Privateer Rum sits in an industrial park in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 30 miles north of Boston. Founded in 2011 by Andrew Cabot, a former hedge fund manager who left Wall Street to chase his passion for rum, this operation focuses exclusively on American single-malt rum—a category that barely existed when they started. Cabot partnered with master distiller Maggie Campbell, who brought serious credentials from her time at Mount Gay Distilleries in Barbados, making this one of the few American rum distilleries with authentic Caribbean expertise. The story started when Cabot became obsessed with New England’s rum-running history during Prohibition. He spent years researching colonial rum recipes and visiting Caribbean distilleries before convincing Campbell to leave Barbados and help him build something authentic in Massachusetts. They retrofitted a 4,000-square-foot warehouse space with custom copper pot stills and began what Cabot calls “the patient work” of aging rum in New England’s extreme temperature swings. The climate means faster maturation but requires careful barrel management—something Campbell’s Caribbean experience proved invaluable for. Today you’ll find a working distillery that takes rum seriously in a region known for everything but. Campbell still runs production while Cabot handles the business side, and their approach emphasizes traditional pot still distillation with American oak aging. The tasting room feels more like a rum laboratory than a typical craft distillery—they’ll walk you through how different barrel chars affect flavor development and why their “Navy Yard” expression tastes nothing like Captain Morgan. It’s rum for whiskey drinkers, basically.