I be Rummin all day

Its interesting to see how things become popular due to necessity, and what makes something in such high demand. Why does one thing become at the forefront while other things that are similar never stand a chance? What is that Tipping Point? When is “ that magical moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire”? For many Americans we identify with whiskey as being the national spirit, which may be true today but what was the spirit drunk by the early settlers?  Kill Devil is a spirit distilled from the juice of sugar cane or its by product known as molasses better known today as Rum.

As sugar became high in demand an abundant byproduct called molasses was left over.  Discarding this vicious byproduct caused many problems as it was seen at fairly useless and difficult to ship. Until one day when it was noted that molasses had enough residual sugar to attract yeast that then attacks the sugar and rearranges it into alcohol and carbon dioxide (fun fact is that Don Q captures the carbon dioxide let off and it is then used in the bottling process of coca-cola).

Fermentation was nothing new as wine and beer and other spirits had been made as well for hundreds of years, but during the sixteenth and seventeenth century sugar cultivation and distillation aggressively made its way through the New World tropics.  This was all made possible by the demand for refined sugar, an abundance of molasses  (cheap), the desire to drink especially with unsafe water on long voyages, and the interested of distillation and slavery to have enough people working on these plantations during harsh conditions. With out these things it never would have been as successful. “Over the course of four centuries it went from swill to swanky, and moved from the gutter the great room” It was a drink that was at first harsh and cheap to purchase, loved by pirates and drank by most.  It has evolved, becoming more refined and compared to some of the finest Cognacs.

Rum use to be extremely high in alcohol content and was very harsh.  Obviously through cocktails it is demonstrated the use of water was often used to cut the proof down.  So why wasn’t rum being diluted in the barrels? It was easier to ship, store and conserve barrels by have a strong spirit that took up less space and water was fairly questionable, in high demand which lead many to drink it as is, resulting in extreme rapid intoxication.  Regulations have since lowed the proof in which rum can be bottled and today typically ranging 80-90 ABV which almost twice of that use to be the norm. Rum does not have many specific regulations but lets look at  what rum is as we know it today.

“any spirit distilled solely from the fermented sugars derived from the sugar cane plant and distilled below 96% alcohol by volume is rum (rhum in French and ron in Spanish). The sugars may be in the form of fresh juice, cane syrup or molasses. In the EU, the term rhum agricole is reserved for rums made from sugar cane juice in the French overseas departments and Madeira and that have specific characteristics.

There are also spirits which, though rum by definition, are described as sugar cane spirits or by other synonyms. For example, ‘cachaça’ the national spirit of Brazil, is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice and you’ll discover a number of ‘aguardiente de cañas’ produced locally across South America. However, if the product is fermented from sugar cane juice, syrup or molasses and distilled below 96% alcohol it is rum, pure and simple.”

The rum from the past has heavily influenced the rum and cocktails of today.  It can be attributed to proof, regulations, distillations methods, aging and availability. Also when we look back at the history of cocktails we see how these drinks originated.  Many times water was added for dilution, lime added to prevent scurvy, sugar to balance out the acidity resulting in the grog, rum punch, daiquiri etc…. Many cocktails were innovative but many emerged out necessity and availability of products.