Flor de Cana Centenario 24 Named “2017 Best Rum of the Year” in Madrid

     Flor de Caña Centenario 25, the crown jewel of Nicaraguan rum brand, continues to position itself at the top of the ultra-premium rum category worldwide by being named the “2017 Best Rum of the Year”, the highest distinction awarded by the prestigious International Rum Conference in Madrid, Spain.   This is the latest in a series of awards that Flor de Caña Centenario 25 has earned, including “Among the Finest Products in the World” for its Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, “Best New Rum of the Year” by the Caribbean Journal, “Design Masters” by The Spirits Business of London and “Best Packaging” by the International Rum Conference in Madrid in 2014 and 2015.  

     Flor de Cana Centenario 25 is an ultra-premium rum aged 25 years in American Oak Barrels.  Its deep and elegant dark amber color and aroma the blends vanilla, wood and dark cocoa notes that dance around smoothly on your palate along with the fruity, nutty and caramel notes.

     Several of the other products in the Flor de Caña family received important recognition during the 2017 International Rum Conference in Madrid, including:

• Flor de Caña Centenario 18 - Double Gold Medal
• Flor de Caña Centenario 12 - Silver Medal
• Flor de Caña 7 Years Gran Reserva - Gold Medal
• Flor de Caña 5 Years Añejo Clásico - Gold Medal
• Flor de Caña 4 Years Extra Seco - Gold Medal

For more information, visit FlorDeCana.com.

2017 Caribbean Rum and Beer Festival Returns to Barbados

     We got word today that the 2017 Caribbean Rum and Beer Festival is returning to its origin.  The island of Barbados will be hosting the festival for 2017.  It will be held at the Rockley Golf and Country Club on December 9^th from 2 pm until 10 pm.

     The Caribbean Rum and Beer festival is coming back to Barbados.  After years hosted in Grenada and St. Maarten.   “The first Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival was held in Barbados back in 2010 and after discussions with local stakeholders we feel the time is perfect to bring our unique event back home,” said Barbados based Festival Director Cheryl Collymore.  The festival is a rum and beer trade expo, with distilleries, breweries and distributors using the event to showcase their products.

     “Companies are constantly searching for cost effective ways to reach targeted customers and the Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival provides an excellent platform,” she said.  The venue is the Rockley Golf & Country Club, meaning the inclusion of a festival golf tournament, along with product sampling, seminars, chocolate pairings, a bartending competition and a cigar and rum area, among others.

     “The Caribbean and in particular Barbados is the home of rum and we produce some world class quality rums and beers,” said Festival Operation Director Dr. Glyn Williams. “The Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival is a way to invite people from all over the world to come to Barbados and learn more about the history, variety and versatility of these amazing products.”

For further information visit the website www.rumandbeerfestival.com

Contact Festival Director:               Ms. Cheryl Collymore

                                                            info@rumandbeerfestival.com

(246) 262 0314

New Rum From India's Punjab Plains

     Five Rivers Rum is created from an old family recipe produced by the Sanghera family for over 150 years.   The name relates to the Five Rivers Rum’s area of origin in Punjab, India, a name when translated to means the ‘land of the five waters’.   Located near the foothills of the Himalayas, five rivers travel across the Punjabi plains enriching the soil creating the perfect conditions for growing some of the finest sugarcane in the world.  

    Five Rivers Rum is distilled from “gur”, a mixture made by blending Indian sugar cane juice with the natural flavors of orange and green grape.   It is recommended sipped neat or mixed into classic cocktails such as a Daiquiri.  This is an interesting method of creating rum.  Fermenting the flavors of the ornge and the grape with the sugarcane juice to make the interestingly flavored rum.

    “I’m honored to bring my ancestors’ recipe to the United Kingdom market,” said Taj Sanghera, founder of Sanghera Rum Company.  “Back home in India people love rum, it is a big part of our culture. I’m really excited to be able to bring the distinctive Indian-style rum to the UK for the first time.”  This is said to be only the beginning of the journey for this rum.

The Caribbean Journal Announces its Top 5 American Rums

   The Caribbean Journal has released its annual list of its favorite American Rums.  This year’s list of winners is a really great one.

   It’s one of Caribbean Journal’s oldest traditions: we mark the Fourth of July with a celebration of the best rum making in America. Because while you may not know it, rum was central to the American story of independence, and even George Washington himself marked his first inauguration with rum.  Happily, the American rum story continues to get better: more and more distilleries are popping up across the 50 states, and the quality of rum in American continues to improve, from Florida to the Pacific. And more people drinking rum is a good thing for Caribbean rum, too.  Here are our five favorite American-made rums for 2017 not including those in the US  territories, which we always feel should compete against their Caribbean brethren.  Here are our five favorite American rums right now.

Siesta Key Rum

This Sarasota, Fla. Distillery, Drum Circle Distilling, to be exact has long put out one of the best rums, not just in America, but anywhere, and distiller Troy Roberts’ loyalty to overwhelming quality continues, led by the flagship, simply spectacular Siesta Key Spiced Rum.  Plainly, it’s just incredibly good rum.

Papa’s Pilar Rum

The Hemingway Rum Company recently launched its first full-fledged rum making operations at its new distillery in Key West, though much of the rum will remain sourced from Central Florida, the Caribbean and Central America.  But the blending and finishing of the rum done Lakeland, Florida is itself a work of art, and makes it one of the best rums in America.

Richland Rum

This American product is notable in that it’s America’s only single-estate rum, meaning every step of the rum making process happens here, from cane to glass. And the result is a world-class rum, something you expect to find in Martinique, not in Georgia.

Koloa Rum

Long a Rum Journal favorite, Koloa Rum is distilled in a vintage copper-pot still using local sugar cane from Kauai, making for a wonderful range of both traditional and flavored rums. The latter are really the stars, though, led by the decadent coffee expression.

Thomas Tew Rum

This brash pot-still rum is produced by the Newport Distilling Company in Newport, RI, led by its wonderful single barrel expression, though the overproof is wild, too.

Read More at http://www.caribjournal.com/2017/07/04/caribbean-rum-beer-festival-comes-barbados/ 

Happy 4th of July from Key West

     Fourth of July in Key West.  Today is a day off for me, but it is just because it is my normal day off.  Here in Key West where most of us work in the service industry, we things don't have "national holidays".   This doesn't mean that holiday's aren't important to us.  Tonight I'll take a seat in the helm of my home and watch all of the fireworks around the island and enjoy a rum or two.

     Key West always has a wonderful aerial display that is second to none.  I really enjoy the fun and the true meaning of the 4th of July, I celebrate the "rum and molasses" that lead this country to split off from Great Britain back in 1776.

Fourth of July and Rum They're are Closer than You Think

     If you are looking for a patriotic reason to enjoy an alcoholic beverage on Independence Day, look no further: eighteenth-century Americans would not have dreamt of celebrating the triumph of independence any other way.   During the colonial and revolutionary eras, rum was the alcoholic drink of choice for American colonists, consuming about 3.7 gallons annually each at the time of the American Revolution.   In the decades immediately following the American Revolution, Americans drank more alcohol per capita than ever before or since. 

     On the second Independence Day in 1778, George Washington ordered a double ration of rum for American soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War to celebrate with.   Britain sought to control the flow and impose taxes on molasses that was a must for rum production.   George Washington’s political, military, and personal relationship with rum exemplified the centrality of the drink to colonial society and American independence.

     English rum distillation originated in Barbados in the 1630's.  In the late seventeenth century, New England began distilling rum.  America’s production of rum boomed, as the colonies traded excess grains for molasses with Caribbean territories. The English Navigation Acts restricted trading for molasses with only English colonies.   However, American colonial merchants got around the regulations by smuggling cheaper molasses from French colonies, particularly Saint Domingue (Haiti), in the West Indies.   The 1733 Molasses Act imposed legislation aimed at limiting colonial access to foreign molasses.   Large-scale smuggling of molasses became even more commonplace as a result from this Act.  The Molasses Act anticipated controversial British policies toward the American colonies in the 1760's. In 1764, Britain passed the Sugar Act, legislation that lowered taxation on molasses from six pence per gallon to three, yet encouraged the British Navy to put an end to smuggling.   The tight regulation of molasses, accompanied by a war on colonial merchants, conducted by the Royal Navy, ultimately contributed to the American Revolution.

     Even though there were other issues, the attempts by the King to stifle the rum industry during this period led us to our independence in 1776.  Tomorrow we celebrate this independence that we cherish to highly.

The Original Home of Bacardi Rums in Santiago de Cuba

     Santiago de Cuba is the original home of the Bacardi Rum.  Here you see the Bacardi factory, still operational and producing some of the finest rums made in Cuba.  This historic building is as beautiful as it was back in the days when the Bacardi's were running it.  My hope is that one day the rift between the former business people of Cuba and the government can somehow mend their differences.
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Bahama Bob's Banana Daiquiri

Here is a fun idea for that hot summer evening.  I like my daiquiri's on the aft deck about sunset and here is one that you might find very interesting.  Great daiquiri flavor with just a nice notes of banana.

Bahama Bob's Banana Daiquiri   

• 2. Oz. Doorly's White Rum
• Juice of 1/2 Lime
• 3/4 Oz. Bahama Bob's Whole Banana Syrup

Place all ingredients in a ice filled shake and shake until chilled.  Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice.  Float a couple of banana coins as a garnish

Bahama Bob’s Whole Banana Syrup

• 1 Cup of Sugar in the Raw
• ¾ Cup of Water
• 1 Whole Banana (slice into coins and save the peel)
• 1/8 Tsp. Allspice

Place the sugar, water and banana coins in a pan and heat at about 425 degrees stirring until it reaches a full boil.  Lower temperature to 275 and allow to slow boil for about 5 more minutes, crush the banana coins with the spoon as they soften up and keep stirring slowly.  Remove from the heat and strain into an appropriate vessel and let stand.  Now place a cup of water back in the pan and lay the peels after cutting off the stem and black end off.  Bring to a boil then lower temp to 275 and allow to boil for another 5 minutes.  Strain the liquid into the syrup and stir it in.   Allow it to cool and ready to use.

Spirits Business Top 10 Rum Sales Champions

Spirits Business has announced its top 10 selling Rum Brands for 2016.  There have been some very interesting changes over the past year.

 

1.   Bacardi

2016: 17.23m Cases - 2015: 17.42m Cases – Percentage of change: -1.09% - Place last year: 2  Having lost its position as the world’s best-selling rum brand in 2014, Bacardi finally has gotten the title in 2016, despite a marginal sales decline. In recent years, the brand has been in a close battle with McDowell’s No.1 Celebration.   Bacardi is set to increase its presence in the key US market after moving distribution to the newly formed any Southern Glazer.

2.   Tanduay

2016: 16.60m Cases - 2015: 16.50m Cases - Percentage of change: +0.61%  - Place last year: 3   With McDowell’s dropping to number 3 it makes Philippines-made Tanduay Rum the world’s second-largest selling rum brand despite relatively slow sales in 2016.  The brand has had solid volume gains since 2013, but it hasn’t hit the record highs of nearly 20m cases back in 2012.   Tanduay is the best-selling rum in Asia and available in the US.

 

3. McDowell’s No.1 Celebration

2016: 14.90m Cases - 2015: 16.20m Cases – Percentage of change: -8.02% - Place last year: 1.  2015’s best-selling rum brand now finds itself in the third spot. Last year, India’s McDowell’s No.1 Celebration experienced an 8% drop to 14.90m cases, which was the lowest sales in five years.  The brand was likely hit by market difficulties in India.

4. Captain Morgan

2016: 10.70m Cases - 2015: 10.30m Cases - Percentage of change: 3.88% - Place last year: 4.   Captain Morgan rum has maintained a position as the world’s fourth best-selling rum with sales gains of nearly 4%.   Captain Morgan increased its sales with new expressions in the past year helping to increase sales.  Captain Morgan has also added some punch to its market efforts for the year ahead.

5. Havana Club

2016: 4.19m Cases - 2015: 4.01m Cases – Percentage of change: 4.49% - Place last year: 5.  Havana Club is making headlines as speculation mounted over the prospect of the US lifting its trade embargo against Cuba.  Havana Club and Bacardi are still battling over the Havana Club trademark in the US.   Havana Club experienced a 5% growth in 2016.   Alexandre Ricard, CEO of Pernod Ricard, said that a significant increase in tourism to Cuba has had an extremely positive impact on Havana Club’s sales in airports”.

6. Barceló

2016: 2.07m Cases - 2015: 2.04m Cases – Percentage of change: +1.57% - Place last year: 6.    Dominican Republic’s Ron Barceló is sold in more than 50 countries. It has continued to have a solid performance in 2016.  It hit 2.07m cases. Barceló has not experienced any declines in the last five years, even though its rate of growth has slowed.

7. Contessa

2016: 1.98 Cases - 2015: 2.70m Cases – Percentage of change: -26.67% - Place last year – Unranked  Contessa was hit hard by market factors in India, and as such experienced heavy sales losses.  Dropping the brand below the 2m case mark for the first time in many years.  Contessa has a presence in Africa, South East Asia and Middle East and is now ready to open the USA and Canada. 

8. Old Port Rum

2016: 1.69m Cases - 2015: 1.92m Cases – Percentage of change: -11.98% - Place last year: 7.  India’s Old Port Rum experienced a sudden sales drop in 2016, showing a three-year low of 1.69m cases.  Indian’s market issues last year like so many other brands.

9. Ron Medellin

 

2016: 1.39m Cases - 2015: 1.04m Cases – Percentage of change: +34.20% - Place last year: Unranked   Fabrica de Alcoholes y Licores de Antioquia has for the first time provided its sales data, showing that Ron Medellin rum is the ninth best-selling rum in the world.   Columbian made Ron Medellin made an astonishing 34.20% growth during 2016, the fastest growth rate among any million-case-selling rum brand.

10. Appleton Estate

2016: 1.22m Cases - 2015: 1.25m Cases – Percentage of change: -2.40% - Place last year: 8.  Having increased sales by 50,000 cases in 2015, Appleton Estate Rum sales had significantly different results in 2016.  Volumes have dropped by 2.40%.    The growth of Campari’s total rum portfolio was held back in 2016 by the US and Canada following the new naming classifications and packaging updates for three of its core expressions.

Tasting Spirits to Really Get the Most from Them

    How do you taste rum and really get anything out of the tasting?   I hear people tell me that they first sniff then put it into their mouths and swallow.  When I watch the people that I serve at a tasting, the majority just slam it back and wonder why they don’t get much out of it.   I’m of the conclusion that these are the people that also think “Captain Morgan” is great sipping rum.   Rum like any other quality spirit is a very special entity, that takes some time and interest by the taster to really understand and enjoy.

The Neat Spirit Tasting Glass

     First of all, you need to be in a place where you are comfortable and undistracted.  To properly enjoy a good spirit, you first must be interested and not just going through the motions.  You also need proper glassware to allow you to take in the aroma of the spirit without being over whelmed by the alcohol that is hovering at the top of an improper glass.   The “Neat Glass is a good example of a glass that will allow the alcohol to flow away and allow you to take in the aroma of the spirit without being overcome by the alcohol fumes.

     When I start the evaluation my first step is to hold it up to the light where I can observe the color and the clarity of the spirit.  Color is a big part of the appeal of a good quality spirit.  Next is the taking in of the aroma of the spirit.  Aroma is a huge part of your tasting sensors.  You taste by somewhere around 75% aroma and 25% actual passing of the spirit across the taste buds in your mouth.  For this reason, I like to move directly from sniffing the aroma to taking a very small sip of the spirit that I allow to roll across my tongue and the rest of my

mouth.  Taking enough time to allow the flavors to fully develop in the mouth will give you a good basis for evaluating all the flavors the rum is providing.

     Next, I slowly swallow the sample to see how it goes through the rear of my mouth and down the throat.  This will lead me to how the flavors finish and linger before fading away.  If you then sit and savor the total experience you’ll really understand why you do or don not like the expression.  Before repeating the tasting be sure to cleanse the palate with water.

     It has been my experience that if you follow these steps and take some time to enjoy and truly experience a spirit you will find that there are a number of really fine spirits out there that you may have passed over because you weren’t taking the time to fully sense the expression.  Give this method a try I think you will be surprised how much more you get out of tasting spirits.

Cockspur Rum Brand Sold

     Goddard Enterprises Limited, has concluded an agreement to sell its majority interest in International Brand Developers N.V., owner of the Cockspur Rum brand.   GEL has had a long association with the Cockspur brand, dating back to the days when it sponsored the Cockspur Gold Cup Race in the early 1980s. This race and the promotion of it for 15 consecutive years, helped to propel the Cockspur rum brand to the position of market leader.

     Following this success, the Cockspur brand had been met with aggressive campaigns from other brands and changing market forces, and so, options were explored to grow the brand. GEL then investigated various options for the future of the brand as it determined that the spirits industry no longer fitted in with its business strategy.

     A global search ensued but an eventual offer came from an internationally experienced company in Barbados – Woodland Radicle Limited and its affiliated companies (the “WR Group”) – with a global reputation in brand creation, brand building and activation of beverage brands. The WR Group sees great potential for the Cockspur brand. 

     The WR Group management team is comprised of Damian McKinney, Steve Wilson and Allan Reinecker supported by local investors.  Damian McKinney, who is based in Barbados, was until recently the creator and owner of McKinney Rogers Consulting – a global business execution agency specializing in bringing businesses and brands back to greatness with a very impressive list of global clients and brands.  Steve Wilson is a veteran in the creation of global spirits. He was involved with many well-known brands including Bailey’s Irish Cream, Malibu, Ciroc Vodka and Smirnoff Ice.  Allan Reinecker is an expert in global finance and business development having concluded many beverage deals globally. 

     In terms of changes as a result of the sale, the headquarters for Cockspur will be at the WR Group’s corporate base in Woodland, St George. Highly motivated individuals will be recruited to work with a network of distributors globally to aggressively market the brand, while local distribution for the brand will remain with Hanschell Inniss Limited, a subsidiary of GEL. The brand will continue to be produced in Barbados. 

Hemingway Rum Company Still Produced its First Output Yesterday

Steam in the Upper Windows

     It was an exciting day for all of us at the Hemingway Rum Company yesterday.  We fired up out still for the first time and heated water to the point where it passed through the rectifying tower and into the condensing tower and out into the collection bucket.   We spent most of the morning torquing the tower bolts and securing all of the water jackets clamps before we fired up the boiler and started making steam to heat up the 150 or so gallons of water in the in the pot.

Distilled Water Coming out the output pipe

     What was so rewarding is that there were no leaks from any of the connections in the system.  All of our systems operated like they should and we produced about 10 gallons of distilled water by the time that we shut down the boiler and let the still cool.

     Congratulations to Carlton Grooms, Shawn Martin and of course myself.  We worked so well as a team getting all of the systems operating without any problems.  The whole system powered up and made distilled water and shout down without any issues.  Fun, Fun, Fun, can't wait to do it again with beer in the belly of the pot and we start making real rum.

Ruling in on Captain Morgan vs Admiral Nelson Trademark Dispute

     Heaven Hill’s Admiral Nelson’s rums “infringe” Diageo’s Captain Morgan trademark, this long-running case in Canada’s Federal Court has ruled.     In the June 12^th ruling, the judge said that Heaven Hill has “directed public attention to its wares and business so as to cause confusion in Canada” the Admiral Nelson brand and Captain Morgan.

     This action was first brought against Heaven Hill in 2014, stating that the Admiral Nelson image was “clearly intended” to mimic Captain Morgan in an attempt to “trade upon the brand’s goodwill and create consumer confusion”.   The judge has ruled in favor of Diageo, with Heaven Hill being banned from selling, distributing or importing products bearing the Admiral Nelson’s character in Canada.   Heaven Hill was also ordered to pay damages to Diageo.

     A Diageo spokesman said that “we are pleased with the ruling in the trademark infringement case against Heaven Hill was overwhelmingly in our favor; clearly supporting our view that Admiral Nelson’s product labels infringes on the Captain Morgan trademark”.    “Diageo is a global leader owning a collection of well established brands, of which Captain Morgan is one of their most valued characters”.   Diageo is committed to defending our intellectual property throughout North America and around the world.”

The House Looks Good with the Leaves and the Green Grass

     The new grass is grown in and the trees have their leaves back on them making the place look so much better.  The lake is full and the place is finally looking really good again.

Kill Devil Colonial Cocktails

     Rum during the Colonial times here in America was still for the most part in the "Kill Devil" quality.   It really had to be mixed with something to be drinkable.  This was the birthplace of some very interesting cocktails from the era.  

Flip, The Cocktail

     Flip was a vastly popular drink, and continued to be so for a century and a half.  I find it spoken of as early as 1690. It was made of home-brewed beer sweetened with sugar, molasses, or dried pumpkin, and flavored with a liberal dash of rum.  It was stirred in a great mug or pitcher with a red-hot loggerhead or bottle or flip-dog, which made the liquor foam and gave it a burnt bitter flavor.

     Landlord May, of Canton, Mass., made a famous brew, he would mix four pounds of sugar, four eggs, and one pint of cream and let it stand for two days.   When a mug of flip was called for, he filled a quart mug two-thirds full of beer, placed add four great spoonfuls of the compound, then thrust in the seething loggerhead, and added a gill of rum to the creamy mixture.   If a fresh egg were beaten into the flip the drink was called "bellowstop," and the froth rose over the top of the mug. 

     "Stonewall" was a most intoxicating mixture of cider and rum. "Calibogus," or "bogus" was cold rum and beer unsweetened.  "Black-strap" was a mixture of rum and molasses. Casks of it stood in every country store, a salted and dried codfish slyly hung alongside, a free lunch to be stripped off and eaten, and thus tempt, through thirst, the purchase of another draught of black-strap.

     No one knows, or ever will know, what New England rum tasted like.  The generic roots of rum extends deep into the misty past before there were bottles and labels and such.   This is probably a blessing if some of the written descriptions of the early rums are even close to being true.

     

Copper Bottom Distillery of Holly Hill, Florida

     East Volusia County’s rum history dating back to the 1750’s. A historical marker at 715 W. Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach is the site of the Three Chimneys, home to the oldest British sugar plantation, sugar mill and rum distillery in the United States.   And in the early days of Prohibition that ran from 1920 to 1933, Bill McCoy used a Holly Hill boatyard as a base for his ships that ran rum and other spirits from the Bahamas up the U.S. east coast. According to New York Times articles, he was arrested in late 1923, pleaded guilty and served nine months in jail.   With East Volusia County’s history of rum, the Craig family wants to add their name to it.  The family has converted an old laundromat into the Copper Bottom Craft Distillery, located at the western base of the Seabreeze Boulevard bridge in Holly Hill, Florida.  It is the first licensed craft distillery in Volusia County.

     Copper Bottom Craft Distillery initially made vodka, several types of rum and also put up bourbon in charred oak casks to age the required two years.   “With this being Florida and the local history with rum, we have to have different rums,” said Jenni Craig,.

Copper Bottom Distillery

    The distillery has tours for tourists and locals that will end in the tasting room where bottles will also be sold, but not for consumption at the distillery.   To grow the business, the Craigs hope to contract with a distributor to sell their liquor in stores, restaurants and other retailers.  Those tales will be part of the story and décor at Copper Bottom Craft Distillery, said Jenni Craig.   “I think it will help bring people to that area and that’s what’s needed to spruce up that area for redevelopment,” Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte said. “This could be another incentive there. It’s a step in the right direction.” 

     Their white rum is one that is an excellent example of craft rums that works very well as a base for the cocktail mixologists and I wish the well in their business.  I hope that I get the opportunity to tour the plant in the near future on a trip to the Daytona area.

The Spirit that Carried Colonial America to a Revolution

Christopher Columbus Voyages

     Sugar culture in the Americas in turn began with Columbus who brought sugar cane to the Caribbean in 1493. where, it flourished.  The popular and profitable sugar refineries had two major problems: rats and molasses. Rats, whose sweet teeth could do in up to 5 percent of a given sugar crop per year, were variously dealt with by poison, ferrets, dogs, and slaves armed with clubs.   Molasses, though less damaging, was messier. It was a by-product of the sugar-making process: the boiled cane syrup was cooled and cured in clay pots with drainage holes in the bottom; as the syrup crystallized to form sugar, the leftovers–in the form of dark, caramelized goo that oozed out of the holes. 

Barbados Sugar Plantation Circa 1600"s

     On average, about one pound of molasses was made for every two pounds of sugar, and nobody knew what to do with it. Some was fed to slaves and livestock; some was mixed with lime and horsehair to make mortar; and some was used to concoct a very ineffective treatment for syphilis. Most, however, to the tune of millions of gallons a year, was simply tossed into the sea.     No one knows who first noticed that molasses could be fermented to generate alcohol, but the breakthrough may have occurred on Barbados, a tiny pear-shaped island at the tail end of the Lesser Antilles. There, in 1647, a chatty visitor named Richard Ligon attended a party at which he was treated to a feast that included suckling pig, pineapple, and a throat-searing drink known as “kill-devil,” an early moniker for rum.   Though undeniably alcoholic, “Kill Devil” doesn’t seem to have been tasty, even the perennially upbeat Ligon describes it as “not very pleasant.”   More forthright critics called it “rough and disagreeable” or “hot, hellish, and terrible.” Nevertheless, it sold like hotcakes.

Medford, Mass Ship Building and Rum Distillery of Colonial Times

    Pirates, traditionally, accounted for a lot of it; excavations at Port Royal, Jamaica, a famous pirate hideaway  that was once dubbed “the wickedest city in the world”, turned up hundreds of rum bottles.   Even more was sold to the North American colonies. In 1699, a British observer commented that rum was “much loved by the American English” as “the Comforter of their Souls, the Preserver of their Bodies, the Remover of their Cares, and Promoter of their Mirth.” It was also a sovereign remedy, he added, for “Grumbling of the Guts” and chilblains.      By the early 18^th century, nearly all the rum exported from the West Indies went straight to North America, between 1726 and 1730, Barbados and Antigua alone shipped out over 900,000 gallons.    American colonists were not only importing rum; they were distilling their own.  As of 1770, there were over 150 rum distilleries in New England, and the colonists, collectively, were importing 6.5 million gallons of West Indian molasses, and turning it into five million gallons of rum. One estimate from the time of the Revolutionary War puts American rum consumption at nearly four gallons per person per year. Unfortunately, most of it wasn’t very good, but it did have the advantage of being cheap.

      The Molasses Act of 1763 had called for a tax of sixpence per gallon on non-British sugar and molasses imported into the North American colonies. This measure had been proposed by sugar growers in the British West Indies who wanted Parliament’s assistance to force the colonies to buy their produce, not the less expensive sugar of the competing Spanish and French islands. The sixpence tax was high and, if strictly enforced, would have caused severe hardship for the New England distilleries. Rum was a great social lubricant of the day and was much in demand throughout the colonies, but heavy taxation could put the beverage out of the reach of many in the lower reaches of society.  The problem with this Sugar Act was they could not really enforce it.  The colonists were smuggling the non-British molasses into the country.  Later, the Sugar Act of 1764 was passed.   The ever-frugal New Englanders worked their way around the tax by bribing customs officials.   British enforcement officers were aware of what was happening, but followed the “salutary neglect" of the colonies. Merchants on both sides of the Atlantic were prospering, so why rock the boat?  

     It would be these kind of taxes that would eventually lead the colonies to war with the British.  Even the start of the war began with rum.  Did you know that during his ride Revere made a little pit stop in Medford, Massachusetts at the home of Captain Isaac Hall. Captain Hall happened to be a distiller of rum, and Medford happened to be the rum capital of America at the time. Being a good host, Captain Hall started pouring flagons of rum, and the rest, as they say, is history.   By the time Revere saddled up again, he’d "sampled his fair share" of Captain

Paul Revere's Ride 1775

Hall’s hospitality and “he who came a silent horseman, departed a virile and vociferous crusader, with a cry of defiance and not of fear.” Not surprisingly, Revere was “pulled over” by the authorities (Redcoats) and detained for an hour before being released.