From by-product to premium alcohol: ODC team visits Samai Distillery

Following the tradition to cover the activities of local sustainability champions in Cambodia, on June 21 ODC team visited Samai – a premium rum distillery based in Phnom Penh that breaks stereotypes of conventional alcohol business.

ODC team visits the Samai Distillery. Photo by Daniel Aboagye, ODC data researcher.

At the very entrance to the distillery facilities, the team was cordially met by Mr. Daniel Pacheco and Mr. Antonio Lopez de Haro – the two founders of the project. Both came to Cambodia almost a decade ago to do a completely different type of business. Daniel’s company provided long-term sustainable energy solutions for the local people mostly specializing in the solar energy solutions. Antonio, in his turn, was engaged in hospitality industry focusing mostly on food and beverage and gradually becoming an expert in all sorts of cocktails and drinks. However, as people passionate about learning new things by doing, they pioneered a rum-making business in this part of Asia-Pacific.

Samai Distillery is ‘Cambodia’s first premium rum distillery’. Indeed, before Daniel and Antonio, two Venezuelan enthusiasts, came to the kingdom, premium rum was a great novelty to most of the local customers. While based in Cambodia and engaged in other business sectors, Mr. Pacheco and Mr. Lopez de Haro were struggling to find good quality rum – a drink that was strongly associated with their home country boasting to produce some of the finest rums on planet. At the same time, the two friends could not fail to spot perfect climatic conditions for sugarcane cultivation that Cambodia had to offer. Being intrigued by this, Daniel and Antonio decided to discover more. It turned out that, in Cambodia, most of the sugarcane was either used produce sugarcane juice or feed the cattle. Though sugarcane is also used to produce white sugar, the country’s sugar industry could not boast extremely advanced technology in place. This meant that, while being processed into refined white sugar, local sugarcane left a great amount of ‘waste’ still rich in fermentable sugars. This sugar-rich by-product was actually what Daniel and Antonio were so much familiar with. Specifically, generally known as ‘molasses’, the sugar production ‘waste’ was the main ‘raw material’ for making rum in their home country.

With all this in mind, the two Venezuelans were extremely surprised to learn that no one viewed it as at a business opportunity. This idea of turning high-quality by-products into a premium-quality rum became the cornerstone of the friends’ new business. With centuries-old Venezuelan traditions of producing great quality sugarcane beverages, the businessmen decided to launch their first of its kind enterprise in Cambodia. In contrast to many other companies running a similar business model, from their very first steps the Samai team positioned themselves as a socially responsible company producing local top-shelf product by local people. As the ODC witnessed, they really practice what they preach.

From the very first stage of selecting best-quality molasses from local producers, the company does not import any raw material from abroad but is cooperating exclusively with Khmer farmers. In addition to its award-winning Gold Rum, the company’s ‘standardised’ flagship product, the astonishing Kampot Pepper Rum has gained overall accolade of connoisseurs as well as prizes from international competitions. In fact, with its unique spicy taste, this first-of-its-kind product promotes responsible farming in the Kampot province by introducing sustainable Kampot pepper from La Plantation into its recipe from the very beginning.

La Plantation: Growing Kampot pepper. Photo by Malica Christ, ODC Research​ Intern.

Fermentation – the next process that involves molasses and yeast – takes place in steel vats at Samai facilities themselves. In order to get a mineral-rich mash of alcohol ready for distillation, the next stage, the process should be carefully controlled by professionals with special background and training. At Samai, David, a Venezuelan chemical engineer, is working alongside with Darachampich, Cambodia’s first Rum Maestro, who graduated from the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC). Since the enterprise’s main vision is to produce a truly local top-quality product, the company is very much enthusiastic about recruiting local people and training their own cadre. To this end, Samai established a long-term cooperation with ITC recruiting newly-graduated food engineers and offering internship positions for current students.

Fermentation vats and bottled samples

The personal story of another local co-worker responsible for supervising the distillation process is also worth sharing. Panha first started working at Samai as a security guard. However, he was so passionate about joining the process as a more active team member, that the managers decided to give him respective training and let him be engaged in what he is so passionate about. At the moment, Panha supervises all Samai’s distillation taking place in handmade 1800’s style calabash-shaped pot stills.

After the distillation, the spirit that will become Samai Gold Rum is brought down to 65 % alcohol and is put into oak barrels and sherry casks for aging. This is where it gets its delicate flavor and unique taste. The Kampot Pepper Rum moves next to the final, bottling, stage instead. This special spiced rum is already ready for consumption, as the Kampot pepper is its main flavor-making component.

Aging barrels. Photos by Samai Distillery and Daniel Aboagye, ODC data researcher.

After keeping rum to age for at least two years in barrels, Samai’s experts selectively blend the best samples bringing down the alcohol to 40 % before allowing them to rest. Finally, all the rum brands are hand-bottled and made ready for being delivered to the customers.

Bottling rum.  Photo by Samai Distillery.

As seen, though some of the rum-production processes are still the same as they used to be when the first barrels of the drink were produced back in Latin America, the Samai team is making every effort to technologically polish their masterpieces. What is more, since the very name of the company owes to the Khmer word for ‘modern, looking towards the future’, the ODC was happy to witness that, by making the country’s first premium beverage from local sources, employing and educating Khmer people. Samai is proud to be Cambodia’s first Premium Rum, putting Cambodia in the map of some of the best rums in the world, while developing the local industry.

The group photo of Samai team. Photo by Samai Distillery.