As the resident bourbon historian here at Bourbon & Banter, I have a shocking secret to admit: I have a love affair with American rum. When people think of spirits that defined our nation, it’s almost always bourbon and rye whiskey. But rum, dear friends, is what fueled our colonial ancestors and built the foundation upon which this great country was laid. This favorite drink of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was mostly produced in New England and enjoyed by everyone from commoner to governor, in proto-cocktails like punches, cups, and flips, to name a few. Rum distilling and drinking was strong in Colonial America until the revolution halted the molasses trade and slowed production considerably. Things picked up after the war ended, of course, but by then the deed was nearly done: Britain, who we had royally pissed off, owned most of the molasses of the world, and made it damned hard for us to get it. So, residents of early America began to turn their tastes toward patriotic, albeit harsh, rye whiskey (much like George Washington made when he opened his distillery in 1797), and rum production in the US was nearly defunct by the end of the nineteenth century.