Rum on the rocks

We make it, we drink it and celebrate life and death with it: rum is the fulcrum around which TT life revolves. Some say King rum might be facing a real threat from Ready-to-Drink alcoholic beverages (RTD’s) or flavoured alcoholic beverages —  brews that come with alcohol as a base: Smirnoff Ice, Rush, XS and Red Square.

With these RTD’s nipping at rum’s heels, some say that over the last few years, the society of rum drinkers, while not dwindling, is not growing. On the other hand, RTDs have caught the younger market and are gaining ground. According to those on the ground — the bartenders, party planners and the drinkers themselves, rum is losing the followers of its kingdom. As they put it, it started three years ago, when a revolutionary new drink called ‘Rush,’ an alcohol-based drink in a variety of fruity flavours, hit local bars. Thereafter, a new trend of ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages (RTD’s) emerged causing quite a stir on the local party scene and TT’s drinking landscape. After Rush, came ‘XS’ and ‘Smirnoff Ice,’ alcohol-based drinks  that put rum on the run  and in the process, created a new breed of social drinkers. But the rum producers insist that the market has not shrunk. At Angostura, one spokesperson for the company said rum sales have not fallen over the last couple of years. However, the company did admit that the RTD market has been growing dramatically. Angostura is the same company that started the trend with with Rush.

Gabriel Faria, Head of Marketing for Angostura said the company’s rum sales have been growing over the last two years. As far as he is concerned RTD’s have not impacted on rum sales in anyway. “RTD’s are phase drinks. People drink it for a while and then move onto something stronger,” said Faria. He said RTD’s have affected the beer market more than the rum market locally, since beer is considered an RTD also. The company’s premium brands like 1919 and Royal Oak have been picking up in sales, said Faria, and this is an indication that the market is not on the decline. He agreed with the bartenders and the drinkers that rum is a niche market and those who drink it hardly change. “You cannot determine that the rum market is declining from parties only. You have to go to the rum shops and see, because this is where the traditional rum drinkers are,” said Faria. He added that while RTD’s are becoming a transition drink for younger drinkers, it also has the added benefit of being a mixer. “People are mixing the RTD’s with puncheon rum and forest rum. As for Rush, it has a small target market and people are using it as a mixer in most cases,” said Faria. Caroni Rum Distillers has been a long time producer on the market. The company is well known for rums like White Magic, Felicite, Old Cask, Puncheon and Stallion Puncheon, Creole Rum Punch and Caroni Bay rum. As a result, the future of rum lies partly in their hands.

But with the company going through its restructuring process,  Managing Director, Ansuaph Ghany, said he preferred not to comment at this time. “People are not into rum the way the older generations used to be. The RTD’s are taking over from what we can see, especially Smirnoff. I think it is because of the foreign appeal of the drinks, people are being drawn into the advertising and the packaging,” said one bartender from South Trinidad. According to this bartender, traditional rum drinkers are loyal to their drinks, but younger drinkers tend to follow the trends as they come. “I don’t know if taste has a lot to do with it. In terms of choosing between RTD’s, taste plays an important role, but between rum and RTD’s I don’t see it as a factor. “People who drink rum, drink rum and tend to stick with it, whether they like the taste of RTD’s or not,” he said.

According to an events co-ordinator at Anchorage and Tsunami night clubs, people’s drinking habits can be hard to predict. He agreed with the south barman that local drinkers have been riding a wave of trendy drinks. He also attributed this to the induction of Rush on the market by Angostura. “Everyone wanted to try it because it was something new and different and it started a fad. If you remember it almost happened years before with a drink called Red Square, but it didn’t quite make it on the market,” he said. He said from his experience, drinkers tend to have seasonal preferences. He felt that the most blatant example is Carnival. “During Carnival people tend to drink a lot of the RTD’s because it is the “in” thing to do. But after Carnival they almost always switch back to their regular preferences,” he added. But the serious rum drinkers are not so easily swayed. “Once a rum drinker always a rum drinker, especially if you are over the age of 30,” he said. He agreed that advertising plays a large part in getting people to try new drinks. New interesting packaging can sway someone to pick one drink over another, which, he feels, has been the case with Smirnoff. “This is why Smirnoff was such a hit. People recognize the brand from cable and immediately rushed to try it out once it hit the local market,” he said. But, this market has slowly been slipping, he added. “The fad is fading. Rum drinkers want their rum, scotch drinkers want their scotch and the vodka drinkers are not satisfied with  vodka-based drinks.” Anchorage recently hosted the Pop Music Awards, a virtual breeding ground for RTD drinkers and according to him, the drinking sales speak for themselves. “People were drinking more RTD’s than rum or even beer, even at $10 a bottle,” he said. But he said this may not have anything to do with taste.

He feels that young drinkers like the idea of holding a Smirnoff or an XS in their hand, even if they don’t like the taste because of how “cool” it looks. While the parties and free drinks fetes are the setting for the most alcohol consumption, there are also weddings, anniversaries and other get togethers than need to be considered. Since Anchorage plans a lot of these events, he was also able to shed some light on the drinking trends at these functions. “Usually when we are catering for functions people like to have rum, scotch and beer on the list. At very few occasions will people want to have RTD’s,” he said.
 
James Caesar, manager of Club 44 on Independence Square in Port-of-Spain, says the choice of drink has a lot to do with a person’s sex. “Women tend to prefer the RTD’s instead of hardcore alcohol like rum and scotch, mostly because of the taste and partly because of the low alcohol content,” said Caesar. However, when it comes to rum, it is hard to get the long time drinkers to switch or even to try something new. He said they sell about two cases of rum per week at the bar, to mostly men over 40. Caesar added that rum drinkers never buy just one glass of rum, they buy it by the bottle or flask. From his experience, Angostura’s Fernandes Black Label is the most popular rum. But some men prefer to drink the older brands like Old Oak and Old Oak White. He was quick to point out that rum drinkers are a different breed and it is hard to get them to try new drinks, even if they are rum-based.

However beer drinkers are easily swayed into trying new drinks and immediately go for the RTD’s, he said. “Rum drinkers would probably try a new rum, but getting them to try an RTD’s would be a task,” said Caesar. And rum drinkers readily agree with this. They scorn the idea of trying an RTD when rum is available to them. As for the RTD drinkers, they say they like the taste and the packaging. Most of them only drink RTD’s at parties or fetes.