Barbados is now home to a new sugar mill, which will further boost local rum production through sugarcane and rum research.
This mill is the result of a partnership between West Indies Rum Distillery Limited and West Indies Sugarcane Breeding Station. You could say this partnership is over 100 years in the making, with West Indies Rum Distillery producing top-class rum in Barbados since 1893 and the Breeding Station conducting research and cultivating new sugar cane varieties since 1888!
The Harper Sugarcane Mill is named in recognition of Barbadian Mr. Irenaeus Brathwaite Harper (1821-1886) who, will working at Highland plantation in St. Thomas, discovered that sugar cane could be grown from seeds of the cane arrows and not just from the traditionally used cuttings. The discovery set Barbados at the epicenter for development of new sugar cane varieties.
The facility is capable of processing five to seven tonnes of sugarcane per hour.
The sugar reaped from this initiative will assist West Indies Rum Distillery in producing several different variations of its Stade’s rum.
To quote Master Blender and Owner of West Indies Rum Distillery Alexandre Grabriel “The more you know about rum the more you enjoy it“.
Cheers!