Colin Asare-Appiah’s New Cocktail Competition Needs to ‘Join, Collaborate, and Rejoice the Flavors and Tastes of Africa’

Colin Asare-Appiah isn’t any stranger to the drinks trade. The senior portfolio supervisor for Bacardi rose to the highest of London’s mixology scene within the Nineties and early 2000s after co-founding the venerable London Academy of Bartending (LAB), and he has labored as an award-winning model ambassador for over a decade. Each step of the way in which, the Ghana native has put his African heritage entrance and middle. Now, together with U’Luvka Vodka founder Mark Talbot Holmes, Asare-Appiah has created a spirits and cocktail pageant that may put the continent on the worldwide stage. 

Ajabu, which implies “wondrous” or “superb” in Swahili, will happen in Johannesburg, South Africa from March 10–13, then transfer to Cape City from March 13–18. (It’s going to return to each cities in November.) Though the continent has seen festivals crop up over time in nations like Nigeria and Kenya to have a good time their native cocktail cultures, that is the primary occasion billing itself as worldwide. 

“I get the pleasure of going to all these cocktail festivals all over the world and I see how a lot neighborhood there’s, however I additionally see the limitations which are up in opposition to sure folks being concerned,” says Asare-Appiah. “Folks throughout [Africa] can’t afford to go to Tales [of the Cocktail] or BCB [Bar Convent Brooklyn], for the straightforward cause of the price of flying being their month-to-month wage.” 

Ajabu attendees will take pleasure in networking alternatives which are usually highlights of those international occasions, like instructional seminars, spirit tastings, and model dinners. Native South African venues will host and accomplice with bars from the continent and past, reminiscent of Hero in Nairobi, Kenya; Entrance/Again in Accra, Ghana; Milady’s in New York Metropolis; Rayo Cocktail Bar in Mexico Metropolis; Library by the Sea in Grand Cayman; and Trailer Happiness in London. 

We caught up with Asare-Appiah to speak about his love of rituals and neighborhood, how Ajabu will honor his late buddy Douglas Ankrah, and his drive to maneuver Africa’s cocktail scene ahead.   

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

You’ve spoken about alcohol because it ties to rituals and connection. Are you able to clarify the connection?

One of many explanation why I fell in love with the [drinks] class was the tales behind the creation of sure spirits and types and the way they got here to be. I’ve at all times appreciated the rituals round consuming, rising up in Ghana. We have now a ceremony referred to as the Akwaaba ritual, which is a welcome ritual: Somebody involves your home, you sit down, you give them water, you provide them the native spirit, which is likely to be akpeteshie, you possibly provide them some beer and a few meals, and you then carry everybody in control about what has occurred to you because the final time you noticed them. 

I’ve at all times preferred these sorts of rituals. There are espresso rituals in Ethiopia, tea ceremonies in Tanzania, and all all over the world. All of these issues prolong to rituals round spirits, just like the pouring of libations to those that have gone earlier than us. Even the cocktail, the Porn Star Martini, created by my greatest buddy—God bless him, he handed away two years in the past—Douglas Ankrah, was a ritual of the shaker and Champagne. Rituals in cocktail tradition have been round since [the beginning of] time and I respect them tremendously. I feel when folks have interaction in rituals, even rituals of toasting, it brings folks collectively and builds neighborhood. It connects us as a result of while you toast, you look one another within the eye—when you don’t, issues could come. It’s superb how easy issues like rituals grow to be a part of our on a regular basis existence.

You got here up with the concept for Ajabu throughout the pandemic while you weren’t connecting with folks. How did that come about?

That’s the loopy factor, although. Throughout the pandemic, bizarrely, was probably the most linked I’ve been with extra folks in a faster house of time. And other people have been extra open as nicely. Hastily I’m taking pictures a Zoom assembly to folks I hadn’t spoken to in over 20 years and so they’re choosing up. 

The factor is, I’m very community-first. So, I spent a variety of time checking in on my cocktail households all over the world. It was nice connecting with them, discovering out what they’re doing, and the way we might assist and help one another. It was crucial to us as a result of everybody was going by way of completely different phases of how they have been reacting to the pandemic. Then what got here out of that was a seed for occupied with how we might take the neighborhood we constructed on-line and construct an in-person house the place folks on the continent might come to share concepts and join. 

Once I was talking with my accomplice Mark [Talbot Holmes] whereas touring round South Africa, I stated we should always do [the festival] right here, and examine what that might appear to be. So, Mark and I made a decision to construct a pageant [to get] folks to attach, collaborate, and have a good time the flavors and tastes of Africa. And South Africa is a good place to do it as a result of it’s straightforward for folks to maneuver round in and get flights from a lot of the different nations.

The thought is that when we set up it and it grows, we’ll do pop-ups of it across the continent so we are able to take it to all components. Within the meantime, we’re working with different cocktail festivals just like the Lagos Cocktail Competition, which is in its tenth 12 months and run by my buddy Lara Rawa. We’re additionally working with the parents from Nairobi Bar Present to make sure that they’re represented. As we develop, we’re going to herald all of those different festivals in order that they’re highlighted and elevated as nicely. 

Why did you resolve to host the pageant in two separate cities?

We wished to cowl a few the main metropolises in South Africa. In November, we’re taking a look at partnering with the Cape City Beverage Present, which is run by one in every of our advisors and companions on the bottom, Kurt Schlechter. They’re placing on a standard cocktail present after which Ajabu is an space whereby we are able to enable for pop-ups or mash-ups to happen throughout the metropolis by inviting worldwide bartenders and pairing them with native bars to offer a novel cocktail expertise. 

How did you land on the timing of the occasion? Does internet hosting it in March maintain any significance?

It’s an excellent window into what’s taking place within the nation at the moment, in that it’s coming to the top of their actually busy season, however it’s nonetheless good. Additionally, Europe and the remainder of the world are simply waking up from being caught inside for winter. So, it’s a chance for us to carry worldwide bartenders from America and Europe to South Africa. Once we do it in November, the concept is that we’ll carry extra folks from South America and Asia to do pop-ups in South Africa as a result of we need to join and knit all these superb bars and other people from all over the world. 

I bear in mind standing within the room at 50 Greatest [Bars] in Singapore final 12 months and I requested a few of the bartenders that have been in there, the place have you ever been? I feel there was solely one in every of them who stated they’d been to Africa, which is superb as a result of a variety of them are so well-traveled. I bear in mind talking with Leah van Deventer, who’s our on-the-ground individual for Ajabu and is without doubt one of the preeminent voices in cocktail tradition in Africa, and he or she stated she wasn’t stunned that there was just one person who I spoke to who’s been to the continent as a result of folks don’t know learn how to have interaction with us. They don’t know the place to go, learn how to get there, or what they’re going to do. It’s altering now. However slowly and absolutely, we need to speed up it as a result of now’s the time.

I might see the way it’d be irritating to know the specialness that’s there and for it to take different folks so lengthy to catch up.

Yeah. In 2017, we did a seminar at Tales referred to as “Africa Is the Future.” Quick ahead to final 12 months, I did a seminar with Leah van Deventer, Richie Barrow from Hero, Kojo Aidoo from Entrance/Again, and Lara Rawa from Lagos Cocktail Week titled “Africa Is Now.” It’s time for us to actually have a good time what’s taking place within the culinary and cocktail tradition in Africa. You have a look at popular culture now right here within the U.S., every thing’s Afro. America is having Jollof wars—what do Individuals learn about making Jollof? It’s humorous, as a result of actually half of my buddy group was in Ghana in December, ringing me and texting me. It simply reveals that now could be actually the time—it’s time to become involved and it’s time to start out exploring the continent as a result of there’s a lot to it. 

Even once I randomly activate the radio, I very a lot key into Afrobeats enjoying and I’m like, when did this occur? What do you suppose made that shift occur?

It’s been taking place for a minute. Once I first got here right here 20 years in the past, my spouse Louisa labored with the DJ Wealthy Medina who used to play a variety of Afrobeats. I feel it’s been a complete accumulation of issues and other people happening that self-journey, that journey of discovery and increasing their attain. I feel the pandemic additionally performed a task in it, and other people doing their Ancestry DNA checks to search out out the place their roots are from. It’s that quest for locating who you’re, particularly amongst African-Individuals, that drove everybody to go to Africa in a giant approach.

For those who have a look at Ghana as nicely, we had The 12 months of Return with an enormous media push in 2019 proper earlier than the world shut down. The curiosity in Africa is simply beginning—there are such a lot of completely different nations, so many various cultures. As you cross the borders, the language, the meals, the traditions, and so forth change, however the one factor that threads everybody collectively is neighborhood. 

What do you suppose must occur so these voices proceed to not solely be heard inside this house but additionally valued?

There are a variety of issues that must occur. Firstly, I feel folks do must be heard, and I feel the platform of Ajabu will give folks the chance to construct relationships with people who find themselves not like them or of them. And as soon as we begin speaking and collaborating, our values will begin being constructed. For lots of people, in the event that they don’t know, they don’t know. In the event that they don’t see, they don’t know. In the event that they’re not in sure areas, they don’t perceive. However bringing folks into our areas by way of Ajabu goes to offer an excellent platform for folks to really feel heard, for folks to have a way of discovery, and for folks’s concepts and voices to really feel valued.

What we’re doing is a collaboration between worldwide bartenders and native bars. They’re not coming in to show folks learn how to do something, they’re coming in to share their expertise and decide up shared experiences. They’re referred to as partnerships and mash-ups for a cause as a result of individuals are coming collectively to share concepts after which, hopefully, they’ll take again a variety of flavors of the continent with them. 

Are you able to inform me in regards to the cocktails that might be served on the pageant?

One of many tenants of the pageant is that there’ll be six cocktails and one spirit-free possibility in order that people who find themselves not consuming for no matter cause can really feel a part of the pageant. Additionally, one of many cocktails that’s going to be featured prominently throughout all the accomplice bars is the Porn Star Martini created by Douglas Ankrah. The genesis of the concept for the Porn Star Martini was born in Cape City at a gents’s membership referred to as Mavericks, so I need to ensure that the cocktail is revered in his identify. It’s one of many first cocktails to have South Africa as its muse and it’s a world phenomenon—we’re going to have a good time it. There’s not many Black folks in historical past who created a world phenomenon cocktail that we’re writing about as we speak. I’m certain now we have previously, however historical past has a approach of being within the fingers of these that may write it. 

What feeling would you like pageant goers to stroll away with?

Ajabu. Marvel and amazement, that’s what I need them to stroll away with. And I do know they’ll as a result of the intention is to create an atmosphere the place folks can collaborate, have a good time, and create collectively, and out of that may come actually magical, particular issues. We’re wanting ahead to everybody coming and experiencing the imaginative and prescient, that isn’t solely ours however truly the buildup of a variety of different folks’s visions as nicely. It’s larger than the sum of us; it’s an area and a spot for everyone. We talked about this for a very long time, and it’s nice to have the help from the cocktail neighborhood.