Throughout history the British have invaded almost 90 percent of the countries around the world, for which they have needed to be a naval power. To face the attempts of conquest suffered by themselves, to harass the rest of the powers that could confront them, to conquer a large part of the known world and to maintain a colonial empire of this magnitude and, above all, for so long, requires a large fleet, the best ships of each era, captains with the expertise of sea lions, intrepid crews... and a few liters of mixed drink . Before the purists crucify me, I'll clarify that I call a mixed drink a rum.
When the Arabs gave us distillation and the alembic, drinks with a higher alcohol content were obtained than those made by fermentation (wine or beer). Such was the alcohol they contained -up to about 50º- that they could even burn, which is why they were called aqua ardens (burning water). The success of these spirits (whiskey, brandy, rum...) was due to the fact that they could be made at home with local agricultural products and that, in order to speak with the gods face to face, less quantity was needed than with wine or beer. beer (max. 15º). And since the protagonist of this story are "the English mixed drinks", we will focus on rum.
The authentic Caribbean rum originates from Barbados, when in the first half of the 17th century the Englishman Richard Ligon brought sugar cane from Brazil to replace the deficit plantations of tobacco. With the new crop, it became necessary to bring the slaves to work it and, of course, also the cane brandy (drink made from sugar cane and then distilled). In order not to lose part of the sugar production in the elaboration of the concoction, in Barbados they used molasses for the elaboration (liquid and thick product derived from sugar cane obtained from the residue remaining in the sugar extraction vats) and refined the drink (they distilled it more times and increased its alcohol content). They called it kill-devil (devil slayer). For the name of rum we would have to wait until 1651 when an Englishman called it rumbullion , as street fights were called in the underworld of England -I guess it would have to do with the effects caused by excessive consumption of that drink-. And from the rumbullion to the rum and our rum.
Rum became very "popular" among the local population because it was very powerful and cheap (as it did not reduce sugar production, it could be sold at a low price), in addition to being used to have "controlled » to slaves (just as Americans would years later do to whiskey and native Indians). The fact that beer, wine or water spoiled on the long voyages to Africa, something that did not happen with rum, made the sailors of the slave ships switch to rum. When the slave traders of the African continent learned of the "virtues" of the new concoction, they demanded that part of their fees be paid in barrels of rum... the triangle sugar-slaves-rum became the basis of the economy of Barbados and throughout the Caribbean. The Royal Navy , always attentive to improving the conditions of its crews, replaced the traditional beer ration with rum on its ships.
Edward Vernon
Now that we have rum triumphing throughout the Caribbean and on the ships that sailed its waters - including pirates, corsairs, freebooters and buccaneers - let's go for the cubata . One thing we haven't talked about yet is the flavor of the rum…it was strong and not very nice. So, Edward Vernon , Royal Navy officer in the first half of the 18th century, it occurred to him to soften its flavor by adding sugar and lime juice. That first mixed drink was called grog in honor of its inventor - Vernon's nickname was Old Grog because of his grogram jacket, made of silk mixed with wool and rubber. From that moment, and without knowing it, the ships of the Royal Navy del Caribe had a remedy for scurvy (vitamin C deficiency), one of the main causes of mortality in sailors which, in part, was alleviated by the cubata lime . Unfortunately, this detail was not taken into account and there would still be many deaths until in 1795 the Royal Navy he forced to carry shipments of limes on all his ships. This is why British sailors were called limeys . The rest of the countries, with wine, beer, brandy or whiskey, could hardly cope with scurvy.
Source and images:The history of the world in six drinks – Tom Standage, Pirate Myths