Rum punch is a part of Caribbean culture; a concept that US-based businesswoman Mariam Fedai understands all too well.
Fedai has travelled extensively throughout the region, picking up a little more than sun, sea and sand along the way. Last year, the CEO of LuxeLink Beverage Company launched a product that was inspired by her love for the Caribbean and fresh fruit cocktails: LinkUp Rum Punch. She is now working on introducing the cocktail to the same region that sparked its formulation, with a special emphasis on T&T.
“So it is an all-natural, ready-to-drink (RTD) rum punch I formulated in the US,” Fedai told Guardian Media.
LinkUp Rum Punch, she explained, is a shelf-stable blend of all-natural tropical fresh fruit juices, rum, and Bitters, with 20 per cent alcohol. It was featured as one of BevNet’s new RTDs in October 2025. BevNet is a media company and news source for the beverage industry.
“LinkUp is a clean product. There’s Caribbean rum in there, there is Angostura Bitters, another link to Trinidad. I like to pay specific homage to Trinidad, because of my link through my daughter,” whose father is Trinidadian.
The product was launched in the US in 2025 and she is now working her way down the Caribbean to try to give people from the region access to it.
“I’m targeting duty-free shops and on-premise accounts such as hotels and restaurants, and forming partnerships that make sense to grow the brand.”
The product has been granted all the necessary approvals to be sold in the US, and she is working on getting the respective approvals from the islands in which she plans to retail it.
“You know, there’s a process that we’re undergoing right now.”
Fedai has been in the alcohol and beverage industry for a number of years, working closely with some of very prominent people in the industry in the US.
“And one could say I learned a lot about the industry by sitting and watching how they ran the companies they ran.”
So when the opportunity for her to start and run her own small alcohol and beverage business presented itself, she already knew what was required.
“So every Fourth of July I would have 100 to 150 guests at my home, and I would cook tonnes of food, and I would make fresh rum punch. And when Covid-19 hit, people used to ask me for bottles of rum punch, and I would be like, ‘oh my God, guys, this is not for sale.’”
But eventually, her rum punch found its way into fetes thrown by promoters from T&T, and the response to it was “overwhelming.”
“Kes the Band members and DJ Private Ryan were some of the very first people who tasted my rum punch…And I will tell you, the Trinidadian people gave me the courage to really put it out there, and just formulate it, and put it out there on a large scale.”
The company was two years in the making and she put in the start-up capital from her own pockets.
“This company was 100 per cent started by me and owned by me. I am now in the seed funding phase in order to scale internationally,” Fedai said.
She said it is usually very difficult to formulate something that’s natural and keeps shelf-stable, but she worked hard on her formula until she found the “magic.”
“LinkUp is shelf-stable for two years. It contains 21 different ingredients, contains all tropical fruits that you can imagine, it’s a clean product, it’s gluten-free.”
On her visits to the islands, Fedai always insists on having fresh fruits in whatever she is drinking, and wants the same experience for her customers.
“I think that that’s one of the beautiful things about when you come down to the islands; the bounty of fresh fruits, the ability to have what’s made freshly grown on the islands. And that’s the experience I personally want to have, no matter where I am having a drink. So that’s part of the reason I created the drink as well.”
She said because it is natural, it attracts adults of all ages, and what some people particularly like about the product is that they can simply shake it up, pour it over some ice and drink it.
“In fact, my target demographic is wider than most RTDs because it is right in the middle in terms of alcohol by volume; 20 percent.”
Part of her marketing and promotional plan is to “link up” with people from the entertainment industry in T&T and network to expand her reach in the island’s cultural landscape.
The product is sold in New York, New Jersey, Florida and California, with plans for New Orleans and Atlanta, Georgia, this year.
In the Caribbean, she said, “We are targeting in preparation for Tobago Carnival as the go-entry date.”
Fedai said so far, it’s only the original formula that’s on the market, but the company is working on launching a canned version, and later, a different flavour.
