The origin of cane spirits in the New World
When we look at the enormously broad set of rum styles available today, it’s hard to fathom just how much cane spirits have evolved over five centuries. Or perhaps even longer!
Historian and writer David Wondrich has written of crude cane spirits distilled in Southeast Asia dating to circa 500 AD, known as “arrack.” However, from a European perspective, the distillation of beverage alcohol began in earnest around the 1400s. Grapes and grains were the primary source materials, not sugarcane.
The Story of Rum is the Story of Sugarcane
It may surprise you that sugarcane wasn’t native to the Caribbean. In the 1400s, the Portuguese began large-scale sugarcane cultivation on various islands of Africa’s western coast, including Sao Torme, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. It was Columbus, who picked up some sugarcane during a 1493 Madeira layover en route to the new world, that brought sugarcane to the islands. He left the sugarcane on the island of Hispaniola, better known today as Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Sugarcane took a particularly strong hold in what is modern-day Brazil. The first sugarcane mill began operating there in 1532. Someone likely noticed that cane juice (or perhaps diluted molasses) would ferment into a crude cane wine if left alone. It’s also not recorded when someone first distilled that cane wine into a cane spirit. Some historians suggest it happened as early as 1550, while others say it was several decades later.
Island Passage
The traditional narrative of rum’s first appearance in the Caribbean islands tells of Dutch Jews fleeing from persecution in Brazil, bringing their knowledge of sugarcane agriculture and (possibly) distillation with them. One, in particular, Pietr Blower, arrived on Barbados in 1637. At some around this time, distillation began on Barbados. Richard Ligon, who lived on Barbados between 1647 and 1650, wrote:
[w]hich convey the skimmings of the three lesser Coppers, down to the Still-house, whereof the strong Spirit is made, which they call kill-devill…
The skimmings Ligon mentions are impurities that float on top of cane juice as it’s heated. They were skimmed off but retained as a fermentation ingredient since they retained a fair bit of sugar. Skimmings were used in more quantity than molasses in early rum making.
While Barbados is traditionally cited as rum’s birthplace, the Italian historian Marco Pierini recently uncovered several French texts containing passages strongly suggesting colonists on Martinique and St. Christophe (Saint Kitts) were making cane spirits by 1635.
While these texts predate Ligon’s Barbados arrival by 12 years, neither the French nor English descriptions indicate when rum making started. As such, we can’t definitively say which island first hosted rum distillation. What we can say with reasonable certainty is that the first sugarcane spirits appeared in the Caribbean’s eastern islands between 1630 and 1645.
What was early Caribbean Rum Like?
What did these early cane spirits taste like? While we have no samples to evaluate, history provides some strong hints.
The first Caribbean rums were likely very rough due to the crude distillation technology of the era. The ability of early stills to extract only the desirable flavors was minimal. Vast improvements in distillation technology were 150 years in the future.
Since fermentation was induced by airborne yeast, these rums were likely weird and “funky,” perhaps like Haitian clairin, River Antoine, and certain Jamaican rums today. There was likely little continuity from batch to batch, as following a consistent mash recipe would be a challenge. The quality and quantity of boiling house skimmings and molasses varied from day to day.
Lastly, those early days were typically consumed quickly by enslaved laborers and the working classes. They wouldn’t have spent any appreciable time in a wooden cask to tame harsh flavors.
Wrap Up
Early Caribbean cane spirits were a rough lot, targeting quantity over quality. Over the next 150 years, incremental improvements helped elevate rum making, especially in Jamaica, to a quality level rivaling the best European whiskies and brandies. By the mid-1800s, the emergence of distinct styles as we know them today was well underway.