It got me thinking: is it possible to make a rum as complex as a single malt whisky? Renegade Rum sets out to answer this profound question.

Rum is produced in at least 65 countries around the globe, from Nepal to Australia, Fiji to Scotland, in approximately 150 official distilleries. There are around the same number of official blenders. There are, in addition, countless small-scale, private distillers that operate under the radar.

Understandably, there are as many interpretations of what rum should be as there are traditions. Yet, as in the time of the buccaneers, corsairs and pirates, it’s pretty lawless. There are precious few – if any – rules. The drinks industry, mistakenly in my view, prefers this vagueness, for in the resulting confusion of smoke and mirrors, anything goes – and you can be sure it certainly does.

An internet search for reliable information on rums is a depressing affair. The dearth of authentic facts and figures is as alarming as the lack of rules and regulations.

The EU says rum is either made from molasses, sugarcane syrup or sugar cane itself. No added alcohol, no flavouring, no sweetening. Rhum agricole, the AOC of Martinique, has the most rigorous rulebook which excludes molasses or syrup, stipulates column stills, and declares fermentation parameters such as minimum brix levels.

It used to be said that rum could only be produced in sugar cane growing countries. But the ubiquity and versatility of molasses means fundamentally there can be very little provenance. It can be made anywhere in the world that one of those blue plastic drums of molasses can be delivered.