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We’ve a wide-ranging chat with a person we as soon as described as having extra hats than Mr Benn and having now seen his front room, I believe he additionally has extra books than the British Library.
In March this 12 months, it had been 10 years since Banks 7 Golden Age Mix launched within the UK. Again then there was a swanky occasion on the OXO Tower with the 2 males accountable for the mix, Jim Meehan and Arnaud de Trabuc, in attendance, offering tastings and cocktails. It was a very good day, and we determined this was a adequate excuse to meet up with Jim for a chat.
It was in fact over Zoom, as is the best way of the world, however we didn’t let that cease us from placing the world to rights over a rum or two.
We doubt any of you studying this won’t know of Jim Meehan, however you is probably not conscious of every little thing he has finished in his profession. In 2005 after quite a lot of hospitality jobs, he acquired himself a job at Audrey Saunders legendary Pegu Membership as a part of the opening group, and he was the final of the opening group to go away when he moved to deal with his bar, PDT (Please Don’t Inform) in 2007. PDT was one of many nice New York bars! Two years after opening, Jim received American Bartender of the Yr at Tales of the Cocktail and a pair extra years on, revealed his first cocktail ebook The PDT Cocktail E-book.
Not content material with all of that (which sounds exhausting sufficient simply writing it out), he teamed up with Arnaud de Trabuc to launch a rum.. Banks 5 Island Mix hit the again bars in 2010 and was adopted by the aforementioned Banks 7 Golden Mix. Since then he has revealed one other ebook or two, opened extra bars together with his present venture Takibi in Portland, travelled the world inspiring bartenders and continued to unfold the story of Banks Rums.
We lined many matters in our chat from the demise of the punch bowl to Danny DeVito, from David Wondrich’s 4th of July events, to what tonic water has to reply for. We kick off with Banks 5 Island Mix and the Daiquiri, nonetheless, I really feel it’s proper to say we had a protracted chat earlier than that concerning the exodus of management in our trade following Covid. It was an interesting chat however one which deserves extra time than this text can provide it, so one we will likely be revisiting in one other article quickly.
Proper over to Jim!
BLUK: We all know that the Daiquiri was vital to you when launching Banks 5 Island Mix however it wasn’t what individuals anticipated from a white rum again in these days?
Jim Meehan: Yeah, again in 2010, David Cordoba, the then Bacardi International Model Ambassador, and Simon Difford have been in London doing a lot of work with the Daiquiri. David was trying on the conventional recipe utilizing granulated sugar, and he made a terrific Daiquiri. Simon was specializing in the mouthfeel and the sugar syrup ratios. Each have been specializing in the sugar and the candy/bitter steadiness somewhat than the rum. So, Banks Rums got here in saying ‘Hey what if a Daiquiri tasted of rum somewhat than limeade?’
We’re going again 12 years right here, when it was considerably revolutionary for the white rum to be featured, as a substitute of a decanter of premium spirit. It was additionally a time the place the thought of a premium white rum was an oxymoron. Folks solely considered white rum as a car to make a great deal of revenue of their bars, in order that was one of many largest issues I needed to push again on.
BLUK: Do you suppose that is one thing that has modified within the final 12 years?
Jim: I believe that in some ways my largest concern 12 years in the past was, and stays, that patrons don’t contemplate Banks Rums due to its value, and so they search for one thing cheaper as a substitute, as a result of rum ought to be low-cost of their thoughts.
Bacardi has performed a pivotal position discrediting this notion by releasing rums beforehand held again for members of the family similar to Facundo, and launching line extensions like Bacardi White Heritage Mix, which was a sport changer for me. Since buying Banks and Leblon, Bacardi’s shaped a portfolio of premium rums that showcase completely different types and manufacturing traditions, with Santa Teresa as its latest addition. By embracing high quality and character as a substitute of flavours and different gimmicks within the class, Bacardi’s helped put rum on an equal footing with whisky and brandy, which is large.
I believe the most important change we’ve seen throughout all spirits is the world falling deeper in love with tequila with individuals such as you and I getting increasingly occupied with different agave spirits like mezcal. I believe we’ve seen a type of “mezcal-ification” of our trade that’s lined ups with the craft distilling growth. The draw back is that as a substitute of spending time speaking about what we do with spirits, as in sip them, make cocktails with them, make cake with them, you already know, no matter; everybody needs to get below the hood to debate very particular manufacturing oriented technical issues as a substitute of purposeful issues.
BLUK: Do you suppose client’s palates have modified as nicely, they used to need the neutrality of vodka and now it’s the botanicals of gin that’s craved?
Jim: I bear in mind when Pegu Membership opened in 2005, we didn’t have a vodka drink on the menu and folks would are available and say, ‘Can I’ve a Whiskey Smash, however made with vodka?’ or ‘A Gin Gin Mule, however a Vodka Mule?’. They actually picked a drink, which they thought appeared good, that was made with whiskey, tequila, gin or brandy and so they’d be like ‘Can I’ve it with vodka?’. This was a factor again then; they requested with a straight face.
At the moment, gin producers have been coming to us, as Pegu Membership had a gin focus, asking what they might do to assist the Martini catch on, and we saved saying to them that the Martini wasn’t going to drive gin gross sales: the gin and tonic was. There have been no good tonics, so we have been pouring one thing just like Sprite! I believe it was really tonic that modified the class, not gin. It was a tonic growth that modified the trajectory for gin. Fever-Tree began it off adopted by different artisanal, craft dry tonics.
I believe you can also make a really coherent argument that whereas gin is the brand new vodka, it was tonic that drove it, and whereas mezcal is the brand new spirit of the time, the brand new zeitgeist spirit, maybe it was the smokiness of the Penicillin and Oaxaca Outdated Common, which weren’t Islay whisky or mezcal primarily based, however have been blended scotch and tequila drinks which had a touch of smoke to them. It acquired individuals eager about smoke in drinks. In order a bartender who doesn’t make spirits however blends issues collectively, I proceed to attempt to push again on the dialog to be ‘Hey, the best way that we mix to create the flavour profiles is what’s driving style; not simply the spirits and the manufacturing strategies alone.’
BLUK: Taking a look at mixing flavours I do know that punch has lengthy been a ardour of yours and has all the time been strongly linked to Banks, why is that?
Jim: After I began on my Banks Rums journey, I had an advance copy of David Wondrich’s ebook, Punch [The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl] which talks about how the historical past of the cocktail began with punches, and arrack is talked about dozens of instances. I realised that arrack was akin to the premier punch ingredient of the 19thcentury. That clued me in to the concept that then, within the late 2000’s, the speakeasy motion was actually type of gaining steam and I had a way that if the drinks fashions have been going to proceed to go backwards, as a substitute of forwards, it might solely be a matter of time till individuals began moving into punch.
Demise & Co. put a punch on their opening menu, Drink in Boston served punch upon arrival to everybody, then the Lifeless Rabbit adopted go well with. Over in London, Nick Strangeway championed basic punch service on the Hawksmoor after which Hix. I believed it was inevitable that it might turn out to be fashionable as a result of, as you already know (and a few individuals could not need to hear) the drinks enterprise is the style enterprise. So, it’s not a matter of if, however when.
BLUK: I’ve seen in latest instances you’ve got moved away from the big serving vessel fashion of punch service and into extra single serve variations.
Jim: I all the time anticipated that one of the simplest ways to alleviate strain on busy bars, as a substitute of cocktails on faucet, or bottled cocktails, which I discover antithetical to our entire ethos, can be to serve punch; both with a ladle by the cup, or if you’re working in a busy high-end venue, you would doubtlessly promote it by the bowl. It might be costly, however it’s doable, and beats bottle service in case you ask me?
After I opened Prairie Faculty, my short-lived dream bar in Chicago, I put a single serve punch on the menu. I didn’t name it a punch, however it was a punch primarily based on its elements and their proportions. After I opened Takibi, I created a variation upon my Inexperienced Tea Punch with the Banks 5 infused with nori. It’s been vastly fashionable, as punch falls in with fashionable, decrease ABV, sessionable drinks which might be fashionable today.
Earlier, I used to be speaking about how tonic drove gin gross sales; and I ought to add that the vessels that we drink out of, are additionally extremely vital. After I used to reside in New York, I bear in mind David Wondrich used to have a 4th July occasion every year and he would serve punch out of a Gatorade bucket in his yard. It was purposeful as a result of it was scorching again there, and a pewter punch bowl would have been a nasty concept within the Brooklyn solar. I believe there’s nonetheless somebody on the market, who’s but to find the right vessel for punch and as soon as we get there I’m nonetheless bullish on this proposition.
BLUK: Effectively, it’s been 10 years because the final Banks Rums product was launched and it might be remise of me to not ask the query everybody most likely asks you, is there any new Banks Rums expressions coming?
Jim: We’d received greatest new product at Tales of the Cocktail with the Banks 5 Island Mix, so there was a variety of strain for the following line extension earlier than the Banks 7 Island Mix got here out. The very fact is, I used to be uninterested in speaking about arrack after two years (as a substitute of the artwork of mixing normally) with Banks 5 Island, however the distinguishing factor about Banks Rums was the addition of a rum from the East to the standard West Indian rums. Once we began the mixing course of for Banks 7 with Arnaud, we wished to search out one other rum from the East and we tasted dozens and dozens of rums however all those we appreciated had arrack in them! The one we each appreciated greatest had the identical 5 unique as Banks 5 Island Mix, with the addition of Panama and Guatemala. I all the time like to say that these rums exist not as a result of we have been making an attempt to create a 5 origin or 7 origin rum however as a result of we appreciated the best way they tasted collectively.
Within the final 8 years there’s been this type of, oh look what they’re doing over there FOMO, as a result of, as you already know, I like rum. So there has positively been some jealousy through the years however, having gotten older and thought quite a bit about this, I discover it fairly thrilling that we are able to do a whole tasting of Banks Rums with simply two bottles. These aren’t spirits pushed by the manufacturing strategies however by what you are able to do with them.
Arnaud and I have been an odd couple: he, a French depend, and I, a younger American mixologist. It was form of like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito: I’ll let the reader determine who was who? He wished to sip them, and I wished to combine them. We used to say, ‘A pity to combine and a disgrace to not’. I believe that the legacy of Banks Rums is that we’ve created a rum, 10, 12 years later, that works within the Cuban Canon of recipes together with your Daiquiri, that works in a tropical drink together with your Mai Tai, and that makes an ideal nineteenth century fashion punch.
Whereas I’d love our line extensions to be a part of the story of Banks Rums, I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved. I’m undecided what the longer term holds, however I do know that what we’re targeted on now’s exhibiting what you are able to do with the 2 rums now we have. Once we speak about mixing, we speak concerning the concept of bringing in rums from a number of origins – it’s a mannequin for gathering individuals from a number of walks of life, from a number of locations. So hopefully within the coming years, we’re going to make use of our platform to speak about neighborhood and gathering, how we collect spherical a punch bowl or round a cocktail.
Effectively doesn’t that appear like a stunning be aware to finish on, particularly on this second in time. It was an absolute pleasure to catch up once more with Jim, not fairly the identical over Zoom, however actually higher than nothing. I hope you loved studying his ideas? There have been so many extra we didn’t have time to place in there, however preserve a watch out for a cocktail competitors pitting Dale DeGroff, Peter Dorelli and Salvatore Calabrese in opposition to one another: it’s considered one of our higher concepts.
Additionally, in case you don’t already, observe each Banks Rums and Jim on Instagram, each have some nice content material.
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