Mixologist Rhea Cox Is Stirring Up History at Liquid Gold Feast

Think you know what a rum cocktail tastes like? Rhea Cox would quite like to hear your answer. Sweet, perhaps. Fruity. Something tropical with a garnish you have to negotiate before you can take a sip. She has a few ideas that might give you pause.

One begins with cinnamon, ripe mango and a gentle suggestion of smoke. It is called Burn Mr Harding, and she is preparing it for Liquid Gold Feast on Sunday 8 November 2026. Before the glass reaches your lips, there is already something to be curious about.

The name reaches into Barbados’ Crop Over traditions, recalling the burning of an effigy known as Mr Harding. For Rhea, that history offers a way to explore hardship, hope and renewal through the evening’s theme, “These Fields and Hills”. Smoke and sugar cane syrup help make the connection. Mango brings a familiar sweetness, while the rum has a very particular job to do.

“I chose Mount Gay Black Barrel because its toasted oak character and warm spice notes complement those flavours beautifully,” she says.

Her description promises tropical fruit and warm spice, with a little earthy bitterness and refreshing acidity to keep the palate interested. The mango is part of the pleasure, with other flavours unfolding around it. This is a drink she wants you to notice, from the first aroma to the taste it leaves behind.

“It’s my interpretation of a piece of our cultural heritage, told through aroma, flavour, and a little nostalgia.”

For anyone deciding which station to visit at the Barbados Food and Rum Festival’s grand finale, that sounds like a good place to start.

Rhea’s fascination with rum began with a question. How could similar raw materials produce spirits with such different personalities? Following that curiosity took her deeper into production, ageing and the way people perceive flavour. She wanted to understand what she was tasting and why it tasted that way.

Then she began sharing what she had learned.

“Watching someone’s perception of rum change through a tasting was incredibly rewarding,” she says. “That’s when I realised my passion wasn’t simply for rum itself, but for creating experiences that allowed others to discover and appreciate it.”

She has spent more than a decade developing that knowledge, with years at Mount Gay delivering tastings and cocktail experiences. Her qualifications include the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 3 Award in Spirits. The technical understanding matters, but the moment she keeps coming back to is a person discovering something they had not noticed before.

Take her interest in aged rum and blue cheese. It may not be the pairing you would reach for first. Rhea finds that the cheese’s richness and saltiness soften the perception of alcohol, allowing the rum’s fruit characteristics to become more pronounced. The pleasure is in how the two change each other. It gives you a sense of the thinking behind her cocktails, where a small adjustment can open up a different flavour entirely.

Festival patrons have already had a taste of that approach. In 2024, she won the Gold Coin Challenge after creating Smoke ’N’ Passion and Sweet Psidium. The first paired Mount Gay XO Triple Cask with passion fruit infused with ginger, roasted barley orgeat, rosemary, Clayton’s Kola Tonic and cigar smoke. The second brought Mount Gay Black Barrel together with guava, black tea infused with sorrel, pineapple and warm spices.

Rhea believes Smoke ’N’ Passion was the standout. It captured her interest in contrasts and in a cocktail whose appeal begins before the first sip. Winning was a proud moment, an opportunity to show what Barbadian rum could do in imaginative company.

This year’s mystery selection gave her mango and basil. Neither startled her. Both presented a different challenge. When people already know an ingredient well, how do you make them taste it afresh?

“Sometimes the greatest creative challenge isn’t working with unfamiliar ingredients, but finding a new perspective on the ones we already know.”

Burn Mr Harding offers a preview of her answer. She is keeping the full experience for the evening, so there is still plenty to discover when you reach her station. Ask her about the name. Let the cinnamon and smoke arrive before you sip. See where the mango takes you.

Liquid Gold Feast begins at 7 p.m. at CARIFESTA House, Waterford, as the festival closes its 5 to 8 November celebration. In the month Barbados marks 60 years of Independence and five years as a republic, Rhea’s contribution finds inspiration in a tradition from the island’s past and gives guests a fresh way to encounter it.

Her favourite response would be a simple one.

“I didn’t know rum could taste like that.”

You may arrive with your usual order in mind. Leave a little room for Rhea to change it.