The Caribbean Bartender of the Year 2025: Kendie Williams, Nevis 

The journey of the bartender in the last few decades has been an evolution. Bartenders have become more than crafters of cocktails: they are storytellers, they are artists, they are ambassadors. 

That’s nowhere more true than in the Caribbean, where the greatest bartenders are able to expertly weave the region’s dynamic diversity of ingredients, centuries of rum-making tradition and kaleidoscopic culture into a curated experience for their guests. 

And that brings us to this year’s Caribbean Bartender of the Year, the first two-time recipient in the history of this honor: Kendie Williams, the legendary mixologist from the island of Nevis. 

Kendie has long stewarded Mango at the Four Seasons Resort Nevis, the resort’s most stunning setting and its beloved oceanfront bar with her beloved “Kendie creations.” 

The goal, Williams tells Caribbean Journal, is to convey her love of rum to guests, whether it be in a marvelous tamarind-rimmed take on rum punch to a classic rum tasting featuring everything from the El Dorado range of Guyana to favorites like Zacapa XO or crowd-pleasers like Diplomatico Reserve Exclusive. The well-curated bar has a lovely assortment of rare expressions like Martinique’s J Bally and even a resort-exclusive Foursquare bottling. 

Williams’ passion for rum is palpable; you might be surprised how few bartenders even at top hotel bars in the Caribbean are true rum connoisseurs. For Williams, rum is a calling. And that instantly becomes clear to her patrons: the Kendie’s Kick, with rum, vanilla rum, passionfruit tamarind and lime; or the Spice Island Turtle, with Naked Naked Turtle Rum, Rosemary, Mango, Hot Sauce, Lemon, Caribbean Jerk Spice. They’re all fun, they’re all marvelously balanced and they’re all endlessly satisfying. 

But it’s not just the sipping. Her cocktails are truly world-class, each as inventive and delicious as the last, all emphasizing the magnificent local ingredients that grow in the island’s rich volcanic soil. 

At the bar counter at Mango, looking out to the towering silhouettes of St Kitts across the narrows, Williams has cultivated an unforgettable experience. 

It’s a model for bar programs across the Caribbean, and Kendie is in the pantheon of the region’s greatest mixologists. And that makes her our Caribbean Bartender of the Year for 2025.