River Rum (Grenada)

[Martin Hash]

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Islands in the Caribbean in general don't have much industry other than tourism, and Grenada doesn't even have much of that. They do, however, have a distillery, an old one originally established in 1785, “River Rum” named after the nearby River Antoine, where they get their water, and use to power the old water wheel that crushes the sugarcane to get the juice out. Grenada used to be controlled by the British, primarily for the rum production for back in the old days when the English naval provisioned their sailors exclusively with watered rum as payment for hard services rendered.

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Everything done at the distiller is by manual labor, it's like looking back in time. Rum is made from sugarcane which at Rivers is fermented in a pit in the ground then distilled in a copper boiler that was at least a hundred years old, probably more. The boiler is fired from the crushed cane stalks in an open fire that leaves oily black soot covering everything. It also provides the taste to the rum which is clearly the worst alcohol I've ever drank. It's 150-over proof, which means it says “150” on the bottle so it can be sold overseas but it's really “over” that, meaning it's whatever the maximum rum can achieve, something approaching 190 I'm told. Still, you can't take it on a plane but, of course, we did anyway. Lots of people back home needed a bottle of this lightening as their next gift.

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[DrYouth]

It also provides the taste to the rum which is clearly the worst alcohol I've ever drank.... Lots of people back home needed a bottle of this lightening as their next gift.

If we get a bottle of this in our stocking at your Christmas Party, we'll know where we stand with you...