Food & Drinking Culture

Which dishes pair well with rhum agricole from Martinique? With the blanc, try accras de morue—fried saltfish fritters seasoned with chili: the grassy, peppery rum cuts nicely through the richness and heat.

Boudin créole, the island's blood sausage, is seasoned with allspice and herbs and calls for something bold in the glass. Colombo, a curry made with chicken or pork, arrived on the island with laborers from India who were brought to work the plantations after the abolition of slavery. A pairing of aged rhum, with its spice and wood notes, suits it better.

Blaff is fish poached in a broth of lime, herbs, and allspice—light and tangy. Féroce d'avocat is a paste of avocado, saltfish, cassava flour, and chili. Both dishes are fresh and spicy, and a blanc's cane-driven heat sits well alongside them without overpowering them.

The island's signature cocktail is the Ti' Punch: rhum agricole blanc with lime and cane sugar syrup, mixed right at the table. It's an aperitif, not a long drink, and it lives and breathes the cane character of the rum.

More important than the recipe is the ratio: plenty of rum, a twist of lime peel, just a touch of syrup. It's drunk before the meal, in small amounts and slowly—not as a thirst-quencher.

Among the distilleries that welcome visitors in the North Caribbean are Depaz in Saint-Pierre and Neisson in Le Carbet. Tasting there means standing on the slopes of the volcano that destroyed the city in 1902, and sampling rum grown from soils shaped by its ash.