Rum, distilled from sugar cane or its byproducts, is synonymous with the island life. Sugar cane and rum production spread throughout the Caribbean after 1493, when Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane cuttings to the region. The plant was quick to flourish in the heat and humidity of the Caribbean region. By the 1600s, island-made rums were in demand in England and its colonies. Part of the drink’s popularity is attributed to the Royal Navy, which gave its sailors daily rations of rum. That tradition lasted more than 300 years, until 1970.