Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine January 2020 | Page 210

Guavaberry staff, Nicole
Once inside the store, I was
greeted by a friendly smile.
Nicole has been with the
Guavaberry Emporium for
years. She knows the products
and its background inside out
and can give recipes and gift
advice at the drop of a hat.
Nicole showed me around
the store and told me about
the different liquors, rums,
herbs and sauces, all made
or blended locally in the
Guavaberry factory in the back
of the store.
Mash Up
Republic Rum
with it. Safe to say, I am now a
Guavaberry liqueur believer!
Next to the Guavaberry
Liqueur, there is also the Wild
Orange Guavaberry Liqueur,
a mixture of wild orange
Liquor vs Rum
and the guavaberry fruit. But
why stop at just Guavaberry?
If you have visited St. Maarten
There are also other flavored
before, you have undoubtedly
heard of, or tasted a Guavaberry liqueurs lining the shelves at
the Emporium, like Vanilla,
Colada, but did you know
Mango, Passion Fruit, Almond
that this fruity frozen cocktail
and Coconut.
is made with the Guavaberry
liqueur? Now, here is the part
Then of course, there’s the rum
that I myself as an adopted
collection. I already mentioned
child of St. Maarten did not
the Guavaberry Rum, which
My mind was blown. While
know: There is the Guavaberry is affectionately called Mash
I knew about the different
Up and after sipping on my
Liqueur, which is thicker and
products, I had no idea the
Guavaberry Rum last Christmas,
great for mixing, and there’s
I now understand the reason
Guavaberry product line
the Guavaberry rum, which is
behind the name. I was a bit
extended this far. We’re talking perfect for sipping. Islanders
mashed up and slow the next
different hot sauces, barbecue love their rum and I’m no
sauces, herbs, flavored honey, different, but Nicole introduced day. I guess four glasses was a
bit extreme but in my defense,
rums and liqueurs. Stephen
me to a list of cocktails that you
it was Christmas, and the
and Ghislaine, the owners of
can mix with the Guavaberry
Guavaberry rum is so full of
the Guavaberry Emporium,
liqueur and even made me her
taste, it is rather difficult to stick
did not only do a great job at
special Guavaberry rum punch to just one glass.
keeping St. Maarten’s tradition
alive, but they went all out and
made it into a recognized St.
Maarten brand. I tip my hat to
them.
Guavaberry Liqueurs
Just in case your preference
lies with straight rum, the
Republic Rum might be just
the thing for you. Rum, aged
in oak barrels and bottled in
the factory. You have your
choice of 5 year old or 8 year
old rum. Besides the Republic
Rum, there is one more rum
worth mentioning and that is
the Coconut Rum, made with
gold oak aged rum. Can you
say Yum?
Rum
The Guavaberry
Collection
By now you, like myself have
realized that the owners of
the Guavaberry Emporium are
ambitious and very forward
thinking. Having mastered
the art of Guavaberry rum-
making, they set their eyes
on other products. Ghislaine
and Stephen started
experimenting and came
up with Guavaberry
flavored honey, and
then they added
herbs and seasoning
to the line as well as
barbecue and steak
sauces and a whole
line of hot sauces like
the Creole Chipotle,
Roasted Garlic, Habanero
Lime, Island Jalapeño and
the infamous Carib Ghost
rumored to be so hot, even
Caribbean people are scared
to use it in their food.
Guavaberry staff, Deita & Pat
The Factory
Every single one of the
Guavaberry products
are blended, bottled and
packaged locally. In fact, the
factory is right in the back of
the store on Frontstreet and
is off limits to visitors, but I
begged and pleaded with
Ghislaine, who happened to
walk into the front store just
when I was there. She gave me
a quick little tour of the factory,
where I admired the blending
and bottling machines and
the employees that were
packaging and labeling the
products at large tables.
In the Caribbean we are
surrounded by fabulous and
famous rum distilleries. With
strict NDAs, we buy the very
best. We pick the guavaberries
high in the warm hills here and
we macerate them in our own
blend of these exquisite rums
and cane sugars.