The Pirate's Choice Wine may be the drink of connoisseurs, but rum, which has long been associated with pirates, soldiers of fortune and other adventurers is the drink of romantics. And, if one believes the books of Robert Louis Stevenson or the films starring Errol Flynn, pirates even passed a good deal of their time singings songs about rum. Until 1956 every British soldier was given a daily portion of rum during the winter months and until 1976 members of the French Foreign Legion were issued two liters of rum every week. Because the admiral believed that rum would prevent the disease of scurvy, he insisted that all of his sailors drink a daily of dose of rum and water. Even though this drink did nothing at all to prevent scurvy, it surely made life aboard ship far more pleasant.
Rum is made by crushing sugar cane between heavy rollers.
The juice from the cane is then concentrated into a syrup by boiling and then most of the sugar is extracted from the syrup. The residue that remains, molasses, is then fermented and distilled, thus producing rum. Colorless when it emerges from the distilling apparatus, the rum only acquires a pale amber color after lengthy aging in oak casks. The care that goes into this aging process determines the fineness of the rum, and some old rums are as highly valued as the finest wines. The color of ordinary rums, alas, is achieved by the addition of artificial caramel coloring.