Yo-ho-ho, And A Bottle Of (Caribbean) Rum!

Although Rich and Sue love a nice craft beer, I personally don’t drink. But that doesn’t mean I was uninterested in learning how you turn sugarcane into one of the Caribbean’s most profitable exports. Yes, you’ve guessed it… rum!

I’ve actually been to two Caribbean rum distilleries. Most recently I visited the Bacardi distillery in Puerto Rico, less than three months ago.

The Bacardi tour was free, fun and very informative. A little ‘train’ takes you past the outside of the distillery, dropping you off at a specially constructed museum where you learn all about the production of Bacardi’s rums and the history of the brand.

Sue and Penny on the Bacardi tour train

The main building

One of the real trains that once worked in the distillery

Entrance to the museum

Me adding a bit of weight to the situation

Before/after the tour, those who are interested are invited to try a complimentary rum or three.

The Bacardi tasting pavilion is meant to represent the shape of a bat

My first visit to a rum distillery was at the Appleton Rum Estate in Jamaica, back in 2012. While there was a charge for the tour, we felt you more than got your money’s worth. Especially as our tour was extremely intimate, since we were the only ones on it (my favourite type of tour!).

Can you spot me?

The Appleton distillery is located right in the heart of the estate’s sugarcane plantations. I tell you, working the sugarcane fields didn’t look like a job for the lazy!

It looks like back-breaking work out in the Appleton sugarcane fields

Although these days they at least have some mechanical help

A worker’s cottage

The tour itself began with a walk through the estate’s beautifully manicured gardens, which provided a lovely backdrop to a series of exhibits explaining rum production in general. I particularly enjoyed meeting Paz the donkey, who works the demonstration sugarcane press.

Entrance to the Appleton Rum Estate

Show-off!

Ladies and gentlemen… Paz the amazing sugarcane-pressing donkey

Sue giving Paz’s job a try

From there you get to go inside the distillery itself, to see actual Appleton rum being made. Boy was it hot in there! But the smell was wonderful, even for a teetotaller!!

Big tanks… For the life of me, I can’t remember what they hold!

Next we went inside the Ageing House, which is filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of barrels filled with ageing rum. Once again the smell was amazing. In fact, I’m sure I got a little bit drunk on the fumes alone!

Now, I do remember what all these barrels hold!

The final stop, as at the Bacardi distillery, was the tasting room, where you could sample some of Appleton’s many rums, if the mood took you.

This post was inspired by this week’s Travel Theme from Ailsa (of Where’s My Backpack?), which is Industry.

Whether or not you like the occasional glass of rum, why not sign up and follow my continuing Journeys here at Jaspa’s Journal (on WordPress or Bloglovin’), or through my website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr?

And if that’s not enough for you, there are now three Jaspa’s Journey novels to enjoy as ebooks! Perfect for Kids 8 – 80!

 

 

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