22015: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-They'll drink to that: Haitian beer is coming (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, May. 22, 2004



ALCOHOL


They'll drink to that: Haitian beer is coming

Haiti's Prestige beer makes its official American debut this weekend, the
first export of the brew since its founding in 1974.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND TRENTON DANIEL

jcharles@herald.com


A story about the power of Prestige: During the recent string of violent
revolts that sent former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide packing,
the rebels in Gonaives had one demand -- not weapons, not food, but beer
from Haiti's only brewery.

''We are out of beer,'' one of the leaders told Michal Madsen, president and
CEO of Haiti's Prestige beer during a surprise phone call. ``Can you send us
a container?''

Hours later, Haiti's camouflage-clad rebels -- including leader Guy
Philippe, enjoyed chatting it up poolside with foreign journalists with a
Prestige in hand -- were popping open bottles, courtesy of Madsen, whose
family founded the company 30 years ago.

Soon Haitians and non-Haitians alike will be able to sample the taste of
Prestige in South Florida. For the first time since its founding, Prestige's
parent company is making the product available outside of Haiti.

And that makes South Florida Haitians happy.

''It's a good thing that Prestige is going to be here to represent us,''
said Mike Kesner, 43, who was hanging out Wednesday in front of a Buena
Vista East convenience store. ``Jamaica has its beer here. The Dominican
Republic has its beer. Now we've got Prestige -- it's good, it's great.''

LONG TIME COMING

For some Haitians, Prestige's arrival in Broward and Miami-Dade counties
means feeling closer to home.

''It's cool because I don't have to go back to Haiti to drink the beer,''
said Gerald Duval, 30, a North Miami forklift operator. ``When Prestige
comes, a lot of Haitians will drink it because they haven't had it for a
long time.''

The expansion, said Madsen, has been a decade in the making.

''Unfortunately with the government of Aristide, there was nothing that
could be done. He blocked everything,'' said Madsen, who will officially
launch the beer this evening at Miami's Citronelle Restaurant, 7300 Biscayne
Blvd. ``As soon as he left, everything opened up.''

With opposition toward Aristide building, Madsen decided two years ago to
expand and upgrade his brewery, Brasserie Nationale d'Haiti, to allow the
company to brew and bottle enough beer for both the Haitian and export
markets.

The export market will not only include South Florida, where three container
loads of beer arrived this week, but in the coming weeks, the Turks and
Caicos Islands and St. Martin, both of which have large Haitian communities.

Madsen, who directly and indirectly employs more than 2,000 Haitians in the
impoverished Caribbean nation, said he also hopes to make the beer available
in New York, Boston and Chicago, after the company ``gauges success in
Miami.''

A venture years ago to introduce the beer in the U.S. market flopped because
it was brewed and bottled in Ohio, and according to Madsen ``it was not the
same beer. It was not made in Haiti and the Haitians rejected it, rightly
so.''

Unlike other Haitian favorites, the Dominican Republic's Presidente and
Germany's Heneiken, Prestige is ''uniquely'' Haitian, Madsen said.

INCONSISTENT TASTE

But unlike its rivals, Prestige's taste can be a bit inconsistent, sometimes
varying from bottle to bottle, depending on how warm it gets.

''It's the beer that is uniquely adapted to the Haitian taste and it's less
bitter than other beers, more suave,'' Madsen said. ``There is one factor in
it, drinkability. You can drink many, many Pestige and you don't feel
yourself full.''

That and the fact South Florida is home to one of the largest
Haitian-American populations were among the reasons BeverageLink
Distributors signed on to become the beer's local distributors, said
Alexandra Garrido Goodrich, vice president of Marketing for the Medley
company. ''We've always wanted Prestige,'' said Goodrich, whose small
company also distributes Aguila from Colombia and Pilsen Callao from Peru.

In addition to stocking the shelves of local mom-and-pop grocery stores in
Broward and Miami-Dade counties that cater to a Haitian palette, Goodrich
said her company also is working on getting the beer into a popular North
Miami Beach nightclub and a local Publix supermarket where another Caribbean
beer, Kalik of the Bahamas, is already sold.

As for all the exposure Prestige got as the ''Beer of Rebels'' during
Haiti's recent uprising, Madsen said:

''It's excellent publicity,'' noting that he's compiled his own newspaper
clippings of recent mentions of the beer in the foreign press. Prestige ``is
part of Haitian culture. . . we've withstood all things and continue to
prosper.''


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