You’ll see this everywhere: rum shops in Barbados

14.05.2024 - 09:13 / lonelyplanet.com

Some girlfriends and I found ourselves in the north of Barbados, suddenly in desperate need of some painkillers. We’d been enjoying some girl talk and an afternoon island drive, with no destination in particular, when I was assaulted by a headache.

Now, something to know about Barbados is the further north you venture, modern conveniences — fast food joints, pharmacies, gas stations, even road signs — become fewer and farther between. So we did what any local would do: we rolled down the window and asked the first person we saw for the nearest rum shop.

Luckily (and unsurprisingly), it was just a bit further down the road. Fifteen minutes later we were back on our way, armed with a packet of Advil liquid gels, three cups of ice, some mints, a ginger ale, a cheese cutter (sandwich) for me and fried pork bites for the car. Ironically, no rum— this time at least.

Rum shops in Barbados are as ubiquitous as our palm trees. They’re a community staple, an easily accessible watering hole and a permanent, deeply relevant fixture in the local cultural landscape.

They aren’t quite a bar, nor are they a pub or a tavern. And while you can grab convenience items, some food stuff and other miscellaneous bits and bobs, they aren’t convenience stores or minimarts either. You can certainly enjoy many of our local delicacies there, but a rum shop is definitely not a restaurant.

Rum shops are their own genre of experience — casual, cozy and cultural — and your trip to Barbados won’t quite be complete without visiting one.

To tell the story of Barbadian rum shops you must first tell the story of rum, the island’s most popular export (apart from Rihanna, of course!). 

In the 17th century, Barbados, an island about half the size of New York City, was one of the world’s top sugar producers. The forced labor of an extensive enslaved population led to the Caribbean’s "sugar revolution," generating significant wealth as a colony of Great Britain.

Rum was subsequently developed as a by-product of sugar production. And historically speaking, Barbados can also lay claim to being the birthplace of the spirit as well.

The earliest mention of the word "rum" dates back to a lease agreement from 1650. Barbados is also home to the world’s oldest commercial rum distillery (and world’s oldest rum), Mount Gay rum.

As a colony, the island housed a significant British population, which led to the rise of the English “tippling house” – an establishment where men gathered to drink. 

Since only overseas patrons or members of the plantocracy were allowed to frequent them, the rum shop emerged as an alternative for those who would have otherwise been excluded — working class folk, free Black people and so on.

Rum shops exploded in popularity, rapidly