House of Angostura

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angostura Limited
legal form Limited
founding 1830
Seat Morvant (Trinidad and Tobago)
management Terrence Bharath
sales 784 million TTD (approx. 100 million EUR)
Branch Beverage manufacturing
Website www.angostura.com
As of December 31, 2018

House of Angostura is a Trinidadian manufacturer of spirits and cocktail bitters . The company was founded in 1830 and is now part of the Trinidadian conglomerate CL Financial .

history

Around 1820, the German Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert worked in Angostura, Venezuela (today Ciudad Bolivar ) as a general staff doctor in the army of Simón Bolívar , who fought the Spanish colonial rulers in the South American wars of independence . Siegert experimented with local herbs and plants to find a means for the troops to stimulate appetite and improve digestion. In 1824 his work resulted in a tonic he called "Amargo Aromatico" (in German about aromatic bitter ) , which subsequently became a popular condiment under the name "Angostura Bitter".

In 1830 Siegert founded a company for the commercial production of bitter, which he has since exported to nearby Trinidad and England. The company name is often, but incorrectly, traced back to the Angostura tree ( Angostura trifoliata ), the bark of which is found in imitation products of the Angostura litter . In fact, the company name was simply based on the company's headquarters. In 1850, Siegert gave up his military activity to concentrate on the production and marketing of his bitter. Siegert died in 1870 and the business was passed on to his sons Carlos and Alfredo, who transformed the company into “Dr. JGB Siegert y Hijos ”, left Venezuela in 1876 ​​because of the insecure domestic political situation and relocated the company to Trinidad . Their younger brother Luis followed them and entered the business. The business premises were originally in the Downtown neighborhood on Marine Square (now Independence Square ) and then moved one block down to George Street. At the beginning of the business activity in Trinidad, 720 hectoliters of bitter were exported to Europe and the United States, in 1897 this was already 1575 hectoliters. The company had stands at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and a similar exhibition in London's Crystal Palace . The Siegerts rose to a socially important family, bought several sugar cane plantations and converted part of the land near the capital Port of Spain profitably into a residential area, today's Woodbrook district . Seven streets there are still named after members of the Siegert family.

Carlos and Luis Siegert died in 1903 and 1905 respectively. Alfredo Siegert continued to run the business on his own, but invested unhappily, so that the company got into financial difficulties and in 1909 external investors had to be brought in; the company went public and was renamed "Angostura Bitters Ltd.". In 1919 Alfredo Siegert died in relative poverty, and the company passed to the majority owner Gordon Grant and Co. Siegert's nephew Alfredo Gallo remained as director of the company because he was the only one who knew the family recipe.

In 1949, the subsidiary Trinidad Distillers Ltd. today's core business rum production started. Investing in a gin brand almost ruined the company. In order to prevent the company, which is regarded as a national institution, from being sold abroad, the colonial government bought it, installed a superordinate holding company (Siegert Holdings Ltd.) and staffed the management with company members. Robert Siegert, a great-grandchild of the company founder, returned to the House of Angostura as managing director.

In the second half of the 20th century, Angostura expanded rapidly, including abroad, particularly to the United States and Canada. In 1973 the company bought the Trinidadian competitor Fernandes Distillers, but continued to sell the sometimes award-winning Fernandes rums under their established names. In the 1970s, the company also moved from downtown Port of Spain to its current headquarters on Eastern Main Road on the eastern outskirts. In 1997, Angostura was bought by the Trinidadian financial group CL Financial. Subsequently, the company served as a holding company, under whose roof the parent company CL Financial united distilleries in America and Europe, for example the Jamaican Appleton Estate or the US MGP Distillery . The last remaining rum distillery in Trinidad, the rum division of Caroni (1975) Limited , was bought by CL Financial in 2001 and incorporated into the House of Angostura. This deal was pushed through by the government against protests from the population, although several unions had jointly submitted a higher offer for the distillery. Due to the global financial crisis in 2007, CL Financial ran into liquidity problems and was taken over by the Trinidadian state in 2009. Within the CL-Financial group, the House of Angostura had also piled up a high mountain of debt, but was able to free itself from its unfortunate financial situation through austerity measures and the sale of distilleries and bottling plants. In 2018 the Trinidadian central bank announced that it would sell the Angostura parent company CL Financial to the Barbadian financial investor Sagicor Financial . Since then, legal disputes between shareholders have prevented progress.

The Angostura rums won numerous prizes in competitions, such as the International Wine and Spirit Competition or the International Spirits Competition . At the end of 2016, however, the House of Angostura got into a scandal when, after internal investigations, information came to the public that the company had bought up rum from Cuba and South America on a large scale and resold it as its own noble rum without any significant refinement process. At the same time, the company was already in the media focus because an employee of the company had reported the then CEO of sexual harassment. In 2013 the House of Angostura gained media attention with the launch of the "most expensive rum in the world", the Angostura Legacy for 25,000 US dollars per bottle.

Brands

  • Amaro di Angostura: herbal liqueur, 35% vol
  • Angostura 1787: Brown blended rum, aged 15 years, 40% vol
  • Angostura 1824: Brown blended rum, aged 12 years, 40% vol
  • Angostura 1919: Brown blended rum, aged 8 years, 40% vol
  • Angostura 5 Year Old: Brown blended rum, aged 5 years, 40% vol
  • Angostura 7 Year Old: Brown blended rum, aged 7 years, 40% vol
  • Angostura Aromatic Bitters: Cocktail bitters
  • Angostura LLB: lemonade with cocktail bitters
  • Angostura Orange Bitters: Cocktail bitters
  • Angostura Rum Punch: mixed drink based on rum, 21% vol
  • Angostura Rum Punch Mango: mixed drink based on rum, 21% vol
  • Angostura Rum Punch Pina Colada: mixed drink based on rum, 21% vol
  • Angostura Rum Punch Watermelon: mixed drink based on rum, 21% vol
  • Angostura Reserva: white rum, aged 3 years, charcoal filtered, 37.5% vol
  • Angostura Single Barrel Reserve: Brown blended rum, aged five years, 40% vol
  • Blu: vodka
  • Fernandes Black Label: brown rum, 43% vol
  • Fernandes Cherry Brandy: cherry liqueur, 12% vol
  • Forres Park Puncheon Rum: White Puncheon rum with 75% vol
  • Mokatika: coffee liqueur
  • Royal Oak: Brown blended rum aged 5-7 years, 43% vol
  • White Oak: White blended rum, matured for three years, 40% vol

Historic brands

  • Carypton: Ready-to-eat cocktail made from rum, lime juice, sugar and bitter, base for the Green Swizzle cocktail , early 20th century
  • Siegert's Bouquet: Rum, 1890 - mid-20th century

gallery

  • Bitter

  • 1919 rum

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angostura.com: Annual Report 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2020 . (PDF, 11 mb)
  2. ^ Rita Pemberton: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . New ed.Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2018, ISBN 978-1-5381-1145-1 , pp. 31 .
  3. ↑ James H. Stark: Guide-Book and History of Trinidad . James H. Stark, Boston 1897, p. 112 .
  4. ↑ a b c AngosturaBitters.com: History of Angostura Bitters. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Lise Winer: Dictionary of the English / Creole of Trinidad & Tobago . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 2009, ISBN 978-0-7735-3406-3 .
  6. ↑ The Lone Caner (blog): Fernandes Distilleries. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  7. ^ CocktailWonk.com: How the Financial Crisis of 2007 Reshaped the Rum World. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  8. ↑ TriniCenter.com: Caroni's Distillery sold to Angostura. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
  9. ^ Mark Fraser: Rebuilding Angostura . In: Trinidad Express . August 9, 2010.
  10. ↑ Jada Loutoo: CLF shareholder threatens Central Bank with legal action . In: Trinidad Newsday . June 13, 2019.
  11. ^ Jensen La Vende: Shareholders seek to stop the sale of Clico . In: Trinidad Newsday . February 2, 2020.
  12. ↑ IWSC.net: Search. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Meininger.de: International Spirits Competition 2006. Retrieved on March 5, 2020 . (PDF, 588 KB)
  14. ↑ StabroekNews.com: Angostura rum under audit. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Asha Javeed: Woman reports Rolph to cops . In: Trinidad Express . January 1, 2017.
  16. ↑ MarketWatch.com: The $ 25,000 bottle of rum. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Mixology.recipes: Carypton. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .