TORTUGA Rum Cakes continues to make inroads into the US market via a prime position on the popular US television shopping channel, HNS, with its next appearance set for this Monday.

The Caribbean product will be featured on the Summer Food Celebrations segment at 10:00 am (Eastern Standard Time) hosted by Brett Chuckerman, as well as at 4:00 pm with Suzanne Runyan, according to a news release yesterday..

“Tortuga has participated in five shows over the last 40 days grossing approximately US$3,000 per minute in sales. The growing popularity of our products is really encouraging,” said Marcus Simmonds, CEO of Tortuga International Limited.

“With a viewership of 90 million households, this medium continues to provide great exposure for us. It is no surprise that Tortuga Rum Cakes has been voted as a customer pick on numerous occasions. I look forward to seeing more Tortuga products added to many more of the HSN shows. In fact, this could potentially open up doors of opportunity for other Caribbean brands to market to a large number of shoppers through one medium,” Simmonds said.

Feedback has been positive, with HSN customers reviewing and ranking Tortuga Rum Cakes as a ‘Customer Pick’ with a 5-star rating.

“The quality is exceptional…it’s like going to the islands minus the airfare. So instead of hauling them from my vacation, I’ve simply stocked up via HSN,” said a customer from Missouri.

Representing Tortuga Rum Cakes on the show will be Monique Hamaty-Simmonds, director of Brand Development, Tortuga International Holdings Limited, producers of the Tortuga Rum Cakes.

Tortuga, founded by Jamaican pilot Robert Hammaty and his wife Carlene in the Cayman Islands, has become a best seller to the tourist trade, particularly cruise ship passengers. The company, which is now majority-owned by Jamaica Producers, also produces three products for the Florida tourism market — A Taste of Florida — orange rum, Key Lime rum and coconut rum flavours.

The rum cakes actually contain less than half of one per cent alcohol, so “If you are feeling tipsy after enjoying our rum cake, you are simply high on our delicious taste of the islands,” according to the Tortuga website.