Our seventh great-grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Honoré d'Estréhan de Beaupré, was a pioneering sugarcane producer, pulling crops from the soil in the early 1750s. In the generations since, more than a handful of our ancestors shared the Jean Baptiste name and played various roles in Louisiana’s sugarcane industry.
Around 1751, a handful of original sugarcane farms were started in Louisiana. One large sugarcane operation was started by the Jesuit Priests in what is now the Central Business District (CBD) of New Orleans. The Jesuits produced cane syrup and Tafia (a type of rum made from sugarcane juice). Proceeds were used to fund their ministry and build Churches in New Orleans.
Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, the "Father of Louisiana," also had a couple of sugarcane farms. He had one sugarcane farm across the river from New Orleans and another about two miles south of the city.
The largest of the forerunners of sugarcane and rum in Louisiana was Bienville's close friend Jean-Baptiste d'Estrehan de Beaupré (surname often written as Destrehan.) He was the wealthiest man in Louisiana at the time. His three largest farms were in the Uptown / Audubon Park area, across the river in Harvey, and south of the city. Jean-Baptiste produced cane syrup and tafia from his sugarcane operations and was the largest producer of tafia at the time. After Jean-Baptiste's passing in 1765, his daughter Marie Marguerite Destrehan and her husband, Étienne de Boré inherited his sugarcane farm where Audubon Park is currently located. In 1795, they perfected the process of producing granulated sugar from sugarcane in Louisiana. Their innovations made sugar cane profitable as a commodity crop, and planters began to cultivate it in quantity throughout Louisiana.
Concurrently, the Acadian exiles (modern-day Cajuns) started relocating to South Louisiana after 1765, due to losing their homeland in Acadia (modern-day the Maritime Provinces of Canada). Sugarcane farming became their primary crop in their new home. At first, cane syrup and tafia were the main products from the sugarcane, similar to New Orleans. Later when the process of making granulated sugar from sugarcane improved, molasses was a byproduct. With this molasses, the Cajun farmers started making rum in addition to tafia. The rum and tafia were not bottled, but sold by the barrel to commercial brokers, bars, restaurants, and large households. The barrels were usually made of cypress wood, which imparted a unique flavor to the rum and tafia. The Cajuns became so good at making rum and tafia that it was highly sought after.
Because of the widespread destruction caused by the Civil War, farmers began to concentrate on the production of sugar and only made rum in small quantities for themselves. Later in 1920, Prohibition was enacted, and all legal production of rum in Louisiana ceased. It would be almost 75 years before rum was commercially distilled in Louisiana again. Much of the knowledge of Louisiana rum-making techniques was lost in that long gap. As new distilleries started eventually opening up, they copied the styles of rum made in other places instead of making rum the way it was traditionally made in Louisiana. The one redeeming quality that differentiated them was that they used Louisiana sugarcane. Jean Baptiste Spirits is at the forefront of reviving the traditional Cajun rum-making methods. These early methods, combined with modern equipment, produce exceptional rum.
The State of Louisiana created this program to guarantee that consumers are getting authentic Louisiana products that are representative of the culture of Louisiana's Cajun people.
