There is no drink in the world that has left its mark on history as clearly as Rum. To understand why, we need to know how this drink originated. That is why we dive into history in this first part.
What is Rum?
To know how Rum originated, it is important to understand what exactly Rum is. I'm not going to bore you with the rules and conditions here, as they vary quite a bit per country or region. What is important is that every Rum must be made from sugar cane. Rum is thus, put very simply, a distillate of fermented sugar cane, which may not be added during distillation.
Sugar cane
Sugar cane is thus the most important element in the production of Rum. Many know sugar cane from ... cane sugar, but do not know much about the plant itself. Sugar cane is a plant in the grass family. It is very similar in structure to corn and bamboo, which belong to the same family. Like bamboo, sugar cane can grow very large, sometimes up to 5 meters in length, and like bamboo, sugar cane comes from Asia. Surprised?
Most people think that sugar cane comes from South America or Africa, but this plant has its roots in Papua New Guinea. We're pretty sure about this because some ecosystems have developed around this plant that can't be found anywhere else.
Some people will argue that sugar cane originated in Indonesia. This is not entirely correct, but there is some truth in it, because of all the varieties that can be found in Papua New Guinea, the Saccharum officinarum, the one that produces the most sugar, is the version grown in Indonesia as a crop for consumption.
Sugar cane is therefore a grass, but one with a unique property. Where other grasses produce starch and only produce sugar during reproduction and in specific circumstances, sugar cane always produces sugar. When you remove the hard bark, you get a fibrous inside that you can chew on. At that moment a super sweet juice is released that provides you with an enormous amount of energy. No wonder, then, that this plant has continued to grow rapidly in Asia. The plant was found throughout southern Asia, as far as islands in the Pacific. Because the juice of sugar cane starts to ferment quickly and is no longer suitable for consumption, cane sugar was obtained by boiling the juice until crystallization occurs. Cane sugar could be stored for a long time and gave the same energy as the juice itself. The first Western contacts with the plant came in the time of Alexander the Great. His armies, who had advanced to the border with India, encountered this plant, and a general of Alexander the Great called it "a plant that makes honey without bees." You would think that at that moment the fate of the plant was sealed and that it would soon make its way into our regions, but that will have to wait about 1000 years, until the Moors conquer the regions around the Mediterranean.
The Moors, unlike the Greeks, recognized the importance of sugar cane. Not only because of its energy, but mainly because of its economic importance. In the meantime, sugar had become a popular commodity on the European continent. While it was initially a spice that was only available to the super rich, sugar became more and more a substance that several people could enjoy. Because trade and wealth are a precondition for quickly conquering large areas, the Moors took sugar cane, and therefore sugar, with them on their conquests. In no time, North Africa and South-West Europe were full of the sweet plant.
The Moors also brought the art of distillation from Asia. That's what we call killing two birds with one stone.
Growing sugar cane is therefore very simple: you place a short stump horizontally in 20 cm deep soil and a new plant grows from each node. When you harvest this manually, a new plant will grow up to 5 times.
So the Moors have brought us one step closer to the origin of Rum. Two steps actually: The Moors also brought the art of distillation from Asia with them. That's what we call killing two birds with one stone.
So when the Iberian peninsula was reclaimed from the Moors, we were left with sugar cane and the possibility of distillation. You would think that at that moment the link is already made to make Rum, or something similar, but nothing in history seems to indicate this. Most likely because there was no need for it at the time. Distilling was easier to apply to existing alcoholic beverages. The fermentation of sugar cane (juice) was also never intentionally practiced.
The great crossing
Sugar became more economically important than ever and conquered the western world. Plantations in the south were sprouting like mushrooms. Sweet reeds were mainly planted on the Spanish and Portuguese islands. The mostly volcanic subsoil and the humid and warm climate offer extremely favorable conditions. And then Christopher Columbus began his great journey to find a new trade route to Asia. Columbus, as we know, never arrived in Asia but discovered the Caribbean. After his discovery of the new world, Christopher Columbus was promised that 10% of the wealth from that area would go to him. The Spaniards were therefore convinced that gold and other precious metals could be found. Columbus was a businessman and even then had doubts about the existence of gold on the islands, and since there were already growers of sugar cane in his family by marriage and he also had experience in transporting it, he had the idea to take the plant with him on his crossing. His idea that the plant would thrive there was justified, though.
In order to run a plantation, personnel are needed. On islands such as Madeira and the Azores, African slaves were used to keep the plantations going. On the Caribbean islands, Columbus had thought he could do this with the locals. That was a miscalculation. Columbus and his crew were very strict and aggressive towards the population with the intention of getting them to work. Many died from the imposed punishments and exhaustion. Fortunately, the locals had a good geographic knowledge of the area and access to ships, which allowed some to flee quickly. However, it will prove worthless later on, because almost the entire population will eventually die out due to the fact that they were not resistant to the diseases that the settlers brought with them. Columbus will prove unsuccessful in his attempt to find gold and plant sugar cane. In addition, his crackdown on the local population and his murders of the same population lead to a prison term on return.
Ultimately, the Spaniards will succeed in planting sugar cane, thanks to the same African slaves they had already put to work in other plantations. The beginning of a horrific part of history.
The Triangle of Death
Meanwhile, the colonization of the new world is in full swing. Any nation with a navy and a hunger for wealth and prestige sends troops into the area to mine resources, or build a strategic base. The Spaniards persisted in their urge to find gold and other precious metals and added sugar cane, cotton and tobacco. Other nations, such as the Portuguese, erred on the side of caution, investing massively in the production of sugar, cotton and tobacco. In what is now Brazil gigantic plantations are started and slaves are brought in from the African West Coast where the Portuguese have set up a trade in slaves with the local kings. The West India Company was used to facilitate transport. This Dutch company set up a triangular trade that transported liquor and weapons from Europe to Africa and traded them there for slaves. Those slaves were put on ships to South America where they were traded for sugar, tobacco and other products. Those products then found their way to Europe. The trade in sugar was especially lucrative, as sugar was almost as expensive, or even more expensive, per kilogram than gold.
The human tragedy of slavery, in which 600-700 slaves were crammed into unaccommodated ships, will last for years and will bring more than 12 million Africans to the area. Millions will not reach their destination and will die from the diseases and hardships on the ship.
Trade also continued thanks to the efforts of the West India Company, because when the Spaniards threatened to abandon their colonies and close the plantations due to the lack of gold, the Dutch also approached the British and French settlers. with the aim of keeping the sugar, cotton and tobacco trade alive.
Resourcefulness in bad times
Slaves were therefore massively used for the cultivation of sugar cane and the production of sugar. To produce sugar, sugar cane juice is boiled down by a specific process until crystallization occurs. A dangerous job in which many slaves suffered burns and other wounds. Once the sugar crystals are made, a thick dark slurry remains: molasses. Molasses is essentially boiled-down sugar cane juice that doesn't contain enough sugar to crystallize. About 45% of the sugar is recovered. The rest remains in the molasses. This brown substance was therefore waste and was used either as fertilizer or as animal feed, but in many cases it was simply dumped into the sea. According to many stories, the sea around some islands turned black when sugar production had started.
The black stuff had potential though. Slaves on the island of Nevis, requesting molasses from their master, had discovered that the remaining sugar was sufficient to initiate fermentation, so slaves had discovered a way to turn the molasses into an alcoholic drink. For this they used primitive distillation techniques. The masters on the plantations were very happy with this discovery, because access to alcohol was apparently a motivating factor for the slaves. Still...
And then there was... Rum!
The technique of obtaining alcohol from molasses is spreading like wildfire on the islands. Extra motivation of slaves in exchange for waste? Every owner of a plantation would like that. The drink was given the name Kill-Devil, because of its sedative properties in the slaves. This also attracts the attention of some people with experience in distillation techniques. It is likely that the first Rum was distilled in Barbados by using a still modern pot still in which the fermented molasses is brought to the boiling point of Alcohol (+/-70°C) to create a strong drink.
The drink was then called Rumbullion and probably wasn't that tasty. The techniques for obtaining spirits were not so sophisticated then and the knowledge of distillation was limited among the people of the Caribbean. Nevertheless, work continued and eventually a Rum was made that was not only drinkable, but also tasteful enough to no longer give the molasses to the slaves, but to use it for the production of Rum. The spiral of misfortunes continues for the slaves..
Coming soon: part 2
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