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| Bay rum trees in a shady grove |
Your nose has direct links to two brain areas strongly
associated with emotion and memory – the amygdala and hippocampus. As a result
smells are processed very differently than information coming in from vision,
touch and sound. When recalled, they are also much more likely to produce a
feeling of being transported back to another time and place.
When I first smelled the bay rum leaves myself, I had a
sudden image of my father in New York in the early 1960s, freshly shaved and
dressed in his suit, leaning down to kiss me on his way off to work in the
morning. Bay rum was used to make a very popular aftershave lotion.
As it turns out, leaves from trees cultivated on St. John
were the source of almost all the bay oil used to make the aftershave lotion,
which became an important export business. The soil and climate here supported
large groves of bay rum trees that produced exceptionally fine oil. An article
posted on the St. John Historical Society website reports that in the early
1900s about 4000 quarts of bay oil per year were produced on St. John.  |
| At the March 2016 St. John Historical Society event, Eleanor Gibney provided a display of bay tree leaves and old time bay rum bottles. |
You can see the remains of a commercial bay rum distillery
across the road from the entrance to Cinnamon Bay beach. Along the nearby loop
trail into the forest there are many of the fragrant trees, easily
recognizable by their distinctive bark that looks like a cinnamon stick.
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| Photo of a bay rum distillery on the St. John Historical Society website |
A company on St. Thomas still produces ‘St Johns Bay Rum’ in
bottles covered with woven palm fronds, though most of the oil is now produced
on Dominica.
As part of the Unitarians’ Tree Appreciation Project, my
friend Jim Wilcox decided he would grow a bay rum tree at home in a pot. He recalled
going on a guided hike at Cinnamon Bay and enjoying experiencing the smell of
the crushed bay rum leaves there for the first time. He also decided to make
his own aftershave lotion.
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| Jim Wilcox with his baby bay rum tree |
He found a simple recipe on a website called ‘The Art of
Manliness’.
Bay Rum Aftershave4 ounces vodka
2 tablespoons rum
2 dried bay leaves (Pimenta racemosa)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 stick of cinnamon, broken in pieces
Fresh zest from a small orange
Combine all ingredients in a bottle or jar with a tightly
fitting lid. Put the closed container in a dark, cool place (not in the
refrigerator) for two weeks. This allows the alcohol to extract the essential
oils from the bay leaves. After two weeks, strain the mixture through several
layers of coffee filters. Put in a nice bottle and splash on face after
shaving.
The website states that “The history of bay rum is as manly
as it smells.” Their story is that sailors in the 16th century used to rub
themselves with West Indies bay leaves to mask the stink they acquired after
months at sea. Then some sailor got the idea of steeping the bay leaves in rum
to extract the essential oils and make an easy-to-apply fragrance. (I have to
think the ladies in port were very grateful for that.) Later, the islanders
supposedly began adding spices and orange zest to the mix.
Jim let me try a dab of his home-brewed bay rum lotion,
which felt particularly fresh and cooling behind my ears on a hot afternoon.
Maybe not just suitable for men, I thought.
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| Jim's homemade bay rum lotion |
A second batch he had in the works also included vodka as a
main ingredient, plus the bay leaves and rum, but he had added more spices and
orange zest. It was wrapped in athletic socks to keep out the light, and stored
under the counter. This reminded me of the bottle of ‘glugg’ my Swedish father
kept under his desk at home. Not surprising, since glugg is a mix of wine and
aquavit (a Norse liquor which, like vodka, is distilled from grain or potatoes)
plus cinnamon, cloves and orange peel. Probably the alcohol smell would mellow
by the time it was ready to use, though if not, maybe that would add to its
‘manly’ allure.
