People often say Rum is the Wild West, or that Rum has no rules. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” says The Real McCoy Rum Founder & CEO, Bailey Pryor. Rum has as many rules as whiskey, cognac, tequila or any other distilled spirit produced under traditional methods. Rum producing nations like Barbados, Jamaica, Martinique and others have followed their rum traditions, in many cases, for hundreds of years. Yet some alcohol producers attempt to circumvent traditional methods to produce a cheaper product while claiming to be traditional. This includes fake age statements, adding sweeteners to neutral spirits and other cost-cutting steps which result in deceiving customers who otherwise have no way of knowing these things occur.