Victor Block
Most travelers know that most Caribbean islands are soaked in rum, but Barbados goes the rest one better because here, locals say, is where rum was discovered. In capital Bridgetown one early-17th-century day, the story goes, a tavern owner was searching for an empty shipping barrel when he inadvertently stumbled across one filled with a concoction worth selling -- a barrel of sugar cane fermented over time.
Well, Mr. Rumball -- the tavern owner -- knew a good thing when he tasted it and soon the Caribbean's signature tipple was being served and sold all over the island -- and very quickly well-beyond. Presumably asking for a "tot" of Rumball's elixir was too cumbersome and the name was shortened to rum. The drink's popularity was so pervasive that the King of England decreed that the Royal Navy should partake on a daily basis and George Washington insisted that a barrel be available at his 1789 inauguration.
So it seemed only natural that I headed to to a tour and tasting 4the world's oldest distillery for a tasting - Mount Gay, founded in 1703. I've recently come from the Scottish Highlands where I sampled some of their famous scotch whiskys. Now bein g anything but a whisky connoisseur, I couldn't tell any difference among the several "drams." After multiple tries, I slinked out of the distillery. But I like rum. I drink rum. I know rum!
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