El Dorado Rum, Guyana’s Best, Comes to Belize

The Guyanese famed El Dorado rum is making its debut in the Belize market. The rum is being imported into Belize by Grace Kennedy which today organized a training for bartenders at Club Calypso in Belize City. That session will be followed by others in San Pedro and Cayo. Duane Moody caught up with the folks from Grace Kennedy Limited.

Duane Moody, Reporting

A new liquor is about to hit the shelves of your local supermarkets…it’s El Dorado; a high end rum out of Guyana that’s smooth and rich in fruity flavors. Grace Kennedy is the distributor and on Wednesday, El Dorado will be launched at the Sixth Lounge. Brand Manager for Grace Beverage Center, Efren Perez, spoke of the excitement surrounding its introduction into the wide variety of local and foreign liquors in Belize.

Efren Perez, Brand Manager, Grace Kennedy Belize Ltd.

“It does really cater for everybody and El Dorado is one of those that is an acquired taste pretty much. We have a wide range in terms of the sipping rums, we have some pouring rums and we also have some liquors that we brought in. And for us it is important because we just wanted to show and to bring in one more option of rums pretty much into the country for people to be able to familiarize themselves.”

An entirely new option for rum consumers and those that have an appreciation for liquors, El Dorado, comes in various tastes and age. World Ambassador for El Dorado, Stephanie Holt, spoke of the difference of the Guyanese spirit when compared with similar liquors.

Stefanie Holt

Stefanie Holt, International Brand Ambassador, El Dorado

“It’s made from sugar; rich brown sugar…it is a little bit fruitier than other sugars—it comes from the river that is next to the distillery in Guyana. And we use the only wooden stills in the world, we use American oak barrels to age it and it makes it sweet and fruity and soft. So it is perfect. People over here have a sweet palette so I think they will quite like that. Here, the rum flavor gets a lot of it from its barrel. So you are getting a lot of the vanilla, butterscotch and chocolate kinda flavors. Our rums have those flavors, but they also got kinda raisin, apricots and orange peels kinda flavors mixed in too.”

And today, in one of the many training sessions being held around the country, bartenders from various hotels, restaurants and bars received tips on creating mixed drinks with El Dorado. They tested the distinctive tastes of the liquor and gave it a thumbs up.

Ernestina Alvarez, Bartender, Best Western Belize Biltmore Plaza

Ernestina Alvarez

“They brought us in to give us different briefing on them. They had us sampling the different rum and they had cocktails that they made with them which were really good. They brought in a lot of different rums that we import from Canada, the America and Europe and they had us compare them to the El Dorado and surprisingly, the El Dorado was very much good; the quality was really good.”

Darrio Vasquez

Darrio Vasquez, Bartender, Thirsty Thursday

“There are a few of them that I had tasted before like the twelve year…different types of it. The one that I lived was the twelve year old. And there are many more.”

Duane Moody

“I know if is a very unique liquor. Do you think that your clients at Thirsty Thursday will be receptive to its taste?”

Darrio Vasquez

“Yes they will because there are some of them that there are smooth tasting and especially religious people, they like the strong taste. There is one that is really excellent…it has one measure along with the other ones and I know religious people will definitely like it.”

Efren Perez

“With this rum particularly, there will be much more training session after this week so that people will be able to familiarize themselves and of course we carry Carib Beer, McKesson and Shandi. So we do have a wide range now and we definitely will be building on those.”

Apart from Belize City, training sessions will also be done in San Pedro and Cayo. Duane Moody for News Five.

The cost of the rum is in the range of thirty-seven dollars to about a hundred and fifty dollars.