Old Jamaica

Old Jamaica

Old Jamaica Ginger Beer is the best-known and most authentic Jamaican ginger beer in the world – a non-alcoholic soft drink from the house of Desnoes & Geddes, the Jamaican beverage pioneer founded in Kingston in 1918 and also known as the producer of the world-famous Red Stripe lager. The story of Old Jamaica Ginger Beer begins in the late 1920s, when Desnoes & Geddes first produced their characteristic ginger beer at their Surrey Brewery in Kingston – brewed with genuine Jamaican ginger root extract that gives the drink its unmistakable, fiery and spicy kick, which immediately and unmistakably sets it apart from mild ginger ales and generic ginger drinks. For five decades Old Jamaica remained a Caribbean insider drink, before it was introduced to the British market in 1988 and quickly rose to become the best-selling ginger beer in the country.

In 1999, Desnoes & Geddes sold the soft drink side of its business to the Pepsi-Cola Jamaica Bottling Co., which has since produced the D&G brands under licence, while Old Jamaica Ginger Beer is bottled in Great Britain by Cott Beverages Ltd. What never changed throughout all of this is the unmistakable character of the drink: the sparkling, golden appearance, the intense, fiery and spicy ginger root aroma, the powerful, warming and not overly sweet palate with a long, pleasantly sharp and tingling ginger finish that makes every sip a small Caribbean moment of experience.

As the undisputed flagship of Jamaican ginger beer culture and the ideal companion to dark rum, gin and Caribbean cocktails – particularly in the classic combination as a Dark 'n' Stormy – Old Jamaica Ginger Beer stands for the unadulterated, characterful and authentically Caribbean alternative to generic ginger ales and mixer drinks, proving for over a century that genuine Jamaican ginger and artisanal beverage culture form a combination that is second to none anywhere in the world.