Grenada: The Spice Island and the Carnival That Defines It
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Grenada is called the Spice Isle for good reason: it is the world's second largest producer of nutmeg after Indonesia, and also grows mace, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, and ginger in quantities that make the island's interior smell like a spice market from the moment you leave the coast. The nutmeg tree produces both spices — nutmeg is the seed, mace is the lacy red covering around it. Grenada's nutmeg appears on the national flag, one of the very few flags in the world to feature a specific agricultural product.
Spice Bay rum punch — made with Grenadian rum, lime, nutmeg-spiced simple syrup, and whatever fruit juice is ripe — is the island's signature drink and the clearest expression of how Grenada puts its spices into everything. The rum is produced at the River Antoine Rum Distillery, the oldest functioning water-powered rum distillery in the Western Hemisphere, in operation since 1785 and still using the original production method.
Carnival in Grenada runs in mid-August and is, by the standards of a small Caribbean island, enormous. The festivities include the Dimanche Gras Show — a competition of calypso, steel pan, and costumed groups — followed by the all-night J'ouvert street party and the Tuesday Parade of the Bands. For a population of just 113,000 people, the scale and intensity of the cultural production is remarkable. Carnival is the event that defines the Grenadian year.
