Every "Jerk" product (rub, marinade, sauce, you name it) that you will encounter has a claim of 'authenticity' as they rightfully should. That's because the creators have adapted a recipe which may have been passed down for several generations making it and the experience authentic to them and by extension you.
Most of the products available today including ours are most likely today completely different in many respects from the original recipe - be it from the Arawak Indians who first inhabited Jamaica, or from the West African slaves who arrived as part of the Slave Trade and carried their traditions with them.
In either case, with each generation, we can assume that adaptations have been made either due to scarcity, availability, supply or demand of one or more ingredients as taste preferences changed. What we can say, or imply however is that there is a certain flavor profile that all producers have tried to attain or maintain.
So what is the real "jerk marinade/seasoning/sauce" then? What we know for sure is that it is usually a dry but most likely a wet rub that has allspice (pimento), habanero (scotch bonnet) peppers, scallions, nutmeg, and salt among its main ingredients. We also believe that these particular mixtures combined with the cooking style (smoking over pimento wood) served two primary purposes - preservation and flavor.
So why is our Jerk Marinade different? The short tongue-in-cheek answer is that it is authentic. But we have already covered that, and yes ours is authentic to us while preserving that certain flavor profile attributed to jerk style cuisine.
Beyond that, however, here are a few reasons. First, prior to selling our marinade we got many requests from our dinner guests and friends to share our recipe. Second, our household is Jamaican-Indian and so we wanted to introduce our son to the flavors of our culture and to leave for him a template which he could adapt to the future as we have if needed.
