Rum plays a part in the culture of most islands of the West Indies as well as the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland, in Canada.

It has associations with the Royal Navy (where it was mixed with water or beer to make grog) and piracy (where it was consumed as bumbo).

[19] The traditional history of modern-style rum tells of its invention in the Caribbean, in the 17th century, by slaves on sugarcane plantations, who discovered that molasses, a by-product of the sugar refining process, could be fermented into alcohol, and then distilled.

"By the late 17th century rum had replaced French brandy as the exchange alcohol of choice in the triangle trade.

[22] New England became a distilling center due to the technical, metalworking and cooperage skills and abundant lumber; the rum produced there was lighter, more like whiskey.

[24] In the 18th century, ever increasing demands for sugar, molasses, rum, and slaves led to a feedback loop that intensified the triangular trade.

[25] When France banned the production of rum in their New World possessions to end the domestic competition with brandy, New England distillers were then able to undercut producers in the British West Indies by buying cut-rate molasses from French sugar plantations.

Rum at this time accounted for approximately 80% of New England's exports, and paying the duty would have put the distilleries out of business: as a result, both compliance with and enforcement of the act were minimal.

For example, the slave Venture Smith (whose history was later published) had been purchased in Africa, for four gallons of rum plus a piece of calico.

In "The Doctor's Secret Journal", an account of the happenings at Fort Michilimackinac in northern Michigan from 1769 to 1772 by Daniel Morison, a surgeon's mate, noted that there was not much for the men to do and drinking rum was very popular.

[26] In fact, Ensign Robert Johnstone, one of the officers, "thought proper to turn trader by selling (the) common rum to the soldiers & all others by whom he might gain a penny in this clandestine Manner."

To conceal this theft, "he was observed to have filled up several Barrels of common rum with boiling water to make up the Leakage.

[28][29] Eventually, the restrictions on sugar imports from the British West Indies, combined with the development of American whiskeys, led to a decline in the drink's popularity in North America.

Some of the privateers became pirates and buccaneers, with a continuing fondness for rum; the association between the two was only strengthened by literary works such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

To help minimize the effect of the alcohol on his sailors, Admiral Edward Vernon had the rum ration watered, producing a mixture that became known as grog.

[34] The Royal Navy continued to give its sailors a daily rum ration, known as a "tot", until the practice was abolished on 31 July 1970.

It also serves as the basis for the term tapping the admiral being used to describe surreptitiously sucking liquor from a cask through a straw.

Due to rum's popularity among the settlers, the colony gained a reputation for drunkenness, though their alcohol consumption was less than levels commonly consumed in England at the time.

The cargoes were floated ashore clandestinely before the ships docked, by the Royal Marines regiment which controlled the sales.

When William Bligh became governor of the colony, he attempted to remedy the perceived problem of drunkenness by outlawing the use of rum as a medium of exchange.

Today, most spirits produced in India labeled as whisky, vodka, and gin are made with a neutral rum derived base.

Despite these differences in standards and nomenclature, the following divisions are provided to help show the wide variety of rums produced.

Mexico produces a number of brands of light and dark rum, as well as other less-expensive flavored and unflavored sugarcane-based liquors, such as aguardiente de caña and charanda.

Aguardiente is also the name for unaged distilled cane spirit in some, primarily Spanish-speaking countries since their definition of rum includes at least two years of ageing in wood.

[56] To extract the water and sugar juice, the harvested cane is cleaned, sliced into small lengths, and milled (pressed).

[1] In Brazil itself, the distilled alcoholic drink derived from cane juice is distinguished from rum and called cachaça.

[60] "The yeast employed will determine the final taste and aroma profile," says Jamaican master blender Joy Spence.

Tiki bars in the U.S. helped expand rum's horizons with inventions such as the mai tai, the long island iced tea,[65] the Jungle Bird from Malaysia[66] and the zombie.

Other cocktails containing rum include the piña colada, a drink made popular in America by Rupert Holmes' song "Escape",[67] the mojito, and a precursor of the classic Spanish sangria known as sangaree.

Jagertee is a mixture of rum and black tea popular in colder parts of Central Europe and served on special occasions in the British Army, where it is called Gunfire.