The First Industrial Drink: Rum, Slavery, and the Making of the Atlantic World

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.Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.