The story of Travellers company has its roots in the 1950s. It was 1953 when Jaime Omario Perdomo Sr. has decided to open a humble bar in Belize City. The majority of his guests have just either arrived or been leaving Belize City so he named the bar “Travellers“. In his bar he offered many varieties of imported liquors, beers as well as local rum. It was very common back in time, that the small bars were making their own rum blends from the local distilleries. Jamie Omario wasn‘t an exception. Over time his products became very popular and sought after which made him to focus on the quality even more. This was the time when he has created the formula for “ONE BARREL“ rum that eventually gained many awards.

Due to the growing competition, it was harder and harder to get the desired quality of the rum bases for the blends (in the 60s and 70s the rum was even imported from Barbados). Because of that Don Jaime Omario joined with Luis Alberto Espat and they had built a distillery in Belmopan town. In 1983, Don Omario has decided to register TRAVELLERS LIQUORS LTD. as a limited company and he appointed his children as the shareholders. In 1989, Mr. Espat decides to leave and sells the distillery to Perdomo family. This is when they gained full control over the whole company as well as the production.

The family then also focused on gradual renovation of the area and modernization of the distillery equipment. The original “Pot still“ distillation equipment was firstly joined with the continuous column still and at the beginning of the 21st century, they have replaced this equipment with continuous triple column still which was brought from the Portales city in New Mexico, USA. Nowadays, they make three marks of the rum. The first one is the neutral spirit with 95-96 % ABV, the second one is 90 % ABV mark used for aging and finally the “high ester“ mark with 85 – 88 % ABV. An interesting fact is that for the fermentation process is used a common baking yeast. The distillery produces about 150.000 liters of pure alcohol yearly and the rum for aging is stored in the distillery warehouses in Belmopan and a part also in Belize City. Blending and bottling take place directly in Belize City. 

Three of Don Omario‘s children currently run the company. The daughters Amanda and Magali are running the company meanwhile the son Myito oversees the production process. Travellers also emphasize supporting the local community and about 70 % of the employees are single mothers. In 2008, they opened a small museum mapping the history of this legendary distillery. 

Please accept our invitation to taste this release that is dedicated to all rum travellers looking for variety, authenticity, and last but not least a unique quality. As it is just this quality that gained the Perdomo family the reputation of a national treasure in Belize.

ERA OF DISCOVERY

Rum Shark brand is proudly introducing the first edition of rums that were aged right here in the Czech Republic. After we managed to secure large amount of rum supplies in Travellers distillery, we shipped them straight to Czech, and let them age in specially chosen casks on the premises of our partner, a very well-known Moravian company – RUDOLF JELINEK. The company, with a history dating back to 1891, offered us their warehouses, qualification, facilities, and knowledge needed for our further steps. These steps are necessary part of the process and cover everything from regular control of the aging process to the bottling of the final product.

This rum was aged in casks after different types of spirits, so we were able to gain a wide range of flavours and aromas. The first two rums were aged in casks after Grande Champagne cognac and after Pineau des Charentes from France. These two spirits belong to French national treasure, and the locals are well proud of them. The casks were crafted from French oak harvested in Tronçais forest in central France. The third bottle in this edition is rum aged in a charred American white oak barrel. We obtained this barrel in Louisville, Kentucky, and it was originally used to age traditional American bourbon with a history dating back to the 1820s. 

The journey of new discoveries we have decided to take does not have an exact direction nor a set goal to achieve. Its purpose and main motivation are the pure desire to discover new aromas and tastes that can be hidden in this unbelievable, colourful world of rum. These bottlings that are part of the „Era of Discovery“ edition belong to our very first with the trace of Czech fingerprints on the aging process itself. We are honoured, and it is our pleasure to offer these bottlings to all the fans and rum explorers like ourselves.