Travellers Rum Goes International with Belizean Blue

Today, the Perdomo family, makers or Travellers Liquors, introduced their first international rum at the Travellers Liquors Heritage Museum in Belize City. The new product is the result of a partnership with a European businessman, as News Five’s Marion Ali found out today at the launching ceremony. Here’s that report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Travellers Liquors, a family-run liquor company that was opened by Omario Perdomo in 1953, today introduced its first bottled blend for the international market. Labeled Belizean Blue, the elixir is a mix of rums that are aged for up to seven years, as Master Blender, Jaime “Maito” Perdomo explained.

Jaime “Maito” Perdomo

Jaime “Maito” Perdomo, Master Blender

“We needed to do five or six different samples to send to this guy, Jacko in Europe because he wanted a good blended aged rum. So we looked at the inventory that we had at the distillery and I came up with five or six different blends. And then he picked what is Belizean Blue today. It’s a blend of some of the finest aged rums that we have aging at present right now.”

Perla Perdomo explained that Travellers liquors are well-known in Europe, but the brand was not well-known. She said that a partnership was set in motion from back in 2012 when Jacco Kroon, owner of Seven Thirty-one Fine and Rare Rum Boutique in the Netherlands attended an expo in Europe. And this alliance should help to familiarize Europeans with the Travellers brand.

Perla Perdomo

Perla Perdomo, Spokesperson, Travellers Liquors

“Jacko came to our booth and tasted some of the rums that we had taken there that came out straight from the barrels. We didn’t have blended rums or any of our brands. And he enjoyed the rum but he didn’t approach us about a partnership until a little while later, after we had already gotten into other partnerships and we were already doing private label rums from about five or six different companies in Europe. So in 2019 he approached us because he felt that Travellers was not getting enough recognition as a brand in Europe. So one of the things that he proposed to us is for us to create this brand together.”

Perdomo said that the family decided to also offer the rum on Belizean shelves. But how should this ninety-dollar bottle of rum taste when you pop the seal? Travellers’ Quality Control Officer, Odair Quetzal describes it.

Odair Quetzal

Odair Quetzal, Quality Control Officer, Travellers Liquors

“It’s a signature blend, so it has several different components, all of which are Travellers – what I would refer to as premium products, and just to describe the product a little bit: it’s a dark, aged rum with hints of coconut and vanilla and the taste has a very sweet and spicy aroma among other things. Travellers Aged products have a unique characteristic that because it’s aged and because of the process in fermentation you could always find hints of both caramel and oak.”

The rum’s flavour is one that the company recommends is best appreciated if it is consumed on the rocks rather than in cocktails. This is the preferred taste that Perla Perdomo said people have been choosing in recent times. Marion Ali for News Five.