When you buy a bottle of rum in the United States, by law nearly all the federal taxes on that rum must be sent to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's an unusual system that Congress designed decades ago to help fund these two U.S. territories. In 2021 alone, these rum tax payments added up to more than $700 million. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands split the money according to how much rum each territory produces. And the territories produce a lot of it — especially Puerto Rico, which single handedly supplies the majority of the rum that Americans drink. But in 2008, the U.S. Virgin Islands pulled off a coup. It convinced one of the largest rum brands in the world, Captain Morgan, to abandon Puerto Rico and to shift its operations to the tiny island of St. Croix. This was the beginning of the Rum Wars. Listen in to the story of how this war turned the two territories into bitter rivals—and put hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money in the pockets of big liquor companies. (Guest episode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Vitamin Water was born in New York because New Yorkers wanted more flavor to pair with all the amazing food in the city.
Vitamin water is so New York.
Its three favorite cheeses are chopped cheese.
Bacon, egg and cheese and a slice of cheese pizza.
Drink vitamin water.
Its from New York.
Hello to all you gastro fans out there.
We are still hard at work on the new season of Gastropod.
Well have a brand new episode for you in just two weeks which were super excited about by the way.
I'm Nicola Twilley and you are indeed listening to gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
And I'm Cynthia Graber and if you're new to the show, we tell stories like how George Bush traded Harley Davidsons for some of the world's most delicious mangoes and whether New York bagels are indeed better because of the city's water.
And right now we are hard at work on a brand new season of episodes exploring how bacon flavored bugs are saving the rainforest, what Bologna actually is and how its related to summers hottest cold cut mortadella and the secrets to growing a pumpkin the size of a small truck.
Well be back with those episodes starting in just two weeks.
So subscribe to Gastropod wherever you get your podcasts.
But to tide you over, today were sharing a couple of episodes of a show we love its planet money.