Rum is an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, which was usually sold to local merchants, paymasters and - of course - pirates. Sugarcane (lat. saccharum officinarum) was grown in the Caribbean and South America since the beginning of the 16th century. Usually slaves were occupied in big plantations to crop the cane.
Sugarcane juice was squeezed from the stalks using sugar mills. The juice was heated and crystallized. Rum actually was made from the byproducts of sugar production - the thick syrup (molasses) that remained after the boiling process. This syrup plus some of the juice was fermented and distilled to produce a clear liquid which is aged from 5 to 7 years in oaken casks. The golden color of some rums results from the absorption of substances from the oak. The darker, heavier Jamaican rums - made for the most part in Jamaica, Barbados, and Guyana - are produced from a combination of molasses and skimmings from the sugar boiling vats; the darkest, Guyana's Demarara, is produced by very rapid fermentation and is not particularly heavy bodied. Lighter, drier rums from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are more rapidly fermented with cultured yeasts and are aged from 1 to 4 years.
In order to modify and enhance the rum's flavor and aroma, other substances were sometimes added during the fermentation process. Also caramel was sometimes added after distilling, which gave the rum a dark brownish color.
It is safe to assume that the term "Rum" was derived from the Devonshire word "Rumbullion", meaning "a great tumult". The English were the first to adopt the drink. Beginning in the 17th century, distilleries operating in New York and New England produced rum from West Indian molasses. Traders used rum profits to buy slaves in Africa; the slaves were sold in the West Indies for cargoes of molasses that became New England rum. The attempt by the British to levy heavy duties on molasses imported from the French and Spanish West Indies was an important factor in pre-revolutionary colonial unrest in America.
Grog is a mixture of rum, sugar lemon juice and water, and it was issued to the crew of the Royal Navy. The lemon juice kept the men healthy and lowered the risk of scurvy, sugar should take the bite off the lemon juice, and the rum improved the taste and kept up the spirit of the crew, while the water weakened the alcoholic effect of the drink.
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