Drinks for the next Cambodian
Seekers, Jason Kong, Wild Bong, Chanthy. Not for tourists. For the regional class that is arriving.
By Sovandarapor (James) Kong · · Ventures
He is Cambodian-Australian, home for Pchum Ben, looking for something to take to his cousin. Or she grew up here, studied abroad and came back. She works in Phnom Penh now, hosts dinners at home, knows what a good Negroni tastes like and is tired of being told that good cocktails live in Bangkok or Singapore. Or she is an expat who has been here long enough to understand that the right gift for a Cambodian friend is a Cambodian bottle and not a French one.
That is the customer we design for. The default assumption about a Cambodian craft spirit is that it must be for tourists. Pub Street in Siem Reap. A backpacker hostel in Phnom Penh. A bottle behind the bar at a riverside place that takes US dollars and serves a banana shake next to a rum. Plenty of Southeast Asian craft brands settle into that market quite happily, because tourists pay cash and do not argue about price.
Seekers is not built for it. There are four brands so far. Seekers is the flagship. Jason Kong is the personal brand for our partner. Wild Bong is the looser, wilder expression. Chanthy is coming. Each one is aimed at a specific occasion and a specific Cambodian, and none of them at somebody who will be in Bangkok next week.
Today that market is small. It is also the market that is arriving. Cambodia's middle class is growing faster than at any point in fifty years, and they are not waiting politely to be served by imports.
Seekers Spirit House is part of the same argument. It is where the bottles meet the people. It is a house in the ordinary Cambodian sense, somewhere you go because you know whose room it is.
The work is brand, design and patience. Jun and Tania run the room, Sunny does the visuals, Marco and Linda are on the floor, and I work on the story. Craft spirits from Cambodia is a category. The story is that Cambodia gets to drink itself.
The tourists find it anyway.