Jamaica
Our Posts about Jamaica
World's Girliest Soda/SBPR
Could there be a more girly-looking drink anywhere in the world? I mean, just look at this bottle – if there was a life-size Barbie Dream House (oh wait, there is one?) the fridge would have to be loaded with these Tings…
Now I’ve never been a guy to have a problem with pink. My high school fascination with pink flamingoes probably didn’t help me with the ladies, and the pink cumberbund/bow-tie combo I rocked to junior prom may have contributed to my turning in early despite three dates (no names), but I liked pink, dammit, and I didn’t care.
Even now I don’t really care. Correction, I didn’t care till the other day, when while cracking open one of these pretty pink Jamaican beauties one of my sons said, “Dad, isn’t that drink for girls?”
Yeah, um…not good.
When, at 39 years of age, your manhood gets questioned by your six year-old son, it’s time to change your drink, no matter how delicious and refreshing it may be.
And believe me, Pink Ting is very delicious and very refreshing. A close cousin to Jamaica’s #1 soft drink, Ting, which faithful readers will also remember is Patrick’s all-time favorite soda, Pink Ting combines carbonated pink grapefruit juice, a hint of lime and natural sugar sweetening to make even the warmest days more bearable.
Like regular Ting, Pink Ting acquits itself beautifully in a strong, masculine, MacGyver-type fashion to happy hour as well. Whether you choose rum, vodka or gin, simply combine with Pink Ting and a dash of bitters for an easy and delightful cocktail manly booze drink that will no doubt put hair on your chest.
For guys, enjoying a Pink Ting mixer in a highball may help to minimize any girlyman teasing from your friends, kids and assorted loved ones. But for those times when non-alcoholic drinks are a must, just make sure you’ve got a brown paper bag handy…
Cheers!
Rum may be the drink most closely associated with Caribbean culture and good times, but coffee is no slouch in these areas either. For most of us the two go hand-in-hand, as long nights of living it up with the bottle are almost always followed by late mornings living it down with a pot.
When you consider that 90% of the world’s coffee can be traced back to the first coffee tree successfully grown in the Caribbean on Martinique back in 1723, perhaps Caribbean coffee deserves a little more respect.
I’ll have a lot more to say about Martinique’s coffee tradition later. Today, we’re focusing on Marley Coffee, the newest caffeinated creation from Jamaica’s legendary Blue Mountains.
The fascinating video above not only introduces the new brew, it also gives a nice, concise history of coffee, while also detailing its importance to the agricultural sectors of developing countries. Consistent with long-held Marley family ideals of brotherhood and caring for the earth, Marley Coffee practices sustainable farming techniques with no chemicals, or fertilizers. It’s a method Marley Coffee calls Ital-Organic, and it makes a lot of sense if you care about what you put into your body.
It’s a great story, that no doubt results in great-tasting coffee.
This video is part one of a two-part series on Marley Coffee. We’ll post part two on our Facebook page later today.
Grace Jamaican Ketchup/SBPR
You may have never set foot in Jamaica, but if you know great reggae, then you’ve probably already sung the praises of Grace Jamaican Ketchup. With just a few lines in his early-80′s hit Mad Over Me, Yellowman elevated the simple condiment to iconic Caribbean cultural status. You know the words…
One thing with dem when them get hungry
Dis is what they say to me, I like my hot hot hotdog
With what? Grace Jamaican Ketchup
I like my hot hamburger
With what? Grace Jamaican Ketchup
Fish and chips and chicken and chips and almost everything nice with chips
Macaroni, rice and peas you lick you lips
Lots of ketchup please
Grace Jamaican Ketchup
Grace Jamaican Ketchup
I’d known the song for years (and actually always thought the lyric was fresh Jamaican ketchup), but never enjoyed the stuff ’til visiting the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort in Montego Bay two years ago. I usually stick to the local cuisine on my travels – e.g.: hole in the wall roadside eateries like Scotchie’s, just a stone’s throw from the resort – but as I kept hearing other guests praising the quality of the burgers down on the pool deck, I just had to give it a try.
On their own, the burgers were nice. Adding the Grace Jamaican Ketchup, though, made ‘em amazing!
The secret to the special ketchup is printed right on the label – Grace adds local spices and hot peppers, giving a nice kick to this normally staid condiment. Thankfully for soft mouths like mine, they don’t go overboard. Not too hot and not too spicy, Grace Jamaican Ketchup is the perfect balance of fire and flavor.
If you want to add a taste of Jamaica to your summer cook-out, click here to order a bottle online. Trust me, everyone at your next BBQ will be ‘Mad Over You’ if you do…
Jamaica surely leads the Caribbean in “uncommon” sporting pursuits (and common ones for that matter; see Usain Bolt, world’s fastest man). Everyone knows about the country’s bobsled team, whose improbable run to the 1988 Winter Olympics was immortalized in the John Candy “classic”, Cool Runnings, but did you know that Jamaica is also the first Caribbean nation to field an entrant in the Iditarod?
You know the Iditarod, the 1,100-mile test of strength, endurance and sanity through the frigid and desolate wilds of the Alaskan Arctic… It’s about the last place you’d think to find someone from the Caribbean (you’ll NEVER find me there), but Jamaican Newton Marshall completed the race earlier this year.
Newton finished a respectable 47th out of 55 mushers, becoming the first non-white person to finish the race. The only other black musher in Iditarod history was Barry MacAlpine, who competed in the inaugural race back in 1973, but did not finish.
As was the case with their bobsledding bredren, the backstory of how the Jamaica Dogsled Team came into being is certainly fit for the Hollywood treatment. The owner of Chukka Caribbean Adventures, one of the region’s best tour companies for active and adventurous travelers, just happened to be in Canada a few years ago shopping for dune buggies. Instead, he found a dryland cart for dogsled training. Returning to Jamaica with the cart and a team of experienced dogsled trainers, the folks at Chukka set about working with the Jamaican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to train dogs rescued from the island’s streets.
That’s right, previously abandoned and unloved dogs that would otherwise be euthanized are helping to bring surprising sports glory to Jamaica! As a dog-lover who has owned several former strays and pound pups over the years, I LOVE everything about the Jamaica Dogsled Team.
If you do too, I highly recommend you check out Chukka’s Jamaica Dogsled Experience in Ocho Rios. The short video above provides a taste of the fun that’s in store when you opt for this truly unique Caribbean adventure. You can also keep up with the latest on the team by joining their Facebook fan page here.
Getting back to Newton’s unlikely Iditarod run, if you’re wondering whether a “Cool Mushings” film might be in our future, the answer is yes! This one won’t have the camp (or the Candy, of course) of Cool Runnings, though. Click here for details.
Dragon Stout/SBPR
Undrinkable.
It’s hard to believe, I know, but after years of enjoying countless beer varieties all over the Caribbean, I have finally come across a brew that makes me say “boo!”
Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.
I mean, I like stouts as much as the next guy. Guinness Stout ranks high on my all-time list of favorite beers. Regular readers of Uncommon Caribbean might also remember that I even like Trinidad’s Royal Extra Stout, despite its“curious” flavor. The way some people talk about Royal Stout you’d think that anyone who likes it will like just about anything!
So, what’s my problem with Jamaica’s Dragon Stout?
Well, when I saw it on the shelf at my local West Indian grocery store, I didn’t think there would be any problem at all. I go to Jamaica on business a lot, but I had only tried Dragon Stout once while eating lunch at Scotchie’s. I remember liking it okay, but thinking that I needed to try it a few more times before developing a real opinion.
Try #2 solicited an opinion, alright; one that has me thinking there should not be a try #3.
The Dragon Stout I tried to drink here in Florida had the super-thick consistency of motor oil with an ultra sweet flavor that was kind of chocolaty. Anyone that knows me knows that I love chocolate almost as much as I love beer, but I don’t like to mix it with anything. Chocolate, nice. Peanut butter, nice. Chocolate and peanut butter mixed together, no thanks. Same applies to beer; hold the chocolate, please.
On the plus side, though, Dragon Stout is strong, very strong. Each little 10 oz bottle contains a whopping 7.5% of alcohol by volume. Compare that to the 4.7% alcohol in the 12 oz Banks Beer sitting next to me as I type this and you begin to realize why so many people swear by (and because of) this stuff.
Dragon Stout is just not for me, but what about you? Have you tried it? Do you like it? Leave us a comment below and let us know.
As for me, on this Friday Happy Hour, I’m opting for that other Jamaican beer made by the brewers of Dragon Stout…
Hooray beer!
Tru-Juice of Jamaica Exotic Soursop Juice
The other day, our dad came to visit me in Brooklyn and we got to talking about what Stephen and I have been up to with Uncommon Caribbean. He’s a pretty avid reader (hi, dad!), so he’s noticed that I’ve been writing about my favorite West Indian soft drinks like Peardrax, and Mauby Fizz. These posts seemed interesting enough to him, but he had to ask: “Patrick, do you think writing about drinks is really going to get people to travel to the Caribbean?”
The simple answer is “of course not”, but that was never the intention. My real hope is that when any of you good readers are enticed to travel to the region to experience the many hikes, dives, concerts, hotels, and islands we discuss… you won’t quench your thirst with a Diet Coke, but will instead try a Ting. You won’t wash down your roti with a Budweiser, you’ll try a Banks, a Royal Stout, a Piton, or any of the other special island beverages we highlight on Uncommon Caribbean.
And that brings me to another decidedly delicious West Indian taste: soursop.
soursop By digitonin via Flickr
Soursop (a favorite of our dad) is a fruit that usually grows to about 10 inches long and has a fairly thin, but formidable, green skin with short spikes. Beneath this skin is a thick, white pulpy flesh peppered with small, shiny, black, indigestible seeds. The thick flesh has a sweet taste, something like a mix between strawberries and pineapples with a uniquely sour hint similar to bananas. Try mixing all that together in your head and you’d be close.
Now, soursop can be made into a whole host of delights like candy and ice cream (don’t even get our dad started), but the main thing I want to focus on today is a delectable version of soursop juice that I found recently, which is bottled by Tru-Juice of Jamaica. Adding a hint of lime, Tru-Juice’s Exotic Soursop with Lime Juice Drink is by far the best mass-produced soursop juice I have ever tasted. It’s still a bit thick and creamy, like an authentic soursop juice should be, and the splash of lime compliments the sweet and sour soursop flavors perfectly.
And did I mention soursop contains significant amounts of vitamin C, vitamin B1, and vitamin B2? Like most traditional drinks of the West Indies, it’s also good for you! It’s even high in fiber and iron. Additionally, the juice is a remedy for urethritis, haematuria and liver ailments. It’s even said that the juice can speed the healing of wounds! (I hope I won’t be testing that notion anytime soon)…
Anyway, If you want to get a taste of this “superfruit”, try grabbing a bottle today. It’s easier than tramping through the bush and safer than stealing from someone’s yard!
Your Monthly Moment of Zen
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