Hurricane Season

After capturing a region that included Panama in 1670, Capt. Henry Morgan ordered his men to be on the lookout for a Spanish vessel approaching the coastline. Certainly, they thought, such a ship would contain treasure that would make the captain and his men rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Before the desired Spanish vessel arrived, however, a merchant ship docked, and the pirate crew swiftly captured it. Aboard, they didn’t find riches — they found casks of rum.

The crew helped themselves to the sugarcane liquor, so much so that when a treasure-laden ship reached the harbor, Morgan’s crew members were so drunk that they failed to capture the Spanish ship.

Eventually, Morgan, the owner of three sugar plantations in Jamaica, was knighted and named the island’s governor. He lives on as the basis for the character on the labels of Capt. Morgan rum, which remains popular throughout Florida  today.

But rum wasn’t always so beloved. Case in point — the first reference made about rum by a visitor to Barbados in 1651.

“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,” wrote the visitor.

Robert Jacob is an expert on pirates and the author of A Pirate’s Life in the Golden Age of Piracy and Pirates of the Florida Coast: Truths, Legends, and Myths. He is a former member of the Blackbeard’s Crew that assembles at the annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival in Hampton, Virginia, and according to him, rum wasn’t as popular among pirates as one might think.

“Pirates really didn’t have any more association with rum than anyone else,” he laughed. “The pirates’ favorite drink was actually hot chocolate.”

Daniel Stewart, head distiller at Ology Distilling Co., said rum is often associated with pirates because its “real history” isn’t as “fun.”

“You know, the real history of rum is that it comes from … slave economies in the Caribbean … but that’s not super fun for advertising purposes. So people often lean into (the) pirates and tiki and tropical (mythos),” he said.

Still, rum plays a prominent role in the history of the high seas.

“Let me tell you a bit about grog,” Jacob said.

The Royal Navy, he explained, struggled to keep crew members hydrated during long voyages during which water stored in wooden casks would become undrinkable.

“So they just drank rum, which left them drunk or more dehydrated,” Jacob said.

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Capt. Vernon mixed rum with water, brown sugar and lime juice. The mixture came to be known as “grog” after the captain, who was nicknamed Old Grog due to the grogram wool uniform he wore. Grogram was an inexpensive material not typically worn by someone of status. By wearing it, the captain endeared himself to his crew.

Sailors didn’t realize it then, but the lime helped prevent scurvy. The rum purified the water, and the brown sugar made the drink palatable.

“His crew didn’t get sick, so within a few years, the Royal Navy ordered all crews to consume grog every day,” Jacob said. “Grog went a long way toward preventing scurvy.”

Of course, grog isn’t commonly drunk in modern-day Tallahassee, but rum is.

Stewart says Ology’s white rum is perfect for making daiquiris and mojitos, whereas the company’s dark “aged” rums are best in a rum Old-Fashioned or on their own.

“We’ve gone into some new oak casks like you would for bourbon. So, those new oak casks bring a lot of brown sugar notes (and) some of those spices, like cinnamon or clove, that you might expect in bourbon,” Stewart said of Ology’s aged rums.

One cocktail that combines light and dark rum is The Hurricane — a drink synonymous with regions where tropical storms are commonplace.

On at least one occasion, a hurricane sunk a ship full of rum off the coast of Florida.

“Divers recovered some of the bottles intact just a few years ago,” Jacob said. “They put them up for auction. A millionaire bought them and threw a big party. A friend attended and told me it was the strongest rum he ever had.”

A local Affair

According to Stewart, the team behind Ology Distilling Co. uses local sugar cane to create their rums. “Most people aren’t able to do that,” he said, “but we (operate) on a pretty small scale. So, we’re able to work with some local farmers to experiment with sugar cane and molasses fermentation, which has been super fun.”

Thomas J. Monigan contributed to this article.

Hurricane

Ingredients

» 1 shot light rum

» 1 shot dark rum

» ½ shot lime juice

» ½ shot orange juice

» Splash of passion fruit puree

» 2 teaspoons simple syrup

» 1 teaspoon grenadine

Instructions

Combine and shake light and dark rum, lime and orange juices, passion fruit puree, simple syrup and grenadine. Strain into a hurricane glass over fresh ice. Garnish with an orange slice and cocktail cherry.