The Rum-Making Process: History, Main Ingredient, and Step-by-Step Process

Rum is perhaps the most loved alcohol. People enjoy it on the rocks; and you could make over fifty cocktails with light-colored and gold rum. You’ve got your eyes on the most popular rum brands, but a question sometimes crosses your mind. How is rum made?

Here’s a quick post that reveals the process, main ingredient, and history of making rum.

Let’s get started!

The Main Ingredient of Rum

You know how to mix your cocktails, but you probably don’t know how your rum is made. Rum distillation is part science and part art. You need barrels for aging the rum to perfection. The ones that are not aged as much are usually light or gold-colored.

The main ingredient of rum is molasses. In most countries, it is made from the residue after sugar crystallizes in the delicious sugarcane juice. In many cultures, sugarcane juice is best enjoyed on a summer day.

The molasses being the main ingredient, has 5% sugar content.

Rum is made with sugarcane juice if the sugar industries are located in a particular industry.

You might wonder how rum gets this strong and bitter taste if made of sugarcane juice. There is a whole process of making alcohol out of molasses, so the taste will depend on how long you are aging the rum.

History of Rum

Did you know that rum is perhaps the oldest spirit in the world? The first distillation took place in the 1620s in the Caribbean. That’s how a bunch of enslaved people manufactured the first alcohol. People would drink it for pleasure and not for medicinal purposes.

In today’s time, rum is easily accessible. You get different brands that sell rum of various kinds.

The pricing also differs based on the brand you choose.

The Process of Making Rum

Drum rolls, please!

You may want to know the process of making rum. It’s science and art amalgamated to create the perfect rum.

First, you get a beery type of substance once sugarcane gets fermented. Alcohol is made by adding water and yeast to molasses. Once this is done, the distillation process begins. Then, you move on to the maturation process, which can vary depending on the kind of rum you need in the end. Some rums are aged for a year or two, and the premium ones are aged for 12-13 years.

Once the maturation process is complete, the rum manufacturers use a blending process. So, it’s not very easy to make rum. There is a whole process behind it.

You can buy readymade rum of all kinds. They taste delicious in cocktails and can be had with a few ice cubes.