The first floor of the Alonso residence in Marikina has been transformed into a colorful tasting room—a playground of sorts for Ken Alonso, a stalwart advocate of local liquor.
A shelf along the wall behind the bar is lined with locally made bottles of gin, tapuey, bugnay, lambanog, and many others—a toast to the brand he founded called Proudly Promdi, a one-stop shop celebrating heritage spirits and making them more accessible.
And it is here—both the brand and his actual home, and the metaphorical ‘promdi’ spirits each embodies—where he gets to share all his local discoveries.
Ken Alonso figures out local potential
Right before the pandemic, he and his wife Maina were banking on their mobile carts for events. When that didn’t happen because of all the restrictions at the time, Alonso had an epiphany.
“I was literally just washing dishes and I was so sad. Then it hit me. I realized that to buy local products, I had to purchase them from different websites. So I told Maina, ‘let’s carry more Filipino products. That’s already our niche.’”
“This whole space was also because of the pandemic,” Alonso reveals. “It was a time when there was a fork in the road for us where we had to decide to keep going or stop. At that point, we were really going to stop but what kept us afloat at that time were bottled cocktails,” Alonso reveals.
“I want to help change perceptions of people. I also want people to acknowledge that we have products such as bugnay and tapuey, and masarap siya”
Through Proudly Promdi, Alonso is able to introduce many drinks from far-flung provinces. Since then, he has been steadily providing unique beverages to some of the biggest restaurants in Manila such as Toyo Eatery.
Alonso’s goals are clear: “I want to help change perceptions of people. I also want people to acknowledge that we have products such as bugnay and tapuey, and masarap siya.”
It’s a practically Filipino supper club
Entering the tasting room is a homey affair—layers of texture and references of Filipino references. A green and orange couch by Studio Siriusdan is placed in the corner with a wall of glass blocks. The piece de resistance is the bar, which is enveloped in an artwork by Addi Panadero of And A Half depicting scenes of provincial life—a farmer in a salakot rides a carabao and a woman in vibrant clothing carries a basket of fruits on her head and a bilao by her hip.
Guests who want to include bar carts and cocktails at their events come here to taste the concoctions using local liquor. More recently, the couple have opened up the space as HOHOL (an acronym for Hang Out Hang Out Lang) where people can spend the night tasting different types of spirits as they are and as cocktails.
“The idea is coming to our house—which literally is upstairs, and inuman lang. When we thought of HOHOL, we wanted something that reflects us, not some strict food pairing or degustation,” Alonso describes.
“The idea is coming to our house—which literally is upstairs, and inuman lang. When we thought of HOHOL, we wanted something that reflects us, not some strict food pairing or degustation,” Alonso describes
On the day we hang out with Alonso, he creates a trio of cocktails, which includes a sangria using Bielma Bugnay fruit wine whose sweetness is balanced out with mezcal, tart pineapple and lemon, and fresh guava before finishing it with a spritz of soda water. He puts a tropical spin on the Negroni with the addition of Pedronian Tapuey, Zing ginger liqueur, and lemongrass tincture. The Kamias Margarita meanwhile gets a boost with Vino Isla tuba (a coconut wine), pandan-infused Blanco Tequila, and Manille Dalandan liqueur.
For food, the couple sources bites around Marikina such as pancit from Lola Helen’s Panciteria (which has been around since the ’80s), pandesal from Genesis Hot Pandesal, and barbecue from Lerma’s Barbecue. The support for local business is intentional and they believe it creates for a more unique experience.
Prouder moments to come
Although HOHOL has been met with positive feedback, there’s still a long way to go in helping change how people think about local alcohol.
“In the beginning it was really hard. When I was starting and had foreigners try our bugnay wine, I’ve had the experience where they would literally spit it out in front of me because it was too sweet. He was French,” Alonso candidly shares. “Or people would ask why it’s so expensive or if it was really safe to drink.”
“In the beginning it was really hard. I’ve had the experience where [foreigners] would literally spit it out in front of me because it was too sweet,” he says about local fruit wines
“These things are common. Our fruit wines are similar to Jollibee spaghetti. It may be blasphemy for Italians for spaghetti to be that sweet, but that’s just part of how Filipinos are. So just like fruit wines, why do we have to change how fruit wines are when it’s really how Filipinos made it? These local winemakers from the province never tasted real red wine like merlot or cabernet so they made it to satisfy their palate.”
With Proudly Promdi and HOHOL, he hopes to help increase awareness for these local drinks and in turn increase exposure of their makers. “Instead of trying to adjust to the taste of these outside spirits, let’s uplift what we’ve been doing or what we’ve been making.”