One thing your sixth-grade teacher probably didn’t tell you about George Washington was that America’s illustrious first president loved rum. In 1751, on a trip to Barbados with his brother, the 19-year-old Washington got a taste of the stuff and was hooked for life. Washington’s two favorite drinks were rum-laced eggnog and rum punch. He even served rum at his inauguration.

Washington’s predilection for this Caribbean spirit is just one chapter in rum’s curious and involved history. Once the favorite drink of notorious pirates, salty British sailors, and famous Colonial patriots (Paul Revere, John Hancock, and John Adams were fans), rum’s popularity was somewhat eclipsed in more modern times. Rivals such as vodka and tequila stole the limelight for cocktail use, while scotch and cognac became more and more called for as after-dinner spirits.

But rum is resilient and is making yet another comeback. Mixed drink aficionados are discovering new rum cocktails, and high-end "sipping rums" are getting ever more rarefied (and expensive).

BLAME IT ON COLUMBUS
Rum’s story began when Christopher Columbus got a little confused in his geography. When he landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492, he thought it was India. On his second voyage, Columbus brought several hundred sugarcane shoots to plant in "the Indies." The plants loved the climate. By the 1600s, cane had become the primary crop on all the islands in the Caribbean. Several of them were almost entirely deforested for cane fields, harvested for sugar to satisfy the sweet tooth of the Spanish court.

Rum was an accidental by-product of sugar production. The thick goo called melaza (later mispronounced "molasses" by the English) was drained off from the crystalized sugar and usually used as fertilizer or cattle feed. But one day some lucky soul discovered a vat of melaza that had fermented in the sun. Planters quickly began to distill this crude alcoholic beverage into the first versions of rum. One writer in 1651 describes the early attempts: "The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devil, and this is made of sugarcanes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor." Obviously, the process needed some tweaking.

Within a few years, though, rum had become so popular that England and France started to fear the competition with their own gin and brandy industries. Both countries outlawed the importation of rum. The major market for rum became Colonial North America. Rum took the Colonies by storm.

THE RUM TRIANGLE
Americans soon found it more efficient to import Caribbean molasses and distill the rum themselves. In 1664, a distillery appeared on New York’s Staten Island and three years later in Boston. By the mid-18th century, Rhode Island had 22 distilleries and Massachusetts had 63. At the peak of the craze, 12 million gallons of rum were consumed each year in the North American Colonies. That’s almost four gallons per person, an amount that must have left the teetotaling Puritans aghast.

Unfortunately, New England’s eagerness for rum led to the creation of new centers for the slave trade. The notorious Rum Triangle is the nastiest and most regrettable chapter in the story of rum. Slaves were exchanged in the West Indies for molasses, which was then brought to New England and distilled into rum. The rum was loaded onto ships returning to West Africa where it was traded for more slaves. In the early 19th century, this nefarious traffic was halted by legislation and New England’s rum business waned. At the same time, settlers in the newly opened Midwest began to produce whiskey from corn and grain, giving Americans an enticing alternative to rum.

TOTS AND GROG
Meanwhile, British sailors were introduced to rum when the Royal Navy captured Jamaica in 1655. At the time, all sailors received a half-pint "tot" of alcohol each day. Cheap and available Caribbean rum became the spirit of choice onboard His Majesty’s ships. As one can imagine, distributing a half-pint of heady rum per sailor per day often led to drunkenness or worse. But any attempt to deny the crew their ration was met with fierce resistance.

In 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon (nicknamed Old Grogram after his heavy waterproof coat made of grogram — a fabric woven from silk and wool) came up with a compromise. He allowed the sailors their full tot of rum, but only in watered-down fashion. Each half-pint rum would be diluted with one quart of water plus sugar and lime juice. Old Grogram had invented the world’s first rum cocktail.

The new concoction, called "grog" by the grateful sailors, became standard issue in the Royal Navy for well over two centuries. By 1970, however, the Admiralty had come to the opinion that there was no place for rum in a modern navy. On July 31, onboard every ship in the royal fleet, glasses were raised around the world in one final toast to the Queen. Many an able-bodied seaman shed a tear as he drained the last drop of grog from his cup.

FROM RUMRUNNERS TO TIKI LAMPS
Ironically, it was Prohibition that revived interest in rum in America. During the dry 1920s, Americans streamed to Cuba, a tropical paradise where they could imbibe freely. Havana became a party capital and "demon rum" was the drink of choice. Smuggling rum up the coast — even as far as New Jersey — became a profitable industry for rumrunners. In addition to smuggling, some savvy entrepreneurs kept their boats anchored a safe 12 miles off shore in international waters, where liquor could flow freely. When the rum supply ran out, they simply pulled up anchor and headed back to Cuba for another load.

With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the once bootleg stream of Canadian whiskey started to flow like a mighty river across the northern border. Rum was on the downswing again, but during World War II the Andrews Sisters’ hit song "Rum and Coca-Cola" put the Caribbean spirit squarely back on the map, as did the invention of cocktails such as the mai tai. In the post-WWII years, "tiki" culture was hot. Tropical rum drinks such as the piña colada and the Zombie appeared to the beat of Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz.

RUM TODAY
The demand for mixing rum continues to grow, but the trend toward ultra-premium spirits in the 1980s led consumers to seek premium aged rums, the kind best savored without the addition of mixers. Aged rums are sipped like fine cognac. America has had a shift in consciousness about rum, and a whole new generation of upscale versions is arriving on bar shelves these days.

On the other side of the scale, flavored rums modeled on popular flavored vodkas are a hit with drinkers of a younger generation. Fun flavors such as raspberry, vanilla, banana, spice, and coconut keep bartenders busy creating new cocktails.

TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE?
In the early days, rum was sometimes accidentally aged in barrels as it sat on docks waiting for shipment. When rum reached its destination, the aged rum was found to be superior in flavor. Producers now age all rum.

A rum aged between one and three years in oak barrels or stainless steel tanks is known as light rum (also called white or silver rum). These rums make fine mixers, especially with fresh fruit flavors. Amber rum (or gold rum) generally has at least three years of age; use it for sophisticated cocktails such as the mai tai. Dark rum generally is aged five years or more. Duskier, deeper, it picks up an amber color from the oak. Well-aged dark rums are sometimes labeled añejo. These rums should be savored straight up.

10 FAVORITE RUMS
Bacardi Coco Original Coconut Rum. A flavored rum redolent of freshly cut coconut with smooth texture.
Clarke’s Court Superior Light Rum. Sweet, smooth, clean, and mellow with a lengthy finish; from Grenada.
Ron Matusalem Platino. A creamy Dominican silver rum with lush, ripe tones, and a long, lovely finish; great mixing rum.
Inner Circle Green Dot. An intense dark rum from Australia with dense molasses, prune, and spice tones.
Appleton Estate 21 Year Old. A beautifully balanced Jamaican rum with toasty, buttery popcorn, and spice tones.
Mount Gay Extra Old. A classic from Barbados; spicy, dense, and long with lively fruit and a long, toasty finish.
Charbay Tahitian Vanilla Bean Rum. A California-made flavored rum with sweet, tropical notes of almond, spice, and vanilla.
Santa Teresa Ron Antiguo de Solera 1796. A superb Venezuela dark rum with racy yet elegant notes of orange and caramel.
Sea Wynde Pot Still Rum. A deep amber sipping rum with racy orange rind and spice notes and complex, woody, cognac-like characteristics.
Angostura 1824. A 21-year-old rum from Trinidad and Tobago with toasty wood and a lively, slightly sweet flavor.

CLASSIC RUM COCKTAILS
THE DAIQUIRI
Various colorful characters are credited with the creation and perfection of the daiquiri, from an American general to a Catalan immigrant bartender working in Havana. Two things are certain: The daiquiri is very much a Cuban cocktail, and it’s delicious. Ernest Hemingway, who patronized the legendary El Floridita bar in Havana during his Cuban years, always called for a double, without sugar.

• 2 ounces light rum
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
• crushed ice

Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

THE MAI TAI
One night in 1944, Vic Bergeron conceived a new rum drink at his tropical-themed restaurant, Trader Vic’s, just across the bay from San Francisco. Bergeron picked up a fresh lime and squeezed it into the rum, added some orange curaçao, a dash of rock candy syrup, a dollop of orgeat, and a generous amount of shaved ice. After a vigorous shaking, Trader Vic garnished the new drink with fresh mint. He gave the cocktail to a Tahitian friend who happened to be in the restaurant that night. She took one sip and proclaimed: mai tai — roa ae, Tahitian for "out of this world — the best." The mai tai was born.

• 2 ounces aged Jamaican rum
• 1/2 ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
• 1/2 ounce curaçao
• 1/4 ounce rock candy syrup
• juice from one fresh lime
• shaved ice

Hand shake and garnish with half of the lime shell inside the drink and float a sprig of fresh mint at the edge of the glass.