Rum, distilled liquor made from sugarcane products, usually produced as a by-product of sugar manufacture. It includes both the light-bodied rums, typified by those of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the heavier and fuller-flavoured rums of Jamaica.
Rums originated in the West Indies and are first mentioned in records from Barbados in about 1650. They were called “kill-devil” or “rumbullion” and by 1667 were simply called rum. Rum figured in the slave trade of the American colonies: slaves were brought from Africa and traded to the West Indies for molasses; the molasses was made into rum in New England; and ... (100 of 607 words)