By SB Veda
The daquiri, Cuba libre, pina colada, and Long Island iced tea – these are but a few of the signature cocktails that come to mind when one thinks of rum. Indeed, rum forms the base of a host of other drinks. The tarry-sweat, woody, almost rubberish character of the spirit, which, in colder climates, is popular in as a spicy holiday mixer in winter for its warming effects, is not very well known for being consumed neat. But that’s exactly how Kiran Shiva Akal, founder and owner of Akal Chai Rum, wants people to enjoy his brand of rum.
Inspired by the story of a seventeenth century Dutch admiral who, while in the Caribbean, combined tea with rum. (The merchants of the Dutch East India company were the first Europeans to bring tea to the west – even before the British did.) With the invention of rum occurring some decades earlier, this admiral decided to give his tea something of a kick, and the combination of tea and rum took off amongst the European navy and infantry men. The military of nineteenth century Britain called it “gunfire”.
Tea and rum are the basic components of Chai Rum. Chai, in fact, means tea in various languages – mainly Indian languages but even Russian. That said, Akal’s rum is not simply a matter of adding rum to a cup of tea. Rather, it is a carefully crafted innovation of the molasses-based libation. Funded through the government of Trinidad and Tobago (from where Akal hails) in which whole leaf teas from Darjeeling, India (a district known for cultivating the “Champagne of Teas”) serve as primary botanical in a trademarked production process that chemically combines the compounds in the tea leaves with that of rum. The product of this integration is then aged in bourbon, whisky, and cognac barrels depending on the variety of Chai Rum being processed.
The aging process is unusual, beginning in the West Indies and being finished in Ireland where the contrast in climatic conditions impacts the aging process in such a way as to complete Chai Rum’s singular flavor sets. The result is an aromatic liquor with complex flavor notes, which can be enjoyed like a cognac or an Armagnac, preferably neat, according to Akal, but also on ice.
Based not only combining ingredients from different parts of the world but also the transnational process of aging Chai Rum, it has been described as a drink that bears the taste of the world.
Winning the grant from the government of Trinidad and Tobago gave him the impetus to start the company. “Trinidad had a grant…for diversifying the economy of Trinidad. And I won it, suggesting that the business of rum had a dearth of innovation. If you look at Europe and you look at grapes, and you look at viniculture, there’s been so much innovation with port, champagne, brandy, cognac…I wanted to sort of emulate that in rum.”
Akal has a unique background in which it is evident that he takes everything he does seriously. Winning a scholarship as a teenager to study medicine Dublin, Ireland, he became a doctor, specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology. However, coming from the famous Naipaul family of Trinidad (his uncle was the late Literature Noble Laureate, V.S. Naipaul) he could not contain his creative side, and pursued a concurrent career in design, music, and film. He was even admitted to study architecture, which his professional work in creative pursuits prevented him from pursuing.
His family, though creatives also had a trading business in tea and spices and production of rum. As his family began winding up the business, applying both his creativity and serious nature, Akal wanted to take it over, combining the tea side with the rum – and with it, embodying the essentials of a luxury brand. They procured the finest tea in the world from Darjeeling. Actually, the acclaimed cultivator, Indian, Rajah Banerjee, long the owner of the famed Makaibari tea estate was a mentor and advisor to Akal. After some experimentation, Chai Rum was born.
“People are often taken aback at the price (of the product). I tell them – it’s not the rum that drives the price. It’s the tea because we only use the best in the world – and it’s very expensive.” The unique nature of aging both in the West Indies and Ireland also increases the costing of the product. Akal insists, though, the process is as germane to making the beverage distinctive as the ingredients.
Akal’s efforts did not go unnoticed with Chai Rum winning silver at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2014. It also won the Taste of St. Croix competition in 2016.
Making Chai rum has been quite an adventure for Akal – one for which he has a bullish outlook. The explosion of online alcohol delivery enhanced the business, dramatically. Now, Akal looks beyond the United States, Ireland, and the West Indies (where the company has its hubs) to sell the beverage.
Akal hopes to capitalize on the appeal of the exotic nature of the beverage, comparing the beverage industry to fashion. “There is this now this massive groundswell of interest in Sabyasachi, beautiful stuff…but not something Indians wouldn’t know but is new to America. I feel the need to embrace this. So that’s where we’re going with it. And, and, what we’re doing now is we are, we’re really pushing the innovation. Where can we make rarer and rarer versions of these botanical rums that appeal to people with tastes that are less about, ‘oh, is the alcohol strong enough?’ to more about, ‘is this a complex experience that I am having with something that’s, you know, rather beautiful?’”
From the first fermentation of molasses in Barbados in the 17th Century to the innovation in distillation developed by Catalan, Don Facundo Bacardí Masó in 1862 in Cuba, Akal’s Chai Rum is perhaps the most compelling modernization since.
