Missouri isn't too bad, but it isn't simple either. Check out Missouri Distiller's Guild. We have a great group of distilleries willing to share advice. Reach out if you have questions. The comments above are very accurate. Making liquor is the easy part. Plan well on how and where to sell. Second suggestion is to plan funds needed and timeline to open then double both. You may not hit double, but you will be glad to have planned for the overruns.
For rum production, your question is very broad. By definition rum only has to made from a form of cane sugar. Like most, we have experimented with multiple stages of sugar have found our favorite. With rum, the final answer comes down to the profile the distiller wants.
The more common term for cane honey is cane syrup. Cane syrup is the product just before refining. Molasses is a byproduct of the refining process.
We have run into the same issue. As Whiskey Tango stated, we switched paper on our labels (suggestion from our label provider) and that seems to have solved the issue.