The "Another Banane-Vanille, Please!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished our evening meal at Le Piment which is located in Orient Village on the island of St. Martin.  "Ah, here comes Crystelle with our rhum.  I hope it's the banane-vanille again," I mentioned to Carol. Crystelle is the manager of Le Piment and does it all from hawking the customers to waiting tables to writing the daily specials on the menu board.  We have known her for about half a dozen years, since she took over Le Piment.  But my story isn't about Crystelle or even Le Piment, it is about the rhum!  The Ma Doudou rhum to be exact.  Ma Doudou was founded by Madame Corrine Burgaliare some years ago and is located in the French Cul de sac area of St. Martin.  Her "factory" or cottage is somewhat hard to find as Carol and I discovered four years ago when we decided to buy Ma Doudou rhum right from the founder.  After a few turns and heading the wrong way on a few different roads we found the bright pink cottage with the lime-green door.

 Talk about Caribbean!!  The store was packed with bottles and bottles of all flavors of Ma Doudou rhum in a variety of sizes.  Even had painted shot glasses as well as spices for sale.  Most were painted with designs which featured sailboats, palm trees and flowers, island houses and island beauties.  Had to have one of each of the designs naturally.  I wanted the bottles to display sand that I had collected from many of the beaches in the Caribbean.  But, the real star of the bottles is the flavored rhum which is contained inside.  Considerable time was spent perfecting the process to combine natural fruit and spices with white rhum from the Dominican Republic to make the perfect mixture that is both pleasing to view as well as taste.  Ma Doudou offers quite a few varieties such as Coconut, Ginger, Ti Punch, Passion, Coco, Guavaberry and my favorite Banane-Vanille.  The mixing of the rhum takes place in the small white cottage behind the bright pink store.  After the rhum has been steeped in the tropical sunlight, the bottles are lined up on the table and painted.  I'm not a beer, wine or hard liquor drinker, but Ma Doudou rhum has been blended and aged just right for my palate.  Matter of fact here comes Crystelle with another round of after-dinner banana-vanille.  She's a real sweetheart!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.   PS - Watch the YouTube video as Madame Burgaliare shows how the rhum is bottled and the bottles are painted. 

The Ma Doudou "factory" tour (click on link):    http://youtu.be/jh7fbF_nguw

Paying for a recent purchase

Label on one of the bottles

A few of my bottles filled with sand

My last full bottle with a Ma Doudou shot glass