Central America is made up of a series of Spanish-speaking countries including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, as well as the English-speaking enclave of Belize. The development of sugar industries in Central America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries produced a great deal of molasses and thus spurred the rise of rum distilling. Flor de Caña began its operations at the San Antonio sugar factory in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, in 1890, and in Guatemala Ron Zacapa began its operation in 1876. The building of the Panama Canal, at a time when sugar production was expanding, probably increased the regional demand for rum. Many of the workers came from the rum-producing islands of Jamaica and Barbados, and those laborers no doubt sought rum to help them cope with the grueling work of canal building. Illicitly produced sugar-cane-based spirits, such as guaro, may have also emerged in peripheral areas of Central America to meet the needs of indigenous laborers. Although sugar making and rum distilling began late in Central America, many of the award-winning rums in the world today come from this region.
Smith, Frederick H. Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
By: Frederick H. Smith