What Is Rum Made From?

Rum comes from sugar cane — either fresh cane juice or molasses, the thick by-product of refining sugar.

Rum is a sugar cane spirit, but there are two quite different starting points that shape its whole character.

Molasses-based rum

Most rum in the world — including most Caribbean rum — is made from molasses, the dark, viscous syrup left over after sugar cane juice has been boiled down and crystallised sugar removed. Molasses is cheap, shelf-stable and easy to ship, which is part of why it became the dominant base historically. It tends to produce richer, heavier styles once aged.

Cane juice rum (rhum agricole)

Some rum, most famously from the French Caribbean (rhum agricole), is distilled directly from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice rather than molasses. This style tends to be more grassy, vegetal and aromatic, because it skips the boiling/sugar-extraction step that molasses goes through.

Fermentation and distillation

Whichever base is used, it's fermented with yeast (from a few days to several weeks depending on style) and then distilled — typically in pot stills for richer, more characterful rums, or column stills for lighter, cleaner styles. Ageing in oak (or not) then determines whether it becomes a white/unaged rum, a golden rum, or a dark, long-aged rum.

New Zealand doesn't grow sugar cane, so local rum producers import molasses or cane spirit as a base and do the fermentation, distillation, blending and (in some cases) ageing here — see our Rum, Vodka and Moonshine section for more detail.