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If you\u2019re in the cocktail and spirits business and you know only one thing about Colin Asare-Appiah\u2014and that would stand as quite an achievement in an industry where he seems to be everywhere all the time\u2014you probably know his personal motto. It pops up throughout his Instagram feed as the hashtag #getinvolvedbruv<\/a>. For him, it\u2019s not just a catchy, feel-good slogan, but a personal philosophy. \u201cThere are those who talk about it, and there are those who do it,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel I\u2019m one of those people who does it. It\u2019s good to talk about it, but you should also take action and do it and get involved. Get involved in whatever you\u2019re doing. Don\u2019t stand on the sidelines. Get in there and make change.\u201d <\/p>\n Asare-Appiah, who began his career as a bartender, is trade director of multicultural and LGBTQ advocacy at Bacardi. It\u2019s just the latest of many titles he\u2019s held at Bacardi, where he\u2019s worked for more than a decade. His tenure is a particularly lengthy one by spirits-world standards. Most people who have held such a post for so long would have slowed down by now, spending fewer nights out. But Asare-Appiah is remarkably present. Based in New York, he still turns up at tastings, bar openings, pop-ups, and sundry other industry events. Typically, you\u2019ll find him seated at the bar in a relaxed attitude, chatting, nursing his drink. It looks like he\u2019s just hanging out. But there\u2019s more to his presence than meets the eye.<\/p>\n \u201cI do it with the mind of providing access for others to come after me,\u201d he says, \u201cmore people who look like me. Because sometimes I\u2019m one of the only minorities in the room or in a circle. Now you see more people who look like me in these rooms. Slowly but surely, it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n Asare-Appiah has been such a fixture on the international cocktail and spirits circuit for so long that it\u2019s easy to take him for granted. Lately, however, his profile has risen. In 2022, he and Tamika Hall published Black Mixcellence<\/a><\/em>, a book featuring recipes by dozens of Black mixologists. And late last year, he and Mark Talbot Holmes co-founded Ajabu<\/a>, the first cocktail conference based in Africa. The first part of the bi-annual event took place in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a marathon, not a sprint for him,\u201d says Shannon Fischer, a publicist who first met Asare-Appiah when he was brand ambassador for U\u2019Luvka vodka in the late aughts. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s been long overdue, the recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been iconic to the Black, brown, and queer communities for a while. He already had legendary status.\u201d \u2014Chris Cabrera<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n To Chris Cabrera, the national LGBTQ+ ambassador at Bacardi, Asare-Appiah\u2019s growing prominence is a matter of the times finally rising to meet the man. \u201cHe\u2019s been iconic to the Black, brown, and queer communities for a while. He already had legendary status,\u201d says Cabrera. \u201cI believe his role didn\u2019t yet exist. After the social awakening of 2020 and George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, people started paying more attention. He\u2019s always been doing this. But it wasn\u2019t until after 2020 that people outside the Black and brown and queer communities took notice.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever met Asare-Appiah, it\u2019s unlikely you\u2019d forget him. He has an actor\u2019s bearing and a warm smile, and he\u2019s often swathed in a brightly colored jacket. His soothing bass voice pours out like hypnotic honey. Moreover, his overall aura is one of preternatural positivity. As Fischer puts it, \u201cHe seems like the mayor of the spirits community.\u201d<\/p>\n Colin Asare-Appiah was born in Ghana, where he still has relatives. At the age of seven, he moved to London with his father, a psychiatric doctor. He studied business and finance at Westminster College, where he met Douglas Ankrah, a fellow native of Ghana and the future inventor of the Porn Star Martini. Their paths would cross often during the cocktail renaissance that began in London in the 1990s.<\/p>\n A friend suggested he take a month off before beginning a job at McCann Erickson, the global advertising agency. So, he traveled to the Greek island of Rhodes. When a work lead didn\u2019t pan out, he slept on the beach for two weeks, before landing a position at Qupi Bar bussing glasses in a club. One day, the owner quizzed him, asking him where a certain bottle of liquor was from. Not understanding, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s from the back of the truck.\u201d The owner then told him to polish all the bottles behind the bar. Newly curious as to what he might be missing, he began to look at the back labels as he cleaned each bottle, absorbing each spirit\u2019s backstory.<\/p>\n \u201cI just fell in love,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI loved reading, I loved storytelling.\u201d He was promised work as a bartender if he returned the following summer.<\/p>\n In London, he got a job at Beach Blanket Babylon, a stylish bar in Notting Hill. Further work came at Boom Boom Room, Babington House, and Townhouse. In 1996, he teamed with several other mixologists (including Ankrah) to form the London Academy of Bartenders (LAB), one of the first modern bartending schools. \u201cWe basically trained the next generation of bartenders,\u201d he says. The school morphed into a far-better-known bar, also called LAB.<\/p>\n In 2003, he was hired as bar manager at Fifteen, a restaurant and social experiment by chef Jamie Oliver, who brought in young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and taught them the restaurant business. Heavily hyped by the media, Fifteen was always packed. It was then that Asare-Appiah\u2019s name began to appear in the papers. Soon, Simon Ford, then brand ambassador for Plymouth gin, asked him to come to New York to help launch the newly revived brand. Ford knew Asare-Appiah\u2019s people skills would come in handy.<\/p>\n \u201cColin has always been the host bartender,\u201d says Ford. \u201cThat was his true skill. Could he knock the drinks out and know how to make them? Yes. But he was the guy who was nurturing his team and he was the person who was greeting you at the door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n