Rum was never supposed to exist. It was the garbage of the sugar trade — fermented molasses, the waste product of Caribbean plantations — and it became the fuel of an empire.
This episode traces the story of how a byproduct of industrial slavery turned into the first drink manufactured at scale, how it moved across the Atlantic as currency and commodity, and what it means that the history of rum and the history of the slave trade are the same history.
The Royal Navy even issued a daily rum ration to its sailors from 1655. They stopped in 1970.
Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.