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Part IV
SECTION III
RUM
This is the name given to a large variety of types of spirit
which are derived from the sugar cane.
In 1909 a definition was accepted by the "Royal
Commission on Whisky and other potable spirits This
alluded to rum as"A spirit distilled direct from sugar cane
products in sugar cane growing countries However,
the rum or products sold as rum, are produced in almost
every country where the sugar cane is grown and in some
where it is not.
Sugar is grown in the British West Indies, Cuba,French
West Indies, Haiti, Argentine, Peru, Mauritius, Queens
land, Natal, Java and India, and therefore any spirit
coming from the sugar cane produced in any of these places
is entitled to caU its product rum.
The name of Rum"however wassaid to have originally
been used to describe the product of the British West
Indies. The name"RumbuUion" is Scud to have been
given to the product by the people of Devon,it being a term
used in that county. A raw spirit was produced in the
B.W.I, as early as 1647 but this drink was chiefly the drink
of the slaves of the plantations at that time. But the
early"Rumbullion"or "Kill-Devill" as it was known
was developed into the drink we know to-day.
The sugar cane is stripped of its leaves and is crushed so
that the juice produced from this process is collected in
vacuum pans, where the water of the juice is evaporated
and leaves behind a syrup which eventually granulates.
When this is granulated sufficiently it is placed in huge
drums which revolve rapidly thus extracting a thick stickj^
substance known as molasses from the sugar, and which it
leaves behind. This molasses is again reboiled, producing
a lower grade of sugar, and the extraction under this second
process of production of molasses is used for rum distilling.
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