Historically speaking, what was the most important beverage in the caribbean, believed to have originated in barbados?

"Rum" was the most important beverage in the Caribbean, believed to have originated in Barbados.

The first refining of rum occurred on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. Plantation slaves initially found that molasses, a byproduct of the sugar refining process, could be aged into liquor.