1Barrel Rum from Belize

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On June 9, 2008, in Family and Friends, Travel, by Mark Ranes

Several years ago, Brenda and I celebrated our 25th anniversary with a trip to Belize. Our friend Eric had seen a magazine article where Francis Ford Coppola’s resort, The Turtle Inn, had been mentioned. He knew we were looking for an exotic local for our anniversary trip and suggested that we check it out. We did and decided to book the ocean front Honeymoon Cottage. It was a great trip! The resort was top notch, with an excellent restaurant, attentive staff and of course several bars:) Our favorite was Laughing Fish Bar (see the pic above), a crescent shaped ocean-side bar. We spent much of our time in Belize sitting at the Laughing Fish Bar, talking to other Turtle Inn guests and visiting with our favorite bartender, Arnold. When we first arrived at the Turtle Inn (after an interesting flight in a 10 seat plane:), we were met at the front door with two glasses of Turtle Juice. Over the course of the next five days, we drank many Turtle Juices and asked Arnold for the drink’s recipe. It is simple, yet potent:)

Turtle Juice

1 shot Amaretto
1 shot Stolichnaya Vodka
1 shot of coconut rum
1 shot of 1Barrel Rum
3 shots of cranberry juice
3 shots of pineapple juice

Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake like hell, and pour over crushed ice in a pint glass. Drink!

We bought two bottles of 1Barrel Rum at the duty free store at Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City, for $10 US apiece, and brought them home so we could make Turtle Juice. We rationed the bottles and still have about a quarter bottle left three years later. I recently went looking for more 1Barrel Rum on the Internet. I discovered that a wine shop in San Francisco, K&L Wines, carries 1Barrel Rum. Better yet, it was only $13.99!

I ordered four bottles and two days later, FedEx showed up with my package. It had a label that said it required an adult signature, so I knew what was in the box. Inside were four wonderful bottles of liquid amber! Now that I know I can get more 1Barrel Rum, I’ll be more willing to try it in other traditional rum-based drinks.

You can view a photo gallery of our trip to Belize here.