I spoke with the folks at West Indies Bay Company on a snowy
day when there was already about 15 inches of snow on the ground. Naturally I had to inquire about the weather;
which was about 80 degrees and sunny. I
suppose that there was a part of me that hoped that their products would bring
some warmth and sun to our region. We
did warm up to a high of 50 degrees and it melted away some of the snow. St
John’s Bay Rum may or may not have played a part in that; it’s still nice to
welcome some of their products to the mix including: St. John's Bay Rum Aftershave Splash, St. John's
Bay Rum Aftershave Balm as well as the St John’s West Indian Lime AftershaveSplash and Aftershave Balm.
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| St. John's Bay Rum and West Indian Lime |
For years, the Virgin Islands has been renowned for the
quality of its bay rum. The unique
climatic conditions and rich soil, St. John proved to be an ideal place for bay
trees to thrive. St Johns Bay Rum has
been manufactured in the Virgin Islands by West Indies Bay Company since 1946.
Using natural tropical ingredients from The Caribbean in all
the fragrances and shaving products, St. John’s Bay Rum can be recognized by its
"fish pot weave" palm woven bottles. To make the palm baskets for the bottles,
narrow strips of fronds from the Tyre palm are dried in the sun, shaped into
small baskets, and slipped over bottles. It takes over 30 minutes to hand weave
one bottle. These
bottles of bay rum have appeared on TV episodes of M*A*S*H, and the films “Down
and Out in Beverly Hills" and "The People I Know." To get an idea of the craftsmanship that goes
into making these baskets, check out the video below.
