Bay rum

[1] Other uses include as under-arm deodorant and as a fragrance for shaving soap, as well as a general astringent.

It is a distillate that was originally made in Saint Thomas "and probably other West Indian islands"[2] from rum and the leaves and/or berries of the West Indian bay tree, Pimenta racemosa.

John Maisch identified the leaf in the herbarium at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, collected in Saint Croix, "by the late Dr. Griffith", which was identified as Myrcia acris, now transferred to the genus Pimenta.

[7] A 1933 recording by Ashley & Foster references drinking bay rum purchased from the Raylass Chain department store in Gastonia, North Carolina.

[8] Proprietary bay rum lotions are produced by labs in several West Indian countries, as well as American and European fragrance companies.

19th-century trade card, showing bay rum from St. Thomas.
At 58% alcohol by volume and despite "for external use only" indications, Rexall Bay Rum was one way to duck the restrictions on alcohol during the era of Prohibition in the United States (this particular bottle is not from the prohibition era — it dates from the 1950s or early 1960s)