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Rum

This well-known and much esteemed spirituous liquor is imported into this country from the West Indies, of which it is one of the staple products. It is obtained by means of fermentation and distillation from molasses, the refuse of the cane-juice, and portions of the cane, after the sugar has been extracted. The flavour and taste peculiar to rum are derived from the essential oils carried over in distillation. When the distillation has been carelessly performed, the spirit contains so large a quantity of the grosser and less volatile part of the oil as to be unfit for use till it has attained a considerable age. When it is well rectified it mellows much sooner. Rum of a brownish transparent colour, smooth oily taste, strong body and consistency, good age, and well kept, is the best. That which is clear and limpid, and has a hot pungent taste, is either too new or mixed with other spirits. Jamaica rum is the first in point of quality; the Leeward Island rum, as it is called, being always inferior to it in flavour, strength, and value. The price of the latter is usually twenty per cent, below that of the former. We import almost all our rum in puncheons containing from eighty-four to ninety gallons each. It is customary, in some of the West India islands, to put spiced pineapples in puncheons of rum; this gives the spirit the flavour of the fruit; and hence the designation pineapple rum. Rum is also produced in and imported from the Mauritius and the East Indies. But that of the latter is more nearly allied to arrack than to genuine rum. Rum is said to be much adulterated by the retail dealers in England, sometimes with corn spirit; but if done with molasses spirit, the tastes of both are so nearly allied that the cheat is not easily discovered. Rum often has a deep red colour, which is acquired from molasses or caramel added for the purpose, and not from the wood of the casks, as is commonly supposed. Unlike other spirits, rum tends to cause perspiration. It is greatly improved by age, and when very old is often highly prized. At a sale in Carlisle in 1865, rum known to be a hundred and forty years old sold for three guineas a bottle.