Rum

Sugar cane reaches Brazil

The Portuguese brought sugar cane to Brazil from Madeira in 1532, and a cane spirit followed. That places cachaça decades ahead of Barbadian rum, which is why it sits here as a cousin. The cane came with the plantation, and the plantation ran on enslaved labour.

Barbados writes down Kill-Divil

A Barbados document of 1651 mentions 'Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil', which it calls a hot, hellish and terrible liquor. It is the earliest written trace of rum. The spirit was made from plantation molasses, likely first by enslaved people who saw that the waste could be fermented.

Jamaica falls to the Royal Navy

A Royal Navy fleet captured Jamaica in 1655. With rum now made close at hand, Britain moved its sailors' daily ration from French brandy to rum. A habit of the fleet began in a conquered sugar island, and it would last for three centuries.

New York opens its first distillery

The first distillery in the Thirteen Colonies opened on Staten Island in 1664, and Boston followed three years later. Rum became early New England's largest and most prosperous industry, built on cheap molasses shipped from the sugar islands, where enslaved people had grown the cane.

Rum becomes slave trade currency

By the late 1600s rum had replaced French brandy as the currency of the triangle trade. African guards and the canoemen who ferried captives to ships were paid in it. Newport distillers made extra strong rum for the purpose. The drink served the machinery of the slave trade.

A deed in Barbados

The oldest surviving deed for the company now called Mount Gay dates from 1703, which makes it the world's oldest commercial rum distillery by that record. The distillery took its later name from Sir John Gay Alleyne, who began managing it in 1747 and died in 1801.

The Molasses Act

France banned rum in its colonies to protect brandy, so New England distillers bought cheap French molasses. British island planters protested, and Parliament passed the Molasses Act of 1733 with high duties on foreign molasses. Rum was about 80 percent of New England's exports, and compliance was thin.

Vernon waters the rationLegend

Admiral Edward Vernon ordered the sailors' rum watered down around 1740, and the mixture was called grog. One story says the word comes from the grogram cloak he wore. That origin is told and not proven. The ration itself was real, and it ran for 230 more years.

Appleton enters the record

The earliest record of rum made at Appleton Estate in Saint Elizabeth Parish dates from 1749, although the estate itself is held to be older. J. Wray opened his Kingston tavern in 1825, and the two names joined later under one company. Jamaica's pot still tradition grew from such estates.

The Rum Rebellion in Sydney

Rum served as money in New South Wales because coins were scarce. When Governor William Bligh tried to regulate the rum trade, the New South Wales Corps marched to Government House on 26 January 1808 and arrested him. It remains Australia's only military coup.

Beet sugar opens the cane juice road

France turned to sugar beet around 1811, and Caribbean sugar prices collapsed. Debt-ridden factories on the French islands began fermenting and distilling fresh cane juice instead of molasses. That is how rhum agricole began, as a way to keep a failing cane estate in business.

Bacardí opens in Santiago de Cuba

Facundo Bacardí Massó, a Spanish wine merchant, founded his company in Santiago de Cuba on 4 February 1862. He used charcoal filtering and aimed at a clear, light and mixable rum. His wife Amalia suggested the fruit bat from the rafters as the label.

The Navy fixes its strength

Naval rum was first blended at 100 degrees British proof, or 57 percent, the strength a gunpowder test could still confirm. In 1866 the Royal Navy fixed the issued strength at 95.5 proof, or 54.6 percent, and that figure held until the ration ended.

The Daiquiri takes its nameLegend

The Daiquiri is credited to Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer in Cuba around 1898, and named for a beach and iron mine near Santiago. It is told this way and not firmly proven. Havana bartenders later refined it, notably Constantino Ribalaigua Vert.

Mount Pelée and Homère Clément

The eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902 killed over 28,000 people and wrecked the Martinique economy. Homère Clément, a doctor and former mayor, urged planters to ferment fresh pressed cane juice and distil it at once. He is called the godfather of rhum agricole.

Don the Beachcomber opens in Hollywood

Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, known as Don the Beachcomber, opened the first tiki bar in Hollywood in 1933, as Prohibition ended. He mixed syrups and fresh juice with rum, and his Zombie followed in 1934. Trader Vic's, in Oakland, opened in 1936.

Bacardí begins distilling in Puerto Rico

Bacardí began rum production in Puerto Rico in 1936, which let it sell to the United States after Prohibition without the tariff problem. Cuba had grown as a tourist draw during the dry years, and Havana's bars carried the American cocktail forward.

Cuba nationalises its distilleries

The Cuban government seized Bacardí's assets on 14 October 1960, and Havana Club's owners, the Arechabala family, were also dispossessed that year, some of them jailed. Bacardí had already moved its trademarks abroad. The two brands have been in court against each other since.

Black Tot Day

The Royal Navy ended its daily rum ration on 31 July 1970, a day sailors remember as Black Tot Day. The tradition, which began with the capture of Jamaica in 1655, still survives in the order to splice the mainbrace on special occasions.

Guyana joins its distilleries

Demerara Distillers was formed in 1983 by merging Guyana Distilleries and Diamond Liquors. Its sites held the old wooden stills, and by 1999 Diamond was the only distillery left working. El Dorado, its house brand, followed in 1992. Few places keep so much old equipment in service.

Martinique earns its AOC

The Martinique appellation was set on 5 November 1996. It requires fresh cane juice from designated areas, approved column stills and no added sugar or molasses. It sorts the rums into blanc, élevé sous bois and vieux, and it became the model that other cane juice regions are measured against.

Venezuela sets a two year minimum

Ron de Venezuela was recognised on 15 August 2003 as a controlled designation of origin. It requires at least two years in oak barrels and cane products from Venezuela, and it caps distillation strength at 96 percent. The rules were revised in 2019 to tighten quality control.

Jamaica protects its name

Jamaica gained geographical indication protection for its rum in 2016. Ageing must happen on the island, and only water and caramel colour may be added. Distillers such as Hampden have since defended the indication, and the argument over additives continues in the trade.

The age statement on trial

A 2021 class action challenged the marketing of Ron Zacapa 23, arguing that the number suggests a rum aged 23 years when it is a blend ranging from 6 to 23 years. The case belongs to a wider debate over age statements, sweetening and what a label owes the drinker.

Martinique becomes an AOP

On 4 March 2024 the Martinique AOC was upgraded to Appellation d'Origine Protégée, a name once reserved for European wines. Guadeloupe and Marie-Galante had set up a looser indication in 2015. The three rhum categories and the ban on added sugar carry on.