Historically Accurate Rum

[Captain Jim]

Now that sounds like a period triangle-trade rum. Mind you that there were distillers that knew how to make aged-in-oak alcohol. We just need to find out who they were, if they plied their trade on rum and how they did it.

[Mission]

Since the pirates appear to have been mostly taking rum out of ships they captured, it is doubtful many of them had a preference for aged vs. not. Reading through the General History again, I find that if they captured alcohol that they appear to have drunk it till it ran out and then went in search of another source.

[Captain Jim]

Which, on the surface, would support the idea that pyrates drank triangle-trade rum, that white, over-proofed paint thinner described earlier.

[Mission]

If you think about it, even today many people don't give that much thought to the more elite spirits. It's really only important if you drink it straight, you can afford it and you've developed a taste for it. (Although people seem more aware of it in the past 10 or 20 years than I can personally remember them being before that. I think this has a lot to do with the way alcohol is presented in movies and such.)

If the primary way you acquire alcohol is by stealing it...well, beggars can't be choosers. OTOH, if they took a ship full of the good stuff, they'd probably just as gladly consume it as anything else. Still, being in the habit of mixing alcohols into punches, why wouldn't do the same with a premiere alcohol as a low grade sort?

I wonder how the daily tot was drunk? Straight or mixed?

[MarkG]

I looked into the Black Tot (the last tot served) a couple of years ago. At that time I think that the tot was drunk straight in those little cups. But that was a more civilized rum.

Wikipedia claims that the rum allowance was served watered down to prevent hoarding but is vague on exactly when it began replacing beer rations - it only says "after the British conquest of Jamaica". This was before Admiral Vernon (1740).

BTW, my father was in a WWII bomber crew. One of the crew members was too scared to get into the plane. They were each given a shot of whiskey before a mission so they all gave their shots to the one crew member and let him get drunk enough to get over his fear.

[CandyCotton]

BTW, my father was in a WWII bomber crew. One of the crew members was too scared to get into the plane. They were each given a shot of whiskey before a mission so they all gave their shots to the one crew member and let him get drunk enough to get over his fear.

which just proves that "liquid courage" is not only effective, but an advisable solution to such problems in life. Wey Hey!

[Tar Bucket Bill]

What about Prichard's Fine Rum?

http://www.prichardsdistillery.com/

Their website claims to use the same rum making techniques used for hundreds of years. They use premium grade "A molasses.

They claim to make "an accurate recreation of America's first distilled spirit".

They also say, "Prichard’s Fine Rum is the first authentic American Rum to be distilled in the United States since the early days of America’s history."

I have never had the opportunity to try it yet but would like to. Has anyone here tried it?

-Tar Bucket Bill

[Quartermaster James]

Where are all the alcohol experts that used to infest the forum?

We've been out on account a while.

[Quartermaster James]

Well, it's hard to find real GAOP rum these days, but every once-in-a-while some nice old rums are available here: http://www.finestandrarest.com/rum.html