Travel Someplace Warm With A Tiki Favorite: The St. Lucian

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 St. Lucia offers rum production fully distinct to the island itself, presenting profiles you won’t find anywhere else. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always receive the same level of recognition for its characteristic rum that more well-known origins do. We at BayTowne Wine & Spirits hold the rum making of St. Lucia in high esteem and we make a priority of bringing some of their finest to market. We have done more than one barrel pick of their Chairman’s Reserve brand in the past, and we actually just brought in bottles of another Chairman’s Reserve single barrel. This one was specially selected in celebration of Rochester Tiki Week, with all participating bars bringing in bottles, and BayTowne being the exclusive retail source. A blend of distillates from St. Lucia Distillers’ John Dore 2 and Vendôme pot stills, it carries some of the characteristically deep and heavy notes of their pot still rums, as well as some delicious dried fruit and rich tobacco elements.

This is a rum perfectly suited to be enjoyed neat, but it also can perform beautifully with the right cocktail application. Its presence at all the Tiki Week bars shows that without a doubt, particularly to see how the mixing professionals have put it to use - as with the Oleo Daiquiri at Easy Sailor. Out of respect for the rum and for our bar friends putting it to such good mixing use, we decided to highlight an uncommon recipe within the Tiki pantheon. A stirred, spirit-forward sipper, this drink - fittingly named the St. Lucian - comes to us from Brad Smith of Latitude 29. Latitude 29 is the famed Tiki historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s Tiki bar in New Orleans, and Brad Smith, one of his skilled bartenders, paid homage to the traditions of St. Lucia with this build. Nearly every family on St. Lucia has their own recipe for homemade spiced rum, preparations a far cry from the mass-market industrialized products of global retail. These recipes are born of cultural and partly medicinal practice, wherein fruits, spices, and even endemic species of tree bark are added to high proof rum to achieve a desired profile and potential effect. Brad Smith honored this in his use of Clement Creole Shrubb, Amaro Averna, and cinnamon syrup to bring those vibrant notes of fruit and spice to pair with fine St. Lucia rum.

Donn Beach and Trader Vic earned their reputation as the kings of Tiki, doing an immense amount of entrepreneurial and mixological work to make the entire Tiki subculture what it was and what it has become today. As monumental as their foundational work is, though, the bartenders who worked for them and went on to found bar programs of their own do not always receive the recognition they deserve. Many of these skilled bartenders were Filipino immigrants, and incredibly proficient drink creators themselves. Mariano Lucidine began working for Don the Beachcomber in 1939 and went on to open the Chicago location shortly thereafter. He worked there for 16 years and moved up to become the location’s #2 bartender, but he hit something of a ceiling by the mid-1950s and was thus receptive when Jack and Bob Thornton presented him with an offer to tend bar at their newly opening Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale.

We mixed up a glass here at BayTowne Wine & Spirits, and we can attest that it’s a delicious way to enjoy some good quality St. Lucia rum while celebrating both age old traditions and innovative Tiki bartending. Join in the celebration and mix one for yourself!

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