SugarBird Rum Factory, Phillipsburg

History

A few years ago, Mike James and Mac Wingate- Gray came to St. Maarten from Florida and began looking for a marketable product. After an exhaustive search, they decided to make their own. Mac's Scottish ancestors had been making Scotch since the 1700s. After traveling the world in the English Army, he put his skills to work here with help from his friend. Mac's wife, Andrea, descended from a family of wine and spirits makers in Croatia, helps in all aspects of marketing and production. The SugarBird Rum Factory blends fresh fruit, spices, and three Caribbean white rums to make six distinctive SugarBird Rums. These spiced rums differ from most others in the fact that they do not contain any of the fruit or spices in the bottle. Filtering not only helps insure the consistency of every bottle of SugarBird Rum, but reduces the amount of alcohol- soluble, essential oils leeched from the fruit and spices. When the fruit and spices are left in the bottle, these oils may continue to accumulate and, in some cases, may be found on top of spiced rums.