Beer-ology = National Pride

One way Piton supports not drinking and driving?  Piton signage
is presents on all the island’s covered bus depots.  It seems
the U.S. is not alone in blending civic and corporate in exchange
for brand prominence.

Coke may “open happiness” but beer’s better for quenching thirst than sugar water in 85 degree weather with 85% humidity. While Coca-Cola (but not Pepsi or to Wayne’s woe, Coca-Cola’s Mountain Dew, diet or otherwise) is very visible here, U.S. beers are brand lightweights, virtually non-existent in the Caribbean.  Instead, beer brands are for the most part, a matter of local pride.  The winners are obvious, well, usually….

St. Lucia

Piton Beer… on bus stop signs, tavern signage marked by Piton, sometimes with name on the Piton sign.  The Pitons are St. Lucia’s picturesque volcanic peaks.

Martinique

Lorraine Beer (doin’ my Mama proud … see post) … Not sure the significance of the Lorraine for name to Dominicans, but will update this post if I find out with the info)

A sign on a roadside restaurant/bar on the way to
Trafalgar Falls in Dominica

Dominica

Kubuli… need to confirm what that means and update this.

Broader Caribbean

Caribe … they’re the bad-asses who ferociously fought and successfully kept the Europeans at bay when other natives welcomed them with open arms… and like so many natives, paid the price.

Invaders

Heineken is both prominent and ubiquitous (and even part of the MS Word spell check dictionary!), with Coronas a distant second.

Imposters

C’mon…. Tequila is just not
a French booze.  Then again,
“Desperado” sounds much
more like something from
a spaghetti Western supposedly
set in Mexico than a French
elixir.  Ahem, you might however
 have noticed this is .. empty.
Ok, we confess; we like
Desperados.

Desperado… a beer-tequila mix from France. 

Guadaloupe & “The Saints”

We’re in Guadaloupe now.  Thus far, haven’t figured out what “hops,” locally, for here or “Les Saintes” a group of adjacent islands which are part of Guadaloupe, but its own entity as well.