Rum Jumbie Liqueur makes a brilliant promise : Drink it and you ’ll dance all dark . It is named for Caribbean ghosts , which , consort to legend ( by way of the brand ) , guard a hush-hush rummy formula in a cave on an undisclosed island . If disturbed from their slumber by imbiber seeking recreation , the jumbies ( or “ jumbees ” ) make the offenders trip the light fantastic all night to the metre of conga membranophone . allot to the Rum Jumbie web site , the modern cordial is based on this same , mythic recipe and , the brand title , by drinking it you may “ awake the ‘ Rum Jumbies ’ from years plump by . ”
Challenge accepted . I vowed to drink of the Jumbie and see what happened . Would sip on Jumbie call forth the eponymous spirits ? Would they make me dance ? Did the music have to be conga - found or could I prefer for Aretha Franklin or Chance the Rapper ? Would a sip suffice or did I have to drink in the whole bottle to cabal the wraith ? Did jumbies ask a traditional two - footprint or was twerking a possibility ? Was I even subject of twerking ? All would be answered . But first , some background on the spirit ( both alcoholic and ectoplasmic ) I would encounter .
Jumbies
According to theEncyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth , Legend and Folklore , jumbies are vampires who fly about in the dark as ball of ardor , inhabiting victim and drain them of life . Worried one might attempt to suck your lifeforce tonight ? Try rubbing the spirit ’s daytime human “ costume ” with salt or red-hot peppers while the jumbie is away . This manifestly shrivels the skin , allow for the touch with no defence against the fateful sun . Another way to defeat a jumbie is to entrust gobs of Timothy Miles Bindon Rice or moxie outside your abode as a distraction . The feeling will be compelled to numerate every grain like some spectral variation ofRain Man .
Of course , a jumbie ’s favourite pastime is gain the great unwashed dance . English professor Charles Kingsley give an ( highly imperialistic ) description of a Trinidadian “ jumby - terpsichore ” in his 1869 travelling tale , At Last : A Christmas in the West Indies :
“ Martin now began to chant a monotonous African strain , accompanying with the tom - tom . step by step he begin to quicken the measure ; quicker went the words ; quicker beat the drum ; and suddenly one of the adult female sprang into the open distance in front of the Fetish . Round and round she go , keeping admirable metre with the music . Quicker still went the barrel . And now the whole of the woman ’s body seemed electrify by it ; and , as if catching the infection , a man now join her in the sore dance . Couple after dyad entered the orbit , and a rightful sorcerers ’ sabbath set about . ” '
Rum Jumbie
commercialize as “ The Caribbean Spirit , ” Rum Jumbie is bring forth by the Panamanian company Varela Hermanos — better known for it ’s Ron Abuelo rum — and made with a portmanteau of rum from unlike islands . The brand withholds the accurate island from which the formula supposedly grow ( as well as how the distiller themselves overcame the jumbies ) .
Rum Jumbie ’s precise ingredient are similarly kept ambiguous . The drink ’s olfactory organ steer at the inclusion of citrus fruits and Ceylon cinnamon , but taste it yields mostly syrupy caramel and cocoanut . Honestly , the tasting of Rum Jumbie Liqueur is just its primary merchandising point . Its real merit is the bottle , which is shaped like a conga instrumentalist in the style of Aunt Jemima or the dear bear . The shape ’s straw hat even acts as a chapiter . The bottle may or may not be modeled off an literal jumbie , but it sure is an intimidating presence on the kitchen buffet when one is expect spirit to arrive at any present moment .
A Night With the Jumbies
All the sample notes and research in the humans can only educate you so much for a meeting with jumbies , but I was n’t about to back down . So , putting my personal safety and podiatric health on the assembly line , I pop open a bottle of Rum Jumbie . Here ’s how it went down :
3:35 p.m. — First taste at theSupercalloffice . Realize it will be a long dark .
5:15 — Feel no urge to dance .
5:39 — Another full drinking . I assume I have to imbibe a decent parcel of the nursing bottle if there ’s go to be any event . I ’ve reached the bottle ’s upper subdivision .
5:45 — One more for the road . Start to feel the rhythm , until my pernicious terpsichore moves get awkward looks in the lift .
6:02 — Pass a conga actor on the subway platform . No one else seems to notice him , and I begin to interest he is a visual modality . perhaps these jumbie thing are actual . Luckily , he ignores me .
6:43 — Stop by a Jamaican eating place to grab some jerked meat chicken with Timothy Miles Bindon Rice and pea . Ask them if they know much about jumbies ( or " duppies , " as they ’re called in Jamaica , they even up me ) . Neither proprietor has much advice to offer up , but they do witness the Rum Jumbie bottle diverting .
7:14 — Pass a chalk board illustration outside a cake depict a “ cool cat ” diddle the bongo drums with its paws . It ’s not quite congas , but I consider it significant ( proof that the Rum Jumbie is at least affecting my judgement , if not my desire to move it , move it ) .
7:15 — I see an literal cat foil the road and recall recitation that jumbies can take on the variety of a cat . Sprint the sleep of the way home .
7:17 — My lady friend is concerned by my sweaty appearance . I get down to wonder about the forcible impact the sugary Rum Jumbie is having on my athletic ability .
7:24 — set up another drink to brace my nerves and quell the spice of the jerk wimp . I ’m about one - third of the way through the bottle ’s drum .
7:50 — inquiry jumbies further . Learn that commit shoes outside a home ’s front room access will protect inhabitant because the sprightliness has no fundament and will incessantly endeavor to fit into the footgear instead of stalking a dupe . Wonder how such an easily distracted creature could ingrain such fear . Control the impulse to put my shoes out .
8:05 — Make a Jumbie Ambrosia cocktail with Citrullus vulgaris succus and calcium oxide follow the marque ’s formula . Find it satisfyingly summery .
8:07 — Still no itch to trip the light fantastic toe .
8:30 — Ca n’t determine if I ’m getting intoxicated or paranoid .
9:02 — Girlfriend plays theJumanjidrum song very softly to freak out me out . It works magnificently .
9:20 — hear to The Wailers ’ cover of the 1950s song “ Jumbie Jamboree , ” then exchange to the Harry Belafonte rendering “ Zombie Jamboree . ” The latter is lawfully toe - tappingly honorable . Feel the most tempted all night to trip the light fantastic toe , but alas , not quite enough to send me onto the saltation level .
9:50 — Make a nightcap of Rum Jumbie and OJ .
10:17 — glide by out from drinking most of a feeding bottle of Rum Jumbie .
6:30 a.m. — come alive up with no memory board of dancing and no seeable signs of amnesic nocturnal revel .
6:35 — Discover shoes I “ circumstantially ” allow by the front threshold .
So , will Rum Jumbie Liqueur make you dance to the congas all Nox long ? No . But will it make a surprisingly decent Watermelon Cooler ? Yes .
