Barbados lifts spirits by planning rum trail

Barbados is so proud of the high quality and popularity of its rum which is renowned worldwide that it is looking to create a rum heritage trail.

There is support for a rum heritage trail that would tell the story of the historic spirit and its impact on the culture of Barbados and neighbouring islands, the head of the Caribbean’s rum producers group said.

An initiative is in planning with Barbadian rum producers and distillers that could create the Barbados Rum Heritage Trail.

Vaughn Renwick is Chief Executive Officer of the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers Association. He said the venture, aimed at celebrating the island’s 300-year history as the birthplace of the spirit, is expected to significantly boost the rum and tourism industries. Rums like Mount Gay XO, Doorly’s 12, and Plantation Barbados 5 are incredibly popular.

“Spirits tourism is everywhere in the world now,” Renwick said. “If you go to Scotland, you talk about whisky; you go to Kentucky, you talk about bourbon. We recently launched something called the Caribbean Rum Trail.

“So you can come to Barbados, visit all the distilleries; go on to Saint Lucia, St Vincent, etc. You have a multi-island product, or you can go to one island and get the full experience of that particular island. We’re very, very much interested in building that service.”

A Caribbean Rum Trail, which already has a digital presence, showcases some of the region’s finest distilleries across seven countries, including Barbados. Renwick plans to expand this platform.

The importance of branding Barbados rum was stressed by Prime Minister Mia Mottley at an event at the West Indies Rum Distillery to recommission the Rockley Copper Post Still which was built around 1700. She said: “The story of Barbados is equally about rum and cricket and many other things. But if we don’t claim it, and if we don’t brand it, we will leave others to come and do it.”