The previously mentioned 2020 Facebook communication and in-depth, in-person conversations with family members about “sweet drink” led to the selection of the individuals who are profiled in this installment. The emerging map indicates that bottling plants have been present in all three of Guyana’s counties at various times during the 20th century.
The current concentration of sweet drink bottling capacity on the East Bank of Demerara is the outcome of the strategic decisions of two of Guyana’s leading private corporations. However, it must be noted that, from 1914 to the 1970s, there were several players in the sweet-drink marketplace. The owners of these establishments are fondly referred to as the Lemonade People. Their importance is not limited to the sweet-drink story. They also played a role in entrepreneurialism and industrialization. As is the case for Wieting and Richter, much has yet to be learned about the Lemonade People. What follows is a contribution to this task.
DEMERARA
Alfred Mohamed
According to Hamid Mohamed, his father, Alfred, entered the sweet drink business in 1935 through a partnership with Mr. Azeez in the Excelsior Soda Factory in Adelaide Street, Charlestown, Georgetown. By 1940, Alfred Mohamed had become the sole proprietor of the Verdun Aerated Water Factory, located at 28 Ketley Street, in Charlestown. The Verdun Aerated Water Factory was founded by Fitzherbert Devonshire, an immigrant from Trinidad. When he died, the factory was operated by his wife, Gertrude Carmen Devonshire, who was also from Trinidad. After she remarried to Arthur Cyril Gibson, she sold the business to Alfred Mohamed, who moved it “just around the corner” to 17 Broad Street where it remained until it ceased operations in 2011.
When Alfred Mohamed died in 1961, the Verdun Soda Factory was one of the leading small-lemonade bottlers in British Guiana. His son, Ayube, took over the reins of the company and, “with much determination, improved the company considerably.” Hamid Mohamed, Alfred’s youngest son, joined the company in 1970. Together with his older brother Ayube, he managed the business until its closure on January 26, 2011.
Over the years, the company changed production technologies, expanded its product line, maintained a loyal customer base, and established a presence in the Guyanese diaspora in New York. This company’s story is a valuable illustration of the Guyanese sweet drink experience, especially its role in the nation’s wider economic, industrial, and technological life. It also provides insights into the Lemonade People, a unique band of entrepreneurs who “faced many challenges and knew how to take care of themselves.”
Mr. DeAbreu
Also located in Georgetown during the 1940s and 1950s was the DeAbreu Aerated Water Factory (Guiana Aerated Water Factory). It was situated “at the southwestern corner of Regent and Albert Streets.” According to Maureen Cuthbertson, the owner of the factory was an affable Portuguese immigrant who spoke Portuguese. She could not recall his first name.
She recalled the presence of other immigrants in the community surrounding Mr. DeAbreu’s factory. She recalled names such as Fernandes, Pereira, Chow-How, and Cheong. The factory, which was part of a lively community dominated by retail commerce, attracted clients from the contiguous wards of Alberttown, Lacytown, and Cummingsburg. The community also included schools, churches, grocery stores, cake shops, milk vendors, black pudding vendors, and rum shops. Mr. DeAbreu’s company bottled small and large lemonades.
Other lemonade bottlers in Georgetown included Bottlers Ltd., located at 56 Durban and Hardina Streets, Wortmanville. In addition to producing lemonades, this factory also bottled Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Unfortunately, the name(s) of the owner(s) are not available. In Robb Street, Lacytown (near Camp Street) was the Atlantic Soda Water Factory, owned by the Lee family. It specialized in small lemonades.
Near the Georgetown Ferry Stelling, at Water and Schumaker Streets, was the Russian Bear Bar. It is remembered as the purveyor of Russian Bear lemonade and one of the best blends of Guyanese rums and. According to Bryan Rodrigues and Michael DeFreitas, other sweet drink flavors were produced under the Russian Bear label. They included “lime juice and soda, sorrel, cream soda, and ginger beer.” Other than sorrel and cream soda, the flavors were “mixers”—flavors to complement rums. The Russian Bear Bar, with its bottling plant, was located in the busy waterfront or dockland area, which was characterized by the thirst-generating manual labor jobs of cartmen and stevedores. We will subsequently discuss some of the reasons why the Lemonade People also bottled other flavors.
Joseph “Yossi” Willems
Joseph “Yossi” Willems’ factory, the Willems Lemonade Factory, was located at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara. His granddaughter, Barbara Malins-Smith, provided the following recollection:
My grandfather, Yossi (Joseph) Willems, owned and operated Willems Lemonade Factory from 1916 until his death in 1963, at Golden Grove E.C.D. I have the best memories of spending August holidays with him at Golden Grove, fascinated by the noisy factory run by an enormous generator, and the conveyor belt moving the bottles of grape, pineapple, strawberry, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit syrup-filled aerated sweet liquid to be sealed and labeled, then packed onto crates, and stacked onto the truck for delivery all along the east coast.
As was the case with other sweet drink entrepreneurs, Yossi Willems had other businesses. He owned and operated one of the first petrol stations in Golden Grove. Willems was also a member of one of the few Jewish families living in British Guiana during the 1940s and 1950s. His granddaughter amplified this in a response to a person who had claimed to be from the only Jewish family in British Guiana during World War II:
I must correct you. Yours was not the only Jewish family living in Guyana (British Guiana) at that time, granted the majority were not religious, but they were Jewish, nevertheless … [There] were the Krawkowski, Van Batenburg …, Kellman, Zitman, Schneiderman, [and] Schwelt families and many more. There were several other families who kept a low profile, as it were, about their Jewish antecedents. They never converted, and many quietly celebrated the high holidays. There were (Portuguese) families, many with Sephardic names, that existed one foot in Judaism and one in Catholicism. Many lit the shabbat candles on Friday evening, and come Sunday, they attended mass. Ironically, today many descendants of these conversios have returned to their Jewish roots and now practice Judaism in countries like Canada and the U.S. Guyana was a magical place for a child, and I am happy to know you carry fond memories of the country, as do I.
H. E. Reis
Another lemonade bottling plant on the East Coast was the Belfield Aerated Water Factory at Belfield. It was owned by H. E. Reis, the grandfather of Clifford Reis, C.C.H., the current managing director of Banks DIH. According to Sir Ronald Sanders, an in-law of H. E. Reis:
[T]he Belfield factory of H. E. Reis, produced small and large (green) bottles of lemonade, as well as soda water, cream soda, a red drink (called “Manpower”) and an orange drink. The ownership of the factory passed from H. E. Reis to his youngest son, Joseph Reis, in the early 1950s.
West Demerara
Hemwant Persaud, recalls a lemonade factory located on New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop. This factory bottled the London Pride lemonade. Bobbi Walker, a niece of the proprietor, remembers a primarily manual operation. For example, she said she enjoyed using flour paste to affix the London Pride labels to the small lemonade bottles. Although defunct, the location, referred to as the “lemonade factory,” is a stop along the local mini-bus route. Gloria Corbin remembered Khan’s Soft Drink Factory at Vergenoegen, West Coast Demerara, and one further up the West Coast of Demerara at Meeten Meer Zorg, West Coast Demerara owned by the Chee-A-Tows.
ESSEQUIBO
Hemwant Persaud recalls a lemonade factory in Affiance, Essequibo. Joseph Holder remembers a lemonade factory on Second Avenue in Bartica, at the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Potaro Rivers, during the 1940s and 1950s:
I think the name of the owner was Khan. It was a small plant in which each bottle was filled by a hand operation. As far as I can remember, it was called lemonade, but the bottle was not labelled. It was probably sold only in Bartica.
BERBICE
Until 2008, getting to New Amsterdam, the capital of Berbice, required taking a ferry from Rosignol on the West Bank of the Berbice River. Participants in the 2020 Facebook conversations recalled a lemonade factory, R. A. Flavors, operated by Mumtaz Ali (Osman) in Rosignol. It remains in operation. However, the oldest bottler in Berbice might have been the Popular Aerated Water Factory operated by Antonio Soares. Based on a bottle bearing the company name and Customs & Excise notices in the British Guiana Official Gazette, it can be concluded that the factory was in operation around 1906.
By the 1940s, Berbice had several bottlers. In New Amsterdam, there was the Excelsior Soda Water Factory (Seabra Lemonade Factory), owned and operated by Roy Seabra. The primary product was “lemonade and, occasionally, cream soda. Like “Yossi” Willems, Roy Seabra also operated a gas station. Another New Amsterdam bottler was the J&D Factory located near to the Town Hall. It was jointly owned by Mr. Jugal Persaud and Mr. Dow. In Rose Hall was the Crown Spot Factory, founded by Persaud Jaijairam in the 1950s. According to a newspaper article:
Persaud Jaijairam started making lemonade on a small scale and used to sell the thirst-quencher on his bicycle, but as the years went by, the business evolved until now the product is sold throughout Berbice. The company has been passed on to Charles Jaijairam, who now manages it with help from his sons.
In addition, in the 2020 Facebook conversations, Gem Madhoo noted that Joe’s Lemonade factory was located at Letter Kenny, a village before Rose Hall, on the Corentyne. Ralph Seeram recalled the competition among the Berbice bottlers: “I can recall the bottle wars between the Berbice factories. Soda bottles were recycled. They used to break up each other’s bottles, so they won’t have enough bottles to produce soda plus driving up their costs.”
As has been presented, the Lemonade people and their community-based bottling plants were located in urban, rural, and hinterland areas in all three counties. In addition to the use of the iconic brown and dark green 6 oz bottles, there were technological similarities. They all might have started with manual equipment and subsequently mechanized their operations. We will explore this production history in the next installment.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Pappanah, D. “Rose Hall Town.” Stabroek News, June 24, 2012. Available online at: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/06/24/features/rose-hall-town/?fbclid=IwAR0vLOgIj3NaXuBYPsyO_r6QVwhwWvpJeLbwqqfA7FSoQ4a0Ug994wktX70. Accessed, June 28, 2012.
Cambridge, V. Facebook conversation, “The Geography of ‘Sweet Drinks’ in Guyana” launched April 21, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/vibert.cambridge/posts/10157045271290849?comment_id=10158058760755849¬if_id=1624887773436591¬if_t=feed_comment&ref=notif
