Rum With a Mission: Rosalie Bay Distilling and a New Idea in Ocean Conservation

Photography © Rosalie Bay Distillery and Oceans Forward Dominica

The advertisement for the Rosalie Bay Rum sounds delicious –

This agricole-style rum is approachable, fresh, and bright, with hints of citrus and a graceful sweetness. The nish is nice and clean, with lingering notes of powdered sugar and lemon grass. A hint of bi er lemon peel gives it contrast and structure.

Rosalie Bay Distillery produces around two thousand bottles of rum annually, and each bottle sold benefits marine life and people whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean.

Based on the Caribbean island of Dominica, known as the Nature Island, the Distillery is a story of innovation and communities working together for people and the planet. It was brought to our attention by Marine Conservation Research Ltd., who operate the wonderful R/V SONG OF THE WHALE. MCR Director Richard McLanaghan introduced us to Jake Levenson, Executive Director of Oceans Forward, a marine conservation organisation that operates the Distillery.

Oceans Forward and their partner organisation Dominica Sea Turtle Conservation Organization (DomSeTCO) focus on research and conservation of sea turtles, whales and coral reef habitats.

Jake and the Oceans Forward team have found themselves in the international drinks business, not to make a margin but to fund their conservation work while helping communities on the front lines of climate change. All the profits from this very good rum support a mission to protect our planet.

^ Simon Walsh, Oceans Forward Director of Coral Restoration

Oceans Forward and DomSeTCO were established conservation operations on Dominica when, in 2017, the island was virtually wiped out by Hurricane Maria. No stranger to fierce storms, this small Caribbean island saw dozens killed and most of its buildings, roads and infrastructure destroyed.

The wild animal population fared no better. Dominica is home to an extraordinary diversity of wildlife, thanks to its rainforest interior and abundant coastal coral reefs. Dominica’s wildlife contend with habitat loss, illegal hunting, pollution and a series of other challenges both, natural and man-made. Maria was the last straw.

For a small Caribbean island trying to rebuild its infrastructure after a natural disaster, infrastructure was the main priority, and conservation efforts had to take a back seat. Fundraising opportunities became scarce. Ecotourism is an important part of Dominica’s economy and helps fund conservation on the island, but in the immediate aftermath of Maria it was all but shut down. Even after the successful recovery, ecotourism faces practical challenges unique to every locale. In Dominica, for example, sea turtles are an ecotourism draw, but their populations are small and wide-ranging, so turtle-based tours are not always a reliable source of revenue.

^ Hawksbill Turtle

The Oceans Forward and DomSeTCO teams also recognised that grants and donations, the primary avenues for conservation funding across the board, tend to be highly variable and are not suited to consistent, long-term conservation efforts. That’s important when conservation goals target long-lived species like whales and turtles (who live for 100+ years) and coral reefs (which can exist for centuries).

^ Processing sugarcane by hand

After months of brainstorming and paper-napkin sketches, Jake and the team came up with a solution to reliably and consistently fund their conservation work. On an island where sugarcane can be readily farmed, rum it was! They set about creating a distillery that was kind to the planet, would engage and employ local communities and importantly, would produce a rum that tasted fantastic.

Dominica’s climate is perfect for growing sugarcane, but the island was never ‘Rum Central’ like some of the other Caribbean islands. Maria swept away the one existing commercial rum distillery on the island, T.S. Erica (now rebuilt and producing classic rum for local distribution). Rosalie Bay Distillery was designed to produce French ‘rhum agricole’, which is distilled directly from pressed sugarcane juice, unlike the better-known classic rum that is distilled from fermented sugarcane molasses. The rhum agricole method is what gives Rosalie Bay Rum its distinct, bright flavour. This conservation directed rum, with the motto ‘Pour to Protect’, has already won medals in US-based spirits competitions.

When the Oceans Forward and DomSeTCO teams hit upon their rum distillery idea, finding enough sugarcane for commercial production was not so easy. Sugarcane farming had waned as a major agricultural staple, so the big task was to engage with farmers to begin planting cane in quantity again. It began with a few pioneering collaborators, farmers who planted sugarcane near remote villages and helped to transport the cut cane over sometimes treacherous mountain and coastal roads, to the distillery in the village of Rosalie, on Dominica’s east coast. Rosalie Bay Distillery’s sugarcane now comes from a network of over 80 farmers in dozens of communities across Dominica.

The rich and varied soils of Dominica allow farmers to grow a range of cane types, each lending notes to the complex flavour profile of Rosalie Bay Rum. But cane alone does not make a great rum! Rosalie Bay Distillery teamed up with Master Distillers from Lyon Distilling in Maryland, USA to perfect their methods and provide expert training for Head Distiller Kernean George.

^ Head Distiller, Kernean George

Kernean and her dedicated staff have mastered the intricacies of the distillery’s modified column-pot still to create one-of-a-kind rums, from ‘clear’ unaged varieties to rums now aging in imported oak casks. Taking a ‘farm to glass’ approach, every bottle is labelled with the name of the village where the sugarcane was grown, along with the names of the farmer who grew it and the distiller who turned it into rum.

^ Burnett Pierre relocating a fragile clutch from rising seas

^ A leatherback hatchling races towards the surf

The drive for conservation is at the heart of everything that Oceans Forward and Rosalie Bay Distillery do. With this in mind, the distillery is designed to keep its ecological footprint small.

^ Fitting a solar-powered transmitter to a rescued juvenile turtle

^ Science meets surgery – tagging an invasive lionfish to track its movements and protect the reef

The distillery currently gets 50% of its electricity from on-site solar panels, and will soon be 100% solar-powered. Rainwater is stored for the dry season, and on-site wastewater treatment produces clean water for irrigation. Rosalie Bay Distillery’s ambition is to make its operations carbon neutral in the near future – and that includes sail-based export transportation to the USA.

^ Oceans Forward’s Coral Rescue Center working to restore coral

We encourage you all to shop for your bottles of this Dominican nectar, and as you raise a glass to the team at Rosalie Bay and savour its unique flavour, remember that there will be whales and sea turtles raising a flipper to you, and the coral reefs around a small island in the Caribbean will be glowing with vibrant colour.

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