Rum cake associated with Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago. In Puerto Rico, rum cake is called "Bizcocho de Ron", and is a sponge cake, so as to absorb the rum. If fruit is added to it, it is fresh or dried. Raisins and sultanas may be soaked in rum for one day or one night. Bizcochos de Ron are given as gifts during the holiday season, but they are not considered an insulting gift, the way fruitcakes in the U.S. sometimes are. In the United States, rum cakes have been popular since at least the 1970s. While many island travelers go out
Rum called tafia. According to Maria Dembinska, the King of Cyprus, Peter I of Cyprus or Pierre I de Lusignan (9 October 1328 – 17 January 1369), brought rum with him as a gift for the other royal dignitaries at the Congress of Kraków, held in 1364. This is feasible given the position of Cyprus as a significant producer of sugar in the Middle Ages, although the alcoholic sugar drink named rum by Dembinska might not have resembled modern distilled rums very closely. Dembinska also suggests Cyprus rum was often drunk mixed with an almond milk drink, also produced in Cyprus,