Shaking Up The American Rum Market

it all started one evening in 2010, when Pat Powers was once sitting around with his two brothers, Brian and Jim, sipping rum and remembering their dad, who’d passed away just a month previous.

though they have been three Irish-americans from Chicago, the location for this household bonding used to be Pat’s finca simply out of doors of Medellin, Colombia (“finca” means farm, however in modern Colombia the term on a regular basis refers to weekend properties within the u . s . a .). Pat’s finca, he notes, was once somewhat different than most: Its previous proprietor was once the drug lord Pablo Escobar. Legend has it that the locals tore apart the walls after Escobar’s death in 1993, attempting to find hidden gold. Pat made his personal modifications, too: He turned Escobar’s non-public bullfighting ring right into a soccer pitch for his children.

Powers pere had been an entrepreneur, and the brothers all were, too: Jim had started a record label, Brian had started an advert company, and Pat had been working for the household pipeline industry most of his existence, aggressively attempting to find opportunities. It was once that work that introduced him to Colombia in the first location, in 1994, as the u . s . was once in the middle of a violent struggle to fill the ability vacuum left with the aid of Escobar’s demise. Powers was once looking to extend his business in a extra standard way, chasing a just right deal at an iron foundry.

That day in 2010, the Powers brothers had been speaking about how their dad had all the time wanted them all to start a industry together, but they’d by no means obtained around to it. Pat particularly remembered that he’d needed it to be one thing enjoyable, like owning a bar. because the night wore on, they started to assume, neatly, we’ve all acquired complementary skills—why don’t we are attempting doing one thing collectively? They kicked around a couple of ideas—a leather-based business, perhaps?—earlier than they appeared down at their glasses and stated, What about rum?

“That set the wheels turning,” said Jim Powers, “and actually, over the route of a couple of hours of dialog, we said, ‘Let’s do it! We should create our own rum.'”

It was once a super plan. except, after all, that none of them knew anything else concerning the spirits industry.

The prior two decades, americans were studying how one can drink. Craft beer production rose 16% from 2013 to 2014, in line with data from the Brewers affiliation, and made up more than 10% of the general market, a benchmark it first reached in 2013. gross sales of distilled spirits were growing in the usa for 18 straight years, in step with data compiled via the Beverage information & Insights staff, an impartial trade research organization. In 2014 alone, american citizens spent $77.four billion on spirits, a 57% raise in a decade.

so much of this growth is in American whiskeys and tequilas, where a movement faraway from mass-market manufacturers and to smaller labels, with a larger emphasis on flavor and craftsmanship, has been below means for a few years. briefly, american citizens have gotten extra involved in drinking and less interested in getting under the influence of alcohol.

while sales of rum in truth declined by using about 1.5% in 2014, the Powers brothers really feel it’s due for the same revitalization that moved shoppers (or at the least prestige consumers) from Smirnoff to grey Goose and from Jose Cuervo to Patrón. “When looking on the spirits market, the closing one to no longer have a push into the small top rate producers was once rum,” stated Pat Powers.

“ahead of the tequila boom in the U.S., I realized whereas residing in Guadalajara [in the early ‘90s] that Mexicans drink tequila like a fine whiskey or brandy,” he endured. “It was a sipping drink, now not the tequila popper or mixer drink like we did in college. Rum is supposed to enjoyed neat or on the rocks like we do whiskey, not as a mixer.”

Grayum Vickers, a certified sommelier and bartender at new york’s fashionable NoMad resort (author’s be aware: he’s additionally my cousin), consents. “the object is, people get so became off by rum for the reason that market is so overpopulated with garbage,” he stated on a latest night. “however in point of fact excellent rum is tremendous excellent and multiple.”

5 years after their brainstorming session, the Powers’s product, Parce Rum, is profitable awards, including perfect Rum, highest Aged Rum, and very best of show Aged White Spirit (all at the San Francisco World Spirits competition, the most important, most influential international spirits competition in the us). So how did three white guys from Chicago means making one in every of Colombia’s best possible new rums?

taking note of the Colombian manner of creating and drinking rum was once crucial. as a substitute of constructing a rum for american citizens, they made a rum for Colombians. What’s extra, they adopted the lead of Colombian experts on what makes a super Colombian rum.

After a couple of 12 months and a 1/2 of taking a look, the Powers brothers found Arthur and Brojen Fernandez-Domecq, a father and son group of grasp blenders. The rum they produce, currently available in eight- and 12-12 months aged types, is a blackstrap rum made from a proprietary mix of Colombian, Trinidadian, and Panamanian sugarcane. It’s then delivered to Colombia, the place it’s aged in whiskey barrels, blended, and bottled. surprisingly for Spanish-style rums, every drop of Parce is the age it says on the bottle. Most different Spanish rums use what’s referred to as a solera gadget, the place more moderen rum is put into the getting older barrels to exchange what evaporates out.
 
beginning a spirits business, the Powers brothers found, wasn’t particularly easy. but they divided their work by way of talent units.

Jim, whose document label Minty recent specialised in finding indie bands from far-flung nations and releasing their work in the U.S., thinking about the firm’s ingenious course—how could they make it attraction to the appropriate market? Brian, the former ad man, introduced in investors. Pat, who’d been residing and dealing in Colombia for 20 years, enthusiastic about figuring out the details of importing and exporting. “Its more or less outdated hat to me,” he mentioned, “whether or not it be iron castings, rubber gaskets, ladies’s lingerie, or rum. all the same.”

still, little things had been tough. Jim spent two years working with a clothier just to give you the bottle. Even picking a reputation used to be complicated and drawn out.

“Our first identify was once going to be Bacano,” mentioned Brian Powers. “that means like cool, hip [in Colombia]. if they like one thing, they are saying, ah, bacano!” however then they started to fret that bacano used to be too just about Bacardi. “Then we went with Parcero, which is basically the Medellin identical of ‘bro,'” he continued, “however in the eleventh hour, proper sooner than we had been going to advance our bottles, we obtained a name from anyone that stated it was once too as regards to their identify, some other rum. So we changed to Parce,” a shortened version of parcero. “after all, Parce—it is easy to assert, it’s cool, it can be quicker, it’s more memorable. And i think like we settled on precisely the title we will have to have.”

Parce is at present to be had in a few hand-chosen markets: the big apple, Chicago, Seattle, Colorado, and still rising. The Powers brothers credit score all of it to the one man who didn’t get to look it come together: their dad. “Parce is pretty much Dad’s concept, individually,” mentioned Pat Powers. “Dad would more than likely say to us, ‘Guys, go pound the pavement and get promoting. You boys have an ideal product—however don’t ever put out of your mind, there is all the time anyone else at the back of you who desires it extra.”