CEO and Founder of Siddiqui Rums Corp: NIGEL BROWN
Beginning in 1952 with the onset of the prohibition of alcohol in the Kingdom, Siddiqui innovators were determined to create great-tasting spirits in their homes. Constrained by limited resources and bound by secrecy, they faced a challenge. Fueled with passion and gumption, together, as friends, they started to create something special. Nigel Brown is the CEO and Founder of Siddiqui Rums Corp. Let’s learn more about him in this interview.
TRL: Who is Nigel Brown?
I grew up in Saudi Arabia, moving there from England in 1973 when I was 5 years old. I had an amazing childhood. My parents traveled with us all over the desert. After college, I stayed and worked in Saudi and did more extensive travel, going deeper into the remote desert areas of Arabia. Like Indian Jones, always looking for artifacts and adventure. From throwing scuba gear down into old water wells to investigate the bottoms, to climbing into every cave we found, to camping with bedouins in the desert, drinking camel’s milk, to endless adventures exploring the Asir mountains of Arabia. A truly magical place. I grew up blazing new trails, going where few have traveled, and building amazing friendships along the way. Siddiqui is my latest adventure that we are hopefully going to build into a global success.
TRL: What does the rum mean for you? What made you fall in love with rum and when did it happen?
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, my parents threw lots of parties. Our home was famously called “Mike’s English Pub”. Like other ex-pat families, I helped my father make Siddiqui, moonshine, in our garage for over 15 years. Siddiqui is a sugar-based spirit which classifies it as rum. If you are familiar with Middle Eastern Culture and Religious rules, Siddiqui equated to “cultural freedom,” that slice of home, the “solution” so to speak to alcohol in a dry country. Community and lifelong memories were built around making homemade rum. Being able to sip on it with friends and relax on weekends made life in a strict Islamic country feel more like home. If you think about it really, Siddiqui helped build Arabia into the modern power it is today. Flavor-wise, seriously, Siddiqui’s unique taste profile is like nothing I have tried anywhere. And so it became my mission to bring this unique product to the world.
TRL: Three essential characteristics that define the rum according to your perspective.
Rum should be smooth with very little to no impurities (meaning no burn). Good cooking < shouldn’t this be distilling?>, high-quality ingredients, limited processing, and attention to detail make the best products. Purity is the name of the game. Siddiqui Brown is made with American Oak with a special accelerated maturation process perfected by 70 years of oil engineers. I tell people; you have those moonshiners deep in the Ozark Mountains and they make good stuff, but when you get a chemical engineer making moonshine, it’s a whole new level of perfection. Now the fabulous all- women’s distilling team from Penderyn Distilleries has taken it to a whole new level.
TRL: What is the most important contribution you have made to the rum industry?
Our rum tastes very different when compared to most of the standard industry Caribbean or Asian rums. It’s like sipping on a good whisky or bourbon without the harshness. I often comment to people explaining Siddiqui like this, “if Rum and Whisky had a baby, Siddiqui is the outcome”. It’s the best of both worlds.
TRL: Benefits that the rum industry has given you.
We are just happy to provide the world with an alternative rum. Siddiqui is a product that when people try it, we often hear comments like, “That this is not a rum.” We chuckle and tell them, “This is probably what the original real rum tasted like back when the ships would pick up clear rum in barrels and send it across the Atlantic to Europe.” Siddiqui may be the closest to what was crafted way back then.
TRL: What’s another thing you are passionate about, in addition to rum? Why?
I became a Helicopter Flight Instructor many years ago with students trying to kill me everyday… LOL. I just love helicopters and hope to own my own one of these days. It’s truly a magic flying carpet!
TRL: What is your favorite place for drinking rum?
Oh… that’s easy. I have many fond memories of sitting on a particular sand dune that went straight into the Persian gulf. We would sit by a small fire on the edge of the dune, sipping on Siddiqui with our feet in the warm sand overlooking the perfectly still Half-Moon Bay Gulf warm water with millions of Stars overhead. It was truly magical.
TRL: Favorite drink + Recipe.
My favorite recipe, my girlfriend’s favorite, my chairman and his wife, and my grown kids, all love a simple, no added sugar, and refreshing taste of mixing Perrier, with Brown Sid, and a squeeze or wedge of Lime. You can drink it all day. The smokey flavor comes through with a hint of lime. So good. I found topping it off with a tiny splash of Cherry Juice is excellent as well.
TRL: Why is it important to educate the rum consumer?
Boy… don’t get me started. Rum has become Walmartified. Mass-produced and cheaper. Most of the consumers we run into that taste of our product have never really tasted a true rum. It’s heartbreaking. We are in for a long uphill battle to change the world. To bring people back to the table of Rum. Bring them back to the origin of rum and the amazing flavor that rum can be.
TRL: Any tips to train the palate and taste a good premium rum?
Rum is for sipping not shooting. A good rum should be sipped slowly, let the flavors roll around your pallet, that smoothness is the purity of the product, the flavors coming from the wood, the brown sugars caramelized by charring the oak in our special process, don’t rush, you may be surprised.
TRL: How can the rum contribute to improving the crisis in some countries?
Maybe if our world leaders would sit down and have a glass of Siddiqui and start talking, finding common ground, perhaps their outlook of the world may possibly soften! Wars might be averted over a good glass of rum.
TRL: Is the commitment to sustainable development the key to success for the permanence of the rum industry in the world? Why?
We all want more sustainability given the dwindling resources of this planet. Penderyn is making significant efforts to reduce the glass weight of its bottles, thinner paper, recharging barrels, solar power, and lowering the per bottle footprint.
TRL: Who would like to meet in the rum industry? What would you say to him/her?
To be honest with you, I really know little about the who’s who of the rum industry. I grew up in a slice of the world, rugged and arid, with deserts and camels and oil everywhere you look. We blazed our own trails and copied no one. We broke new ground in our rum-making and made the best of what we could, given our limited resources. My girlfriend’s father even went as far as buying all the oak handle hammers in an old souk in Saudi and chipping them to mature Siddiqui. Lol!! Taking 1950s stainless Steel condors off cars to make coils for our stills. We used all kinds of creative solutions. We made our own rum.
TRL: What are your next goals in the rum industry?
To educate the world and bring them back to the table of Rum. To re-train their pallets and get their mindsets off the cheaper Rum taste profile they have been bombarded with. It’s a tall task.
TRL: Plans you have when you leave the rum industry.
Move to Costa Rica, buy a helicopter, land on a lonely beach with my girlfriend, and have a glass of Siddiqui!! We love giving back. It’s just who we are. We can’t sit idle for long and we love to help people that need help. Many years ago, my girlfriend started the first school in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, which is still going on today. My daughter is a nurse so maybe it’s healthcare. My girlfriend’s son is into surfing so maybe it’s ocean or clean water needs. We’ll have to see where and what impact we can have when that time comes.
TRL: Why is the role of the bartender important in the rum industry?
When our sales staff talks with the bartender, the theme is mostly the same, “Rum is Dead”. When we let them try Siddiqui, the reaction 9 times out of 10 is WOW… this is what we need! Something they can finally use to make unique drinks. Bartenders are critical to our industry and we need to support them, give them something to use, something great and exciting to give their guests.
TRL: What is your advice for new generations in the rum industry?
Don’t follow the crowd, and don’t blindlessly buy-in that Rum is a pirate and mythical creatures. Rum is a truly international product full of passionate people making rum in all the nooks and crannies of this world. Bring to the table something unique. Try something new and have fun.
TRL: How can people learn more about you? Website? Social media page?
RUM BORN OF CONSTRAINT siddiquirums.com
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