A Thirsty Spirit

I remember watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons when I was little and seeing the empty bottle of alcohol with the triple X on the label and the worm smiling out from the bottom.  The person who had consumed the spirit inside would be wearing a cowboy hat as well as a dark mustache.  I had no idea what had been in the bottle, but I remember thinking that worm must be one tough cookie.

Turns out those worms were originally used to help test the strength (and safety) of the spirit before hydrometers and other analytical equipment was developed – just like how the sailors used to light their rum on fire to make sure it hadn’t been diluted.  If the worm pickled and was preserved, the spirit was good.  If the worm decayed, the spirit had to be re-distilled.

Contrary to popular belief, the spirit in question is mescal, not tequila.  All tequilas are mescals, but not all mescals are tequilas.  Sure, they’re both Mexican and made from agave (which is NOT in the cactus family), but here are some differences:

1. Mescal is made from a number of different agave varieties, while tequila only uses the blue variety of agave.
2. The agave used to make tequila is cooked using ovens or autoclaves, while the agave used to make mescal is cooked in underground ovens using charcoal.  The smokiness imparted from this charcoal accounts for the major taste difference between tequila and mescal.
3. Traditionally, mescal was distilled once and tequila twice.  Most mescal on the Mexican market today though has been distilled twice, too.
4. Tequila is originally from the Jalisco state in Mexico and mescal is from the Oaxaca State.

So, where did these worms come from?  The worms are moth larva and live inside the agave plants.  Two types are found – a white one called blanco and a red one called rojo.  The white worm prefers the leaves, while the red one lives closer to the roots.  I guess enough people found the worm as charming as I did because now they’re grown commercially for inclusion in mescal bottling.

Liming has many definitions: “liming the soil” or “liming the lawn” – applying lime (calcium hyrdroxide) to acidic soils to raise the pH, soaking hides for the production of parchment or to remove the hair before tanning, using birdlime (a sticky, plant-based substance) to catch birds and most appropriate for our purposes, a Caribbean expression for hanging out.

In the 18th century, liming came about as a term for relaxing in the islands with friends at the end of the day, sharing stories and drinking rum.  In terms of etymology, was it the British soldiers (limeys) in the colonized Caribbean or the fact that rum is really tasty with lime?  It was a practice of the Royal and Merchant Navies of Britain to supply their sailors with lime juice (limes were more prevalent than lemons) to prevent scurvy. James Lind, a surgeon and pioneer of naval hygiene, was responsible for determining the link between citrus fruits and scurvy.  He was inspired to conduct one of the world’s first clinical trials after noticing that Dutch sailors who ate cabbage had little problems with scurvy.

Can you imagine how it smelled below decks on those Dutch ships?

Thirsty humans can be a creative lot, making a spirit from a perennial tropical grass.

Rum is produced in over 100 countries today. While many consider the Caribbean to be rum’s home, accounts from the time of Alexander the Great mention the use of sugarcane.

While the exact origin of sugarcane is not known, it was introduced to Europe by the Arabs around 636 A.D. It never took off though, because it needed a longer growing season and warmer temperatures than Europe could offer. Columbus took cane cuttings from the Canary Islands to the West Indies. The early Spanish settlers working in sugar factories in the West Indies realized that the residual molasses from sugar production fermented easily.

The name rum could come from the Spanish ron – chances are good the Spanish were on to distilling before the British decided to use the sugarcane plantations in their colonies as a source of economic growth. It could also be from the Latin saccharum, meaning sugar, or from rombustion, meaning a strong liquid or my favorite, rumbullion, meaning a great tempest.

The two main types of rum depend on which form the sugar cane is in at the time of fermentation. Continue reading →

I’m currently studying for a spirits exam and during the next few weeks I’m going to be sharing some fun facts that I’ve discovered in the process.

You’ve probably noticed in my postings that I’ll often give the percent alcohol by volume (ABV) of the beverage in question.  In the U.S., the “proof” measurement is used as well.  The proof is twice the percentage of ABV at 60°F – i.e. 80 proof=40% ABV.

Alcohol content is easy for distillers to measure these days with hydrometers and other modern equipment, but back in the old days, gunpowder was the analytical tool of choice.  Equal parts spirit and gunpowder were mixed and set alight.  If the gunpowder didn’t burn or just sparked, the spirit was too weak and if it burned too brightly, the spirit was too strong.  If the mixture burned evenly, and with a blue flame, it was considered to be “100% pure” or “100 proof”.  Turns out that a blue flame will appear at a 50/50  ratio.

In Britain, the proof to ABV ratio is 4:7.  In the 18th century payment to British sailors included a ration of rum.  These sailors also used the gunpowder trick, making sure the liquid would ignite and that it hadn’t been watered down – these thirsty fellows didn’t want any spirits that were “under proof”.   Rum that passed a sailor’s test was later found to contain 57.15% ABV, which is quite close to a 4:7 ratio of alcohol to total liquid.  The definition then became (4÷7) × 175 = 100 degrees proof spirit.  100% alcohol had (7÷7) × 175 = 175 degrees proof spirit, while alcohol with 50% ABV had (3.5÷7) × 175 = 87.5 degrees proof spirit.  To convert percentage of alcohol to degrees proof, multiply the percentage by 1.75 (and watch out for scurvy).