I've Traveled the World for Rum. Barbados' Historic Stade's Distillery Blew Me Away

From Tasmania and Thailand to Brazil and Brooklyn, I've visited rum distilleries on six separate continents. Rum is a truly global spirit. Unlike other popular categories of liquor, like bourbon, Cognac or tequila, it can be distilled anywhere on earth using nothing more than sugarcane or molasses.

But I've never experienced a rum quite like the one I recently had in Barbados. For that, I can primarily credit the talented tastemakers at the historic, 133-year-old Stade's Distillery. Although, I have to admit the operation's beachside setting certainly helped.

The Long Rum History of Barbados

Truth be told, it's a bit embarrassing how long it took me to finally explore this part of the rum world. It's easy to get to-around four-and-a-half hours on a direct flight from New York's JFK airport-and Barbados is where the modern history of rum begins. The earliest documented reference to the liquor comes from a 1647 travelogue, referring to the native elixir as "rumbullion" or "kill-devil."

"Rum is Barbados, and Barbados is rum," said Alexandre Gabriel, an industry icon who purchased the Stade's West Indies Rum Distillery Distillery back in 2017 through his French-based Cognac company, Maison Ferrand. "This is a country with 280,000 inhabitants, and yet you have more than 1,500 rum shops. They are the places you go, not just to have a drink, but to enjoy a sit-down with friends, to play dominoes and to unwind. It is central to the culture."

The Origins of the Distillery

Since 1893, Stade's has been producing high-quality rums . Back then the distillery was simply known as the West Indies Rum Distillery and it was founded by a German engineer, George Stade, for whom it is now named.

He settled on the site because of its proximity to both a freshwater source, which was a necessity for making rum, as well as to a port where he could readily ship out his liquor to an international market.

The Home of Planteray Rum

I came here because it is where some of my favorite expressions of Planteray Rum are crafted. High on that list is Cut & Dry-that rarest of flavored rums, which is at once exceptional, accessible and award-winning. The secrer to the rum is an infusion of 100-percent fresh local coconuts, some of which Gabriel is farming and cultivating himself.

I knew I'd be able to sample plenty of Cut & Dry, alongside more traditional offerings, on the hour-long tour at Stade's. (Tour are given six days a week and cost $40 per person.)

Touring Pot Still Alley

Before I got to Barbados, was the living history I'd see and sample along the way. Gabriel and his crew of local artisans operate and maintain a set of antique stills, which they refer to as Pot Still Alley. Included among these artifacts is the Rockley pot still, which is the oldest working rum pot still on the planet. It was originally built in the Caribbean in the 1780s. Four years ago, Gabriel refurbished its "elephant neck" using pot still sketches that he discovred from that same time period.

Other relics include the Vulcan Triple Chamber still, the Old Gregg and the John Dore #88. Each device embodies era of rum distillation and produces a vastly different style of spirit. Astonishingly, each one is active and the rum they produce is now going into limited-edition expressions-some of which can be tasted at the distillery's visitor center.

"Barbados is the only country that didn't make a hard choice between pot still and column still," Gabriel explains. "In most other places, when the column still arrived [in the mid 19th century], the pot still was discarded because it was deemed less efficient. But here there was a deep culture of learning about and developing all intricacies of the liquid-it's like a painter that develops different colors for the canvas. If you compare it to art, it's like impressionism. Here you have a Van Gogh of rum; very intricate expressions that allow for depth, complexity and balance that are the result of a culture that values, always, knowledge for excellency."

Helping inform Gabriel's reverence to the past is the brand's expansive archive of recipes, blueprints, and photographs from bygone eras. At Stade's I could see some of these documets prominently displayed in the Distiller's Vault. It is adjoined by a liquid library, of sorts, where antique and vintage bottlings are shelved and admired from afar.

Thankfully, immediately thereafter, I entered a bonded warehouse for a more intimate form of admiration: sampling aged rums pulled straight from the cask. The tasting took place in a dark and moody room, which was enclosed by towering walls of stacked barrels. The tropical aromas of cane-soaked oak sat heavy in the air.

Meeting the Hogo Monsta

Normally the distillery's hour-long tour concludes with a short walk outside as well as an alfresco sampling of four more rums on a patio overlooking the island's Brighton Beach. It's an Instagram-worthy setting, to be sure, but Ramon, my spiritual guru and local guide, explained that there were a few more surprises in store for me.

"We wanted you to be one of the first to try this," he says, gesturing toward an unmarked snifter, filled with a slightly tannish beverage. Before he even handed it to me, I can smell an over-ripened tropical fruit funk permeating the air. "We call it Hogo Monsta. It's the highest ester rum we've ever produced."

He was, in fact, underselling it. The 113.2 proof (56.6% ABV) banana bomb, finished for six months in casks that previously held Ferrand Cognac, is the highest-ester rum commercially available from any producer.

For the uninitiated, esters are organic volatile compounds, formed during fermentation and distillation, that give rum its intensity of aroma and flavor. A particularly rich example of Barbadian rum might clock in at 200 g/HL AA. This one offers ten times that amount. It was launched in the United States this January, where it has a suggested retail price of $55 per 200ml bottle.

"It belts out one hell of an island tune," I croaked to Ramon, grappling with the pungency pummeling my palate. "The only thing that's missing is Rihanna."

"I actually went to grade school with Rihanna," Ramon responded without missing a beat. I couldn't be too surprised with this revelation. This is, after all, a small island nation. One that happens to leave an outsized impression, nevertheless - not just upon the world of rum, but upon anyone who has the good fortune to visit.

"Come on," Ramon said, leading me out of the tasting room with a smile - his rucksack overstuffed with fresh coconuts and a bottle of aged Planteray. "Let's go hit up the rum shops."

This story is part of our new On the Whiskey Trail column, which highlights the best distilleries around the world.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the Drink section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 12:10 PM.