Christmas shopping: Four items that are ‘100% Bajan’
by Karen Rollins Dec 10, 2018
Barbados imports a lot of goods, but the island also produces some unique products of its own which cannot be recreated anywhere else.
Yello has found four local products which proudly carry the ‘Made in Barbados’ label.
No list of products made in Barbados would be complete without mentioning Mount Gay Rum, which is arguably the island’s most famous export after singing sensation Rihanna.
Rum is said to have been created in Barbados shortly after the island was colonised by the British in 1627, when slaves discovered that molasses, a byproduct of the sugar refining process, could be fermented into alcohol.
In 1703, Sir John Gay Alleyne set up the world’s first commercial rum distillery on the island and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mount Gay is now sold in 110 countries and after over 300 years of production has developed an unrivalled reputation for distinctive taste and quality.
Founded in the 1970s by Goldie Spieler, Earthworks Pottery has built a strong reputation among locals and tourists for quality pieces which exude elegance while also offering function and practicality.
The Earthworks studio is located on a hillside in the parish of St Thomas and inside a group of potters create a range of colourful and creative products with a Barbadian twist.
Some of the pottery made on the site includes cups, jugs, teapots, different sized bowls, soap dishes, vases, plant pots, and jewellery boxes.
Visitors to the workshop can also browse around the ‘On The Wall Art Gallery’ which features work from a carefully chosen group of Barbadian artists and craftspeople.
Barbados’ long history with sugar is well-known, but as times have changed so has the island’s sugar production levels, and now there’s only one working sugar processing factory on the island in Blowers, St James which is used to produce Plantation Reserve sugar.
Plantation Reserve is unique because it’s produced using the finest sugar cane, which is harvested during a two-week period at the height of the five-month long season, when the sucrose content in the canes is at its peak.
The refining process that follows takes three times longer than normal sugar production and creates a larger, sugar crystal with a golden colour and a ‘buttery, caramel taste’ that is as unique as the island itself.
Anyone interested in how the sugar is made can take a tour of the Sir Frank Hutson Sugar Museum on the grounds of the factory.
Chocolate from Agapey Chocolate Factory
Situated in the island’s capital city Bridgetown, the Agapey Chocolate Factory makes its products from scratch with cocoa beans grown and harvested in the Caribbean and South America.
Inside the factory, the beans are processed using traditional methods and machinery but with ‘added touches of modern technology’, to create various chocolate products that are delicious, tasty and smooth.
If you want to see how the chocolate goes from bean to bar, just contact the Agapey Chocolate Factory to find out when the next tour takes place, and don’t forget to buy some of the ‘made in Barbados’ chocolate bars.
Sources: Plantation Reserve / Caribound / Barbados Pocket Guide / My Guide Barbados / Mount Gay Rum
