| An early alcoholic drink, rum has been around since | | | | Colonists back. Thus, bottles of rum can often be |
| ancient times. Nothing if not old, it is practically forced | | | | overhead bragging to bottles of wine and bottles of |
| to walk with a (sugar) cane. Though it wasn't first | | | | whiskey that they were the reason for the American |
| distilled in plantations until the 17th century, rum is | | | | Revolution. |
| believed to have existed thousands of years prior in | | | | More than any other alcoholic drink, rum was |
| the form of brum, a drink made by the Malay people. | | | | associated with pirates (yo ho ho and a bottle of |
| In the 14th century, Marco Polo (the explorer, not | | | | rum, anyone?). This initially started when English |
| the swimming pool game) wrote about a wine made | | | | privateers began trading it. As some of these men |
| of sugar, giving further credence to the belief that | | | | eventually became pirates (aim high, kids), they |
| rum was around before the 1600's. | | | | carried with them their liking of rum. Pieces of |
| When the first distillation of rum began, it began in | | | | literature that coupled rum and piracy perpetuated |
| the Caribbean when plantation slaves realized the | | | | this notion. |
| molasses, left over from sugar refinement, could be | | | | Rum was also associated with the British Royal Navy, |
| turned into alcohol. This alcohol, however, was not | | | | an association that began in 1655 when Jamaica was |
| well received...at least not at first. Like the beginning | | | | captured by British sailors. Once ashore, rum was so |
| of most things, the beginning of rum was a little | | | | available that the seamen began drinking it instead of |
| shaky and the spirit was dispirited to learn that it was | | | | the brandy to which they were accustomed. |
| initially thought to be a terrible tasting liquor. | | | | The refinement of rum began in the place it all |
| Once the Caribbean set the rum ball in motion, it | | | | started: the Caribbean. Prior to the late 1800's, rums |
| quickly spread to the American Colonies. In 1664, the | | | | were dark and heavy. The Spanish Royal |
| first distillery for rum was set up in what is now | | | | Development Board set out to make rum more |
| Staten Island; a distillery in Boston quickly followed. | | | | appealing to the general public and offered a reward |
| New Englanders had a special penchant for making | | | | for anyone who could improve its quality. And so |
| rum; not only was the rum industry their most | | | | enter Don Facundo Bacardi Masso. |
| profitable industry, but the rum they produced was | | | | After moving to Cuba from Spain in 1843, Masso |
| considered to be of higher quality than all others. | | | | began to refine his rumming techniques. He improved |
| An alcoholic drink determined to have a place in | | | | distillation, filtering, and aging in casks made of |
| history - even the dark parts of history - rum was | | | | American oak. This all worked together to produce a |
| involved in the slave trade, as slaves, molasses, and | | | | rum that was light and smooth, a spirit that today |
| rum were part of the triangular trade. When this | | | | we have come to love, to drink, and one that makes |
| trade was interrupted because of the 1764 Sugar | | | | our senses rumble. |
| Act, another straw was thrown on the American | | | | |