Rum can be a confusing spirit for the everyday consumer. What’s silver versus white rum? What’s silver versus gold rum? Which one should you use for a rum cocktail?

The different types of rum follow below. But first:
 
 
THE YEAR’S 15 RUM HOLIDAYS

 
> The difference between rum and cachaca is below.
 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RUM

Sugar cane grew wild in parts of Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated sometime around 8,000 B.C.E., probably in New Guinea. It arrived in India, where better extraction and purifying techniques were developed to refine the cane juice into granulated crystals.

Sugar then spread quickly. By the sixth century C.E., sugar cultivation had reached Persia; and, from there to elsewhere in the Mediterranean, brought by Arab expansion and travel.

In 1425, sugar arrived in Madiera and the Canary Islands. In 1493, his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane seedlings. They were grown, first in Hispaniola and then on other islands. The main sugar-exporting countries in the Caribbean today are Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Guyana and Jamaica.

In the 17th century, Caribbean sugar cane planters produced sugar by crushing sugar cane, extracting and boiling the cane juice, then leaving the boiled syrup to cure in clay pots. A viscous liquid would seep out of the pots, leaving the sugar in the pot.

The seepage was molasses—and no one wanted the thick, cloying by-product. It was fed to slaves and livestock, but a monumental amount of molasses was still left over. Sugar was a great cash crop for European planters, but two pounds of sugar yielded a pound of molasses!

There were no customers or known uses for molasses, so the planters dumped it into the ocean: very sweet industrial waste.

Finally, slaves figured out a use, and a great one at that. They fermented the molasses and distilled it into alcohol, to yield what became known as rum (source).

Then, playing around with the now-valued molasses, it was discovered to be as good as sugar in baked goods, and more flavorful.
 
 
HOW RUM GOT ITS NAME

No one knows. The origin of the name rum (ron in Spanish, rhum in French) is unclear. Historians have offered these possibilities:

 
Our vote is for saccharum, sugar, since rum is made from sugar cane.
 
 
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RUM

There are several types of rum, known as grades of rum, in the industry.

[2] Add the basic grade, known a light, silver, white and other names, to an iced coffee for Jamaican Iced Coffee.

[3] A Cuba Libre, known by many Americans as a Rum & Coke (photo © Bacardi).

[4] For the rum connoisseur, nothing beats aged rum, Añejo or Extra Añejo. Most premium producers offer a variety of ages. Appleton’s expressions include 12, 17, 18, 21, 25, 50 and 51 years.

With rum, it’s important to note that unlike Cognac or whisky, rum doesn’t have universally enforced aging regulations across all producing countries. Some Caribbean nations have their own standards.

Spanish for “old,” theThe category sits between añejo (1-3 years) and extra añejo (longer aging) in many classification systems. See Añejo and Extra Añejo, above.

[6] The classic rum drink: the Daiquiri (photo © Tempered Spirits).

For mixed drinks, use the basic light/silver/white rum. Here are the top rum cocktails.

For sipping, look to aged rums. Compared to aged Scotch, they’re relatively inexpensive.

Here are some tasting notes from Ethan Trex at Mental Floss, with some recommended brands. Unlike pricey aged whiskey, you can pick up some for $25 and $40.

 
 
WHAT ABOUT CACHAÇA?

Cachaça (ka-SHA-suh) is a sugar cane distillate made in Brazil, in the style of gold or dark rum. It is the ingredient used in the popular Caipirinha (kai-puh-REEN-ya), Brazil’s national cocktail.

Cachaça is often called “Brazilian rum,” but the Brazilians take exception to that. They consider their national drink to stand in a category of its own.

The actual difference between rum and cachaça, which taste very similar, is that rum is typically made from molasses, a by-product after the cane juice has been boiled to extract as much sugar crystal as possible.

Cachaça is made from the fresh sugar cane juice (but so are some Caribbean rums, particularly from the French islands). Both are then fermented and distilled. The style is usually like that of light rum, but some cachaça brands are in a style similar to gold rums.
 
Cachaça has its own holiday: International Cachaça Day is June 12th.

> Here’s more about cachaça.

*The chemicals, which are used to extract sugar crystals from the sugar cane, can interfere with the actions of the yeast that fermentat the molasses into rum.

†Black rum is so-named for its color; brown rum and red rum are dark rums described by their colors.

‡Cachaça and rum are both spirits distilled from sugarcane, but they differ in their raw material and production methods, leading to distinct flavor profiles. We include Cachaça as a “cousin” of rum—it’s been called Brazilian white rum. It’s the national spirit of Brazil, made there exclusively from fresh sugarcane juice, giving it a bright, vegetal, and grassy flavor. Rum, on the other hand, is typically made from molasses, a byproduct of sugar production, resulting in a sweeter, sometimes caramel-like or spicy flavor. The Caipirinha (kai-pee-REEN-yah) is Brazil’s national cocktail, made with lime juice and sugar like a Daiquirí but with cachaça instead of rum. Here’s more about it.

‡‡The solera method of aging developed in Jerez, Spain for aging sherry wine is used by some producers of aged rum blends. In this system, rums of different ages are blended, and the age statement on the bottle typically reflects the oldest rum in the blend.
 
 

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