Q 01/05

Rum is made by fermenting and distilling which raw materials?

A) Malted barley and grain

B) Sugarcane molasses or juice

C) Fermented potato mash

D) Roasted agave hearts

Answer · why

B) Sugarcane molasses or juice

The distillate comes off the still clear, and gets its colour from barrels or caramel.

Q 02/05

In which region did modern rum originate in the 17th century?

A) West Africa

B) The Iberian Peninsula

C) New England

D) The Caribbean

Answer · why

D) The Caribbean

It was most likely first made by enslaved people on sugar plantations who found that the sugar-refining by-product could be fermented and distilled.

Q 03/05

A 1651 document from Barbados gives the earliest record of rum, calling it Rumbullion, alias what?

A) Cane Brandy

B) Devil's Water

C) Sugar Fire

D) Kill-Divil

Answer · why

D) Kill-Divil

It described the drink as 'a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor', and 'kill-devil' remains one of rum's many nicknames.

Q 04/05

'Nelson's blood' is a nickname for rum arising from a legend about the admiral's body after which battle?

A) Cape St Vincent

B) The Nile

C) Copenhagen

D) Trafalgar

Answer · why

D) Trafalgar

Sailors supposedly drilled into the cask of spirits preserving his corpse and drank it dry; the official record says only 'refined spirits'.

Q 05/05

The Royal Navy's association with rum began in 1655 when its fleet captured which island?

A) Jamaica

B) Barbados

C) Cuba

D) Trinidad

Answer · why

A) Jamaica

With rum available locally, sailors' daily liquor ration switched away from the spirit of France.