Launched scarcely three years ago, this brand of “arrangés” from Normandy, with its Mayan name, has already conquered its native region. Now, Gauthier Paris and his family have set their sights on the rest of mainland France. Meet a serial entrepreneur and his subtle recipes.
How did you come up with the idea of launching an arranged food business?
Before Covid 19, my family worked in the events business. I owned a wedding estate in Calvados, and my son Romain and daughter-in-law Pauline rented out 1970s Volkswagen Combis equipped with a photo booth to host wine receptions and cocktail parties at other wedding venues.
We were a real hit. Then the pandemic hit, and whoosh! Everything stopped for over a year. We told ourselves that if there was ever another pandemic, we’d be in trouble. So the family brainstormed to find another activity.
And why rum?
As it happens, Romain and Pauline were already experimenting with recipes for arrangés for their own consumption and that of their friends. My son Romain said to me in December 2021: “Why don’t you set up an arranged rum company in Normandy? But I immediately embraced this crazy and challenging idea.
It can’t have been easy to get started!
We knew nothing about it! We didn’t even know how to buy or sell alcohol in France, or which rum to use, which bottle, which label, which brand, which distribution channel…. Everything had to be learned and invented! So we took it one step at a time.
We checked with customs and fraud authorities to find out how to import alcohol wholesale, process it and resell it. At the same time, we contacted all the distilleries in the French West Indies to ask for samples.
The only one to respond positively was Habi- tation Bellevue in Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe. But they couldn’t deal with us directly, as we had to go through their parent company in Bordeaux. The latter soon found out and came to Normandy with samples of rums from its various brands. And when it came to tasting… We chose Bellevue!
So rum came first?
Yes, because to make a good rhum arrangé, you first need a very good base of white rum, and we found that with Bellevue rhum agricole. We then took a look at the competition to decide how we were going to proceed.
What about brand identity?
We immediately turned our attention to the packaging, choosing a different bottle shape to that used by a large number of players in the world of arrangés. We didn’t want a transparent white label, nor did we want a brand name evocative of the West Indies. Initially, we had gone for the Norman universe, Vikings, drakkars… but there again we chose not to do anything like everyone else and went for the Mayan civilization.
Why the Mayans?
Because my son and daughter-in-law base their lives on the Mayan calendar! We set our sights on Kabrakan (changed to Cabrakán), the god of earthquakes and mountains. There was also a play on words with “cane”. The logo was created entirely in-house, recalling the Mayan civilization at its center and the French West Indies with its exotic plants in the background.
How did the recipes come about?
Romain and Pauline created a hundred of them before settling on thirty or so. You can’t fix everything! And we chose creations that were totally different from the market: in July 2021, we began marketing a Strawberry-Basil-Lime creation that was an immediate success, along with five others.
Why did you choose fruit in the bottle?
We didn’t want to make filtered rhum arrangé because we think customers should see what they’re going to taste. It’s more beautiful and colorful in the bottle, so it sells well. At Cabrakán, everything is handmade, 100% natural, with fresh fruit, no colorants and no preservatives. Our Cabrakán arranged rum is renowned for its subtlety, balance and very moderate sugar content, which makes it a great success.
What is your distribution channel?
Quite simply, we work mainly with independent wine merchants and delicatessens. We have no plans to go into mass distribution. We really work as a family, five members of the same family (my wife Anne is in charge of the paperwork and my daughter Anouchka has also joined us), each with his or her own role to play. In three years, we’ve conquered almost the whole of Normandy, at least the cellars, and we’re also very present in the Hauts-de-France region.
What are your ambitions?
We started out in 60 m2 premises in the home of my son and daughter-in-law, and have just moved to 350 m2 in the suburbs of Caen. The production line is partly automated, but cutting and bottling the fruit is, and always will be, manual work. Today, we have a range of 12 permanent creations, and twice a year we release limited editions: spring-summer and autumn-winter. Arranged rum is an ultra-saturated market. Competition stimulates us. We’re from Normandy, so we’re conquerors, and our ambition is to be present throughout France in the years to come.