Types of drinks Rum 1 |
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Types of drinks: Rum 1 Probably the least understood of the five main spirits, rum is actually, in its white version, one of the biggest-selling of them all. Indeed, it is debatable whether many of those knocking back Barcadi-and-Cokes realize they are drinking some form of rum at all. To many, rum is inextricably associated with a rather antiquated pantomime idea of “Jolly Jack Tars” and a life on the ocean wave. There is some uncertainty over the origin of the spirit’s name, but th e favourite theory is that it is a shortening of an old West Country English word “rumbullion”, itself of unknown origin, but generally denoting any hard liquour. The invention of rum dates from not long after the foundation of the sugar plantations in the West Indies, in the early 16th century. Until the voyages of Christopher Columbus, sugar was a luxury product, and much sought after in southern Europe, having originally been brought into Venice from India. When the Spanish explorers landed in Hispaniola and the neighbouring Caribbean islands, they saw promising environments for cultivating sugar cane for themselves. If yeasts need to feed on sugar in order to produce alcohol, then the sugar plant was always going to be an obvious candidate for distillation. When first pressed, cane juice is a murky, greenish colour and full of impurities. Boiled down, it crystallizes into sucrose and a sticky brown by-product, molasses, that would have fermented readily in tropical conditions. Rum is the result of distilling the fermented molasses. Sugar soon became a widespread everyday product in Europe. The astronomical demand for it was serviced by the most notorious episode in European colonial history – the slave trade, in which rum played a crucial role. Settlers in New England financed their trips to West Africa by selling rum. A consignment of African slaves would be delivered to the West Indies and sold for molasses, which would then be shipped back to New England to be turned into more rum, in a self-perpetuating cycle. The association of rum with the British Navy arises from the fact that rum was provides to ordinary sailors as a daily ration from the 18th century. That tradition endured, basically because rum could withstand hot weather more sturdily than beer could. The initial allowance was a fairly rollicking half-pint a day, water down eventually into the despised “grog”, and then mixed with lemon juice to prevent scurvy. It was only in 1970 that the rum ration was abolished. | ||||||
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 October 2008 ) | ||||||
