From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
A liquor distilled from sugarcane, the origin of the name is obscure, but the word has been around since the English settled in Barbados in the 1620s. One possible derivation is from the Latin for sugar saccharum. Another is the English word rumbullion, which means "great tumult", possibly because the first versions of the drink may have been a bit unpalatable, described in an early account as a "hot hellish and terrible liquor." For a time, rum was also called Kill-Devil. As time passed, the manufacturing technique improved and the tasty spirit we know today emerged. Rum is made from sugarcane by-products, such as molasses, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate is a clear liquid. White rum is the distillate diluted to 40 percent alcohol. Gold and dark rum require aging in oak barrels from one to seven years. Most rum today is made in the Caribbean.
