Lots of fruits, a bit of florals, a generous amount of hopeful feeling from a Filipino-made premium rum. Those are the building blocks of Don Papa Rum’s cocktails made for the spring season.
Bleeding Heart Rum Company, owner of Don Papa Rum, launched its “Sweet Sugarlandia Spring” campaign right in time for the blazing months here in the Philippines.
“Spring is not a familiar Filipino concept,” admitted Monica Llamas-Garcia, director of communications at Bleeding Heart Rum Co. But the global campaign, launched as well in a tropical country that only has wet and dry seasons, was also meant to evoke the same feeling a particular season brings. For spring, it’s rebirth.
“We wanted to take the symbolism of spring, and we still feel it relevant especially now we’re in a pandemic. The idea of spring is the idea of rebirth and looking forward to things ahead,” shared Llamas-Garcia.
The campaign is part of the company’s “Seasons of Sugarlandia” series that started in December 2020 (for the winter season). Campaigns for summer and autumn are soon to follow this year.
Bleeding Heart Rum Co. tapped its Los Angeles-based US brand ambassador, Tomas Delos Reyes, to develop four cocktails that capture the feeling and flavors of spring.
The cocktails are light and refreshing, with fruits and flowers boosting the rum’s flavor: Descanso Bloom (Don Papa, unfiltered sake, lime juice, simple syrup, honeydew), Avalon Awakens (Don Papa, pineapple juice, lime juice, Velvet Falernum, ube syrup), Botanica Obscura (Don Papa, lemon juice, hibiscus syrup, mole bitters), and Jungle Nectar (Don Papa, guava nectar, pandan syrup, lime juice, jalapeño disc, Peychaud’s Bitters).
Living in New York and then LA, two sides of the States where spring does not look and feel the same, Delos Reyes developed cocktails that are dynamic, best enjoyed in warmer months but with an “interesting contrast” suitable in places where spring can still be tad cold.
“I thought of what’s gonna be delicious and dynamic. [I used] honeydew and guava, but I also used chillies to get that interesting contrast, a little sweet and a little spicy,” he said.
The four spring cocktails are presented in a romantic campaign photos shot by Steve Tirona in Dawnridge House, the Beverly Hills home seen on Netflix’s hit show “Ratched”.
Don Papa Rum is available online at boozy.ph.