Wadadli Beer

Wadadli is Antigua's home-grown lager and the island's most patriotic drink. Brewed by Antigua Brewery Ltd and launched in 1993, it is a light, crisp, easy-drinking beer made for the heat, the kind you order ice-cold at a beach bar or a cricket match. Its name is the indigenous Arawak/Carib word for Antigua itself, so ordering a Wadadli is about as local as a drink gets.

The standard Wadadli is a clean, refreshing lager; there is also a stronger Wadadli Gold at around 5.6 percent for those who want a little more body. The same brewery also produces regional and international brands under licence, but Wadadli is the one Antiguans claim as their own.

You will find it everywhere from rum shops to beach shacks to the Sunday party up at Shirley Heights, where a cold Wadadli, steel pan, and a barbecue is a near-perfect Antiguan evening. Pair it with a plate of stewed conch or barbecued chicken and you have the local formula for an easy afternoon.

The name is the detail that makes Wadadli more than just a beer. "Wadadli" is what the island's indigenous people called Antigua long before Columbus renamed it, so choosing it over an imported lager is a quiet nod to local identity, and Antiguans notice. As a visitor it is also simply the practical choice: it is brewed on the island, it is everywhere, and it is cheaper than the international brands sold alongside it. Ask for it ice-cold, the colder the better against the Caribbean heat, and you are drinking what the island drinks.