Bajan flavour: Barbados’ best rum distilleries

There are over 1,000 rum shops on Barbados – an island which is only 166 square miles. It’s a place where rum is intertwined with the local culture, where Barbadians will happily spend the day sipping rum cocktails with friends while looking out onto the beautiful ocean and where you can find some of the best tasting rum in the world. Surprisingly, however, there are just four distilleries on the island, each of which has its own methods, techniques, equipment and style, offering plenty of variety to both locals and visitors.

Back in the seventeenth century, soon after people discovered molasses could be fermented to create alcohol and eventually rum, it was said there was one rum shop for every twenty people on the island. While the population has grown a bit since then, you’ll still see all sorts of shacks and small brick buildings along the sides of roads, brightly painted with a few tables and chairs out front. These little shops are a cultural icon themselves, but if you’re after a more in-depth experience, head to one of these distilleries to discover how rum is made and learn about the incredible history of the sweet spirit.

As the world’s first established rum distillery (since 1703), Mount Gay Rum has over 300 years of heritage and experience to fall back on. The huge distillery has its own dedicated visitor centre, where you can learn all about the rich history of the company, see how the rum is made today and – of course – taste your way around the different Mount Gay expressions.

There are three tours offered by Mount Gay Rum – the standard ‘Signature’ tour, a ‘Cocktail’ tour which includes plenty of rum-based drinks as you walk around the distillery with a lesson in mixology at the end, and one that also includes a traditional Bajan buffet for lunch, so you can taste the foods and other flavours found on the island.

On the site of a seventeenth century sugar factory, Foursquare was fully restored in 1996 and is now home to some of the most advanced rum distilling equipment in the world. The tour is free and self-guided, so you can go at your own pace, exploring the various buildings and the history behind them. As well as the distillery, there are museums that bring to life Barbados’ local culture and its sugar growing heritage, as well as a glass fusing studio, so it’s quite easy to spend the whole day here.