Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine January 2020 | Page 206
Home of St. Maarten’s National Drink, and more . . .
by Riselle Celestina
“Good mornin’, good mornin’, ah
come fo’ mi Guavaberry
“
S
o goes the Guavaberry
song which, according
to Caribbean history, is
the song carolers used
to sing back in the day, with
the hope of getting a little sip
of Guavaberry rum from the
host of the house. As for me,
I first was introduced to this
drink, when my now husband
invited me to my first real St.
Maarten Christmas. I sipped on
this potent rum drink, which
apparently you sip, not drink,
and ate my piece of coconut
tart, thinking how different this
Christmas tradition was from
my native Curaçao. Sure, I was
familiar with the tradition of
drinking rum at Christmas, but
this dark colored rum was so
different than anything I’ve had
before. It’s fruity, spicy, bitter, yet
sweet. I was immediately a fan. and in one small village in the
Dominican Republic called San
Pedro de Macoris. The popular
Dominican singer, Juan Luis
Guerra even wrote a song
about sipping Guavaberry while
watching the sun go down.
And, and who wouldn’t want to
be doing exactly that on some
tropical island?
A brief history The Guavaberry fruit, while not
a berry that can be enjoyed on
its own, is amazingly delicious
when soaked in rum. The bright
orange and dark red, almost
black berries are unique and
quite bitter on their own.
The Guavaberry Rum takes
up center stage in Christmas
traditions in my home island
of Sint Maarten/St Martin. It is
also an olde tyme tradition in
the British and US Virgin Islands