Destileria Barako is a Filipino small-batch alcohol brand, producing a cream liqueur made of local vegetable crop, ube.

Brand Snapshot

Throughout history, Southeast Asia has provided a wonder of spices, flavours and ingredients to the rest of the world. Building on this legacy, Destileria Barako has created a product around a uniquely exportable Filipino ingredient. Enter, ube. This purple-vegetable-turned-cream-liqueur is gathering significant momentum in the country – for its delicious flavour as much as for the novelty. So far, they are following the emergent alcohol brand playbook well: a distinct bottle (tick), a delightful flavour (tick), a storied label (tick), a signature serve (purple, tick), craft (foraging, tick) and awards (tick.)

Whilst it does, therefore, have a highly compelling product, the brand is still finding its feet. It is largely building around a folkloric national cultural identity. But where it gets confused is that in different moments it is positioning itself as both history and lifestyle. How the two ladder together in a cohesive way is not yet entirely clear. Perhaps what links one to the other is what we can learn from the nation’s ancient mythology and apply to our current lives – most myths, after all, are moralising.

Destileria Barako will also need to crack the cocktail, so it can open up more occasions (vs. sipping) and win over the heavily-pitched-to mixologist class. That said, they have already created several options - an Ube Mudslide with rum and Apatura with gin – so we know it can be done. It appears now to be more a question of figuring out which one best satisfies a globally popular palette. Ube, pack your bags, this brand looks like it will travel.