Food & Drinking Culture

What food pairs well with aged Jamaican rum? St. Elizabeth Parish is considered Jamaica's breadbasket, and its cuisine is bold and spicy. The orange peel and vanilla in the rum temper the heat of Scotch bonnet peppers without extinguishing it.

Pepper shrimp comes from the town of Middle Quarters: small freshwater shrimp cooked in a fiery broth and sold in bags by the roadside. A sip of rum with water, or a rum punch with plenty of lime, pairs well with it. It's eaten by hand: you peel the shrimp yourself, the heat kicks in after the second bite, and lime juice offers instant relief.

Bammy, a flat cassava flatbread, is fried or steamed and accompanies fish from river and sea alike. This mild starchy bread gives the rum a counterweight, soaking up fat and heat.

The coast of St. Elizabeth offers the counterpart to the river shrimp. In Treasure Beach and its fishing villages, Escovitch Fish is a classic: a whole fried fish doused in a vinegar sauce of onions and pepper, usually served with bammy. Offshore stands the Pelican Bar, a hut on stilts above a sandbar, reachable only by boat. In 2023, Treasure Beach held its first Food, Rum and Reggae Festival.

As a cocktail, rum punch comes first. Appleton Estate Signature or Reserve work well for this, as the orange peel pairs naturally with lime.

In the village rum shops, small bar-shacks with plastic chairs, dominoes are played late into the night. Order a glass there and you'll likely get water or coconut water alongside it; the celebration comes with music and food, and the rum is part of the evening, not its point.