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Rum: A Growing Epicurean Taste
| Article
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14251 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
961 Words |
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Ann Geracimos
Ann Geracimos is a feature writer who reports on, among other
subjects, consumer trends in the wine and spirits trade. |
"There's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms,
As Rum and True Religion."
--Lord Byron
The drink that used to be given in measured rations to reward British sailors for hard labors at sea is being bought in generous portions by gourmets, who sip instead of quaff. Therein lies a paradox of sorts--but one that is no more interesting than the history of the brew itself.
The manufacture of a white spirit from sugarcane or molasses, has taken place for two thousand years, starting in Asia and spreading to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain. Cultivated under many names, rum is produced in more countries than any other single liquor or liqueur. Each drop is a taste of history.
Brazil, in the 1640s, may have been first to make rum in the Western Hemisphere, but Christopher Columbus is believed to have brought cane plants to the Americas from the Canary Islands during his second voyage in 1494. By 1650 Englishmen were taking fortunes in sugarcane from the fields of Barbados. One of the paradoxes is how New England--fabled land of democracy for settlers from the Old World fleeing religious persecution--came to favor Caribbean rum from plantations that depended mostly on the labor of imported slaves.
The origin of the name is still in dispute. One theory is that rum was taken from a product called rumbullion, described as a "hot, hellish and terrible
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