Moolasses And Sugar Consumption In New England

In the 17th century rum was the first liquor to have a major impact on the British colonies. During this century, people of the West Indie islands traded molasses and sugar with New England in exchange for lumber and fish. With the molasses and sugar that New England obtained from the Caribbean, colonists produced rum in a variety of ways and used the rum as another item to trade with. Therefore, rum was first discovered in the Caribbean’s. In addition, not only was rum produced in New England at the time, but rum was also produced by people in the West Indies, which was shipped as a commodity to the American colonies (Blocker, Fahey, Tyrrell, 2003). During the time of the British rule, rum was thought to have originated on the islands of

Molasses is the thick byproduct of sugar that was exchanged with other countries and used to produce rum through a method known as distilling. Distilling requires purifying a liquid by the process of heating and cooling, which in this case the liquid is molasses and sugar cane juice. Before distillation of sugar can begin, molasses and water, as well as the sugar cane juice is fermented with yeast for a few hours up to a couple of weeks. Lighter rums are distilled for short periods of time (Jaffe, Jerome, Roger, 2001). Once the sugar has been fermented, the sugar is then heated up to high enough temperatures where alcohol evaporates from the liquid. As the alcohol and water boil distillation helps to separate the alcohol from the water, in order extract the alcohol from the molasses to produce the alcohol content of rum. Moreover, rum is the best distilled alcohol in terms of keeping the natural taste of its base. Rum keeps its natural taste because conversion of starch into sugar is not necessary, chemical treatment is reduced, distillation can occur at a lower proof, and barrels can help fully develop rum. Distilling of alcoholic rum from molasses was thought to have first begun in Barbados, an island in the Caribbean that used to be a leading producer of sugar (Smith,

Drinking patterns seen during the colonial times indicates that slaves were at the bottom of society. Although rum shops were not allowed to sell alcohol to slaves due to laws, the shops were still focal points of socializing for slaves. Further, slaves would mostly occupy the rum shops owned by freed slaves. Slaves in the Caribbean also incorporated rum into their religious practices by using rum as a way of speaking with ghosts. Thus, the established use of rum for religious purposes in the Caribbean was to communicate with the spiritual world (Smith,