Spirit Type

Rum

A spirit distilled from sugarcane products — molasses or fresh juice — with the world's most fragmented and least regulated set of rules.

Raw materialSugarcane (molasses or fresh juice)
OriginCaribbean and Latin America

Rum is distilled from sugarcane derivatives: most commonly molasses, sometimes fresh-pressed cane juice (the basis of rhum agricole). Because no single country owns the category, rum’s rules vary wildly — from strict designations of origin to none at all.

This regulatory patchwork is why two bottles labelled “rum” can be worlds apart: one a bone-dry pot-still spirit, the other sweetened and coloured. Understanding a rum starts with asking where it was made and under which rules — if any.

Related production topics: Pot still · Additives in rum

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