It was an ordinary day. It's only 10:30 AM and I just had my fourth rum sample. And loved them all. Made a visit to the French capital city of St. Martin, Marigot. Neat town that has all types of stores as well as an open-air market that features souvenir items for the thousands of tourists that flock to the city during the year. Many of the open-air stands have more than the trinkets that seem to sell so well to the tourists. One stand features T-shirts which have been screened printed on the island by the owners of the stand. They not only print them, but design the shirts. Carol and I both have a few of these. Another stand features hand painted tiles that can be used in your bathroom or kitchen as accent tiles. Carol has two of the tiles as artwork next to the sink in our master bath as well as having her eye on another. One of our favorite artists on the island also has her stand in the market where you can watch her paint palm fronds and palm bark. Oh yeah, can't forget Tessa who has a permanent spot in my wife's jewelry box back home. But, today we have come upon another stand that caught our eye. Young guy by the name of Nicolas talked us into adding a few bottles of rum for our shelf at home. For years we have purchased hand-painted bottles that were filled with Ma DouDou rum from the French cul de sac area of the island. Used the petite glass bottles to display sand that we had collected from the different islands we have visited. Naturally drank the rum and enjoyed it, primarily the Banana-Vanillae. Well, Nicolas' testing session with us showed us that Ma DouDou is not the only rum manufactured on the island that is tasty. Nicolas was born on the island, but his parents are both from France.
Nicolas supplying us with a taste.
The 22 year-old is fluent in French, English, Creole and somewhat in Spanish and is planning on taking over his mom and dad's rum business when his parents are ready to retire. He told us their flavored rum is made by boiling sugarcane powder then adding the imported rum and fruits to the warm sugarcane. Somewhat different than others on the island due to the length of time they "cure" their flavored rum mixtures. I bought a bottle of Mangue (Mango), Ananas (Pineapple) and Exotic which is a mixture of 6 different fruits. I'm afraid if I had tasted too many more, I might have run out of space in my suitcase. Memories of the island will last as long as the rum does when I get home. Gonna have to drink is as if I'm on island time. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment