#1 But why, Fred? 02/03/21

I’d been wanting to launch my own spirit brand for a number of years, and adding that philanthropic element just felt right. Something about the (alleged) taboo of alcohol counterbalanced by the morality of charity seemed like an interesting cocktail (haha). But let me start from the beginning.

I’ve worked in hospitality for a good number of years. Most of this as a bartender at the Woolly Sheep Inn, in Skipton. I learnt about everything alcohol, the different types of beer, wine, spirits, and how it affected the drunkards. As a bartender I was on the frontline of beverage sales, able to keep an eye the drinking trends of the time, whilst simultaneously kicking out the unsavoury characters from the establishment. Gin, of course, was dominating the spirit scene at the time with seemingly hundreds of different flavours and variations popping up everywhere. Whilst I do enjoy a good G&T, it wasn’t my scene. I wanted RUM.

Ever since a trip to Barbados with my brothers and our respective partners, rum is all I could think about. An often overlooked spirit, I believe its versatility outshines other spirits like vodka and even gin, which we know has a lot of variations. Rum is commonly aged, spiced and flavoured. It is used in some of the world’s favourite cocktails (think mojito, daiquiri, pina colada, mai tai etc.) and can even be added to your coffee to give it an extra kick on a cold, winter’s day.

The culture surrounding rum on those hot, white sandy beaches of that sunny Caribbean island surrounded by crystal blue waters was also what attracted me to rum. The community gathered, partied and danced with a rum in hand. This was always true on a Friday at Oistins Fish-fry. If there was a place to be on a Friday, then this was it. Now I normally hate fish, but the tuna steaks and swordfish at this thing were some of the best things I have ever tasted, perfectly seasoned and even better when you had the cheapest Mount Gay rum and coke money can buy. But this isn’t some travel/food blog, so let’s get back to the fucking point shall we.

In Barbados we visited a couple of distilleries, namely the Mount Gay and St. Nicholas’ Abbey distilleries. It was fascinating to learn about the processes behind rum as well as the (somewhat dark) history behind it. We were talked through the process from the sugar cane being harvested in the fields, to the refinement of the sugar, to the fermentation and distillation of the mix to produce top quality Caribbean rum, followed by the aging process in ex-bourbon American oak barrels. This was made a lot more fun by the endless supply of rum samples and rum punch. But did make it harder to follow.

Once I returned to grey, cloudy England, I theorised it was about time gin moved over and made room for a more exciting beverage. So, I decided that’s when I would try and do my own endeavour with rum. Of course, I needed a unique selling point which didn’t appear until I went on another trip; this time to New Zealand for a year-long working-holiday.

Naturally, when me and Jess (my partner) moved to New Zealand, we did what we did best: bar work. Jess worked at an upmarket establishment called The Stafford Road Wine Bar, based on the North Shore of Auckland, where we spent most of our free time. I worked 5 minutes down the road at a large, hugely popular pub called the Northcote Tavern (with a brief stint as a barista at a small café). We learnt much more about antipodean liquors here, how the trends were different from the UK. Most of all, we seriously got into wine (of all kinds), New Zealand being a major hub for some of the best wines in the world. None of this eradicated my passion for rum, though. Being in New Zealand did increase by concern for the environment, however. Seeing the amazing natural sites and animal species in the country grew my desire to do something to help the world on the precipice of disaster through global warming. Species were (and still are) being wiped out, the Great Barrier Reef was (and still is) undergoing a catastrophic bleaching event due to changes in temperature and acidity, extreme weather events and forest fires are decimating landscapes, plastic is turning beautiful scenes into garbage dumps.

But what could I do? I’m only one person. I didn’t get the idea to link rum and charity together until I read the book “Chapter One: You Have the Power to Change Stuff” by Daniel Flynn, which is about an Australian company called Thankyou (www.thankyou.co). This company started off by selling bottled water, but the catch is that they donate 100% of their profits to support clean water and sanitation initiatives. I found this book extremely inspiring, and I encourage you to give it a read. They have some truly mould-breaking ideas, for example when I came across this book in an airport bookstore I didn’t know how much it cost. I took the book to the counter to purchase it and I was asked how much I wanted to pay. I got to decide the price of the book! All of the money went to charity, so they didn’t want to put a price on the book that consumers would be forced to pay. They wanted the individual to decide for themselves.

And so the seed of the SSC was formed. I theorised that everyone is naturally selfish. Being selfish would have had its advantages in survival millions of years ago, so natural selection has ensured it is an inherent human trait. Every man for himself, right? In today’s day and age, selfishness is not a socially desirable trait, instead helping others is applauded. “Love thy neighbour”, as they say. But selfishness still appears in its raw form of “I want this so you can’t have it”, or in more subtle ways of us just wanting to feel good, to pump those endorphins, occasionally at the expense of others. Whilst the world may arguably be better off without people’s selfishness (looking at you, fat cats), societal conditions can’t erase millions of years of human evolution.

So meh, why not just accept our selfish selves? Of course this is not an excuse to fuck over everyone else, but to understand that we can’t be perfect. Our duty should always be to help the less fortunate, but naturally we tend to think of ourselves and our own problems rather than other people’s. And that’s okay. We may feel bad from time-to-time for being selfish, but I wanted to end that. There’s no point feeling bad, if you’re trying to help others then its okay to be a bit selfish once in a while and focus on yourself.

So that’s the thought process I ran with: what if it was okay to be selfish? Indulge yourself, drink some rum and have a grand old time. Don’t feel bad for being selfish and enjoying yourself. Wanna know why? Because that rum and coke, rum and tonic. rum and ginger beer (or whatever) that you just bought means we can now give a portion of those profits to a charitable cause, humanitarian, environmental or otherwise. Surely that’s a reason to feel good about yourself, right? That’s what I wanted - an easy way for people to help out in the world, by doing something they enjoy.

And I hope you agree, so that we can all continue enjoying ourselves and still make the world a better place for it. That’s not so bad, is it?

A good ol’ sociable, feel good, charitable drink or two. Or three. Or four…