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Barbados

Barbados Rum Punch

A speciality in Barbados is the Rum Punch. Ice-cold, it is a refreshing drink.

The Recipe

If you ask a Bajan for the recipe for the punch, they will recite the following rhyme:

One of sour,
Two of sweet,
Three of strong,
Four of weak.

The recipe for one glass accordingly looks like this:

  • 1 cl lime juice (ideally freshly squeezed)
  • 2 cl simple syrup (see below)
  • 3 cl dark Barbados rum
  • 4 cl water

Mix the ingredients thoroughly and pour them into a glass with plenty of coarsely crushed ice. Then add

  • a few dashes of Angostura and
  • some freshly grated nutmeg

And the refreshment is ready! 😃

Simple Syrup

Simple syrup is a part of the recipe, but is also commonly used for other cocktails. It is simply sugar syrup. You can buy it ready-made in the supermarket, but you can also easily make it yourself.

Carefully bring a cup of water and two cups of cane sugar to the boil in a pan on the stove. Stir continuously until the sugar has completely dissolved. The sugar must not caramelise, the syrup should be light and clear at the end. Due to the high sugar content, the syrup becomes very hot, so be careful not to burn yourself!

Let the syrup cool down and then pour it into a bottle using a funnel. It will keep for several weeks in the fridge.

The Rum

Naturally, the Rum Punch tastes best with an original Barbados rum. In Barbados, you can find a good local rum in any supermarket for very little money. It doesn’t taste as harsh as the types of rum you usually get in the supermarket here, but rather aromatic and slightly sweet.

Unfortunately, good Barbados rum is not so easy to get hold of here, but you should be able to find an affordable variety in a specialist spirit shop.

In a pinch, you can of course use any other dark rum. It just won’t taste quite as good. 😉

Barbados: Harrison's Cave and Flower Forest

A visit to Harrison’s Cave is a must on any tour of Barbados. It is a large limestone cave in the heart of the island. The cave was forgotten for almost two hundred years until it was rediscovered in 1976 and opened for tourism in 1981. Visitors are now driven through it in a tram. To accommodate this, the cave’s passages were widened and a road was laid, which unfortunately caused the cave to lose some of its natural charm.

The Flower Forest is a botanical garden located near Harrison’s Cave, which is also well worth a visit.