The history of rum is a colonial past permanently connected to slave plantations, politics and pirates. A Black entrepreneur and recording artist dreamed of setting a new course for rum with Pin Drop Rum Spirits Limited, a spirits company conceived at her kitchen table in Harbour Island.
“We wanted that name to let you know that it comes from this tiny dot in The Bahamas. But also, I envision that wherever the rum is in the world, you’ll see a pin on a map. That works for me,” says co-founder Ithalia Johnson.
Pin Drop Rum is now sold online in the Caribbean and 32 U.S. states. Johnson and co-owners Toby Tyler and Joe Ellison teamed with the Bronfmans, a legendary name in the spirits business, to bring their rum to America in February.
“We needed to be connected to the right image and the right family with the right experience,” Johnson declares.
Friends Formulate a Pin Drop Dream
The idea for Pin Drop Rum Spirits Limited came to Johnson during conversations with Tyler. Her long-time friend and fellow musician was already recognized as a master rum blender.
Ellison had valuable contacts. Together, the three friends decided to start a company that could represent the ingenuity and determination of Harbour Island’s people.
“We had the opportunity. We had the person with experience and the drive to go for it. We needed the next thing, and rum was that for us,” says Johnson.
Harbour Island is often referred to as a pin drop of an island. Best known for its natural beauty and pink sand beaches, the island is three and a half miles long and slightly more than a mile wide.
Johnson’s home, located off the northeast coast of Eleuthera Island, inspired the name for the Pin Drop Rum launched in September 2018.
“For us to know what we had, the first thing we had to do was enter it into competitions. We had to get it out there in Trinidad, Tobago and other places where people know rum,” Pin Drop’s co-owner adds.
Within four months, Pin Drop Rum’s founders knew they had more than a basement hobby with their small-bath dark rum. The new spirit produced from a blend of aged 10 and 12-year-old rums aged in bourbon white oak barrels received rave reviews from the Caribbean Rum Journal and praise from experts.
It holds the 2022 People’s Choice Award for Best Caribbean Rum, the Rum XP Gold/Best in Class from the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival’s International Rum Expert Panel and a St. Barth’s Best New Rum Gold Medal.
Johnson shares what verifying Pin Drop Rum’s quality means to the founders. “It’s confirmation that you are going in the right direction. It’s not a dream. It’s not in your head. People are telling you, ‘Yes, keep going. You have something worth sharing.’ It means respect, and it was important to us.”
By Phyllis Armstrong
