22. June 2022

If you’ve read Paul French‘s excellent book City of Devils you of course heard of famous Shanghai slot machine king “Jack” E.T. Riley. Jack was known to have been a longtime supporter of the Marines, and they in turn helped save his butt more than once. What, to our knowledge, previously was not known is that before joining spirits merchant Gande, Price & Co in late 1933 (where his “commercial record was above reproach”), Jack gave it a shot on his own to distribute U.B.C. –...

31. October 2021

Interesting to note that Martell’s Chinese brand name then still was 麦退而, based on the Shanghainese pronunciation “Mah-r-the”, in comparison to its modern day transliteration 马爹利 pronounced “Madieli” in Mandarin. Founded in 1715, Martell is the oldest of the great cognac houses and its original Chinese name was first mentioned in an 1872 Shun Pao newspaper article. Gande, Price & Company Ltd were wine and spirits merchants founded in 1892 with branches in Hong Kong,...