Looking for Rum of 300+ Years ago in the 21st Century

[CSPHistorical]

In my efforts to research for a book on maritime food and drink of the 1680s-1730s (see the article I wrote here: https://csphistorical.com/2016/01/24/sa ... es-part-1/ - I discuss this project more in my "And your name again was??" post), I am looking for the closest thing to rum produced in the Caribbean (if pressed, I would specify the "Barbados water" rum made in Barbados) in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. To be as specific as possible, I'll refer to the book, "Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History" by Frederick Smith. On pages 54-55, he uses period evidence to describe Barbadian rum in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as "double distilled," could be caught on fire with gunpowder mixed in (suggesting at least 50% alcohol), and as "nine degrees upon proof." I would want to try anything remotely resembling this highly concentrated rum.

In my efforts to research period food, I've tried replicating what I can of it in my own home to gain insight into period taste and the time and processes required to make it. For instance, I started out making my own plum pudding (which led to producing maritime-styled puddings). It would be great if I could use something resembling period rum to make the sauce that goes over the pudding (because without a sauce, which period recipes for landside plum puddings recommend sack wine, the taste is nowhere near as good since the sauce appears to give the pudding a lot of it's flavor). Period sources suggest to me that period rum consumed by the lower classes and sailors is probably going to be shocking, but I'm willing to try that just to gain the experience. I would also try to make some of the rum punches period sources talk about. If the rum happens to be regularly for sale on the open market, I would also be able to finally answer the questions I keep on getting/seeing online asking "what rum can I buy that Is also period correct?" I get a lot of questions about period material culture, including correct alcohol.

I understand that modern methods of producing rum have changed significantly from 300 years ago. From changes in customer taste to safety standards in the production process, I understand that today's rum aren't going to completely capture the way old rum was made. But can any of the experts here suggest a source for rum that can at least capture some of that taste (and not doctored too much with all kinds of additives that distillers add to cut costs and appeal to mainstream palates)? Extra bonus if it can actually be imported into the U.S.A. (If it can't, at least I can tell people about the option's existence, even though they can't get it in America).

Thank you in advance for any advice you all can provide me on this inquiry.

[CSPHistorical]

At this point, I would also be willing to look into Jamaica rum and first distillation rum as well in my search for accurate late seventeenth and early eighteenth century rum.

The further I research modern rum, the more I realize that rum distilling changed more than I realized.

If it helps obtain some advice, I've come up with two rums that seem to have at least some kind of historical value (in terms of having aspects to the recipe or production method that reaches back to how the rum was originally produced).
One is the Hampden Estate Rum Fire. After reading about their production method and where it is produced, combined with being an overproof rum, seems like it has characteristics that call back to the 18th century.
The other is Pusser's Rum. Reading about how they maintain the recipe seems kind of intriguing in terms of reaching for a historical taste.

If I'm trying to find a rum that has characteristics resembling how they made rum back in the day, or how it tasted back in the day, would any of you say these two rums have any kind of fit for what I'm looking for? I'm kind of leaning towards Rum Fire at the moment.

[mamajuana]

River Antoine rum distillery in Grenada has been open since 1785 and little has changed in their production methods. They still run on water wheels and wood fires. Some of the machines parts are still original.

Here is a link to some pictures:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_ ... enada.html

[sailor22]

A really interesting subject CSP - thanks for a thought provoking post. Some thoughts and questions;

Wouldn't the way the indigenous population currently drink rum have at least some connection to the historical spirit? Most typically drink inexpensive white (new make) rum often infused with fruit and other botanicals post distillation to make it more palatable.

Both the rums you mention are commercial products that are designed to appeal to a broad market and are likely miles from what the sailors and townsfolk were drinking.

Have you found any reference to aging rum or to the design of barrels to impart certain flavors?

In the case of Brandy which predates rum as the spirit of choice in Navy ships if I'm not mistaken the sailors drank un-aged products. Barrels were shipped to England for aging in warehouses along the Thames to be used as a medicinal product that eventually gained acceptance as an after dinner digestif as the benefits of aging and blending became appreciated. It would be reasonable to expect Rum to follow the same trajectory with the exception that Brandy already had a place at the table and Rum never made the transition in quite the same manner. Another argument for new make being the staple product.

[Capn Jimbo]

Some observations:


1. Hampton Estate is certainly known for retaining some - I repeat some - of the old processes, but performed with MUCH more skill, better cuts, more controlled and likely longer fermentation, et al. They use what I would call the classic rum setup - a pot still run through two thumper (which combines the equivalent of two runs into one).

• Still, this would not be the original process in Jamaica. But to compare this to the original Jamaican rum is like comparing a Model T Ford to a modern muscle car. Still it may be the best you can do.

2. The notion that "double distilling" is more attributed to Jamaica. Although Barbados has been called the home of rum - which was a fiery, killer spirit (ergo "kill-devil" - and which made rum in crude pot stills. It was simply awful, poorly made rotgut that can only be compared to American "moonshine".

• This of course led to the addition of much water, fruits, spices, et al to cover it up. No modern rum - short of real moonshine (still made illegally) - would come remotely close. There is great debate over the appearance of double distilling, but while it may have appeared later in Barbados, the "good stuff" was made in Jamaica who absolutely used double distillation.
  
  Thus Jamaican rum was highly valued, commanded a higher price, and was the tipple of choice for American presidents and at special events.

3. Pusser's Blue Label is another matter. It is the one and only modern rum that comes anywhere near respecting history. Well covered elsewhere here at the Project, the official British Navy Rum was quite literally, a state secret, blended by the E.D. Mann Co of England. It is reputed to be a blend of four or five rums sourced from British colonies of the times.

• There is no doubt the blend (and quality) was tweaked and improved over the years, but became a revered tradition until finally the British government ended the daily tot(s) in 1970 on Black Tot Day. A supply of this rum still exists and can be had for about $1000 a bottle or a bit less.
  
  Pusser's was established by Charles Tobias who begged the Brits to allow him to continue to produce, blend and bottle the official BRN rum. They finally agreed with two provisos: first that the formula must be followed and would never be revealed, and second that a significant share of the profits go to a particular, official British seaman's fund.
  
  Although you can be sure the blend has changed, it remains reasonably similar to what British sailors consumed over the past 150 years or so.

3. It is essential to realize that the making of rum changed as it spread throughout the Caribbean. From Barbados, to Jamaica, to Guyana, to Haiti (and MUCH later to Martinique), and last to Cuba. JaRiMi made a great case for a Trini style.

• This led to Dave Broom's description of the style of rums from each territory, and to the Project's more formal identification of these five or six styles, as well as naming proposed "reference standards" for each.

4. While these "styles" originated geographically and chronologically, in today's world any style can be produced anywhere. Thus a pungent, rich, heavy and dunder-based Jamaican rum does not necessarily have to be made in Jamaica - although their use of dunder and long fermentations take much time to duplicate. It is far easier to produce a light Cuban style rum.

5. Another issue is the development of stilling from the earliest, crude pot (moonshine type) stills, to double distilling, to the use of thumpers, to the early Coffey stills and last to the industrial multi-column bullshit stills.

6 While the early rums almost demanded being mixed with various fruits et al, later the Big Three (Bacardi, Fortune and Diageo) produced what is really faux rum - using cheap, thin, low ester rums - tricked up with all manner of secret, illegal and unlabelled additives and adulterants - heavily colored, and "premiumized". The profiles of these trick rums were fantastical in profile, taste nothing like real, pure and adulterated rum. Cheap mass produced rums were then premiumized, especially (but not only) with sugar, loaded into expensive looking bottles, and fantastical claimed ages (completely unsubstantiated) and marketed with made up, romantical stories.

• Many refer to ancient "recipes" when in fact real and pure rums have but one recipe: the use of sugar cane juice, syrup and the sole byproduct, molasses. Indeed the use of the word "recipe" should be a red flag indicating that the faux and made up product being sold is really an industrial produced, secretly altered concoction that should legally be labelled "flavored rum".

Flat Ass Bottom Line

1. To even begin such a project requires considerable due diligence, beginning with the books by Ian Williams, Dave Broom, Coulumbe and Smith. Often overlooked - but essential - is "...and a Bottle of Rum" by Curtis, whose work seems a book about traditional mixed drinks, but which really puts these many different "traditional" drinks and rums in historical perspective.

2. It is hard to imagine that the above long published books have missed much. These books also list a plethora of hundreds of old sources which will be very hard to find, review and represent much differently.

3. There is very little debate, and where there is, it is esoteric and of little interest to the relatively uneducated rum drinkers of today (Project readers and writers excepted), who would be the only potential market, but who really don't care.

4. OTOH, perhaps this poster feels there is a need for an academic treatise of which I am not personally aware.

5. At best such a book is (a) a HUGE endeavor with (b) a very limited and mostly uninterested audience. I know of no real movement to return to the production of what were really pretty nasty products. Think moonshine - only of real interest during and because of Prohibition.

While in recent months the marketing monkeys have created some highly promoted "moonshines", many are simply sourced and flavored vodkas or grain alcohol - super low cost, not the least bit authentic.

6. Last, I think it necessary that any author or writer conducting such a project, must go native. He/she would best be a lover and afficianado of good rums. He/she should know the styles, be able to blind identify them, should be very knowledgable of the different processes, raw materials, fermentation and yeasts, stills, production, cooperage and aging.

It is not nearly enough to ask others - who may well be wrong - what they think. Rather better to engage in one's own original research, which of course means drinking rum - lots of it. It is not enough to attempt - mostly fruitlessly - to find truly original rums of that time period, but it is equally necessary to know what has developed into the current "styles", and to know what the modern faux-rums are like. Knowing the comparison of modern vs traditional would seem essential.

To proceed without these - while it may reveal important related facts (eg how rum and wealth of those old days was like the oil and Saudi Arabia of recent years) - well, without really knowing and loving the rum itself, might not identify with what little real audience there is.

It's like a Catholic priest writing a guide on Bondage and Discipline, although I may be wrong on that, lol... Still, the Project admires any serious efforts to educate, particulary with little hope of financial reward. We oughta know...

[Capn Jimbo]

Some specific recommendations:

1. Bajan: St. Nicolas Abbey

2. Jamaican: Hampton's Fire and Myers's Original Dark

3. Guyanan: something made with one of the wooden stills, or the metal Coffey still, from one of the independents.

4. Cane Juice: Barbancourt, over 100 years old and still produced, or perhaps some Clarin.

5. Cuban: Bacardi Anniverary Ron Superior White at 44.5%

[JaRiMi]

Primitive rum? The oldest method of making rum would have included the following:

• A) Small pot stills - not thousands of litres, possibly not even made of copper, but any metal available (brought in from Europe on period ships, i.e. a few hundred of litres capacity at max, possibly a mixture of wood and a copper/metal neck), primitive in design (alembic, simple).
  
  B) Earliest rum was made directly from fermenting sugar cane juice obtained from crushing & pressing cane, using wild yeast (not cultivated, modern yeasts - wild yeast is readily available in W.I. nature) - much like what is nowadays called "Babash" or bush rum in Trinidad.
  
  C) Hardly any aging process - certainly no charred oaken casks used, this was not invented until very end of 18th century in USA, and took time to spread as a practice. ANY wooden cask was seen as fit for storage, but spirit was used rather quickly, aging was not planned or intentional.
  
  D) Cane cultures and cane varieties used would be very different from modern cultivated canes, i.e. these have been developed by the industry for high yield, resistance to pests etc. Think primitive.

As is, the closest equivalent to the rum of the period that I can think of without any doubt is the Klerin or Clairin of Haiti. It is not aged, it is made with truly primitive & small pot stills, using local (old) cane varieties not commercially used in large scale as raw material; is made from fresh cane juice (instead of concentrates or molasses), fermented largely with wild yeasts, and the rum contains significant amount of impurities that certainly can be noticed on the palate.

Velier bottles some of these, I'd wager good money that this is the closest equivalent to rum of 17th and 18th century. All others come from too large-scale production with too refined methodologies, equipment, yeasts, cane varieties. They will be nowhere near the target in any way thanks to all the advances made especially since mid 1800s (column stills, sugar extraction & molasses changing from what it has been like, refined methods of distillation, commercial fine yeasts, scientifically developed cane varieties, charred oaken casks etc).

[Capn Jimbo]

Agreed J...


I would also add the many cachacas of Brazil. Not only are there literally thousands of labeled products, everyone there has a family member who distills cachaca from cane juice using very simple pot stills as noted by JaRiMi. Although the Big Three have fought to prevent cachaca from (rightfully) being considered a rum, it is definitely a rum.

To their credit, Brazil has the cajones to recognize the possible use of sugar, codifies it and sets a legal limit of 6 grams/liter. Any more than that and it must be labelled "Sweetened Cachaca". Open, honest and transparent.

Compare to what is labeled "Rum" in the US/EU/UK etc., which pretend to be pure and unadulterate, but which cheat and add up to 50g/L!

Now I will say that one of the great issues that IS valid for historical examination is the actual home or origin of "rum", defined as a spirit being distilled from sugar or its byproducts (cane juice, sugar syrup, molasses). It's obvious to me that what we call rum appeared in the Americas, in Brazil in the early 1500's, despite the fact that most of the so-called historical books all give credit to Barbados.


Flat Ass Bottom Line:

I would go even further to note that "spirits', ie distillation appeared with alchemists and their very early alembic stills. The Chinese also had clay versions of these. Want to do a real history of rum. A good start would be to note that the required equipment and knowledge may have begun with the Alexandrians (Greek) in the 3rd Century.

Many of us are familiar with the classic copper alembics still being made in Portugal, which reflects the widespread use of alembics by medieval Arabs. Whether either the Greeks or Arabs actually distilled alcohol is unknown, but it would be foolish to rule it out for lack of hard evidence.

It is also important to know that sugarcane's probable origin was in the East, where there IS hard evidence that the 12th Century Chinese did perform distillation, which early distillation co-appeared in Italy at the same time. "Burned water" appears in German texts in the early 1400's. It is generally agreed that sugar cane originated in South and Southeast Asia, and was brought west by Arabian traders to the general Mediterranean area, thence to the Canaries et al, and then to Brazil and the Caribbean (both excellent growing regions).

Put this together with 12th century distillation by the Chinese and the Italians and I think you may have your answer as to the likely homes of "rum" as we define it. Certainly "rum" was distilled in Brazil about 200 years before Barbados (around 1700).




*******
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar
http://www.mapadacachaca.com.br/en/arti ... y-cachaca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacha%C3%A7a
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distilled_beverage

[CSPHistorical]

Wow, this post got a lot of responses over the week. Thank you all for your time with this!

I will take the time to respond to all of these, since you all took the time to write these responses up.

[CSPHistorical]

Re: mamajuana -

River Antoine Rum Distillery looks astounding! I looked through the pictures and it looks like it might be one of the closest candidates I’ll get to period rum production. It should be noted that they are distilling off straight sugar cane juice and not molasses. I want to say I had documentation that at least some local stuff came straight from sugar cane juice, but the general impression period sources gave me was that it most of it was molasses-based. Even with it being directly from sugar cane juice, so far it looks like one of the closest distillers today to the 18th-century way of making rum. It also looks like it’s really hard to purchase the River Antoine stuff outside of Granada.

Re: sailor22 –

You are right about brandy over rum in the English/British navy. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth century appears to be the period when rum overtook brandy as the primary liquor provided to mariners sailing around the equator in the Atlantic world. It didn’t happen overnight, but the changeover happened at this time and appeared to have mostly occurred by the opening of the war known as the War of Jenkin’s Ear. I think Capn Jimbo points this out later on.

Re: Capn Jimbo (post 1) –

1. I’ll make sure to put Hampton Estate under the category of “mainstream modern rum distiller retaining some aspects of historical rum distillation.”

2. I guess my standard for getting close to a historical rum will need to be qualified to modern realities. While I would love to just try the rotgut version of rum, if it is illegal, then I can’t pursue it. But I am still interested in pursuing whatever is the next best thing. I’ll just have to remember that whatever I end up obtaining in my efforts that it won’t be like the rotgut stuff by a significant margin, but maybe that’s a good thing for my health?

3a. So the recipe of Pusser’s rum is probably closer to my period’s rum than any other rum, but is the method of producing it equal that of Hampton Estate, or does it share even less of the historical means of producing rum than Hampton?

3b, 4, and 5. Okay, good thing you explained this, because I don’t think I quite grasped (or I just missed it) these regional differences in my initial readings of various publications about historical rum. Now that I am more aware of it, maybe I’ll pick up on it this time in my reading.

6. Making rum into punch, because the way rum was basically required making it into rum, I did gather that from period sources/secondary sources. Also, from reading what you all have posted throughout this forum, I got the idea that modern rums have all these additives and additions that take it away from being like historical rum.

Bottom line

1. I’ll pick up “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails” by Wayne Curtis. The rest of those books you mentioned we have already discussed/already have/already looked at. I just looked at it in Amazon.com’s preview, and while it is not academic in style, it looks like I can at least pick out many of his sources by in-text references.

2, 3, 4, and 5. I’m not really looking to point out things the other guys missed in their books (though sometimes applying a different angle or context provides things others missed, we will see as I work on this). Also, it’s not limited to just rum, but since it has such a reputation today, and since I suspect my audience will want to know a lot about it, I am including a sizeable section on it. I am writing on maritime food and drink in 1680-1740. My research into rum is only part of a greater work, it’s going to be marketed to more than just people interested in rum history. While other historians and writers published books on rum or historical food, if one wanted one publication about maritime food that concentrated on the previously mentioned period, they would be out of luck. That’s where my book that I’m working on comes in. Few people would spend the time needed to pull together all the various little pieces that are available about period food and drink (including rum) into one work.

My natural tendencies and training incline me to cover topics I’m researching thoroughly. People who read my articles, are familiar with my work, or know me in person know that when I look to work on a historical topic, I try to cover everything from as many angles as possible. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t cover the history of rum in my period and heavily research it. I suspect my readers would that in my publication.

One other note on past authors and historians on rum history – as time passes, new sources from the period appear that others didn’t know of/didn’t have access to. I have at least one source that wasn’t transcribed from its manuscripts and published into a book until after most of those books previously mentioned were published.

6. Not sure how far I want to go down the trail of buying and trying various rums, but the idea of wanting to better understand the subject by trying it first hand is why I’m here asking about modern rums in comparison to historical rums in the first place. I’m trying my best, and learning a lot. It will take time for me to get a handle on all this, but I want to try and get at least some better understanding of it, since food and drink can’t all be understood by just reading about it.

Re: Capn Jimbo (post 2) –

Thanks for the list of recommendations.

Re: JaRiMi –

As I said above to others, I am getting the idea that modern rums are significantly different from period rums in a lot of ways. I will add Haiti though to my list of places to seek modern rums closest to historical rum.

Re: Capn Jimbo (post 3) –

The defining of rum, and it’s difficulties, is something I picked up on in Foss’ “Rum, a Global History.” To be sure, it’s something that will be mentioned in my publication. For the whole “first place rum was produced in the New World” debate, I thought Barbados was mainly considered the first English colony to start producing it – I didn’t think people were claiming it was the first place, period. Good to know that I should emphasize that in my work. Smith’s “Caribbean Rum” book covers the origins issue well.

[The Fat Rum Pirate]

Admitedly the oldest rum I have ever tried is only around 50 years old but this rum is the closest I have tasted to what I think the pirates of olde might have drank

http://englishvodkacompany.com/shop/ind ... duct_id=62

Old Salt Rum - it is a Pot Distilled Product and despite the fact it does have some added sugar it is as far away from Super Duper Premium Z Rum as you will find.

It makes Smith & Cross seem almost refined.

[Capn Jimbo]

What you are about to read is serious...


If you'd really like to get a handle on this, go to www.homedistillers.org and learn how you can construct and use a simple pot still and condensation worm inexpensively. Then find a weed and feed store, get some black strap, 3rd boil molasses, ferment it in a plastic beer jug, and have at it...

Now THAT is traditional...

[JaRiMi]

Please see the slideware at this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/TalesoftheCoc ... esentation

You will not find anything closer to what the early European invaders of the Caribbean would have been able to produce with limited resources, knowledge, equipment. All others are large scale in comparison. Most Clairin distilleries do not even have electricity, they use water wheels and wood as fuel. It is PRIMITIVE - But has a lot of taste. Natural yeast, old cane type, really small operations.

[CSPHistorical]

Please see the slideware at this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/TalesoftheCoc ... esentation

You will not find anything closer to what the early European invaders of the Caribbean would have been able to produce with limited resources, knowledge, equipment. All others are large scale in comparison. Most Clairin distilleries do not even have electricity, they use water wheels and wood as fuel. It is PRIMITIVE - But has a lot of taste. Natural yeast, old cane type, really small operations.

Thanks, the slide show was quite interesting and informative. I was wondering who would be a good supplier of Haiti rum. Still trying to figure out how to get this rum or the rum that comes from the Granada distillery mentioned earlier.

[JaRiMi]

Please see the slideware at this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/TalesoftheCoc ... esentation

You will not find anything closer to what the early European invaders of the Caribbean would have been able to produce with limited resources, knowledge, equipment. All others are large scale in comparison. Most Clairin distilleries do not even have electricity, they use water wheels and wood as fuel. It is PRIMITIVE - But has a lot of taste. Natural yeast, old cane type, really small operations.

Thanks, the slide show was quite interesting and informative. I was wondering who would be a good supplier of Haiti rum. Still trying to figure out how to get this rum or the rum that comes from the Granada distillery mentioned earlier.

Velier is distributor for many Clairins. Also there is a person I know in Haiti making it, and bringing some to USA also.