It all began with Thomas Mason, a Jamaican planter stripped of his lands, and Alfred Aybrook, a chemist and underground distiller, both outcasts of Prohibition-era New York. One fateful evening in a dockside bar, a mysterious sailor offered them a sip from a stoneware bottle — a drink so smooth, so rich in character, it would forever change their lives.
This spirit, they learned, was Arak, distilled from the sap of the coconut flower and steeped in the history of the kings of Kandy. Driven by obsession, they set sail for Old Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), in search of its origins.
Years passed as they worked in colonial bars and studied ancient methods. Finally, in a forest outside Kandy, they discovered a hidden still and the traditional recipe for true coconut blossom spirit.
Their legacy lives on — not just in stories, but in every bottle we craft today.
