As the author of the Ministry of Rum website and several books on my favorite spirit, I’ve been researching the rums of the Caribbean for more than 15 years. After working around the world building yachts, sailing and working on Southeastern Asian oil rigs, I set sail for the Caribbean from Florida in the mid 80s without a firm itinerary but like thousands of others before me I set sail with an eye to adventure and discovery.
It was a full moon party in the small island of Culebra in 1993 when my destiny was cast. As I raised my glass of rum to the full moon rising on the horizon to the east I was blinded by the moon’s light reflected by the prism in the bottom of my glass. As I lowered the glass from my lips I realized that although I loved the rum I was drinking I knew little about how it was made or what made the myriad of rums that I had been enjoying so enjoyable.
A few days later I set sail to head south through the islands toward Trinidad where I would spend the approaching hurricane season. Over the course of the next two years I compiled the text of Rums of the Eastern Caribbean. That was followed two years later by another edition of that book and a contract with a Chicago publisher for The Complete Guide to Rum which was later translated to German.
It was about that time that the internet became more than science fiction for most people who didn’t live on boats. The Ministry of Rum was first published on the internet in 1995 as a simple list of islands and their rums. The next website generation was designed by a friend who added a database so visitors could search for their favorites.
In 2005, I began the daunting task of learning PHP and mysql to build the website that has become the most credible source of information about sugar cane spirits on the internet.
Today I’m working hard as a sugar cane spirits importer and consultant to the industry I love. In addition to several sugar cane spirits festivals held around the country, I also work with a number of importers training their brand ambassadors on the intricacies of sugar cane production and the process of taking this tall grass and making it into the bottled spirits we enjoy.
If you have more questions, feel free to send me an email using the link at the bottom of this page.
All the best,
Edward Hamilton
