BORN TO Rum

“I wonder whether they have rum and Coke in heaven. Maybe it’s too mundane a pleasure, but I hope so – as a sundowner. Except, of course, the sun never goes down there. Oh, man, this heaven is going to take some getting used to.”
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

NACIDO PARA EL RON

El agua de Barbados, el mata-diablo o simplemente el ron, es un producto básico del Caribe. Pero, con una plétora de destilerías y una amplia gama de mezclas para elegir, ¿por dónde empezar? ¿Y cuál es el mejor lugar para disfrutar de una copa? Janet Kipling recorre la región en busca de ron.

For me it has to be a daiquiri – dark rum, fresh lime juice and a good dash of sugar syrup. Settling back with that icy glass, an Antigua sunset and the prospect of (one day) seeing the green flash on the horizon. It’s a mundane pleasure for sure… but what a pleasure.

However sweet the present moment, that glass is filled with a dark history. The West Indies gave birth to rum, where enslaved Africans grew the cane, crushed the juice and boiled it into molasses, which is the starting point for the fermentation and distillation of ‘kill-juice’ as it was originally known.

The first recorded mention of ‘rum’ is in Barbadian documents from 1650. If you’re in the Spanish islands you might enjoy a ron, and for French islands it’s rhum agricole, made from sugar cane juice rather than molasses. It has been fought over, stolen by pirates, traded for the very slaves who developed it and, until 1970, issued as standard rations – known as a ‘tot’ – to sailors in the British Royal Navy.

Present-day Caribbean rum culture is going from strength to strength. But what are the must-try rums, and where should you head for your own perfect sundowner? Fasten your seatbelt for a delicious adventure (and maybe