What is Guavaberry Liqueur?
It’s a quiet Sunday morning and I’m driving with Clement Brat Richard, a local calypso singer, taxi driver and tour guide, to Colombier, the historic Black neighborhood in St. Martin where the guavaberry trees grow. For generations, local people here and across the Caribbean have mixed guavaberries with rum and sugar to make a guavaberry liqueur.
Guavaberry for Christmas
It’s a quintessential Christmas drink here, and people look forward to strolling around singing carols at friends’ homes. The way traditional way to reward carolers is with a taste of homemade guavaberry rum. While other people celebrate Christmas singing about roasting chestnuts and jingle bells, on the French side of this West Indian island, the most popular holiday song is about guavaberry rum.
I ask Richard how the Guavaberry Song goes, and he sings softly:
“Good morning, good morning, come for the guavaberry,
Good morning good morning we don’t want no white rum
Good morning, good morning hope you have a nice time
Good morning, good morning, come for the guavaberry. “
As he sings, the landscape outside the car turns lush, with massive trees decked with vines bearing pink flowers as we drive up into a canyon bordered by verdant mountains. Tan, white and black cows graze on one side of the road, attended by the storks that groom them for bugs. He tells me Colombier is the place where formerly enslaved people settled in St. Martin, and started farms, so it holds significance today for Black and Creole people. “We call it the food basket because of all the food that comes from Colombier,” Richard says. “It’s because of the climate and the elevation.”
Making Guavaberry Liqueur
Colombier is also the main place where guavaberry trees flourish. “The tree is very sensitive,” says Louis Maccow, who owns Colombier Guavaberry Tradition with his wife. “It doesn’t like a negative environment. You need a special climate. It’s the soil, it’s the sun, it’s everything. You need the right balance.”
At one time, nearly everyone in St. Martin made their own guavaberry rum, Maccow says. “Back in the day every home would have two demijohns, one with rum and one with guavaberry,” he says.
When Maccow (pronounced Ma-COO) and his wife Luz Maria moved to Colombier in 2004, they started making guavaberry rum. They made 200 or 300 bottles the first season, giving a way half as gifts and selling the rest. His wife added a little floral cloth to the top of the bottle, like the patterns women of African descent used to wear.
Their friends loved it so much, they decided to launch a business. Today, Colombier Guavaberry Tradition is the premier producer of the spirit on St. Martin. Now, it’s starting to find an audience outside of the island. “Guavaberry is a very unique taste,” he says. It’s a spicy, bitter taste.” A popular liqueur that tourists bring back from the island, another producer is currently bringing it to the U.S. But that brand is problematic, to say the least. Owned by a white person, the label evokes a colonial vibe by using the photo of a Black man with a white beard on their labels. It’s an effort to convey old-fashioned authenticity, much like Uncle Ben’s Rice, Aunt Jemima Pancakes, and the Cream of Wheat chef, and it’s not just stereotypical, but offensive. The brand did not get back to us regarding how much actual guavaberry they use.
All About Guavaberries
Though the name is similar, guavaberries have nothing to do with the juicy tropical guava fruit. St. Martin’s guavaberry tree (Myrciaria floribunda) is in the same family as camu camu berry, eucalyptus and clove. You’ll find guavaberry trees with golden fruit, but the most popular is the variety with red fruit that darkens to a deep blackish purple when fully ripe and sweet. They look like blueberries, but the flavor is distinct: softly sweet, a little tart with a warm, spicy note that reminds you of cloves.
Traditionally, guavaberry trees flower in September and the fruit ripens by November. “Because of climate change it blossoms in October,” Maccow says. “It takes two months to get from flower to fruit.”
Picking guavaberries takes expertise too. “The problem with inexperienced pickers is they break the tree,” Maccow says. The traditional way of picking fruit was to shake the tree and catch the fruit that fell into your apron, Richard adds.
Making guavaberry rum
Making guavaberry rum to sell is a lengthy process. The Maccows start with the frozen fruit from the previous season, and add it to a white rhum agricole, a style add from sugarcane juice and nothing else, that hails from Guadeloupe. The minimum maceration time is one year.
A part of the production is next aged for two years in American oak barrels, while their premier Old School guavaberry rum is aged for five years. As it gets older, the spice intensifies and the spirit becomes more round. The spirit made from golden guavaberries has a lighter, more tangy taste. Maccow says he’s even got a 10-year-old guavaberry for personal consumption, that he likes to sample every now and then. Tourists who don’t have time to get to the production facility in Colombier can find the guavaberry rum, plus the 30 other tropical spirits they make, at their red and white shop in Marigot.
Guavaberry Cocktails
The most popular guavaberry rum cocktail is a riff on the piña colada, but most people sip it straight. The robust flavor makes guavaberry rum a great substitute for Campari and sweet vermouth. Here are a few ideas on how to add guavaberry rum’s spicy, Christmas notes to classic cocktails.
The most popular guavaberry rum cocktail is a riff on the piña colada, but most people sip it straight. The robust flavor makes guavaberry rum a great substitute for Campari and sweet vermouth. Here are a few ideas on how to add guavaberry rum’s spicy, Christmas notes to classic cocktails.
Guavaberry Colada
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz cream of coconut
1.5 oz Colombier Guavaberry Liquor
1 cup ice
Pineapple chunks for garnish
Blend all the ingredients together until frothy and smooth. Serve in a tall footed glass and garnish with a chunk.
SXM Sorrel Sparkler
.5 oz Colombier Guavaberry Liquor
1 oz spiced sorrel (spiced red hibiscus tea), cooled
3 oz brut sparkling wine, chilled
Hibiscus blossom, for garnish (optional)
Add rum and sorrel to a champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine, garnish with the hibiscus blossom and serve.
Negroni Agricole
1 oz white rhum agricole (from Martinique or Guadeloupe)
1 oz Colombier Guavaberry Liquor
1 oz sweet vermouth
2-inch slice of orange peel
Add rhum agricole, guavaberry and sweet vermouth to a rocks glass filled with ice. Stir with a bar spoon until the liquor is throughly chilled. Twist the orange peel to release the oil over the drink, tuck it into the glass and serve.
Guavaberry Manhattan
2 oz rye or bourbon whiskey
1 oz Colombier Guavaberry Liquor
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Marasca cherry, for garnish
Pour the whiskey, guavaberry liquor and bitters into a cocktail mixing glass filled with ice. Stir until thoroughly chilled. Strain into a cocktail coupe and garnish with the cherry.