Island Rum Culture

• 

  By the early 20th Century most of these villages had at least one rum shop. The rum that they sold was made from spirits imported by the barrel from Barbados.
  
  It was aged, blended, diluted and coloured with caramel or prune juice by each rumshop owner, and sold by the glass or by the bottle to the men of the village.

• 

  Rum shops were a natural meeting place for the men of these villages, and the game of dominoes was played with gusto and an energetic banging of tiles on the tables as friendly games were played to an audience, with the names of the losers chalked up on a board for all to see.
  
  Tradition held that the loser bought the next round of rum, so domino games were played with great good will and frequent glasses of rum all round.
  
  Many rum shop owners were Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira.