A decision by officials at the House of Angostura to host a biennial Global Cocktail Challenge bolstered both the brand and T&T internationally, says the company’s senior manager for corporate communications Giselle Laronde-West.
The contest, which saw mixologists from around the world matching skills, using blends under the Angostura label, helped those products to successfully trend the global spirits market, while securing places against more established rival brands.
Speaking on the topic Becoming a Global Citizen and Brand Ambassador at a Powerful Ladies of T&T (Plott) monthly cocktail event at the Angostura Hospitality Suite, Queen’s Park Oval, La Ronde-West said over the years it had been “awesome” to see rums distilled by Angostura move from being “a little Trini ting” to featuring well-known bars like Limantour in Mexico, The Nomad in New York, USA, and The Rum Exchange in Toronto, Canada.
The biennial Global Cocktail Challenge proved to be an ideal strategy in the promotion of brand Angostura
“Every year, Angostura spends thousands of dollars ensuring that those who sell our products or use them to create exciting and exotic cocktails really understand that they come from this twin-island Republic–T&T.
“We do more than create products. We build an army of ambassadors who go out and represent Angostura and by extension, T&T.
“This year alone, we had finalists from South Africa, T&T, USA, Latin America, Canada, St Maarten, New Zealand, Sweden, Russia, South Korea and the United Kingdom. They each have become brand ambassadors in their countries for the House of Angostura and all our products; same with all prior finalists,” Laronde-West said.
“This year alone, globally, we had 900 entries for the competition from 36 countries, which was whittled down to 287 global finalists competing in their regions and eventually to the 12 finalists who competed here in Trinidad.
“I am sure most of you do not know that our own Neal Ramdhan won this competition. So T&T has yet again been put on the map for the second time; Daniyel Jones being our last Trini winner. Angostura is truly a global citizen and brand ambassador of T&T and because of our exposure, we really feel connected to the world.”
Laronde-West said Angostura was no longer just a company based in Trinidad selling rums and bitters, but one with products in more than 170 countries around the world.
“We have certainly become a global citizen, residing in far-off lands, in hundreds of bars, where the name Angostura is almost common as the word bar itself. Every bar we go into has either heard about our Angostura aromatic bitters or is using it. So it is easier to tell them about our rums as they already know the quality of our bitters,” she said.
“The journey had not been easy. It took years of trial and error, both in the taste of our products on a variety of international native palettes and the creativity of our packaging, understanding that what may work in our colourful island may not work in a city like Milan.
“From the shape and style of the bottle to the cover that protects its contents, our production and sales and marketing teams worked and continue to work, tirelessly and meticulously to produce high quality, competitively priced and unique products that are worthy of selling to the wider human race.”