A Rum Tale

Travel Distilled reviews A Rum Tale, a history and culture of one of the world’s most versatile spirits, published by The History Press.

The history and culture of one of the world’s most versatile spirits.

A Rum Tale by Joseph Piercy comes at rum from a slightly different angle. It isn’t a cocktail book, although there are a few short recipes at the end. It isn’t about visiting distilleries, though distilleries feature strongly. Instead, this is published by The History Press, a specialist publisher, and so focuses on the history of this fascinating spirit – which has indeed had quite a history.

A Rum Tale: The Author

Joseph Piercy has written a wide array of books, covering such topics as the English language, Winston Churchill, and Shakespeare. He previously wrote Slippery Tipples: A Guide to Weird and Wonderful Spirits and Liqueurs.

As an obviously versatile author, Piercy clearly knows how to tell a story, and with rum he’s got a good story to tell. He covers such entertaining topics as rum-running during American Prohibition, the Australian Rum Rebellion (which I previously knew nothing about), the close connection between rum and the British Royal Navy, and of course the fascinating history of Cuba and the Cuban Revolution, which very much affected the country’s rum distilleries.

It also has its share of fascinating facts. For example, it had never occurred to me to wonder where the word ‘candy’ comes from. In fact it’s from an ancient Indian word, khanda, which was the name given to the world’s first sweets, produced from boiling sugarcane juice.

Typos and Errors

As with a lot of books about spirits that I’ve read recently, the book is spoiled by a number of typos and errors. For example, on page 76 the word ‘descendAnt’ appears, with a capital A in the middle of it. There are several others, and on page 163 there’s a rather glaring error. The author is describing the history of the St Nicholas Abbey Distillery on Barbados and says that the Jacobean house on the estate is ‘one of only three surviving Jacobean-style mansions in the southern hemisphere’. Except, of course, Barbados is in the northern hemisphere. Surely either the author or his editor should have spotted that one.

Rum Classification

One thing that makes rum different from some other spirits, such as cognac or tequila, say, is that there are no recognised categorisations. There’s no internationally-accepted definition of rum, and different countries have different regulations, if they have any at all. The author does a creditable job of trying to suggest how we might categorise rum in an informative chapter.

He goes on to describe what he regards as some of the best rums in the world, like Gosling’s Black Seal, and his recommendations are also scattered throughout the book.

If you’re at all interested in rum this is a book you should read. Its detailed focus on the history of rum means you’re bound to learn something you didn’t know before… and come away with a few ideas of rums you really ought to try.