A Little Rum, A Lot of Imagination: Inside the Barbados Food and Rum Festival’s Cocktail Creations

Jamaal Bowen can make you thirsty with an explanation. Give him green mango, cinnamon and a good rum, and he will take you through the fragrance, the first taste, the little flicker of something familiar and the finish. By the time he has described the drink, you want to know who is making it and where to find them.

This November, he has some very good answers.

As Lead Mixologist for the Barbados Food and Rum Festival, Jamaal is helping shape a drinks programme that asks guests to be curious. Plantain, mammy apple and linseed are among the ingredients finding their way into the mixologists’ creations. The results will be waiting at Rise and Rum on 7 November and Liquid Gold Feast on 8 November.

Lead Mixologist – Jamaal Bowen

His enthusiasm comes with precision. In his descriptions, sweetness has a particular character, spice has a role, and the rum must give something to the drink while allowing the other ingredients to speak. He follows a flavour closely enough to notice when two ingredients together suggest a third. Listening to that thought process is part of the pleasure.

It is also the mark of someone accustomed to teaching. A founder of TopShelf Bartending Academy, Jamaal has made developing other people’s skills part of his professional life. For this festival, he has given the participating mixologists a challenge with enough uncertainty to keep everyone interested, himself included.

The mystery basket worked a little differently this year. Each mixologist received two ingredients, one for each cocktail at their respective event. An algorithm assigned them at random. The organisers could no more predict the combinations of person and ingredient than the mixologists could.

Moringa, tamarind, grapefruit, rosemary, cucumber, soursop and mauby bark were among the possibilities. Familiar things, many of them, though familiarity can be deceptive when someone asks you to build a cocktail around one.

“The idea was to challenge the mixologists to come out of their comfort zones,” Jamaal explains.

He wanted guests to see what their creativity could do for Bajan culture, produce and products. The assignment put that ambition directly into their hands.

Then came the linseed.

Two new additions to the festival’s mixology talent, Rohan Broomes and Orwin Findlay, were surprised by that selection, Jamaal says. Their responses show how much room there is for personality within the same brief.

Rohan, appearing at Rise and Rum, is taking a direction led by fruit, with hints of warming spice and vanilla. Orwin, at Liquid Gold Feast, is exploring savoury flavours with touches of sweet spice. One ingredient, two imaginations, and a tempting reason to discover both.

Jamaal explains that the thinking usually begins with identifying flavours that work with the assigned ingredient, then deciding what character the finished drink should have. There is judgement involved in every choice. Something unexpected still has to make you want another taste.

He is happy to share enough to stir anticipation. The finer details come with a little invitation.

“If you want more on those combinations, you have to come out to the events.”

For Rohan’s interpretation, that means an early start. Rise and Rum, the breakfast beach party, begins at 4 am on Saturday, 7 November, at Copacabana on Bay Street. Breakfast and cocktails meet the return of daylight, with the event drawing on the theme of Bridgetown early on a Saturday morning. There is room for the familiar pleasures of Barbados and the surprise of tasting them differently.

The following evening, Liquid Gold Feast brings the celebration to CARIFESTA House in Waterford. Its “These Fields and Hills” theme turns attention to the island’s ingredients and the people whose work brings them to the table. Among the drinks to look for is Natasha Jules’s A Lil Thing.

The name is modest. Jamaal’s description gives it quite an entrance.

Mount Gay Silver Rum meets locally made Kaiso Carambola Liqueur, green mango, cinnamon, Claytons Kola Tonic and lime juice. Carambola is the fruit known in Barbados as five finger. Here, its sweetness meets the tartness of green mango, with cinnamon lending warmth.

Jamaal describes a delicate, fragrant aroma and a combination of kola tonic and lime that reminds him of Bajan ackee. He follows the rum through the drink, noting fruit and cane undertones and a creamy finish. His appreciation is in the detail, in how the spirit contributes without overwhelming the ingredients around it.

You can almost feel the cool glass in your hand.

Across the programme, there is plenty else to intrigue. Hog plum, pumpkin, bell peppers and jamoon are among the ingredients being used, taking different forms as juices, purées, infused syrups and garnishes. Jamaal’s excitement lies in how much remains possible with things people already know.

“We also have to open our minds to using more items than what we currently use,” he says.

That curiosity extends beyond festival week. He identifies the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation and farmer John Jones as key produce partners, and sees opportunities for growers to work with processors on juices and concentrates that bars can use beyond the harvest season. A promising ingredient needs a dependable route to the person making the drink.

It is a practical thought from a man whose imagination moves easily through a long list of flavours. The more ingredients available, the more there is to explore, teach and eventually serve.

For guests, the invitation is simple. Arrive curious. Ask what is in the glass. Let the mixologist tell you how it got there. You may come looking for a favourite rum and leave thinking about linseed.

Jamaal has done enough explaining to make that sound delicious. The next part belongs to your palate.

Rise and Rum takes place on Saturday, 7 November, with tickets at BBD $250. Liquid Gold Feast follows on Sunday, 8 November, with tickets at BBD $350. Tickets are available at ticketnation.bb and official box offices.