were heavy or dark rums that were
considered appropriate for the working poor, unlike
the refined double-distilled spirits of Europe. In
order to expand the market for rum, the Spanish
Royal Development Board offered a prize to anyone
who could improve the rum making process. This
resulted in many refinements in the process which
greatly improved the quality of rum. One of the most
important figures in this development process was
Don Facundo Bacardi Masso,
who moved from
Spain to
Santiago de Cuba
in
1843. Don
Facundo's experiments with distillation techniques,
charcoal filtering, cultivating of specialized yeast
strains, and aging with American oak casks helped to
produce a smoother and mellower drink typical of
modern light rums. It was with this new rum that Don
Facundo founded
Bacardí y Compañía
in
1862.
Categorization
Dividing rum into meaningful
groupings is complicated by the fact that there is
no single standard for what constitutes rum. Instead
rum is defined by the varying rules and laws of the
nations that produce the spirit. The differences in
definitions include issues such as spirit
proof,
minimum aging, and even naming standards.
Examples of the differences in proof
is
Colombia,
requiring their rum possess a minimum alcohol
content of 50
ABV, while
Chile and
Venezuela
require only a minimum of 40 ABV.
Mexico
requires rum be aged a minimum of 8 months, the
Dominican Republic
and Panama requires one year, and Venezuela requires
two years. Naming standards also vary,
Nicaragua
has white - ron blanco, lite, silver - ron
plata, gold and dark - black label,
gran reserva and the world famous centenario,
with
Argentina
defining rums as white, gold, light,
and extra light.
Barbados
uses the terms white, overproof, and
matured, while the
United States
defines rum, rum liqueur, and
flavored rum.
World famous Ron Flor de Caña,
produces several types of rum from its base in
Nicaragua.
Despite these differences in
standards and nomenclature, the following divisions
are provided to help show the wide variety of rums
that are produced.
Regional Variations
Within the Caribbean, each island or
production area has a unique style. For the most
part, these styles can be grouped by the language
that is traditionally spoken. Due to the
overwhelming influence of Puerto Rican rum, most rum
consumed in the
United States
is produced in the Spanish-speaking style.
·
Spanish-speaking
islands traditionally produce light rums with a
fairly clean taste. Rums from
Cuba,
Puerto Rico
and
Dominican Republic
are typical of this style. Also under this category
the rum produced in
Nicaragua
can be included, it is a slow-aging, color
intesifying, aromatic and flavorsome rum.
Nicaragua in
fact, produces some of the best rum in the whole
world,. Its world renowned
Ron Flor de Caña
is gaining wide popularity among consumers in the
United States.
·
English-speaking
islands are known for darker rums with a fuller
taste that retains a greater amount of the
underlying molasses flavor. Rums from
Jamaica,
Bermuda, and
the
Demerara
region are typical of this style.
·
French-speaking
islands are best known for their agricultural rums (rhum
agricole). These rums, being produced
exclusively from sugarcane juice, retain a greater
amount of the original flavor of the sugarcane. Rums
from
Guadeloupe,
Haïti and
Martinique
are typical of this style.
Cachaça
is a spirit similar to rum that is produced in
Brazil. The
Indonesian
spirit Batavia Arrack, or
Arrak,
is a spirit similar to rum that includes rice in its
production.
Mexico
produces a number of brands of light and dark rum,
as well as other less expensive flavored and
unflavored sugar cane based liquors, such as
aguardiente de caña and
charanda.
In some cases cane liquor is flavored with
mezcal
to produce a pseudo-tequila-like
drink.
A spirit known as
Aguardiente,
distilled from molasses infused with
anise, with
additional sugarcane juice added after distillation,
is produced in
Central America
and northern
South America.
Grades
Example of dark, gold, and light
rums.
The grades and variations used to
describe rum depend on the location that a rum was
produced. Despite these variations the following
terms are frequently used to describe various types
of rum:
Light Rums,
also referred to as light, silver, and
white rums. In general, light rum has very
little flavor aside from a general sweetness, and
serves accordingly as a base for cocktails. Light
rums are sometimes filtered after aging to remove
any color.
Gold Rums,
also called amber rums, are medium-bodied
rums which are generally aged. The rum can obtain
its flavor through addition of spices and
caramel/color (a variation often sold as Spiced
Rum), but historically gains its darker color
from aging in wooden casks (typically
oak).
Dark Rum,
also known as black rum, classes as a grade
darker than gold rum. It is generally aged longer,
in heavily charred barrels. Dark rum has a much
stronger flavor than either light or gold rum, and
hints of spices can be detected, along with a strong
molasses or caramel overtone. It is used to provide
substance in rum drinks, as well as color. In
addition to uses in mixed drinks, dark rum is the
type of rum most commonly used in cooking. It was
this type of rum immortalized in the song 'The Old
Black Rum' by the Newfoundland folk group
Great Big Sea.
Flavored Rum:
Some manufacturers have begun to sell rums which
they have infused with flavors of fruits such as
mango,
orange,
citrus,
coconut, and
limke which is a lime rum found in Sweden. These
serve to flavor similarly themed tropical drinks
which generally comprise less than 40%
alcohol.
Overproof Rum
is rum which is much higher than the standard 40%
alcohol. Most of these rums bear greater than 75%,
in fact, and preparations of 151 to 160 proof occur
commonly.
Premium
Rum:
As with other sipping spirits, such as
Cognac and
Scotch, a
market exists for premium and super-premium spirits.
These are generally boutique brands which sell very
aged and carefully produced rums. They have more
character and flavor than their "mixing"
counterparts, and are generally consumed without the
addition of other ingredients.
Production methodology
Unlike some other spirits, such as
Cognac and
Scotch, rum
has no defined production methods. Instead, rum
production is based on traditional styles that vary
between locations and distillers.
Fermentation
Sugarcane
is harvested to make sugarcane juice and molasses.
Most rum produced is made from
molasses. Within the Caribbean, much of this
molasses is from
Brazil.[
A notable exception is the French-speaking islands
where sugarcane juice is the preferred base
ingredient.
To the base ingredient
yeast, and
potentially water, are added to start fermentation.
While some rum producers allow wild yeast to perform
the fermentation, most use specific strains of yeast
to help provide a consistent taste and predictable
fermentation time.
Dunder, the
yeast-rich foam from previous fermentations, is the
traditional yeast source in
Jamaica.
"The yeast employed will determine the final taste
and aroma profile," says Jamaican master blender Joy
Spence. Distillers that make lighter rums, such as
Bacardi,
prefer to use faster-working yeasts. Use of
slower-working yeasts causes more
esters to
accumulate during fermentation, allowing for a
fuller-tasting rum.
Distillation
As with all other aspects of rum
production, there is no standard method used for
distillation. While some producers work in batches
using
pot stills,
most rum production is done using
column still
distillation.[25]
Pot still output contains more
congeners
than the output from column stills and thus produces
a fuller-tasting rum.[1]
Aging and blending
Many countries require that rum be
aged for at
least one year. This aging is commonly performed in
used
bourbon
casks,[25]
but may also be performed in stainless steel tanks
or other types of wooden casks. Due to the tropical
climate common to most rum-producing areas, rum
matures at a much faster rate than is typical for
Scotch or Cognac. An indication of this faster rate
is the
angel's share,
or amount of product lost to
evaporation.
While products aged in France or Scotland see about
2% loss each year, rum producers may see as much as
10%.[25]
After aging, rum is normally blended to ensure a
consistent flavor. As part of this blending process,
light rums may be filtered to remove any color
gained during aging. For darker rums,
caramel may
be added to the rum to adjust the color of the final
product.
In cuisine
Rum
Besides rum punch, cocktails such as
the
Cuba Libre
and
Daiquiri
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