Inspired by contemporary art? So is our Lockbox beverage team!

This month, our old-fashioned riff is an ode to two art works, Kara Walker’s brown sugar and molasses covered sculpture, African Boy Attendant Curio, and Esmaa Mohamoud’s shea butter portrait busts, Gluttony, Gluttony, Gluttony. We tie in the brown sugar and molasses with our rum, which is molasses based, and the brown sugar syrup itself. We also connect the shea butter statues with the brown butter washing of the rum. This process provides a silky mouthfeel and savory sweetness to the cocktail. These art works reference the unfortunate sourcing of sugar and shea butter, and the complicated histories of those industries. The young women and child featured in the artworks reflect the reality that the labor of many women and children have been taken advantage of during the sourcing of these products. We are using Santa Teresa rum, a molasses and cane-based rum sustainably sourced from a single estate in Venezuela. The owners of this cane estate ensure every step in their process, from farm to bottle, is done on their land. The estate even offers jobs and housing to local Venezuelans struggling to find their way out of gang violence or prison. A sustainably and respectfully sourced rum feels like a perfect complement to both of these artworks.