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What’s In A Tree Name?

The Bay tree (Pimenta racemosa), or the West Indian Bay tree, is the source for the essential oil used in the production of Bay Rum (including Turtle Bay Premium Bay Rum products). This Bay tree, a plant in the Myrtle family, is also known as the “Bay Rum” tree, confusing it as the source of distilled rum, the island drink. This has become an acceptable name (especially in the Virgin Islands) because of an early association during the production of rum. However, Bay Rum essential oil is derived from the Bay tree, while distilled rum spirits are a by-product of sugar production (sugar cane, or Saccharum officinarum.) A description of the Bay tree is accurately described on StJohnBeachGuide.com.

Bay Tree Flower

Bay Rum trees are fairly easy to identify. They can be very tall, growing to be as much as 80 feet high, but since the seeds propagate easily under favorable conditions, most established stands contain trees and seedlings of all sizes. As a tree matures, the outer layer of bark peels off, leaving the trunk smooth and shiny with a beautiful blend of brown and tan colors. The trunk is similar in appearance to the guava berry and guava tree, but the leaves of the Bay Rum are distinctive. They’re larger (about six inches long and two inches wide) than either the small-leafed guava berry or the light-green-colored guava and are shiny and blue-green in color. The Bay Rum leaves are also so deliciously aromatic that their fragrance can dominate whole sections of forest. Walking through these areas can be a heady experience.

Bay Tree

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the once-thriving sugar industry all but disappeared on many islands, including the island of St. John, then a territory of Denmark. With little industry left, the islands seemed to enter their “dark ages,” mostly leaving the indigenous population to fend for themselves. St. John had the perfect climate and soil requirements for the Bay Rum trees to flourish. In the 1890’s, the Danish West India Company saw opportunity in St. John, and, in 1903, purchased land at Cinnamon Bay and began growing fruit for export. The shelf life of fruit did not allow for the riches the company sought, but bay oil was a better commodity for export, once the original uses for the oil were rediscovered. Bay essential oil’s roots can be traced back to the early Europeans who used these oils as a fragrance to combat the stench of living without daily showers and in high humidity climates. This practice encouraged locals to improve their own home-based tree cultivation and distillery skills.

Despite the changing times, the oil of bay, extracted from the Bay tree species, still provides the natural essential oil, appreciated for its subtle quality, distinctly superior to overpowering cologne types available today that mimic the aroma through synthetic fragrances.

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Happy 4th of July everyone. Please celebrate safely.

We hope that you all have a wonderful Father’s Day.

Bay Essential Oil (pimenta racemosa) is arguably the richest of bay oils anywhere. Distilled on the island of Dominica, this product represents one of the first shipments arriving in the U. S. since the devastating storms this past year. It has many uses including our finest bay rum. Check out our bay rums as well, one of the only (if not the only) company, that still uses this premium oil in their bay rum.

Our Bay Oil is sourced from the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. Arguably, it is considered one of the best bay oils still crafted in the old-fashioned way. There are no synthetic fragrances, or carrier oils added here to produce our premium pure bay oil.

The West Indian Bay Tree is the source for Bay Essential Oil (pimenta racemosa). This is oil that, after distillation, has many uses in cottage industries that are too many to list. The use most often cited is its major contribution in the making of Bay Rum.

We offer multiple convenient sizes:
-1 oz
-2 oz
-4 oz
-8 oz

Made in the USA

Grab a bottle today!

What is Bay Rum?

The story of Bay Rum begins with the essential oil derived from the leaves of the bay tree growing in the Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica and other islands of the Caribbean. The oil, along with its aroma, is extracted from the crushed leaves by a process of distillation, boiling the leaves under pressure, then allowing the sediment to settle, leaving a pure, fragrant oil that becomes the most important ingredient in what we call Bay Rum today. Early “recipes” were born out of need. The rewards were many to those who used Bay Rum:

The fragrance was an effective “mask” from the odors resulting from island humidity and heat, and shipboard scarcity of fresh water. Island living, even to this day, is not complete without the use of Bay Rum.
Worldwide, in the past century, every barbershop, department store and pharmacy carried this product. During the past half-century, some of the “glamour” of Bay Rum has been lost to the mass marketing of other products.
Today the oil is often used externally in aromatherapy, and for medicinal means in cooling body temperature, treating chills, and relieving body aches. As an astringent, nothing is better at relieving the annoyance of small scratches and insect bites. And this oil is widely used in the manufacture of soaps, candles, and colognes.
The most widely known use of Bay Rum has been as an aftershave product – a fresh aroma without the heavy perfumes used in many of today’s products.

Despite Bay Rum’s exotic origins, our Turtle Bay after shave, fragrance, and shave creams are made right here in the United States. We are confident that trying our Premium Bay Rum products will not only convert your senses to enjoying a more “masculine” scent, but appreciating the history of a product once produced in primitive Bay Rum stills by island-born entrepreneurs before electricity or running.

Interested?

Grab a bottle today, we know you will fall in love.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them.”

-John F. Kennedy

The men in your life deserve the best and this Father’s Day help transport them to the tropics with our premium, natural Bay Rum!

Turtle Bay Premium Bay Rum after shave and cologne is just the thing to transport the men in your life and make them feel cool and refreshed all day long.

Shop direct from our online store at www.TurtleBay88.com!

Whether you need a gift for someone else or simply wish to treat yourself – our affordable and all-natural products will keep you feeling fresh all day long.

We have been offering premium bay rum products since 2011.

Our products are all hand-made right here in the USA.

Make sure to get your Father’s Day orders in early to ensure they arrive to you in time.

Remembering stories my relatives told years ago here: Dirt paths and overgrown bush, no stop lights, not so many people, fewer jeeps and no SUV’s. For a turtle trying to get by (and around), that was helpful. On really humid days, far from the madding crowd, my uncles would stop under a Bay tree just to inhale. This became a way of life. For them, hammocks were not an option. But so many continentals began stringing up hammocks, these contraptions certainly became a point of envy to many of us turtles.

-Ernesto

Hello, Ernesto here.

Sweltering in the sun today. Glad to have a large palm tree and some Bay Rum.

Cheers