The world’s oldest spirit drink – what is rum made from?
The history of rum starts with sugarcane, which originates from Papua New Guinea, where it appeared around 4,000 years BC. The tradition of distilling rum as we know it today, however, comes from the Caribbean. The drink was first known as “kill-devil” or “rumbullion”. Since 1667 it has been known as “Rhum”, “Ron”, “Rum” in French, Spanish and English respectively.

Cheers to Columbus
It was Christopher Columbus who involuntarily became the ancestor of modern rum, when he discovered the West Indies on his second voyage in 1498. Columbus and his entourage brought, among other things, sugarcane and planted them on the islands. In doing so, they laid the foundation for the Caribbean rum adventure, which really took off in the 18th century.

A daily ration of rum
They say that you should never mix alcohol and water sports. But it was not always so. In the 18th century, life at sea was a harsh affair with hard work and many deprivations. Therefore, the daily ration of rum – a tot – was a bright spot. The ration was distributed at lunch and consisted of 0.7 dl rum with a minimum alcohol strength of 50%. The officers received their ration “neat”, i.e. undiluted. The privates got the same ration but diluted with two parts water – a so-called Grog. Serving rum also improved health on board, as it could counteract scurvy, which many sailors contracted due to the lack of vitamin C from fruit and vegetables.

Black Tot day
The daily rum ration was quite common practice in the Royal English Navy right up to the present day. But in 1970 it was banned when it was considered that the consumption of strong alcohol could lead to errors during work in the engine room. The ban was implemented on 31 July 1970 – also known as “Black Tot Day” – which is still marked in bars around the world with massive consumption of the golden drink.

Bottled currency
Throughout history, there are several examples of rum being used as a means of payment. Rum was easy to trade, easy to store and did not deteriorate over time. Sailors in the navy were paid part of their wages in rum. Rum was also used as a means of payment in the trade between the Americas, Africa and Europe. At the end of the 17th century, rum had become so popular that it replaced cognac as a form of payment. At the end of the 18th century, rum found its way to Australia, where the construction of larger buildings such as Sidney Hospital was paid for in rum. The problem was that the workers often drank the rum instead of buying goods for it. And that is probably also one of the reasons why we have switched to money today.

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