It wasn’t until after the event that we remembered that the story of BeauFort actually has quite a connection to Tobacco Dock. It’s not something we shout about too much, but much of our brand has been inspired by historical stories connected to London.
The name Three Tides was actually inspired by an old pirate tradition that took place specifically at Wapping Dock, about 100m down the road from Tobacco Dock. We’ll let you do your own research on that one!
But there we were, blissfully unaware that we were selling the rum heavily inspired by our location. It was a pretty freezing November and we were, for the first time building our Shou-Sugi-Ban bar on site the iconic Tobacco Dock, the histroy of which is undeniably very BeauFort!
“As you might guess from the name, one of the main commodities that were stored here was tobacco, brought over from Virginia. It was also used to store wool from Australia, rum, wine, molasses, brandy and animal skins. At full capacity, the Great Tobacco Warehouse could accommodate 24,000 hogsheads of tobacco.
It would have been a bustling place filled with noise and excitement…. As well as the noise and hubbub, the powerful smell of tobacco would have mingled with the pungent aroma of wine emanating from the vaults beneath the warehouse. A subterranean city stretched out under the warehouses – a vast interconnected maze of vaults filled with wine and brandy. In fact, later on, in Victorian times one could obtain a ‘tasting permit’, allowing the holder to partake of a tour of the vaults.
A furnace situated at the far northeast corner of the site earned the unusual moniker ‘The Queen’s Tobacco Pipe’, due to its use for burning all sorts of contraband, especially tobacco and cigars.”
(Taken from www.tobaccodocklondon.com)
We have done many trade shows in our time, normally in our somewhat iconic converted Landrover bars. This is the first time we’ve set up a full bar space, made using Shou-Sugi-Ban wood (highly reccommend watching this video if you’re ever feeling anxious - https://www.domusweb.it/en/video/2017/09/27/soot_house.html). We wanted to create a space that celebrated both the modern and the old, taking inspiration from the botanicals we use, traditional bar mirrors and just a touch of neon for good measure!
We met some incredible people over the weekend, ate FAR too many cheese toasties (thank you neighbours) made hundreds of cocktails including Negronis, Gimlets, Smoke n Cokes, Dark n Smoky’s and Hot Buttered Rum, which was exactly what the very cold customers needed. Right next to us was the huge open fires where flame fueled chef demonstrations succinctly created a smoky atmosphere.
We hope to see more you again this year!
All Articles- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.