Travel / Jamaica

The Best Thing About Living in Jamaica, Part 3

Backwoods road trip to the Worthy Park Sugar Estate and Rum Tour

I have been living in Kingston, Jamaica since June of 2021. Arriving in this place from a large, chaotic, hot city in a developing country on the coast of East Africa, it sometimes feels like a relief to be here. But Kingston is also described in the same way, sometimes — excluding the East Africa part — but definitely including the traffic part.

I love living here and am writing about it a bit, as a non-Jamaican who has only scratched the surface of this great country.

Previous articles on the topic include some of the nuts and bolts of living life as an expat here.

Having privilege has certainly opened doors for me while living abroad the past 7 years. These are some realisations that have occurred to me about the difference in motivation, experience and expectations in being an expat and being an immigrant.

Here is Part 1 of this series on the topic of Jerk Chicken and our favourite place to get it.

And Part 2, on a road trip to Reggae Falls in St Thomas parish

As the opening two instalments of this series indicate, I consider myself lucky, as a foreigner, to have access to the best parts of Jamaica. These are off the beaten path and not usually available to cruise ship people and package tourists. They do require a vehicle and the ability and desire to drive some less travelled roads. And maybe, hopefully, to get a bit lost.

A key nugget of wisdom that was imparted to us shortly after arrival from the owner of Acai Cafe in Long Bay, Portland Parish (possibly one of the most beautiful and less touristed parts of the island) was, “Every time you get a chance, every weekend, you must get in your car and just drive out of Kingston”.

He was not wrong and so that’s what we do. It turns out that it doesn’t take all that long to get somewhere that no one on Trip Advisor has ever written a review for. That’s the part of Jamaica that I like best.

As I have mentioned, Jamaica does not throw its arms around you, in my experience. It is incumbent upon you to go and look for it. Generally speaking, this means getting off the main highway and winding through the tighter roads of the countryside, and our trip to this place was no different.

The Worthy Park Sugar Estate and Rum Tour, Lluidas Vale, St Catherine Parish

This is probably as good a time as any to mention that I am a big fan of rum. I can’t say that I know more than the basics about the production of it and if I’m honest, I really can’t tell the difference between a 10 year and a 15 year. But after almost a decade of living in places that produce sugar, I am starting to be able to tell the subtle differences between origins.

And where there is sugar, there is rum.

Every country with a coastline on the Caribbean has its rums and most importantly, pride in its rums. The differences between them have to do with the processes used, but also with the soil, the history, the traditions, the water, the storage methods, and the kinds of wood the barrels are made out of. Each rum producing country has its roadside bar quality rums, it’s middle of the road cocktail rums and then its high end, expensive sipping only rums. In fact, each rum factory has its own array of these.

In Jamaica, Appleton is king and has the lion’s share of the market. Deservedly so, it’s good rum and worth a trip to the place they make it in St Elizabeth parish in the western part of the country. If you are coming in on a cruise or staying at an all-inclusive resort, don’t worry…the opportunity to go there will present itself to you.

But there had to be more to Jamaican rum production than just Appleton. And after a bit of checking, it turns out there are quite a few lesser known options. The closest of these to us in the capital city is the Worthy Park Sugar Estate, about an hour and a bit northwest from Kingston. In fact, this is one of the places where operations like Appleton buy their sugar, their cane juice, their molasses and even their alcohol.

That’s a secret, apparently.

It’s a warm breeze and the rustle of the wind through the tall cane grass that greets you when you get out of your car. The smell of molasses and fermentation drifts through the air. It matches the warm and genuine welcome you get from the people working there.

Any good rum tour starts with a cocktail and in this case, it was a rum punch — basically, fruit juice and a middle of the road rum. Not bad.

Or maybe a cheeky second rum punch and with that, off for the tour of the facility. To be honest, I like a tour to clock in at about 30 minutes and after that, my mind starts to wander to the tasting that will follow any good tour.

It’s interesting, sure. But what’s most interesting is the history of the place and how it was the site chosen, in 1670 to start growing cane and eventually producing rum, and how this business out in the middle of what seems like a vast countryside has been run viably from generation to generation for going on 350 years.

It’s astounding how much is produced and then stored. Wooden kegs stacked on top of each other at least 10 metres high, boxes and boxes of bottled rum, ready to go. Acres and acres of sugar cane fields and people doing the dangerous work of cutting the cane and readying it for transport to the press where the juice will be squeezed out of it.

And then, the tasting — the best part, as far as I’m concerned.

Typically, you will be offered sips of 3–5 of their rums and they’ll explain the difference between them and give you instructions on how to properly drink these.

It’s rare that you’ll get a taste of their highest end products. Those, they’ll want you to buy as you exit through the gift shop.

And I’ve never met a rum gift shop that I haven’t liked.

Fortified, we took the (even more) scenic route back to Kingston, southwards toward Spanish Town and the main highway. It was Saturday afternoon, so in the small villages the music was already going, the jerk chicken was already grilling in the oil drum barbecues and people in towns were generally chilling and enjoying themselves together over a few rums.

Needless to say, I had my first sips of the Worthy Park 12 Year that I had bought at the shop on my way out, that night.

A beautiful Jamaican day was had by all.

A couple more things. Here’s an article with a recipe to make ginger beer yourself at home. There is a recipe for a rum cocktail using ginger beer at the end.

And if you really want to get classy, here’s an article on how to perfect your Rum Old Fashioned at home.