45% ALC/VOL • 90 Proof

Before bourbon became America’s signature spirit, rum was the drink of the colonies — and George Washington lived squarely in that rum-soaked world. Rum flowed through colonial taverns, political gatherings, and military camps, serving as both a social lubricant and an economic engine tied to Caribbean sugar trade.

Washington himself regularly drank rum punch, and one of the most famous stories of his early political career involved supplying voters with large quantities of rum and other spirits during his 1758 campaign for the Virginia House of Burgesses. During the Revolutionary War, rum also became part of daily military life, helping boost morale among Continental soldiers through some of the harshest moments of the conflict.

Though Washington later became associated with whiskey through his Mount Vernon distillery, rum represented the spirit of early America during his lifetime: maritime, agricultural, and deeply connected to trade.

Washington never visited Louisiana, but he clearly understood the importance of the Mississippi River and New Orleans to the future of the United States. He believed America’s strength depended on controlling western trade routes and expanding access to the interior of the continent. Long before the Louisiana Purchase, Washington saw the Mississippi Valley as critical to the nation’s future growth and unity.