the.com/rum
liquid mutiny aged in oak, beloved by pirates, navies, and anyone avoiding their feelings
means A strong distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice or molasses, typically aged in wooden casks and ranging from clear and sharp to dark and treacly.
from The word surfaces in 17th-century Caribbean colonies, where sugar plantations turned molasses into liquor. Its fuller early form was 'rumbullion' (also 'rumbustion'), a fine rowdy word of obscure origin — possibly slang for an uproar or commotion, which fits the drink that caused so many. The shortened 'rum' won out. There's a separate, older English 'rum' meaning 'fine' or 'excellent' (later twisting into 'odd' or 'strange'), and some have tried to link the two, but the connection is unproven and the spirit's name is best left as a genuine mystery born in the sugar islands.
- navy ration
- British sailors got daily rum until 1970
- sugar's ghost
- distilled from molasses, slavery's brutal byproduct
- grog origin
- watered-down rum named after an admiral's coat
- flammable proof
- overproof rum literally burns blue
- oldest spirit
- caribbean colonists distilled it in the 1600s
bacardi — cuban rum brand founded in 1862, world's largest spirits producer by volume
mount gay — barbadian rum distillery established 1703, oldest continuously operating rum producer
havana club — cuban state rum brand, flagship product of cuban rum industry since 1934
appleton estate — jamaican rum producer in nassau valley, known for high-ester pot still rums