When a slave revolt devastated Haiti's sugar industry in 1791, Cuba became the world's most important producer of sugarcane, and sugar has remained the backbone of its economy ever since. Rum is the alcohol produced by the distillation of sugarcane by-products, typically molasses. When sugarcane fields spread rapidly throughout the Caribbean, distilleries followed close behind. By the close of the eighteenth century, rum production was well established. Diverse styles of rum resulted from the natural variations in raw materials and the different production techniques employed across the region.
Sugarcane is harvested, then crushed to yield a sweet, sticky juice.
The juice is boiled, then crystalized, to concentrate and separate what will become the raw sugar. What's left is molasses. The molasses is diluted, then fermented, a process that converts it into a liquid, called the mash, that contains about 5 percent alcohol. The mash is distilled to about 70 percent alcohol. Better rums are then matured, generally in oak barrels, before they are filtered, diluted to 40 percent alcohol and bottled.