So I was wondering the other day about how rum is made. Obviously it’s fermented and distilled, but what’s the core ingredient? You probably already know.

It’s not corn or rice. Not even honey, but that’s getting closer. It’s sugar! More specifically, it’s molasses. When sugar cane is juiced and boiled, you can take out crystallized sugar. The sticky residue that’s left is molasses. They ferment it, distill it, and then age it for different lengths of time.

This explains why rum is THE spirit of choice in the Caribbean–that’s one of the main places in the world that grows sugar cane. (There are many other places (see this map), but the Caribbean is one of the most famous.)

So there you go. You probably already knew all this, or would if you thought about it for a minute. I chose not to think but to Google. Just like so many college students today! ;-)
Current music: Steel Band Music of the Caribbean