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.

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.