How a local rum company overcame tragedy to triumph over the industry

On September 21, 2012 Todd King received a call at work around noon from his son telling him that someone from St. Maarten called him to ask if he knew Todd or his uncle, Todd’s brother, Mike, leaving them both confused. When Todd spoke to the man, he identified himself as a St. Maarten police officer and informed him that he was investigating why a credit card and cell phone belonging to Mike was found in a car that had been reported stolen. The police were going through Mike’s cell phone, calling various numbers to locate him. As Todd and the officer were both trying to understand what was happening, neither party would be prepared for news of the sinister events that had already taken place.

On the evening of September 19, 2012, Mike King and his wife, Thelma, were in their Cupecoy villa on the Caribbean island when a trio of robbers – who had already stolen $60 from a Chinese restaurant earlier in the day – decided to wander down the beach and rob the first place they saw with a light on, which happened to be Mike and Thelma’s. The incidents that occurred next were horrific, gruesome and senseless: after taking close to $80,000 in jewelry and cash, the robbers murdered Mike and Thelma. Fortunately, the trio was caught within days, convicted and are now serving time.

“The people and government of St. Maarten could not have handled this horrible situation any better,” said King.

As Mike and Thelma’s families struggled to wrap their heads around the tragedy of the brutal attack, devastating loss, and the ongoing investigation and trial, there were pressing decisions to make. What should they do with Mike and Thelma’s businesses? Particularly, a start-up rum company.

While living in St. Maarten, Mike had begun frequenting Topper’s Restaurant & Bar, where he not only became good friends with the owner, Topper Daboul and his wife, Melanie, but immediately fell in love with their in-house rhum (the French spelling) that Melanie made for patrons.

Early in 2012, somewhat bored with early retirement, the Kings and Dabouls began having discussions about distributing Topper’s Rhum in the United States, with plans to eventually share it throughout the world.

“Every time I saw Mike during that year, including the last time that I saw him, he was working on the rum company,” said King. “He had the blueprints for the distillery, and he always had the rum bottles with him ... that was all he wanted to talk about, that was all he wanted to do. He was happily obsessed.

“About a month before he passed away, Mike and I met at the beach for a weekend to go over his business plans, so I knew exactly what he wanted to do and what his plans were,” continued King. “Ironically, the same day their bodies were found, all the materials for the distillery arrived on the docks in St. Maarten. We started out with a shell and had to build it up from there.”

Their families had decided to continue the company as a legacy to both Mike and Thelma.

“When something like this happens to someone in your family, you want to get back some power,” said King. “People who do (what the killers did) take enough. And you don’t want them to take anymore. It’s like a tug-of-war. Every day you’re fighting with your emotions to pull back, to get some control.”

Another factor for King and his family in the decision to move forward with Mike’s plans for the distillery was that they did not want the horror of their slain family members’ murders to be their last, lingering memory.

“We wanted to create something that felt like, if we did it the right way, then the product would live long beyond all of us and it would be a legacy to them and their lives,” said King. “So that’s how we decided we wanted to do it, and we did everything we could to keep it going.”

In less than two months after their deaths, King, with the help of his family and family friend Brian Hendrix, were pulling the first run of “Topper’s Rhum” off the assembly line.

“There was so much energy to get it done,” said King. “You’re just running on adrenaline more than anything. We were on a mission. There wasn’t a dry eye in the entire distillery.”

When King approached Hendrix to utilize his financial background to be the CFO of the upstart, he could not refuse. Having grown up together and worked on other business ventures, they were already familiar with each other both personally and professionally.

“Nine months earlier I lost my dad from a sudden heart attack,” said Hendrix. “It was very unexpected. So I’d gone through a loss, but not the same tragic loss that he did, so I was feeling that for him. So when he asked me if I wanted to get involved, I said sure. I mean hey, it’s a rum company! Why would I not?”

Topper’s Rhum is locally owned and operates out of Irmo. King, who acts as President, CEO and co-owner of Topper’s Rhum, along with Hendrix, another co-owner, are not just the brand’s backers but are firm believers in the product.

“When people taste our rum for the first time, their eyes light up and a smile appears on their face,” said King. “It’s something we never get tired of experiencing.”

The smooth, easy-to-drink rum is available at Green’s, Frugal MacDoogal, Total Wine and Sam’s Liquors, and is also featured on several drink menus around town, including The Frayed Knot in Chapin, Kaminsky’s in the Vista, and Liberty Tap Room on the Lake in Irmo. When King and Hendrix approached Liberty, for example, they presented them with a menu of 36 frozen drinks, 20 tropical cocktails, 6 martinis and 6 shots they created through a partnership with the brand Tropics, known for its natural, high quality mixers.

At Kaminsky’s, one of the dessert cafe’s best sellers is the Banana Foster adult milkshake that uses Topper’s banana vanilla cinnamon rum. The Frayed Knot went even farther, building a tiki bar around their selection of 11 frozen mixed drinks made with the rum. On their site and through brochures, King and company make sure to point out that this isn’t just a rum made for drinking. You can cook and bake with it too.

“We’re redefining rum because you don’t have to mix this with anything to drink it, but it’s not just a drink,” said Hendrix. “We’re expanding into culinary. There’s so many things you can do with it in the kitchen. Cakes, coconut shrimp with a piña colada dip, various barbecue sauces, etc. We have rums that are versatile enough that you can bake with it, cook with it and do desserts and dips with, in addition to cocktails and frozen drinks.”

As King points out, “he woke up in the rum business,” but is finding comfort in keeping his brother’s legacy alive by continuing to push the brand toward success. Mike’s signature, along with Topper’s, are on every bottle, representing not only them but their collective families.

“Mike said that when he sat at the bar at Topper’s Restaurant, he often heard from everyone who was traveling the world that Topper’s Rhum was the best tasting rum in the world,” said King. “After he passed we thought we would put it to the test. Since then, we have submitted our rum to three of the most prestigious contests in the world. Each of them averaged over 95 competitors, and we won every one of them. Four of the six flavors hold world gold medals, three hold silver medals and two are world bronze medal winners. Many are multiple medal winners. So Mike was right; Topper’s Rhum is the world’s best tasting rum.

“There’s a stereotype to rum for people that haven’t tried ours yet,” continued King. “They think it’s cheap and it burns but that’s not what ours is. We’re approaching rum from a totally different perspective. It isn’t about the burn, cheap taste or college parties. This is a more sophisticated, premium brand and it needs to be treated that way. This is sipping rum.”

Shortly after Mike and Thelma’s deaths, their families established a foundation in their honor. A portion of the proceeds of sales of Topper’s Rhum, along with other events, funds the organization. It was a dream of the Kings to one day help abused women and children. Within the past month, the Foundation has contributed $10,000 in $2,500 increments to four different like-minded charities, including two located in Columbia, one in Charleston – their former U.S. home – and one in St. Maarten.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "How a local rum company overcame tragedy to triumph over the industry."