Colin Asare-Appiah

Coming Up

Bartending training at London Academy of Bartending (LAB) gave Colin Asare-Appiah the base that supports the rest of the work: technique, service discipline, and the ability to operate in rooms where hospitality, storytelling, and identity overlap. From that grounding, the career moved into brand ambassadorship, then into broader drinks leadership, with each role widening the field rather than changing the subject. The present titles — co-founder of AJABU Cocktail & Spirits Festival (since 2024) and trade director of multicultural and LGBTQ advocacy of Bacardi — show a practice that stays close to the trade while pushing for who gets access to it.

Where They Are Now

Brand and culture sit together in this kind of role, so the work asks for fluency in both commerce and community. Colin Asare-Appiah has framed that purpose directly: "I do it with the mind of providing access for others to come after me, more people who look like me." In trade terms, that is advocacy applied at scale: representation, access, and the steady making of room inside a system that often narrows it. The position is not a break from the earlier stages of the career; it is the place where those stages converge.

Signature

Colin's signature dishes include AJABU, Black Mixcellence, and Belafonte Margarita. Read as trade markers, those names function like shorthand for the range of the work: festival, concept, and cocktail, each tied to the same wider practice. The set points to a career built across formats rather than inside one fixed role.

In Their Words “There were a few paths that led me to the ‘aha!’ moment. I’d always wanted to create a festival on the African continent.” The quote places the emphasis on destination rather than inspiration. For Colin Asare-Appiah, the festival idea sits at the meeting point of training, brand work, and advocacy, and it explains the shape of the current practice: not just participation in drinks culture, but building an event framework for it on the African continent.