Savor fine rum at Mount Gay Barbados Visitor Experience

Mount Gay Barbados is one of the world’s premier spiced rums and it’s made just outside Bridgetown, Barbados.

The Caribbean is synonymous with rum, but it’s Mount Gay Barbados that has become one of the most highly regarded spiced rums in the last twenty years. We sought out the Mount Gay Visitor Experience, the closest thing we could get to a Mount Gay distillery tour. But this isn’t an overnight success story, the rum was first made in 1703.

Hot tip for visiting Mount Gay Barbados – don’t walk there from Bridgetown

After a very long and hot walk from Bridgetown, purely from our own stubbornness to save money and prove that Google Maps overestimates the time to walk its routes, we arrived hot and sweaty at the visitor experience. Coming up the street, we can see the flags waving, calling us into their air-conditioned interiors, to sit down for a cold drink of the nectar of the island gods.

In the excitement, we’ve forgotten to check the website. Unfortunately, the last tour, and the museum closure time, is 15 minutes earlier than our arrival time. In an attempt to make the best of a bad situation, we take a sneak peak in the museum, much to the dismay of the cleaner, who has already started to get to work. The museum is small, but has some interesting pieces that tell the Mount Gay story: some America’s cup memorabilia, collectible Mount Gay coins, and the story of the founding recipe.

The Mount Gay Museum is tiny

While we have also missed the last tasting session, the Mount Gay Barbados bar has cocktails for purchase and is open until the end of the business day. It was sweltering outside so we’re quite content to stand under the sprinklers shooting mist from the edges of the room and out to the deck.

The cocktail list highlights the different blends of rum available for purchase, and it’s hard to choose a bad one. We must look confused or in need of guidance, so the bar tender takes us under his wing and provides us with his recommendations. He doesn’t need to twist our arm to agree and he lets us photograph and film him as he shakes up a storm.

We are watching in awe at the art of mixology when a local comes in and begins to tell us that Barbados’ best bartender is serving us. He pulls out his iPhone and proceeds to flick through shots of the very bartender winning numerous awards and trophies. We admit it’s kind of cool to be served by such a pro!

The cocktails were amazing. We tried one from each blend, including the XO. But our favorite is the classic mojito with the silver rum, which we didn’t even know existed until this trip.

After depleting the gift shop of most of its ephemera for Jess’s dad, it’s back out into the heat and humidity. This rum touring is thirsty work.

Bernie and Jess Watt are Australian travel bloggers living in NYC. Check out more travel ideas across Barbados and the Caribbean.

WHAT?

Mount Gay Barbados Visitor Experience is a small museum, bar, and rum tasting room, adjacent to the distribution center. It doesn’t give you the chance to tour the distillery, which is some distance away, but it does have a wicked tasting menu.

WHERE?

Spring Garden Highway
Mount Gay Visitor Experience
Bridgetown, Barbados
T: 425-8757/227-8862/227-8864

HOW?

http://www.funbarbados.com/Sights/Rates/mountgayRates.cfm

SIGNATURE RUM TASTING TOUR ONLY
BDS $30.00 / US $15.00 (Adults 18+yrs)
(GROUPS – BDS $24.00 / US $12.00)
Children 6 – 17 yrs are 1/2 Price
Children 1 – 5 yrs are Free

FULL RUM TASTING TOUR ONLY
BDS $50.00 / US $25.00 (Adults 18+yrs)
(GROUPS – BDS $46.00 / US $23.00)
Children 6 – 17 yrs are 1/2 Price
Children 1 – 5 yrs are Free