THE TIN GOOSE and her MIXOLOGIST
THE STORY
The Tin Goose is the brainchild of Seattle’s own, Megan Radke. It is a liquid homage, a vintage bowler hat-tip to a time long ago. A time when the government decided that, only by stripping the country of every drop of sinful libation, could it defend against crime, corruption, social problems, and poor hygiene. A time less-than-fondly referred to as the prohibition.
Nostalgic wannabe drunks and social rights activists flooded the streets wielding angry protest signs. Not unlike a college pub at closing time, the chant “WE WANT BEER” could be heard erupting from the corners of abandoned pubs and taverns. The future looked bottom-of-the-barrel bleak.
A few years just before the prohibition, and after its turbulent start in the Cuban War, Bacardi Rum established a bottling plant in New York City. When the prohibition hit, most liquor manufacturers were wiped out. But instead of admitting defeat, or turning to shady, illegal manufacturing, Bacardi found a loophole. They reasoned,
“If we can’t bring rum to the people, we’ll just have to bring the people to rum!”
Bacardi bet all the money they had on building their legacy; they believed people should have the right to drink their rum if they were thirsty. They refused to wait around for the ban to be lifted, and instead, used the prohibition as a platform upon which to build their legacy. They commissioned a small Pan Am cargo plane, later nicknamed the Tin Goose, to transport people from the United States to their base in Cuba to drink. Giddy, booze-loving Americans filled this rickety flying soda can, eager to arrive at the utopian bar across the ocean and bathe in Bacardi rum. From the first flight of the Tin Goose, Bacardi started a movement.
Fast-forward to present day, and the spirit of the Tin Goose lives on, all thanks to Seattle’s favourite Canon bartender, Megan Radke.
THE MIXOLOGIST
A longtime, dear friend of mine, I reached out to Megan to learn more about the Tin Goose, and she shared her story with me over a LaCroix, a bag of popcorn, and a long drive north.
As a former hairdresser, Megan moved to Seattle with a harebrained dream (more accurately, hairbrained). That dream quickly changed when she was surprised to find herself less inspired by her career work, and increasingly more excited by her daytime coffee side-hustle and its nighttime Capitol Hill bar, Liberty.
As she recalls it, earlier than she cared to admit to herself, she was hooked. As Megan learned about the origin stories and science behind coffee, her interest in the tantalizing world of liquid gold was only magnified when she began studying spirits. The stories of the founding families, bottles, history, and evolution of spirits were magnetizing to her, and creating beautiful cocktails was the perfect outlet for her inventive itch.
When she finally decided to make the bold, life-changing move to leave her career to pursue a new one in the male-dominated field of bartending, she made a vow to herself.
“If I’m going to be a bartender, I’m not just going to be a bartender. I’m going to be the best damn bartender.”
So, she put her career, her income, and her self-declared twenty-something year-old identity on the line with a mission to do just that.
As an inside observer, Megan’s goal was to become a bartender at Liberty. Historically, she knew that Liberty was a challenging place to get a bartending position. The people that worked there bonded and stayed for a long time; they were the best of the best, and the bar was high (hypothetically, of course). The bartenders that left went on to work at the best bars around the world. She resolved that she would one-day bartend at Liberty and follow in their footsteps to work at, what she considered to be, the best bar in the city: Canon.
As it is with anything worth having, her pursuit was an uphill, hair-frizzing, teeth-grinding battle. Beginning as the daytime barista at Liberty, she scrapped for shifts, she made herself a bartending apprentice every chance she had, she poured over endless books and picked the brains of her bartending heroes, she unclogged dishwashers and polished glasses until she ultimately earned the opportunity to bartend alongside her mentors.
As she recalls, there were a lot of doubts along the way, and not just from the devil and angel who made themselves at home on her shoulders. There was a lot of push-back from people in her previous career, friends, and industry folks; a lot of moments when she had to block out the world, ignore the signs, and believe in her dream enough to push forward.
After Megan was hired as a bartender at Liberty, she pursued her next big challenge: competitions. Competitions terrified her. She laughs as she tells me about her first time at a competition; I’ll relay it to you like this: Picture you’re onstage and you just realized you’re naked. Now picture you’re onstage and you just realized you’re naked… and you’re holding a cocktail shaker. Yeah, this was worse. With all eyes on her, Megan froze up and was entirely speechless. She couldn’t squeak out a single word. Although by all accounts, her presentation was a disaster, she considers it to be a pivotal point in her career. It was the first time that she had the opportunity to meet badass female bartenders across the country, she was challenged in a way she had never been before, and although she was humiliated, she left the stage with a stubborn resolve to keep competing. After all, if she was going to be the best (and someday tend her dream bar at Canon) that’s what it would take.
Megan knew that if she was doing something that scared her, she was doing something right.
The first real competition she competed in (after the one where she let the cocktail shaker shake her) was for Bacardi Rum. She didn’t win, but competing in the Bacardi competition gave her a sense of empowerment; she saw immediate growth and improvement (there was really nowhere to go but up...) and that event fueled her to keep competing.
Over the years, Bacardi has continued to play a role of empowerment in her life. They have provided her with some of the most incredible opportunities in her career, including a couple trips to Europe, one to Puerto Rico (where Bacardi is now based) and one to San Francisco. Most importantly, Bacardi has, time and time again, shown her that they believe in her.
As Megan tells it,
“Everything I’ve gotten to do through the brand and every interaction I’ve had with them has motivated me to take them seriously and push hard to represent them. As a company, I support them and want them to be well represented. If I can earn the opportunity to represent them myself, I’ll be proud to do it”
THE LEGACY
This year, Bacardi asked contestants around the world to create the next classic cocktail in their Bacardi Legacy competition. To earn her spot at nationals, Megan presented her legacy cocktail, The Tin Goose.
The Tin Goose represents the fight of the human spirit to achieve whatever it wants to achieve. Bacardi refused to take no for an answer during the prohibition and fought to build their legacy by creating a movement; Megan did the same by forging her own path and pursuing each challenge head-on. The Tin Goose represents all the badass female bartenders who are grossly underrepresented in her industry, and who mentored her, showing her that with the right attitude, blood, sweat, tears, and the right people in your corner, there’s always a way; it is a symbol of freedom in flight and freedom from oppression. The Tin Goose was a cornerstone in building Bacardi’s legacy, and Megan believes it will be equally as significant in building her own.
THE RECIPE
1.5 oz Bacardi 8
1 oz Banana shrub
1 oz lime
¼ oz all spice
Angostura bitters
The cocktail is shaken and single strained. It is served in nik & nora glass, and is topped with a banana leaf garnish.
Never one to back away from a challenge, Megan chose to create a cocktail whose principal ingredient was one she had never worked with before, a banana shrub. She explained to me that, with an ingredient as textured as a banana, you will rarely ever find it in a single strained cocktail. Megan chose to single strain the Tin Goose because she wanted to preserve the quirky texture and, as a bonus, break a few rules. This cocktail, like its namesake, is a risky one. Megan created something truly unique because she wanted to create something that could fail. She knew that if it could fail and it somehow didn’t, it would be, and I quote,
“hella dope”.
THE CAUSE
After this cocktail and her creator won at the Bacardi Legacy Semifinals, Megan took the cocktail on tour, and it has since been featured at over 20 bars nationwide on menus, and through special pop-up events that feature Megan bartending alongside the women who have inspired and mentored her along the way. As the only woman in the competition, Megan is using her cocktail as a platform to celebrate the community of women in the industry, and as a tool for aid.
Through Bacardi, Megan had the opportunity to visit Puerto Rico and witness, firsthand, the damage left by the hurricane. Moved to help her fellow industry workers in the wake of the destruction, she met with the women of a female-founded relief program, called Serve PR, that sends aid to those in the industry that have been left without jobs. To give back and help those in need, Megan is donating all the tips from each Tin Goose event, as well as $1 from each sale of The Tin Goose, to Serve PR.
Megan’s goal for this cocktail is much bigger than just making it the next classic cocktail. It’s the story of the Tin Goose, the history it represents, and an avenue through which to celebrate one another and to support one another and those in need.
The Tin Goose was and always will be a legacy and a movement.
THE MOVEMENT
You can support the flight of the Tin Goose in Seattle by ordering it off the menu at Hideout and Rumba and tagging it @TinGoose2018 #TinGoose2018. You can also support it by sharing this blog with your friends, family, neighbours, and family veterinarian.
Lastly, you can support it in person by joining Megan and her bartending betties at Rumba Seattle, on Monday, January 29th to drink this unforgettable cocktail, support a great cause, and help send the Tin Goose and her mixologist to finals!
