According to the official language of the country of origin, rum has three spellings, namely "Rum", "Rhum" and "Ron". Originally, the drink was also known as "Rumbowling" or "Rumbullion", which in English and French usually refers to the noise made by a distillation boiler (the words rumble and boil respectively mean rumbling and boiling in English, and bouillir in French is boiled); there are also theories that the name may simply be an abbreviation of the English word sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum). There is also an etymological conjecture dating back to 1655, when the Royal Navy issued daily rations of rum to crews, which inevitably resulted in a rumble on the main deck.
The history of rum
By definition, rum is a drink obtained by fermenting and distilling molasses or sugar cane juice. Let's start with the raw materials of rum.
Sugarcane is a member of the Gramineae family, which also includes wheat, corn, and rye. The origin of sugarcane is the large-stemmed wild species (Saccharum robustum), and the main cultivated variety at present is Saccharum officinarum, which is a hybrid of different sugarcane varieties. It not only has a strong plant height, strong disease resistance, and a short growth cycle , and high in sugar content.
Sugarcane originated in Malaysia. It was first introduced to India from Southeast Asia. In the 6th century BC, the Persians invaded India and discovered sugar cane and introduced it to their country. Around the 3rd century BC, Alexander the Great's armies conquered Persia and became the first Europeans to see this plant. However, people in ancient Greece and Rome only had a very vague understanding of this plant. Herodotus and Theophrastus both mentioned that there was a kind of sugarcane honey that was artificially produced unlike honey. In 637 AD, the Arabs also discovered sugar cane. Later, the Arabs spread sugar cane from Egypt to Palestine, and then to Spain and Sicily in the 9th century.
After the Portuguese established a colony on Madeira in 1420, they brought sugar cane to the Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and West Africa. In 1493, during Columbus's second voyage, he brought sugar cane to Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic); European colonists introduced sugar cane from Hispaniola to Central America and Cuba, Jamaica, Martinique and Guadeloupe, the islands came to be known as the "Sugar Islands". European settlers began establishing plantations and factories to produce sugar, which led to a rapid increase in sugar cane cultivation in the Caribbean.
In the first half of the 17th century in the Caribbean, people discovered that molasses could be fermented and then distilled, so this distillate was called Rumbullion at the time. Especially in Barbados, there is a distillation technology that can produce drinks with a high alcohol content and few impurities. There is a written record of this in 1651: "The chief thing they make in the island is Rumbullion, also known as Kil-Divil, which wine It was distilled from sugar cane juice and was a potent, hellish liquor." Thus rum was born!
Research from the history of distillation shows that this fermented drink appears to be an invention of ancient India and China. "Marco Polo's Travels" records Marco Polo's experiences in Asia in the 13th century, which mentions a kind of sweet wine that was popular in a certain place (probably in today's Iran). The Arabs also discovered the secret of distillation, but the first records of sugarcane juice distillates appeared in England in the 15th century. People first used Indian sugarcane and later switched to American sugarcane.
At the end of the 17th century, the missionary Bor Laba brought distilling equipment from France, or more precisely from the Cognac region, to Marie-Galante Island specifically for the production of rum. He was the driving force behind the promotion of rum. Key figures in innovation.
