As a tot my grandfather’s farm workers would gather in the evenings, drinking white rum and singing work songs ... my treasured mento is a knock-off of calypso. So let me try to set the record ...

Other cocktail historians trace the origin to the Prohibition era while others recognize calypso singer Dottie ... liqueur made in Barbados with white rum and coconut flavors.

Rum & Coca-Cola burgeoned on the Port-of-Spain waterfront in 1943. Its composer was a stocky Negro calypso singer named Rupert Grant, known for professional purposes as “Lord Invader.” ...