Focus 580; Rum: the Epic Story of the Drink That Conquered the World

This morning in this hour of the show we will talk about a beverage that in the estimation of our guest may be one of history's most influential drinks and that is rum. Our guest is Charles kool and he is the author of a recently published book which is entitled rum The Epic Story of the drink that conquered the world Citadel Press is the publisher it's out there now in the bookstore if you'd like to take a look at it it's interesting history and it even contains some recipes for things that you might do with rum. So your questions and comments are certainly welcome as we talk in this part of the show with our guest here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 we do also have a toll free line that's good anywhere that you can hear us and that is eight hundred to 2 2 9 4 5 5 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 4 Champaign Urbana and toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 anywhere that you can hear us. MR. Hello hello how you doing I'm fine thanks and yourself. Well I have the best of the worst you know.

Well we can all say that about ourselves. We appreciate you talking with us today we thank you very much for your time. Well certainly it's a pleasure. I think one of things that we know is that people human beings discovered fermentation a long time ago and various places various cultures around the world have used what they had at hand and they they produced Spiritus alcoholic beverages so that's not exactly new and depending again on what you have that's kind of your your thing and people may well indeed have strong feelings about whatever it is they're if they have a national beverage whatever it is I guess I'm interested in having you for a moment is defend the subtitle and and talk about the fact that it is indeed rum somehow in its in its significance and it spread a more potent speak then than other alcoholic beverages. Absolutely. Because of it so I don't want to steal my thunder from later but

basically the thing with rum was that it lasted longer than anything else. I mean last year with its taste intact it was stronger than most local rooms. I mean banana beer just didn't compete. It's it's true experts agree. The proof of the putting is that were the Europeans took it pretty much crowded all the local stuff out of the market. Of course in Europe it caught on they didn't get rid of wine and beer and whiskey and so forth but it nevertheless became very popular and even today is more popular on the continent than when we think about. You've heard of rum baba I suppose. Yes well that's one of the one of the remnants of the rum craze of the 17th and 18th centuries in continental Europe. And what amazed in my research I mean I'd always thought of the seafaring nations as being big rum drinkers for obvious reasons but I didn't realize the delay until I began the research for this thing.

What an impact it had in Central Europe as well. But at any rate the biggest the biggest key to Rome's usefulness to Durhams power was the fact that it was simply the best thing to take on shipboard just because it traveled well that's it. And I mean the taste helped of course all that other stuff was it was very true but its ability to keep that taste forever. Not to spoil the long sea voyages. Those are the two things. Well that's the probability that it sort of jumps ahead in the story a little bit but I guess if it's as good a time as any to make comment on the association that I'm sure people will have in their minds between the see or at least between sailors and a ROM and that's it. And of course people who have read sea stories if you've read Patrick O'Brian or or read about Horatio Hornblower or anything like that you'll know that for there was a very long tradition in the British Navy but not just in the British Navy about the sailors getting when they were on the

ships having a daily ration of rum and I was really surprised in fact to learn in the book that in the British navy that continued until nineteen seventy in Canada it continued until I think 1972 and I think if I remember right in the Indian navy to this day sailor still gets a daily ration of rum. That's right and that you know I believe in not amongst young sailors is a very emotional issue and I can't say that the performance of any of those Navy has improved since dropping out. Nor can I say the Indian Navy has suffered thereby. Not being in charge I don't think the psytrance. Well that apparently it was in when in Britain when they they started have a public debate about the idea of stopping the the naval rum ration. Apparently was was quite controversial and there was an enormous amount of debate about it. It sure was. But of course as you know whenever whenever a British

government is in charge and has a majority in parliament they have carte blanche to do anything they want in the end and that's what happened here. There's told you know there are still some very sore heads about it all these years later. But to be fair if you were going to get rid of it they probably did it in the best way they could which was to translate it into other things among some charity for the dependents and so on of sailors. Course because they because they gave it up and because they sold the recipe to process. You can have exactly the same experience yourself in the quiet of your own home. That was that's interesting that you also write about thank you for a long time there was a producer that was there as the exclusive purveyor of rum to the British Navy and they had a particular formula way of doing it and that sailors got used to what it tasted like and they were not satisfied often with the product that they would get in the taverns when they were on shore.

Absolutely. And of course as you recall this is a particular problem during World War 2 When shall we say the Royal Navy had other things to transport. And so they became very dependent and various areas on whatever local rums the they could come up with. And a lot of the sailors were not not terribly pleased that of course they did have other things to worry about as well. That being what I mean everything. Well when when they did the The Daily rum ration starred in the British navy this was this was something about the time that it was ended in 1070 had been around for literally for hundreds of years. Yeah well you know actually it got started way way way way back in the beginning actually of Britain's expansion in the West Indies. And actually the very very first person that we can look to in terms of official rationing of rum was none other than Admiral William Patton. And he was an important person in our history because his son was the founder of Pennsylvania

brought in 16 55 at the orders of a crime while he attacked the Spanish island of Jamaica. And there he was the first one to order the distribution of rum to the men. And just as a way of trying to knowing that they would drink anyway and as a way of trying to control it or was this as a reward. Well it was it was just as or as a regular thing is you've got to understand that the. The attitude of our ancestors to alcohol was a bit different. It was loud it was unreliable. Life was very very hard and Al Gore was looked at both as medicine and as a relief from the pressures of every day which physically speaking were very very hard. So back to Roman days I suppose there'd always been some sort of alcohol given out aboard ship usually wine or beer.

But these things didn't really travel well especially across the Atlantic. Beer would go would go bad in wine the taste to be ruined. Water went that so when in the early 17th century rum began being made in Barbados and that's the prehistory of Rome's cabinet sinking as well but then right the commercial shipping I suppose you'd say picked it up and then then had the idea since it was available and since it lasted of using it for his men and it was more potent than wine it was more potent than beer. And it kept. And it tasted pretty good. What's not to like. And of course the Jamaican campaign was extremely difficult. The Spanish you know they never get the credit for the soldiers they were but they were for they were fighters. And on top of that they released the slaves who carried on a guerrilla warfare against the English for another hundred fifty almost a hundred years.

The Marines they're called We have a caller here and would like to bring him in the conversation and also again introduce our guest Charles column He's the author of a book entitled rom The Epic Story of the drink that Conquered the World published by Citadel Press questions comments are certainly welcome. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 here in Champaign Urbana toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 A Let's talk with a caller here in Urbana. This is the line number 1. Hello good morning. You've already alluded to the comfort food factor that people want more of what they've gotten used to or it's supposed to be a certain way when they make up their mind and I'm sure that the popularity had something to do with novelty. We all always go for the latest craze the newest thing. But as a background what was the state of distilling. Mission and availability I suppose in Europe at about sixteen hundred. What sort of things were being for Mantid and then

distilled where there were beverages that were for men to read and drunk or for men did and then you skip whatever the ferment is and go right to the distillation and the aging which is what I'm sure makes it expensive. But I have no sense of when whiskeys became popular or were widely produced when Brandy wine was distilled from Brandy from wines and all that background that we take for granted now. What was the meeting when it hit Europe. I'll just hang up and listen if you can do a background for us. Sure that's an extremely good question the jurors answer it. In addition to beer and wine there were already spirits around throughout history metal metal ferment anything the ancestors of all whiskeys were already being made in the Celtic fringe. Clear.

It's what we would call vodka and what they called they were made all over the place some potatoes from various grains and so forth. It's interesting that all these odd spirits whether speaking Gaelic the list of off which we get whiskey in Scandinavia and so what it all comes from the Latin water of life. So this stuff was around but it was very harsh and it was not considered refined in those days in the 17th century which is the period when rum makes its appearance. They did they began in I suppose the late the late 16th but early certainly in the early 70s they began fortifying wines and your Sherry's reports your Brandy's and so forth but you know at this time the 18th century the the wonderful Benedictine monk Dom Perignon discovered champagne.

But Rahm did definitely come into a vacuum in Europe as well there's no doubt about it because our caller mentioned the novelty factor. Rome was not harsh like these other spirits. It was not identified with peasants getting plastered like these other spirits were. So it had both a social cache and have the novelty effect. It tasted really good it was very smooth and that the psychological how I put it not exactly snob appeal but the affairs of the feeling of sophistication that so often in its history Romans had was very much present at its entrance to Europe because remember in those days people looked at folks in the West Indies the Nabob's the West Indian planters as men of wealth men of distinction would gone out to the colonies made a fortune and come back. So the image of the West Indian platter was very big in the popular mind in Europe and of course Russia came with that. So snob appeal is always it's you look at

advertising today for a flick snob appeal. I hope that answers it. Indeed other questions comments are certainly welcome 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Apparently rum the the drink with that name originates in the West Indies specifically in Barbados and I guess 16 50 in round numbers that's the date that's given was it in fact produced before then this. This alcoholic beverage essentially is made from from sugar cane so it's a byproduct of making sugar. That's when we started calling it rum but I don't imagine that it was invented at that point in in Barbados. That name was first given to it there as to where the actual drink the fermented distilled molasses was started.

That's really really hard to conjecture. There were obviously fermented sugar cane juice drinks around like Today's from Brazil but. Certainly the distilled molasses peas didn't it didn't come about too much earlier than the first namea evident Barbados. It's very it's very very hard to say. Of course a lot of different places will claim the honor but Barbados first named it it wasn't it didn't make its travel around the world much before that. And so this is this is the best we can come up with for it really. There's a lot of conjecture apparently as to where the word comes from. Oh yes. There are all kinds of possibilities from the notion that it's an old western English word because the original is called Rum brushed in the rebellion and the this conjecture comes from an old devil word for a fight. I suppose

because the first the first ROMs were not shall we say very alcohol free. That often led to all kinds of drinks. There are others claim most notably the Encyclopedia Brittanica. And I get a lot of that it comes from a Malay word. But since they don't bother to tell us of the Malay word it is I am never find any record of it. I don't know. It doesn't appear to be related at least till the various authorities say two rum as in strange you know the British English rum go and so forth. But. Again it is as with all these things you'll find as many different opinions as our authorities. Certainly though it was a rigid gold rush and a run by you and or the other great name for it killed all that she again would tell you something about its its potency. Yeah it is. If it was not a right drink it also gives you something about the people of that time that well look at I say they like to drink. Tasted great and would knock

you flat. I didn't mind saying it. We talked about the fact that it's essentially what it is it's made from molasses right. Can you talk a little bit about what exactly the the process is like. Well certainly Firstly wherever you've got rum you have to have sugar because it's a byproduct of sugar. And when you're refining sugar the buyer the byproduct of that is molasses. Now you know the originally what I began to do with it. It was an experiment of course because when the when the communists came to the new world their supplies of beer and wine and various other European things were very very limited. So they experimented with all kinds of fermenting into sewing all kinds of things even pumpkins. That's why they had pumpkin beer

which is sort of unusual. But at any rate what would happen after the sugar cane was harvested. They put it into rollers which would crush the sugarcane socks and then they'd extract the juice. Well once that was done they'd boil it. They'd bring the juice the clarifier. And they put it in the copper pots. These are the famous pop stills of boil it on a flame and boil it and boil it from pop pop pop. And as they did this they'll be fewer and fewer impurities. But then the being refined now. Once that happened they'd leave it be for a while and rap for it to cool and from from that the sugar crystals would come. But there was a there were trough some of the under the pot. It was a sort of siphon for the excess fluid to drip into and what dripped out as the rest of it crystallized. That was the molasses. And

then it would take a molasses and they would put that to pot stills and refine it refine it refine it very like very large is done with brandy of wine and the result was running fine molasses. We have someone else to bring in the conversation let's do that again a caller and I believe an urban ally number one. So yes I once looked up and I think it was that you have cooking how to make hot buttered rum and it said that it was a. That the Puritans described it as something that made you see double and feel single. And this. Could you say that again please ma'am. Then it was that hot buttered rum made you see double and feel single. Yeah. And I don't know whether it's true that the Puritans liked to drink this especially and I call that a benefit if it if it is true. It adds another dimension to

that group of people. Thanks just thought I would toss that in. You know here it's all thank you. It's it's interesting you mention that because the way they made hot buttered rum not just annoying them but throughout the comments in those days was kind of interesting in that they would take a van and they would put in cold water a tepid water. Honey what are all these other things. Then they would take a red hot poker and stick it in and in a flash it would be ready and apparently that made for some really really really potent potations. Then there was another side of the Puritans you know other than what we used to think you have. They were very repressive in a lot of ways. But then it would turn around and surprise you. Very good I'm going to remember though it's interesting when you consider the you know if you if you had to name something that was an American spirit or the

American spirit I'm talking the alcoholic sense I guess some imagine some people would think well that would be whiskey made from corn. But. Seems that may be Rome would challenge for the title and perhaps would win. Well it certainly it certainly would at least if you if you know your history. The fact is that in colonial days Rome was quite as big in the States as anywhere and especially knowing them they obviously didn't grow sugarcane knowing them. What they did instead was import Lassus and they would ferment that stuff and produce some very very powerful ROMs Medford rom for Medford Mass. Had a really really big big big reputation in those days. And of course the knowing the rum was the foundation of the famous triangle trade which brought the slaves to a market without which you know without slavery the southern half of the country to appease the North wouldn't have been settled.

Yeah well and it gets it I suppose if it has a dark side it's this and that may be one of the things that people remember from grade school in their early American history the idea that there was this triangle that slaves were taken from Africa to the West Indies to work raising the cane the sugar plantation then their molasses were produced there they were taken up to New England and there they were distilled into rum and they were taken back across the other way back to Africa and so there that was with that was the three corners of the of the trade. I have the triangle trade and I suppose that some people would would make this argument that perhaps a key that there is this key connection between rum and slavery that maybe without the one we might not have had the other. Well it would certainly it would certainly seem so. The fact of the matter is is that the kings of the West African coast was sold the slaves to the slaves became extremely fond of rum to say the least and would do almost anything to get it.

Before that time for the coming of rum there was slavery to be sure both in Africa and over here. But there was nothing the Europeans had that the salesman if you well wanted so badly as rum although it is interesting that the first Europeans to come to the west coast of Africa came for gold which there were small amounts of. But it was really the opening of the tropical colonies in the new world that created the desire for slaves. You may remember but Filomena Scots and the Spanish Dominican friar. He was very very much concerned about how the Indians were dying off in huge numbers in Central America in the West Indies because they really weren't suited as laborers and he was the one who suggested that laborers be brought from Africa. I don't think it would be too pleased with what Abbottabad idea but nevertheless that was the genesis of it. But without Ramat certainly would not have become the enormous institution of the game

and without an awful lot of things in all likelihood would never have happened. The cultural changes on the west coast of Africa itself that occurred wouldn't of happened because due to the supply of rum due to the great taste for it that the locals developed those kings who had a regular supply of it had more power in local politics and those who didn't. And that's where you see the consolidation of power on the west coast by people like the king of Benin and so on. So I mean it is it's a very. Everything in history has consequences. Nothing just happens in a vacuum ever. We're not aware of what those consequences are. But there there another another reason why the West African kings for instance were very keen on selling slaves to the Europeans was because the traditional markets in North Africa have been cut off by this war IX for many many many centuries. They did

the slave trade it got north. But when the Torah eggs the seeds Timbuktu and cut the cup the caravan routes there were the kings of the West Coast with a lot of product for Bobby expression and no place to sell. Just then arrived the Europeans in this our focus 580 Our guest is Charles kmh he writes on a variety of topics including religion and politics and economics and literature. He is the author of a newly published book which is titled Rome the epic story of the drink that conquered the world and it's published by Citadel Press and questions comments are certainly welcome. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. We talked a bit earlier about the association that I'm sure would be in people's minds between Roman sailors and that had a lot to do with the fact that Rahm traveled well he wouldn't it was not so perishable perhaps as other spirits. And so it would.

It would it would keep aboard ships for over long periods of time and also that there was this this daily ration of rum that was provided to sailors even American sailors at least up until the around the Civil War when Lincoln stopped dead. They also got a daily rum ration. So we have this is between rum and sailors and certainly if there's anything that will be associated with Roman people's minds it's Pirates. Absolutely and I don't know if that's because it has to do with the the the sea and Rob being associated or maybe the Caribbean and rum. Is there some particular reason other than that those sorts of things that we do when you think of rum you think of pirates. Well I mean it's a it's a it's an accurate thought. The fact is that is one of the major themes in the history of piracy in the 70s of eight centuries. Part of it was addresses of the reasons red tape and the seagoing piece because all of the other navies of the world merchant and military

alike use the stuff. And of course same as the sailors you know whether they were pirates and secondly operating from an area in the Caribbean in the Indian Ocean pirates of that era. We're constantly around the major the major supplies and from the major sources. But if it had a very very what's the word I want a very bad effect shall we say often enough in the pirate morale. You read stories for instance because there was very little discipline. Oddly enough amongst pirate crews you read account after account of either of cruelty on the part of pirates incredible atrocities because they were all liquored up or contrariwise of incredible stupidity leading to their defeat or capture or or whatever because they were too drunk to operate properly. So and then of course there are the thirst for it was absolutely enormous. They do anything to get it.

Good piece of Blackbeard the pirates downfall is said to have come from Rob in terms of his crews being fairly drunk when the Royal Navy sailed in or coconut So no I mean it's it's the association of the popular mind is absolutely correct. And of course you've got Robert Louis Stevenson with yo ho ho and a bottle of rum and treasure on top. Well let's talk with another caller here again this is someone in Urbana line number one. Hello good morning. Another euphemism for being liquored up is pickled and it made me wonder since preserve Asian food or almost anything else was an issue at the time. And we know about salting salt curing drying. Any other number of ways of preserving things you will need to take on long distances. Could Did they hit anyone at at the time.

Use that along with strength and a long lasting quality of rum to preserve or in its own way pickle any food or substance that they wanted to take for a long distance. I'll hang up and listen. Absolutely. The preservative effect and this incidentally goes back to something I took some before. They didn't notice that you could preserve things in alcohol and they used run a lot for that and that also reflected the sounds a little primitive but there you are. It reflected on the medicinal use of rum because it saw its preserve effect and figured it would work as well inside as out. But yes it was definitely used for it. A lot of. Our remaining Christmas dishes and things like that. Jelly and fruits and preserved fruits and all that were originally done in RUM. And sometimes a lot today. Probably the most grotesque example of

the use of rum for this was after the Battle of the well it was in 1815 the British general packet had been killed in the battle and after the British withdrew they of course sailed back telling them well they kept packing up his body in a huge barrel of rum for taking him home which was not uncommon in those days if they were going to bring someone back. Well a group of sailors unwittingly tapped into that particular barrel and drank. They were happy. Well there's a there reminds me there's a similar story you also have in the book about Adam. Nelson that after he was killed at Trafalgar they put his body in a barrel of rum. And then there's apparently a story that the sailors actually they heard about it and they intentionally drank the rum and from that time on one of the nicknames for rum was Nelson's blood. Absolutely. It they. You know

again sailors like actors tend to have a lot of superstitions and I don't know for sure but I would not be surprised if drinking the drink either the naval hero was preserved and wasn't somehow considered. How do I put it. Considered to be a regular superstition as opposed to a one time deal. But I have no proof of that. So what is the origin of the term grog grog comes from a Admiral Vernon who was the first one to really regularize the issue of Rahman lay down rules for an all out. You may remember him from General Washington who served under him and in the West Indies siege of Cartagena. And it was to commemorate. That he named his home mount wrong just so I don't know. One of Britain's nicknames was old Grob room and it was called that because he wore a coat made out of a

material called Grogram was a sort of raincoat a Saeco at any rate he was the one who decided that straight rum was bad for the sailors so he ordered them to be cut with ladder and fruit juices and other things and that resulting mixture came to be called grog. The the rum would have its own effects the latter would keep it from being too overwhelming and the fruit juices would fight all spirit that was his intention. But that mixed drink came to be called raag and so it's been ever since after all. But oddly enough in a strip which in its early early history was very nautical show as say being a maritime colony grog became the word that the Aborigines there use for any kind of liquor. It was of course the first because they were introduced to was the mixed fruit juice grog. The only way we are coming into our last

about 15 minutes in this part of focus 5:8 again our guests. We're talking about Rome and its history he's authored a book on this titled rum The Epic Story of the drink that conquered the world and is published by Citadel Press would be out in the bookstores now if you're interested in the history are also in the drinking it there are some recipes for various beverages included in the book. Questions are welcome. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 among the many interesting things I learned that I think people will recall that there was an old old fashioned I don't know if you can still buy it but a rather old fashioned men's cologne that's called Beirut. Baby I don't know if it still does but apparently bay rum actually did have rum in it. That's correct it's still made from Bermuda and it was made with rum. I had a friend of mine I don't know and I would say it but the right amount of the not drink up and he came across some juniper berry

cologne. Now bay rum is made with rum beautiful burble of cologne is made with Juniper which is also used for GM and of course that distinctive smell you smell with her with Janice juniper berry. So I started using a sort of a very Colona dismissed and let people know you will get that for being robbed. It was just to do it at the dive as the look you want to booze based cologne. Go to bale get a better idea stay away from the juniper berry. The line was very good though you never had a drink in his life and for the delayed it he says of the earlier about whiskey versus Robin Arthur I should make a point there and that is that the Crown in attempting to regulate the rum trade at one at various points tends to levy taxes on molasses on rum. Well the way that the way that the

knowing the farmers fought against that was to make whisky but they didn't make it out of corn they made it out of rye and up until the 1960s the rye whiskey was probably the most popular whiskey in the United States. Now it's very hard to find. But I love the self-loving and I make that plug. Well I know I know I know that there are people who really do. Who do favorite over that that's made out of corn. And I have read that and also the fact that it is there are still some rye whiskey produced but as you say there aren't very many of them and it's not easy to come by it's easy to go out and buy a bottle of Jack Daniels or maker's mark or something like that corn. Things that are made out of corn but rye whiskey is as you say some people say it's very fine and it's much better than that that comes from corn but it's not a it's not a terribly common thing anymore. You know it's hard to find so I mean I was making note of all the bars and restaurants here in L.A. that

I have. But the other thing too is that another reason for whiskey corn whiskey is popularity was the growth of the frontier. The farmers that went out to places like Pennsylvania and Kentucky and so forth got the Alleghenies they didn't have any real means of preserving their corn for market. So the best they could do is to turn to whiskey and sell that. And you may recall that it was the attempt of the federal government to tax that whiskey which led to the great whiskey rebellion of 1798. But that was corn whiskey they were fighting right whiskey was in origin more knowing what it is to do that right whiskey is still big in Canada. If they're dying but other associations with rum I think probably that again if there are other thing besides piracy in the sea that people associate with rum they think about Cuba. And certainly there are a lot of rum producers around the Caribbean but there is a mystique about Cuban rum and it may have maybe like the

mystique about Cuban cigars that it's the mystique has to do with the fact that you can't get it only that it's hard that it's very difficult to get. But then. But Cuba has been very famous for its rum for a long time and Bacardi was a Cuban. Is there something that's particularly special about the rum that's produced in Cuba. Well it is of course it tastes a bit different from any other but beyond that it acquired a real mystique during Prohibition during the during prohibition because of and I was pretty easy to get to a lot of folks anybody who could afford it really would go to Havana to drink and do the sorts of things they couldn't do back home. So rum became associated to Cuban rum became associated with the high life. It was everything that I have and I became famous for. And of course when people would go back to New York or Boston or Cleveland or where they came from from of Anna.

They would really really want to show it. They keep the memory alive and that sort of reintroduced to the United States because popularity had fallen off here considerably after colonial days being replaced to a great degree about whiskey and so on. But thanks to prohibition and Cuba's presence off our shore rum in general became popular especially Cuban rum and became associated with sophistication and freedom and everything else. The interesting thing too about Bacardi is that while they were founded in the 1880s in one field it was Spanish but it was Prohibition that really made them. And after Prohibition was over they fought a law case law on the Supreme Court of New York to see that a drink in Cuba called the cardi cocktail which was that. Had to be made with the Cardi Wrap when the people are referred to the American refugees would go back home they would order Bacardi

cocktails. But of course they'd have to take whatever the bootlegger could bring. So a Bacardi cocktail became just a rum drink completely disassociated from the idea of the company. All right prohibition ends. Sanity returns to the Great. Well there because of cocktails all over the place not made with McCarthy and the company get very upset. They take a bunch of people to court in New York and they win and the Supreme Court of the city New York rules the difficulty Carpio can only be made with Bacardi rum. So all over the country the Bacardi company have billboards put up in California and Oregon in places that that nerd. And that was really the beginning of a mass Association around the country of Raman Cuba Cuban rum Bacardi with Cuba and so on. Interestingly enough the if you if you ever travel overseas and witness I'm I'm sure you wouldn't actually drink any but if you witnessed

Cuban rum it's usually bottle of the name of an a club. When you see them at a club or know that that is actually made in the original Bacardi the story which of course Castro seized. But the Bacardi family had already opened up the stories before the revolution in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. So when the revolution came they lost their home base but they kept everything else. And you know they've gone on to become the biggest rum company in the world. I was interested in the learned story of how it is the bat came to be on the label and I think that there's a someone for a long time I had this story that somehow there was Association this idea that there was some association between bats and the sugarcane and and in fact it was just the fact that when they when they wanted to business the Bacardi is there in Cuba in the place where the Stihl had been set up. There were some bats living in the rafters and I guess in Cuban folklore bats are supposed to be good luck for and so someone said well let's let's adopt the bat as the symbol of the product and

that's why it is the did this day there is a badge on the label. That's right and it's also dissing of the Bacardi company. Very big and conned into conservation. And you'll be terribly shocked to learn that one of the species they do. Breakfast food served our hats. Go figure. We have a little bit of time left and again if folks listening have questions you can give us a call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Our guest Charles cologne His book is rum The Epic Story of the drink that conquered the world. As we have talked there is Association I'm again with people's minds between Rome and the Caribbean. I was a little bit surprised to learn though just how widespread the drink is in production of the drink. There are a rum produced in Australia there is a rum produced in the Czech Republic. There's a rum produced in India there's one produced in Nepal. I would never have thought of such a thing. Although because the British were there maybe that's why. Have you ever had Nepalese rum.

No I'm afraid I haven't. There are number of the more exotic types I've I've yet tried of course I hope to do it but it is really a worldwide phenomenon. The word of it was sugar and a lot of places where the war is wrong. It it's an amazing drink really historically speaking. And as I say it it wasn't one of the interesting things about it is that it's a taste that many many many cultures find very palatable that isn't true of a lot of other a lot of other drinks a lot of occidentals for instance don't care for saki and certainly a lot of Chinese Japanese really don't care for whisky although others would kill for it today of the truth. They have a very very big whiskey industry in Japan. But rum rum is something that also will came in contact with it was affected by one of the points I make in my book is that as a sort of hybrid cultures

European the native arose around the world in Goa and India in various places in Indonesia Madagascar the West Coast. The people of these cultures like the angle Indians in India or the or Asians in the labs drinking rum also became a symbol of their connection to Europe. And it was it's a very very important thing for them even today. I mean again these are things that we don't really think about very much. But the penetration of Europeans around the globe has created a whole network of these sorts of hybrid cultures that are already terribly fascinating and B have probably not got not gotten nearly the study they deserve since the basic constituent or the precursor to RUM is molasses and I would think that that relatively speaking the product would be the same no matter where that was produced.

What really accounts for the differences and I'm sure the people who work on the sewers would say that there are important differences between rum apart from the fact that some of them are light and some of them are dark rums that are produced in different places what really makes the the difference. Also any number of things. Some are kind of obvious because aging is involved. So there are differences for how long you're right A.J.. What's added to it. The exact method of distillation because there are several. The original pot still type is only one of three or four ways of producing it now and again. They will say the compasses will say that molasses from different places tastes different. The water that's added to the molasses is different. Basically anything that makes any variety of liquor different from any other is a play with rum just as much. Many of the famous stories of the West Indies

will boast about the spring that they're in the air and say that it's the water from the spring that makes the difference or the actual variety of sugar that's grown makes a difference. So the answers are tons. The variables and you know and thank God for it to do the all retain it. Or perhaps this is only true of the darker rums a sort of a caramel quality that that comes from ultimately from what it is that it's made of. That is true of the darker rums But even even your white rum you had you could taste it I myself am a fan of dark rhymes to tell you the truth. And as you might guess dark rooms are dark because of impurities. All of the old Rumsey earliest Frum's were dark dark amber as distilling progressed as they began to purify more and more you had white robes produced now.

Many of the dark rooms are dark because of additives they had things to White Rock to make it dark but a lot depends upon what it is they have. But no I would say that you'd be hard put to drink any rum The didn't remind you it comes from sugar. A particular favorite that you have something that would be good enough that you would say you would drink this neat like you would drink a single malt scotch. Oh sure. Quite a number by bank or in Haiti produce a couple that I like that I'm not gay. I'm very fond of and to tell the truth under Meyer's it's Yama dark rum fab rum the roms that you're likely to buy are almost always quite palatable to me. The you really got to go. Go for some little cold brews to find something it'll rip your mouth.

Yeah well it's not like it's not like whiskey where you give me a cheap scotch and I'll show you a real problem. You know some of that stuff is really raw but you'll be hard put to find a rhyme that isn't fairly smooth but as I say I am my personal favorites would be my bank or my mouth again. And Myers I don't really care for some of the spice and added two rams a lot of people do but for me the equivalent of wine coolers. Well I think we're about at the but we have to round out the discussion. We get to people who are listening if you're interested in reading some about the history of this spirit you should look at the book that we've mentioned it's titled rum The Epic Story of the drink that conquered the world is published by the Citadel Press is out there now in books at bookstores by our guest Charles and I haven't had a drink yet this morning so I can't blame that. Thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning Voxer

thank you appreciate it.