Food & Beer Culture

What do Jamaicans eat with their beer? Jerk, first and foremost. Pork, chicken, goat or fish is rubbed with a fiery spice blend of pimento, thyme and Scotch bonnet chili, then cooked over pimento wood. The wood gives off a smoky-sweet aroma that charcoal alone can't match. The meat is spicy, fatty and salty, and a cold lager tames the heat.

The parish of Portland in the northeast of the island is considered the home of jerk. The jerk stands at Boston Bay still stand today, their pits dating back to the 1940s. Tradition traces the method back to the Maroons, escaped enslaved people who cooked wild boar in earth pits in the mountains. This is oral tradition, not fully documented history.

The national dish, ackee and saltfish, combines the flesh of the ackee fruit, which resembles scrambled eggs once cooked, with salted codfish. A mild lager suits it well, since it overwhelms neither the fish nor the delicate fruit. With richly stewed dishes in dark sauce, the stout works better, its roasted character complementing the sauce.

Beer culture in Jamaica often happens at the rum shop, a small roadside bar where bottles come cold straight from the cooler. Drinking there usually means straight from the bottle. The Stubby bottle is part of the island's street scene, just like the rum poured in these bars.

Celebrations center especially on Independence Day, 6 August, when beer joins rum on the table. In the heat, as everywhere: drink water alongside, and pace yourself.