As international travel resumed post-pandemic, rum brands saw an opportunity for growth in Global Travel Retail (GTR). Historically, rum lagged behind other brown spirits in this sector, with its presence in duty-free stores not matching its domestic market popularity. However, the pandemic's aftermath brought a resurgence, with sales growing 52% to about 770,000 cases in 2021, according to the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.
Surge in Premium Rum Demand
Rum brand owners believed the category was
St. Augustine is a very old city - so old, in fact that it is celebrating its 450th year in existence. Because of its age and rich history, people often come here looking for spirits, like the one at The St. Francis Inn, the oldest continuously operating inn in North America.
The Inn, owned by Joe and Margaret Finnegan, is purported to have its own real ghost. Lily, a slave girl that had an illicit affair with a military man and committed suicide when found out. Lily’s room is on the third floo
Even a short visit to the Dominican Republic like I had last week to Punta Cana’s Bavaro Princess Resort acquaints you with a locally produced beverage….the mysterious mamajuana. My first encounter with it was dining at on site Chopin
Restaurant. A waiter brought out a bottle sans label filled with slivers
of wood steeped in liquor. This was his own creation and asked if we
wanted to give it a try. Being a food/wine/liquor geek, I naturally
couldn’t help myself. In fact I was downright fascinate
It all began when Alex Voss moved from Florida to Hawaii in the summer of 2012 to work on a landscaping project at a new Courtyard by Marriott on Maui. Hoping to experience the island beyond the duration of his assignment, Alex applied for a distillers apprenticeship on Craigslist at Haleakalā Distillers. After following up, he was hired on the spot and worked his way up to distiller in two short years, learning rum production using indigenous molasses. Thinking back to his roots in southwest
Somewhere in the Caribbean between Puerto Rico and St Lucia is the archipelago of Guadeloupe (pronounce gwa-day-LOOP). The French West Indies or French Caribbean are currently comprised of two territories (St Barthélemy aka St Barth and St Martin) and two overseas states -“départements” in French (Guadeloupe along with Martinique). The French West Indies have always looked towards the old continent rather towards their Caribbean neighbors. Flying from the USA, a long journey and a couple of con
