Business Barbados - 2023 Edition

made the cheaper ‘pan molasses’ and this would be the ideal raw material for making rum over the more expensive traditional ‘fancy molasses’ for which Barbados was famous. The advent of central vacuum pan factories went hand in hand with the development of the column still. A typical pot still, hitherto the method by which rum had been made since the mid-1600s, might have a charge of 2,500 litres distilled over 7 to 9 hours before emptying, cleaning and recharging. The continuously operating column still could distil 2,500 litres in one hour, hour after hour. Central factories producing ‘pan molasses’ on an industrial scale could generate the volume of raw material to feed a column still to produce rum on an industrial scale. By the late 1930s, there were just three distilleries, all of which operated a column still. The link between sugar estate and rum distiller had been broken. Rum was now made exclusively from molasses sourced from a central factory. Distillers, still prohibited from retailing their own rum, would sell it in bulk to the merchants in Roebuck Street, Bridgetown, for maturation, blending and bottling. Nearly all Barbados brands are derived from their creation by Bridgetown merchants. Despite its superior efficiency, distillers never gave up on their pot stills - no doubt responding to the demands of the blenders. Modern Barbados Rum is a blend of pot and column distilled rums. Pot still rums are today considered an indispensable component of the Barbados Rum style. Barbados is among just a handful of spirit making regions with an unbroken centuries-old legacy of the pot still. Barbados distillers refused to wholly give up their costly pot rums. Above: Crushing cane at Mount Gay • Right: Aging rum at Foursquare 95 BUSINESS BARBADOS 2023