BOOKSHOP

To explore the mysteries of rum is first and foremost to take an interest in its prehistory, the history of the sugar cane plant, in order to appreciate its complexity, richness and ubiquity, and to understand its continental and island destiny. Rum comes from sugar cane, and like sugar cane, it doesn’t like the cold, but the sun and water; unpredictable, it can “kill the devil”, in medicinal doses, or it can conceal him through the intoxication it produces. So it became the object of bitter temptation for sailors of all flags on the oceans and seas of the median equator bordered by the tropics: the Rhum personified the exoticism of long-distance sailing… but more than that!

From the cane odyssey to the sugar colonies, from primitive tafia to the English sailors’ grog, from collector’s rums to cocktail rums, from artisanal production to industrial rums, “everything you always wanted to know about rum” is covered in this invaluable book, which combines economics and production, ecology and traditions, consumption and alcoholism, current legislation and Free Rum’s Land.