Ten to One founder goals to vary individuals’s notion of rum

When he arrived in Cambridge as a first-year scholar, Farrell didn’t count on to finish up within the spirits business. “I used to be a 16-year-old once I bought to MIT, and I don’t know if there are loads of 16-year-olds who actually know, essentially, what it’s they need to do in life,” he says, laughing. Farrell majored in chemical engineering however says his publicity to finance, economics, and enterprise on the Institute helped him type the dream of beginning his personal firm. 

To be taught the ropes, he started his profession in administration consulting. He did a stint in non-public fairness, earned a grasp’s in know-how coverage on the College of Cambridge and an MBA at Harvard, and launched his first startup in sports activities and media, which he says noticed preliminary success however didn’t scale the way in which he’d hoped. Then Farrell joined Starbucks, rising to turn into vice chairman of worldwide retail and beverage innovation. 

Serving as an govt for the world’s largest coffeehouse chain renewed his personal sense of function, and he determined to launch a model that will honor his Caribbean roots. “Once I take into consideration Caribbean tradition, now we have this uncanny capability to activate celebration. It truly is a lifestyle for us,” says Farrell. “Rum performs a job in so lots of these celebrations. It truly is a part of the material, a part of the essence of what we take into account to be celebration within the Caribbean.” 

Farrell named his startup Ten to One to pay homage to the West Indies Federation, which united 10 Caribbean nations from 1958 to 1962. Though rum may be present in most sugar-producing areas of the world—it’s produced by fermenting after which distilling sugarcane juice or molasses—its origin is attributed to the Caribbean. 

The corporate at present sells two high-quality rums sourced from a few of the most distinct and superior producers all through the area, now out there in 15 US states. The darkish model is a mix of rums from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic; the white is a mixture of rum from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Ten to One additionally sells limited-edition releases, resembling a 17-year-old single-cask reserve. 

Though the model is a relative newcomer, Ten to One has obtained almost 70 awards as of 2022, making it probably the most adorned rum within the US. In October 2021, singer-songwriter Ciara joined the corporate as investor and co-owner. Whereas such preliminary successes have been gratifying, Farrell says he’s most excited to vary the way in which individuals take into consideration rum—not only for his firm, however for the business. 

“Once I take into consideration what success appears like, whether or not that’s three, 5, 10 years down the trail, my hope is that we’re the model that has turn into synonymous with shifting the notion of the rum class,” he says, very similar to how Starbucks reinvented the coffeeshop. “I’m actually hoping that Ten to One may be that on the earth of rum.”