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Seeing Where the Rum is Made on Tortola

cane garden bay
Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

One of the coolest things about running News of St. John is that I get invited to do some pretty fun stuff. Take last Wednesday, for example. I received a text earlier in the week from Captain Ben of Born to Rhumb. He asked me if I’d be interested in hopping on Born to Rhumb this week along with RumShop Ryan, who happens to be on island this week. For those of you unfamiliar with Ryan, he runs a pretty popular travel blog where he hops around the Caribbean in search of the perfect rum. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can do so by clicking here.) Of course I said yes, and that, my friends, is why we didn’t have a blog post yesterday. I simply had too much fun on Born to Rhumb … oops!

So there were about 12 of us on the boat, which was a party in itself. Our first stop was Cane Garden Bay, which is located on the north side of Tortola. That’s an odd first stop, I thought to myself until it hit me … the rum distillery! RumShop Ryan! Duh!

the cooler
The cooler … free beers and Painkillers on Born to Rhumb!

The Callwood Distillery has been around since the late 1800s, and it’s the oldest continuously running distillery in the Caribbean. It’s located down a quiet street behind the hustle and bustle of Cane Garden Bay. It’s just a short five minute or so walk from the beach.

ryan rum sign
Ryan getting pretty excited when we found the street…

callwood sign

ryan koozie
I’m not much of a rum drinker, so I stuck to my Caribs…

callwood no one on property sign

The distillery is a small little building, but it packs in a lot of fun. You have the option to sample the rum and take some home outside at the little rum shack, indulge in a tasting inside, or even take a tour where they explain how they use the sugar cane grown on property to make some pretty good tasting rum. That’s according to Ryan, who’s a rum guy, so I trust it’s good. 🙂

rum tasting outside

rum tasting

dont pick fruit

After the group indulged in a little rum tasting, we head on back to the boat. From there, we spent some time on Sandy Spit. We then ended our day in White Bay where I checked out a brand new bar. I’ll tell you all about that next week…

Sandy Spit
Sandy Spit
White Bay
White Bay

In the meantime, have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend everyone! Stay safe and please remember to thank a veteran!

4 thoughts on “Seeing Where the Rum is Made on Tortola”

  1. Been there, it is a super place, so full of history and very good tasting rum. So happy to see that they are holding on to a piece of important island history.

  2. I went there with my hubby and another couple in 1999. There was no shack then just the distillery. We did the tour and learned a lot. Brought home a couple of bottles of some very delicious rum which didn’t last long.

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