Passenger Picks "Best of Cayman"

Passenger Pick of the Month Tortuga Rum Company Enjoy this month's Passenger Pick as we explore the story behind the beginning of one of the Cayman’s best known treasures: Tortuga Rum and Rum Cakes. In 1984, while working for Cayman Airways, Captain Robert Hamaty and his wife Carlene, an in-flight supervisor founded the Tortuga Rum Company, Ltd.  They introduced the first rums of the Cayman Islands, primarily to appeal as a souvenir to the growing tourist and cruise passenger business.  The name, Tortuga was chosen from the original name given to the Cayman Islands by Christopher Columbus -- Las Tortugas, the Spanish word meaning turtles -- for all the turtles he saw on the islands’ sandy shores. In 1987, the Hamaty’s opened the first Tortuga duty free liquor store and later that year introduced the now world famous Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake. For years Carlene had baked rum cakes for special occasions, using a four-generation old family recipe.