After rum’s development in the Caribbean, the drink’s popularity spread to the American colonies. To support demand for the spirit, the first distillery in the colonies was founded in 1664 on present-day Staten Island. Three years later, a distillery opened in Boston, Massachusetts. Rum production became the largest and most prosperous industry in colonial New England. The rum produced there was quite famous, and was even considered the best in the world for much of the 18th century. Rhode Island rum was even accepted as currency, on a par with gold, for a time in Europe.
