My rum never tastes like rum

[LWTCS]

Slivovitz (or any number of pronunciations) comes to mind.

Slivovitz is a brandy made from plums, in East European countries. There are lots of varieties of alcohols in Europe...
A brandy is a type of alcohol produced by the distillation of a wine, regardless of the fruit used.
In Germany, they call "Geist" (spirit) a product made by distilling fruit macerated in pure alcohol, like Himbeergeist (Raspberry spirit).
The reason behind that process is the low sugar content in raspberries...

The French translation of Brandy is eau-de-vie, but with the associated fruit, eau-de-vie de pommes (Calvados - if it's from the right place ) and eau-de-vie de raisin (Cognac or Armagnac) being the most famous. This caused me much confusion when I arrived in France because I was used to having a bottle of "cooking brandy" in the kitchen and couldn't find anything to match in the supermarket. Pretty much all of the eau-de-vie de raisin produced in France is exported I think. Certainly the French don't seem to be buying and drinking it. The word brandy (IIRC) comes from the German for "burned wine".

I suspect that most countries have a specific name for a certain distilled product that is produced traditionally locally and not imported. The whole point of the appelations controlées is that they stop anyone from making (for example) Cognac anywhere else. You can make a grape brandy, and quite possibly, make a better one than say Martell, but you can't trade off the reputation of Cognac in the same way that you can't call your locally-made Cola, Coke.

Which all takes us pretty far from rum... so to return to SBB's original comment.

99.9 percent of all of the worlds Rum is made from molasses, no sugar added.

According to Maison La Mauny, 5% of global rum production is from sugar cane juice (rhum agricole). So you weren't that far off. Looking on the shelves of the supermarkets here in France, you'd believe it was the other way around. It's actually easier to pick up a bottle of bourbon whisky, than to get a bottle of molasses-based rum, despite there being a lot more rum for sale.

Thank you for adding to that degree of perspective.

The more convoluted it gets the more things make more sense,,,,in a manner of speaking.

No need for an individual (Garouda) to come off as the sole source of perspective.

[Saltbush Bill]

Thank you for your input Normandie
Right from the begining my 99.9% was only a rough estimate.
It was a non pedantic attempt to explain in simple terms that the vast majority of the world's Rum is of a mollases based nature.....no other sugar is added. My rough guess wasnt to far out it seems
Anyone wishing to split hairs over a few % needs to read this thread from the beginning.

[Garouda]

The French translation of Brandy is eau-de-vie, but with the associated fruit, eau-de-vie de pommes (Calvados - if it's from the right place ) and eau-de-vie de raisin (Cognac or Armagnac) being the most famous. This caused me much confusion when I arrived in France because I was used to having a bottle of "cooking brandy" in the kitchen and couldn't find anything to match in the supermarket.

99.9 percent of all of the worlds Rum is made from molasses, no sugar added.

According to Maison La Mauny, 5% of global rum production is from sugar cane juice (rhum agricole). So you weren't that far off. Looking on the shelves of the supermarkets here in France, you'd believe it was the other way around. It's actually easier to pick up a bottle of bourbon whisky, than to get a bottle of molasses-based rum, despite there being a lot more rum for sale.

NormandieStill AKA Calvados? Calvados is the region of France where they make that famous apple brandy, and Calvados is in Normandie !

NormandieStill, you're right, eau de vie is the right translation, but you will hardly ever hear anyone asking for "une eau de vie de pomme", or "de raisins" They will always use the right appellation, Cognac, Calvados, Armagnac, Fine, etc.
Coming back to my Himbeergeist, indeed it's an "eau de vie de framboise" but it's a bit long, so they will order "une framboise" (raspberry)
By the way, eau de vie in Latin is aqua vitae, hence the Scandinavian Aquavit. (flavoured grain spirit, e.g. the famous Norwegian Linie Aquavit)

Coming back to the Rum-Rhum issue, here are my stats from: https://www.planetoscope.com/boisson/15 ... -rhum.html
Le rhum industriel représente aujourd'hui environ 90% de la production mondiale de rhum. Le rhum industriel est tiré de la distillation de la mélasse (résidu de la fabrication du sucre).
Translation:Industrial rum now represents around 90% of the world's rum production. The industrial rum is obtained from the distillation of molasses (residue from sugar production).

I used a cheap "Fine Champagne" in my kitchen as cooking brandy...

[Stonecutter]

The history of vocabulary throughout the world and its many uses is quite interesting. Garouda, it appears as though you have acquired quite an eclectic sense of French culture, I appreciate your enlightening comments. However, this subject has transgressed into a kind of pleonastic hole, has it not?

[LWTCS]

Pleonastic indeed.

This article here is the type of article available all over the internet that more or less characterizes how rum/rhum is defined here in this community:

https://www.worldrumguide.com/rum-blog/rum-or-rhum

Also, rum is spelled rhum in French as previously mentioned. And to no suprise, rhum is also spelled rhum in French.
Gets less and less confusing no?

[Garouda]

Back to the initial question, I can remember what Pugi wrote, in fact I saved it for further reference:

"(..) 3 gallons dunder or water for the first time you make the wash. Dunder is what’s left in the still after a stripping run (..)

(..) Collect the 40% ABV down to 20% ABV in separate container. These are your RUM OILS. Handle them with care and treat them special. Always add them to your still when you do a SPIRIT run, and always collect them from the spirit run.
The more times you use them, the more concentrated they become. It won’t take long, and they will overflow into the hearts. This is the KEY to My rum.(..)"