Antigua Distillery

In the early 19th century, the first rums produced in Antigua were concocted by individual estate owners using crude "Pot Sills" to distill their home brews. But even in those rollicking days, Antigua Rum was known for its lightness and rather elegant flavour.

With the demise of of rum production on the estates in the early 20th century, the trade shifted to individual rum shops whose owners concocted their own blends and sold them under colourful names like Red Cock, House and Silver Leaf. In 1932 a number of these rum shop owners joined together to form the Antigua Distillery Ltd.

In the early days, the company sold two types of rum and an aged "mature" rum known as Caballero Rum. In 1934 the Company purchased a number of estates and a sugar factory, and began to produce its own molasses. The factory produced a very high quality and distinctive grocery sugar known as Mucovado.

The residue of this sugar, known as muscovado molasses, contained a wonderfully pleasant sugar flavour and was used to produce the Company's first bottled product in the early 1950s: a unique, full-bodied aged rum called Cavalier Muscovado Rum.