BevNET Cocktail Showdown 3

Ray Latif [00:36] Hey folks, I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Bevnet's Taste Radio podcast, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. I'm also the host of Bevnet's Cocktail Showdown 3. The cocktail Showdown is a pitch competition that showcases the most innovative and disruptive brands in the rapidly emerging category of spirit-based, ready to drink and ready to pour cocktails. This event features 9 entrepreneurs representing early to mid-stage brands who will each have 5 minutes to present their business plans and products. Following each pitch, the judging panel will provide 4 minutes of immediate and constructive feedback. After all the brands have presented, the judges will convene, pick a winner, and we will announce that winner live just about 5:30 Pacific time. We'll also have a short interview with the winner after the announcement. That winner, the champion, will take home an engraved trophy and the grand prize, an advertising package valued at $10,000. Let's meet our esteemed judges. All the way to my left is Nick Papanicolau, who is the founder of No Sleep Beverage. Nick is a seasoned finance operations and startup professional with over 20 years of experience in beverage alcohol, including 7+ years at Pernod Ricard, most recently as the head of Castle Brands, a $40 million plus sales business. Prior to that, he ran Incubate Brands, a $20 million business within Pennovercard's New Brands Venture division, a hybrid internal incubator and corporate venture capital group responsible for most of the emerging brands at Perno Ricard. Next we have Brandy Rand who is the chief strategy officer of IWSR. Brandy leads global strategy across various areas of product, commercial, and corporate development at IWSR. She has over 20 years of management experience in the beverage alcohol industry with previous positions at William Grant and Sons and Bacardi Limited. In these roles she worked across multiple marketing, multiple markets covering brand commercial strategy, trade marketing, consumer engagement, and product innovation. Next we have Paul Beaupre who is the founder of Beare LLC. Paul is a 25 year veteran of the beverage industry, including a key role with Coca-Cola's venturing and emerging Brands Group. Over the past 6 years, he has launched, he has led launch and growth phases with Tip Top Cocktails, Mocktail Club, Hea Cocktail Company, and most recently Bioite. Through his consulting firm Beatre and CPG accelerator SKU, he fills operating, advisory and mentoring roles with a focus on female and diverse founders. This is a killer judging panel, and I can't wait for our presenters to hear from them. We're going to start with our first presenter and I'm going to introduce them right now. Those folks are Max Robbins and Teresa Robbins, the co-founders of Robin Road Cocktails. Come on up. Hi everyone, uh, we're Max and Teresa Robbins, and we're Robin Road Cocktails. We're super excited to be here today kicking off this year's cocktail showdown and just want to take a second to thank Ray and Bevnet for hosting and to the judges for being here today. Uh, we're here to take you down a journey, uh, down Robin Road and introduce you a little bit to our brand. So Theresa and I met at culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America in 2009. We spent the last 10 years working for multiple 3 Michelin star restaurants across the country, including 7 years for Thomas Keller at Per Se in New York and the French Laundry in Napa, myself as a chef and Teresa as a sommelier. Our career in hospitality really paved the way for us and gave us this attention to detail, the ability to develop flavor and the commitment to sourcing excellent ingredients that we have taken and applied to our line of products and brand. So at the time of the pandemic in 2020, Max and I were living in New York City and we're part of an opening team for a new restaurant and everything shut down. So at that time we decided to move back to my hometown in Northeast Ohio and start this brand for our family and for our community, uh, with our backgrounds in farm focused and ingredient driven restaurants and both coming from. Agricultural communities, we understood the importance of knowing where our products come from and how they're made. So all of this really goes hand in hand in our brand at Robin Road Cocktails and fits our vision. We've made a commitment to support sustainable agriculture by using organic ingredients as much as we can, and we feel it's our responsibility to make sure we have a product for consumers that fills the gap in the RTD market, and we saw that as an organic product, something that has sustainable products, and then we wanted unique flavors and something spirit-based. Robin Road cocktails in a nutshell can be described by our tagline Genuine flavor Celebrating nature. This is where we take our foundation in developing flavor, creating experiences for people. We couple that with organic spirits, organic ingredients, and our attention to detail, and that really allows us to get creative with recognizable cocktails that people know and love, while also being able to stay committed to the things that we're passionate about like supporting. responsible agricultural practices, so all of those things combined create our line of products that we're super proud of. So in June of this year we launched with 3 cocktails, all made with 100% organic spirits and organic demarar sugar. And honestly, a little selfishly, we created a line for ourselves. These are 3 cocktails we just love to drink. So the first is our take on the classic cosmopolitan. So with the sparkling Cosmo, it's classic flavors of cranberry, fresh lime juice, and orange. Next, our cucumber gin and tonic is made with a New World Juniper Forward gin and is balanced with fresh lime juice and refreshing cucumber. Last, we have our strawberry mule. This is a classic vodka mule, and we enhance that with strawberry, fresh, spicy ginger juice and a little bit of earthy lemongrass. And then a look to the future. Coming from restaurants with seasonal and even daily changing menus, we want to incorporate seasonal limited release cocktails. Our first will be fall 2023 with our cold brew cocktail. This is made with organic fair trade cold brew, vanilla with hints of orange and pistachio. So as much care and thought that we put into everything that's going inside each can, we wanted to make sure that that was reflected and represented on the outside as well. Like the saying goes, you eat with your eyes first. So we wanted to draw people in with fun, bright, and vibrant colors. And then once you take a closer look, you realize that each label has images of not only the ingredients of each cocktail, but the plants that make up the components to each recipe. These details help tell the story that we are trying to convey that we're taking these ingredients from seeds in the ground and transforming them into beautiful handcrafted approachable canned cocktails that can be enjoyed everywhere. With that being said, uh, thanks so much for coming along the journey with us down Robin Road, and, uh, cheers. Cheers indeed. Very well done. It's not easy going first, but you guys did a great job. Well done. Paul, uh, in our industry, in every industry that related to food and beverage, everyone talks about taste, taste, taste, taste, and you would think with Michelin Star backgrounds, these products would taste pretty great, but what are your thoughts? I really enjoyed the taste. Um, the gin and tonic, I think, is the best, uh, to my flavor palate, but I think you build a brand where you pull that all the way through the, the name, your name, the Robin Road alliteration, the use of the robin, and kind of the elevated experience and taste that would come from a culinary background like yours really came through in a consistent and unique way. Competition's going to be tough, but, uh, you know, you guys are doing all the things that seem right to win. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Brandy, Max and Teresa talked about filling a gap in the market using organic formulations, using sustainable ingredients. Uh, do you see that as being a great strategy for the brand? It's, it's a great strategy, but the first thing I noticed because we were reading the back of the can, why don't you have organic on the front, very big. The only reason right now is our co-packer wasn't certified, but they have gone through the process and are now, so the next. batch that we have will have that green circle right on the front of all our packaging. So consumers certainly have a very strong interest in organic ingredients, and it's a hard claim to have. So that's a really huge element for product differentiation, particularly in the RTD space, which is very, very crowded. So I think in addition to the vibrant packaging, having those organic claims is going to be a really big positive thing for you. Awesome. Thank you. Nick, I saw you taking meticulous notes down there. Uh, what are your thoughts on Robin Road? No, very well done, guys. I, I like it a lot. I like the taste. I like the, the background and the story, and those culinary elements do come through. Um, I, I guess I was left with, um, with quite a few questions from a presentation perspective. I think it'd be very helpful to know price point, I'm not sure was, was mentioned. I didn't know where you guys are in terms of markets, how many you're in, or roughly volume or, or sales numbers. Um, and I think, uh, the other question was similar to, to, to Brandy on the organic side. I think a lot of these RTDs as a functional, you know, benefit talk about being under 100 calories or less. I don't think that was on the can from what I remember, so curious. No, those are all great questions and just to address first of all, they come in 4 packs. They're 355 mLs. We and they sell for 1599 retail. Um, we're currently only in Ohio and Connecticut. We just launched in June, so we're still in the very beginning stages, still have very small sales numbers and, and limited distribution. Um, in terms of the 100 calorie, uh, we've been having to have this conversation a lot, but basically we're not billing it as something that's healthy. We're billing it as a full flavor, delicious spirit-based cocktail that you would expect to get in a bar, but anywhere else. Yeah, no, perfect. I think that, and you don't have to, I guess when I, when I heard some of the things around organic, that's where my mind went right away. Brandy, go ahead. Based on your hospitality and industry experience, what's your route to market strategy? Are you targeting restaurants and bars, or are you looking at more retail or both? We're looking at both right now. We definitely see a fit for fast casual type restaurants. There's a lot more restaurants that are counter service, and we feel like in some states we fit into the beer and wine category, so we can offer a third option for those types of restaurants that don't have full bars, but we definitely see canned cocktails as a perfect fit for outdoor experiences like event venues. I love golfing, so that's where I want to have it. So those types of places where people are just together having fun. Paul, we got time for, uh, one more question or comment, um, you know, in terms of pack size, we're seeing a variety of pack sizes in this space. Um, you know, what do you think of what Robin Road is bringing to the market? Yeah, it's a 355 or 12 ounce. Is that right? Yeah, that seems about right for the, the proof that you have and the value proposition that consumers are looking for at the 1,599. So I don't see any sort of issue with the, the pack size. Great, great. All right, great feedback, great presentation. Very well done. Thank you. All right, up next we have Devraj Patel who is the CEO of Javati. Come on up. Hello. Again, my name is Davraj Patel, founder and CEO of Javati. Um, Before I get into the product, which is the sparkling vodka, I'm gonna sprinkle some information about the brand and consumers who led me to create this company. I'm a consumer first, just like many of us here, so I'm very picky when I go to a store. I want to see what's, what's in it, what's new, what's trending, what's different. And so when I did my research, um, consumer research, I found out that consumers want something light, something different, something premium but affordable. So I captured that data point. Then I wanted to dig deeper into the beverage industry, what's going on. So I hired a consulting firm as well as myself just dig into the beverage, um, market. And what we found is beverage companies were circulating the same product in different package and introducing, introducing it to consumers weren't really solving the problem, the issue. So enter Javati uh sparkling vodka. So to me this is more than a beverage company as a movement for those who want something new, something different. The bold, the adventurous spark, Gelati spark sparkling vodka is a new twist on classic beverages. So it's not a true seltzer, it's not a true soda, it's literally a light sparkling water with alcohol which you do not taste. Let me go to the next slide. Sorry, bear with me. Um, so here's our, um, four products. They come in an eight-pack variety pack, 1999. We don't want to be too niche. We want to make sure it's affordable for everybody to drink and have fun. Uh, the first flavor is dragon fruit and mint. It's my personal favorite. The dragon fruit comes in very nicely up front, finished by a nice zip of mint at the end. Then we have the Alfonso mango, which is the king of all mangoes paired with chili lime. Um, this is the, the mass favorite. People love this a lot, and then the most refreshing one that I think is the sickle pear, which is the sweetest pear of all, all the pears, and paired with tulsi, which is part of the basil family. Then I believe the sleeper of all the four is the lychee and rose. Lchee is typically very sweet. We dialed it down and also has a hint of a rose, so we wanted to pair it with rose to bring it out a little bit more. This is the packaging you'll find right now we just got an order in from Total Wine. We're in there, about 4 stores, some 7-Elevens here in OC and high-end liquor stores. We have a few more, um. Grocery stores, um, applications pending, as well as distributors, uh, here in OC. Um, so a little bit background by Javati. Javati means to be alive. We've all been through stuff. We all had hardships, right? I've been through a lot recently. We all came out of COVID, now inflation. Uh, whatever it is you're going through in life, that's what Javati is. We're here to make things easier for you. Grab a package of ours and we'll keep it going. This is the first product line we're coming out with. We have water coming out. We have energy drinks coming out in the future. It's in our in the R&D library, but this is what the map. Wanted, so we came out with sparkling vodka, but what separates us the most of everything is the functional ingredients we have in here. We have botanicals, adaptogens, and turbines in here, never done before that complements the flavors, brings a little flavor, uh, extra flavor into this. So like I mentioned, the consumers want something light, something different, right? So we provide unique flavors, light flavors, and my biggest concern was the carbonation. A lot of people who drink seltzers out there right now, they get bloated. I want to make sure that was at a lower, lower level. So my one of the lines I came out with is more sips, less burps. I try to get one burp per can for everybody and uh so you can keep drinking. I mean, I get tired after two cans of seltzers. So again, we're sparkling vodka, the first of its kind TTB approved, um, so it's, it's very unique in the vodka in here. Is um wheat vodka from Italy. It's premium. It's different. Mostly it's usually corn or potato base. This is completely different. You don't even taste it, which is pretty nice for those who don't like alcohol, um, that's it. All right. Well done. Uh, Brandy, I didn't hear you burp when I said during the sampling room, but you didn't have a whole can, right? No, we had a lot to taste. There was a lot of others, yeah. What did you think of the taste of your body? I thought the tastes were very unique. So I mean, one of the big trends now are combining unique flavors beyond just sort of a typical lime. So I think you've done a good job at, um, trying to be original with with the taste profile, so they're all quite different. um. They definitely were very strong, so I noticed some were a little bit sweeter than others, so there was a, a, a pretty big range in there. I had a question. You said you did a lot of consumer research, so if you were to say who your target demographics, you threw a lot out there that you wanted things a little bit different, but you're going into energy. And water. So it sounds like you're doing a whole bunch of different things, but for this particular product, who do you think the consumer is? So originally when I created the brand, I was going through all three, and I realized I was being way over my head. So I narrowed it down to alcohol. So it's of course 21 and older, and the way, the best way I've been telling people is to make it very easy is Trader Joe's Sprouts, those are our target audience. That's who we want to go after. We don't, we're not. We don't want all the grocery stores. We want the ones that are niche and a velocity off of that. That's what we're looking for. And you know, I wanna say Gen Z, but not all of them are 21 yet, so, but that's where the market's going, uh, with the non-alcoholic. So we're making sure we're ahead of the curve. So when they do 21, we're available. And how about current distribution? This is a question we're going to ask everybody just so so you know, we want to kind of know what, what's your market penetration right now. Right now I'm self-distribution licensed. Um, I'm talking to a couple distributors here locally in OC asked me to come back in January because they're closing this year. Um, right now we literally launched in June. I did a refresh again. I like consumer feedback. Those 500 cases we got, we put them in stores, spoke to retailers. How does it look next to your competition? We changed the box completely. The flavors we enhanced a little bit based on consumers, consumer feedback. Now we're back in stores and Total Wine just picked us up right before Thanksgiving. So we're moving forward. Every time we've done taste testing at these events, they've been sold out, so it's it's something different, something new, and I think the biggest seller personally is the flavors like you mentioned. But I keep coming back to a lower carbonation because I hate burping when I'm drinking. Nick, can I ask you about the strategy that Draj talked about in terms of creating sort of a platform brand starting out with sparkling vodka? Yeah, let me actually just take a step back to give some general feedback. So first, I really liked that you described what the name is because we didn't know and we were all asking ourselves in the room. So, good starting point there, I think. I want to emphasize the point of the unique flavors. I mean, I think so many of these RTDs are quite frankly playing the flavor game and the variety packed game but using lemon, lime, orange, basic flavors. I think you're differentiating yourself with that. I would caution, however, that there do seem to be more and more groups starting to do that. And also, I very much worry about the larger brands. It's not very difficult for them to also launch a dragon fruit flavor. So a question for you is kind of what else is there that can differentiate yourself other than perhaps these unique flavors, and this might sound really weird, and I'm not saying you go with this, but when you talk about less carbonation and burping, I mean everybody is laughing, they're getting it, but I didn't, I don't think we saw anything about carbonation in the slides or on the can, so maybe that's another differentiator again, a very functional thing, but you can play with it and kind of create an emotional. Action to the brand because of it and be known perhaps for that as opposed to flavors which everybody else is doing as well. Sorry, Ray, there was, there was another question embedded. Yeah, Divraj talked about, you know, sparkling vodka being the first product for a platform brand. Yeah, I mean, look, I, I, I'm a little challenged with this question because in general historically and my background is more traditional spirits, less on the RTD side. I think the platforms in traditional spirits have not worked very well, so I am skeptical that a lot of these RTD grants coming out with multiple categories, multiple spirit categories or spirit bases can work well. Having said that, I think it's a bit early in the game to make any predictions there, but I would recommend that you focus on one thing and do it really well early on when you're so early stage, because if you start launching. Whiskey and dragon fruit and gin in this, I mean, I think you're going to confuse the end consumer and not, not be not be extremely focused and not be a pure play, which is usually if you're looking for an exit when most of the large suppliers like. Thank you, Paul. You get the last word on your body. From the two recommendations I would have would be around taste and packaging. It may be the wheat vodka or my palate, but there was something consistent in each of those that tasted a little, uh, unnatural or something. I don't know what it is, but, uh, so you might want to work on you're working in such a competitive space that you really got to make sure you nail it on taste first, and then the packaging, it's very clean and bright. It'll sit well on the shelf and get recognized. If it doesn't, it feels a bit, a bit commercial and maybe not something craft and elevated. So just a couple of things you might look at, and I would definitely echo what Nick said. Focus on one thing and do it very, very well before you platform and move on to the next. Now question, just, uh, when you say one thing, just focus on this product, correct? Not a feature of the product. Yeah, what I meant it like energy, water, that's years from now. OK, it's just, you know, when I was doing, uh, reading the slides for a presentation, said do mention future, uh, product, yeah, so that's what it's years from now. This is my baby right now. Good idea. Good stuff. Unfortunately we're out of time, but well done, Draj. Thank you. Thank you, All right, great start to the cocktail showdown. Let's keep it going with Jake Bezaid and Dale LaFlamme, the co-founders of Curation Beverage Company. Come on up. Yeah. All right,

Speaker 2 [23:43] Judges, thank you. Bevnet. First of all, thank you for hosting us. Honored to be here, Judges. We're hoping you enjoyed a little bit of our product last night. Uh, I am Dale, one of the co-founders of Curation Bevco. This is my much older cousin over here to my left. I'm Jake, also co-founder of Curation Beverage Company, and we're based in Boulder, Colorado. Even though Dale and I are cousins, we started from two separate sides of the industry. I was running a brewery out east and Dale was running a restaurant on the west coast. What we saw was a fundamental shift in our consumers' behaviors. The consumer was no longer just a beer drinker or a wine drinker. The consumer was drinking across categories beer, wine, spirits sometimes all even in the same night. Apparently no one ever shared the old adage beer before liquor, never been sicker. We saw an opportunity to meet the modern consumer's needs. We have launched a platform with vodka-based seltzers, wine spritz, and cocktails all under one brand. Why do we do this? First, we've got to talk about our consumer. Our consumers are millennials and Gen Zs. We spent 18 months in the market, product testing, doing blinds, double blinds, consumer panels, all to understand what these consumers really want. What they want is a brand that they can connect with on an emotional and experiential level. They crave unique flavor profiles. Packaging differentiation and experience over all of the currently malt-based and artificially flavored products on the market today. We have brought that product to them. All right, we've got a great product. Next we look at each other and say, well, how do we get to this thing into the marketplace? How do we steal market share? We identified who the category leaders were and in doing so, knew that we needed to line price against them, that if we came out at $2 or 3 or $5 above, we weren't going to steal that market share. So with our 4 pack packaging, we are right up against the line price against the category leaders in each of our segments. Um, then we also looked at on-premise. First off premise and we knew that off premise was where the biggest bang for our buck was going to be. So from an off-premise standpoint, we went out in the Front Range of Colorado and we picked all the super independents. It's not a change state. We really focused on independence. The biggest liquor stores where we would get that shelf visibility, the brand recognition. And we got into those locations 1st. 2nd to that was on-premise. We knew that on-premise wasn't a big volume play for us, but we realized it was an ability to have brand recognition and trial. So after we got into these larger independent accounts, the majors, we started picking strategic restaurants that were aligned with our brand and so forth around these, and that was to create the trial and the recognition and then push them back into the off-premise locations. OK, so we're 5 months in at this point and understanding what's working for us and all of it's working so far, um, what we've seen is that the 4 packs are moving the way they're supposed to, and ultimately, we're very proud of what you see on the screen here. We've led with transparency. The front of every one of our products has all of the ingredients proudly labeled up front. That was something we're very excited about. We've gotten accolades on our packaging design. Um, we most recently won first place at the International whiskey competition with our sweet tea old fashion, but ultimately it comes back around to the fact that for us, we win on flavor. Last but certainly not least, is because we did this platform that has 3 categories vodka-based hard seltzers, wine spritz, and cocktails. It gave us a unique opportunity and an edge on the competition, which is the first ever tri-category variety pack, which we call the party pack. You have 3 different segments of product, 3 different ABVs. Vodka seltzers are 5%. Our wine spritzs are 7%, and our cocktails are at 9%. You have 5 different bases alcohol bases, and 6 different products in total in our party pack here. First, differentiation was huge for us on this, and second to that, it was also about creating trial, going back to that consumer and understanding that they were drinking cross-category like Jake mentioned. Uh, and also the fact that there was this ability for someone to say, you know what, I may not know this brand, but if I grab this and I bring it home to my family, to my friends, there's something for everybody. We right now in the major accounts in our market are trailing in sales in the RTD category, only behind the two national leaders within our 1st 120 days in these key accounts. What we found Is that in the 1st 90 days in these accounts, the party pack represents 50% of the sales. As these accounts start hitting their 120 day mark, the party pack sales start to come down a little bit in that package, and we start seeing the 4 packs lifting up more as that consumer is determining what are my favorites within this package.

Ray Latif [29:04] I'm sorry, I got to stop you there. That is the end of it. That is the end of it. Outstanding. A round of applause. Thank you. Nick, let's start with you. I'd love to get your thoughts on the presentation, um, and the brand, and in particular, I want to hear your thoughts on the on-premise versus on-prem, off-premise strategy for curation. Yeah, so a lot in here, a lot packed into this party pack here, guys. So first, some of the things I liked. I really did like and I was surprised or impressed to see the whiskey winning the medals. That was the one I liked the best. I think the flavor profile was very good. It's something I could see myself, you know, drinking and would buy another one or order another one. I think I want to go back to the comment I made to the last group about kind of this platform or broad portfolio approach. I actually didn't even know, I don't think, about the spritzers and the malt products until now, and I was already worried about trying to do too much. So as an example, and I'm doing this a little bit for the sake of emphasis here, I'm not sure I would drink the grapefruit one like I had it and I probably would not order that again. The whiskey, I would. So I was already worried and that's why I go back to being a pure play. If you had a whiskey with black tea and a whiskey with rosemary and a whiskey with this or that, it's a lot easier for me to transfer or to purchase across that one category. I think it's difficult when you start mixing categories. When I see this, the party pack, I honestly get very worried because I think you're playing in, you're trying to be, as you said, I think the words you used were trying to be something for everybody or something like that. And I think as an early stage brand you actually want to have the exact opposite approach, find the select few that you really want to focus on and freaking knock it out of the park for those guys. And when you spread yourselves too thin, that is a sign of worry for me. So sorry for that harsh feedback there, but I did love the whiskey one and I'd be curious to see when you when you talk about the 4 packs that were kicking up after the party pack kind of, kind of tapered off a little bit, which ones were, which ones were actually trending. I'd be very curious to hear that.

Speaker 2 [31:02] Surprisingly, grapefruit is, is one of them trending very well. Uh, it's really different for the three categories. I mean, part of to answer part of what you're saying is this area and most of the stores we're seeing becomes the area for innovation. So even though it's three segments as the consumer's looking at it, we're falling on the shelf together with all these products and having this amazing banner effect that's the 6 SKUs. And this being the 7th, categorically summertime, our tequila margarita was ramped up as the weather is starting to turn that bourbon is coming in. Grapefruit's been very strong. Rose has been leading really strong with the spritz, but it really from the consumer, they're walking in and seeing it in one spot and gravitating towards this area of innovation within the box.

Ray Latif [31:46] Paul, your thoughts on the go to market strategy for a curation? Yeah, I'll, I'll leave some time for brandy for sure, but, uh, I would agree that the, uh, it's good that you've got some traction already. You're in a competitive marketplace in Colorado. I think it's an active consumer. These brands make sense, um. I think I would definitely say, you know, the independent supers makes a lot of sense. The on-premise, I'm not sure the margin structure always works, but if you can make it go and consumers are buying it, uh, as is, great, um, the variety pack, maybe the consumer will take it, but the logistics of running a business with all those different, you know, compliance and what have you, um, that scares me a little bit, but if you can make it work, awesome. And the packaging graphics, a lot of it is very on trend with the target you're going for. That's great. Hopefully not too on trend where there's so many people trying to do that type of look and feel, but I think you're onto something there. Thank you, thank you. Are you using the same distributors for all three different base spirits or base alcohols?

Speaker 2 [32:45] Currently we have made the choice to self-distribute in our market, margin preservation mostly being number one right now,

Ray Latif [32:52] but in our market you can use the same distributor for this

Speaker 2 [32:55] as you scale in the different markets,

Ray Latif [32:57] to your point, you are solving a little bit of something there. Brandy, uh, your thoughts? I have lots of things to say. Um, you're sweetened with honey, is that correct? Correct. OK, um, I would say. One of your taglines, I think I wrote down before was nothing fake ever, right? So we're seeing a lot of brands, even the ones we've tasted today that are going with natural and organic and nothing fake. So we see a big movement right now in terms of that. So this is going to become a very crowded space in terms of natural and organic and not fake, but I'm not seeing a lot of that come through on, on the packaging, and I think that's an important aspect of it. Um, variety packs sell, um, consumers, uh, don't know what they want. I think you guys have done a very good job. And all the things that you're saying are things that we talk about all the time in terms of market research and what is selling and also what consumers want. But to Nick's point, it's a really challenging place to try to go and test all of it live. But if you're willing to do that in one state and then find out what works for you and then really kind of roll that out, I think probably narrowing that focus is going to be a benefit and really kind of honing in on what is the point of differentiation over other brands as the space becomes more crowded. All right, great feedback. Very well done, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have Flo Vinger, who is the CEO of Ving Vodka. Come on up. Did you ever wonder what vodka is made from? I did too. I made Ving vodka the only 100% transparent vodka with zero secret ingredients. Wing vodka is made with non-GMO American corn, has zero sugar or additives. The only brand to list our serving packs and ingredients. Vodka can be clean and delicious. Ving vodka is available for pickup in California at Total Wine. Our ultra premium canned cocktails and bottles are available at Eagle in California, and nationwide shipping options at vvodka.com. Hello, how are you doing? Hi everybody, how's everybody doing? Check in with you guys. It's been a hot minute. Thank you for sticking around. Thank you judges for being here. Um, thank you, of course, Bevnet for having us. We're really proud to be here with you today. My name is Flo Vinger. I am the founder and CEO of Vingodka. So I was a dancer and we used to go out and have cocktails afterwards and I was really alcohol illiterate. I didn't know what the hell to order, so I'd see this guy and he'd be like, Oh, I'll have what he's having, but he'd order like a mai tai with like cream or something. It was really disgusting. And then I was getting a lot of like cluster headaches, so I was like I'm looking for a brand that's really telling me what's in the spirit and I couldn't find anything out there so I did all my research and I found out that alcohol brands don't have to list the serving facts and ingredients and a lot of people don't know that probably everybody in here does, um, but so I set out and that's how I started being vodka. I wanted Ving vodka to be the only transparent brand on the market, so we're creating a new class in spirits of 100% transparency. We are putting the serving facts and ingredients on the label, but we also don't have any secret ingredients, and that's really important because sometimes they add things later. And with that we only use organic corn. We don't have it on the front for the same reason the other brand was because we're waiting for the distillery to get certified, but that is coming. But we make it very clear on the back, and we only use real produce, so we infuse the produce inside of American non-GMO corn, and then we add water. So that's it. That's all you're drinking in vodka. So the flavor is super, super important. Also, we have a huge focus on ethos, unity, diversity, and equality is so incredibly important to me personally and to my partner Brigitte who's in the audience. Hi. So, um, we build community by starting our own. We, we talk to our own people. So in 2023 we're launching Ving Jam, and Ving Jam is a coed basketball league, and we're welcoming everybody to come play, and you guys can come. We're also giving scholarships away. For that, so we want everyone to feel inclusive. That's what we do with the price point too as well. We make the price point really accessible. Everyone should have access to clean spirit, everyone, so we are competitive in the market. We are an ultra premium spirit, but we make sure that everyone can buy it. Our distributor is Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits in California. We, I believe we're the only brands to be signed to them during COVID, so we're really proud of that. We're also distributed with Lib Div in New York City, and we ship nationwide, and we have shipped globally due to a beautiful video that we had that got 10 million views and we sold out in the 1st 2 months because of that video of the 1st 2 months of launch. It was really exciting. It's crazy. I was sweating a lot, um. So, uh, yeah, so the growth, we're at a 500% growth rate, um, at total wine alone, and we're on track for that for the end of this year looking at my notes, um, and let's see, yes, uh, expansion, uh, turn tea is our next, um, skew that we're gonna do. It's all, uh, organic black cold pressed tea, so it's a beautiful tea, and then we just add Ving lemon fused. Of vodka, so it's already got a lemon twist. So we take a lot of time actually in in launching skews that taste amazing. We really want you guys to enjoy it. We don't want you to have a cocktail and be like, Ew, this is disgusting, and then I'm just gonna bang it back because I want that buzz. Uh uh. We want you to have a good time and feel good drinking being vodka and enjoy the flavor. Technology, we cannot be in this industry and not talk about technology. I was hyper, hyper focused on how to do sustainability in my business. OK, yeah, we can throw everything in compost and do all that stuff with the produce. Great, thumbs up, but that's not enough. I felt that there's also a problem with young people going to parties and predators. Sorry, gotta bring it up. Don't hate me, but they're out there and I'm concerned and I got your back, ladies and gentlemen who are. Concerned about going to parties, so I invented a new type of closure. It's called the pop top lock. It's a reclosable, reusable, 100% recyclable can end, and I'm I'm working on that right now and we're going into tooling. I have a patent coming for that in 3 to 4 months, and I'm super excited to put that on all RTDs. I think it's going to be very impactful actually for recycling too, because I want to do a lot of recycling initiatives with that. And if I make a billion dollars off of that, great, I'm going. Put it right back into the environment and talk about water and talk about sustainability with water and with RTDs to educate people in my own industry and also you guys too, because please, please recycle your cans. Makers, please stop using sleeves. Don't put sleeves on the can. You can't. The consumer cannot recycle them. OK guys, find a printer. Come talk to me. I'm sorry, I'm screaming. I'll calm down. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Well, that was a heck of a presentation. You know, this is the first time I've ever seen anyone move the podium. Well, you know, I'm making myself comfortable. I like that. This is my place now. It really is. It definitely is it's OK. Um, Paul, a lot packed in there. Did you have any questions that were addressed in the presentation? Do you have any questions for Flo? Yeah, quick one, is there a QR code on your cam? Q, yeah, on the can, yeah, OK, great, um. Excellent. Yeah, I saw there's so, there's so, so these are, these are the first versions, but the second versions do have it. OK. I noticed in your transparency is great. There's so much on that can. I think you might be able to simplify some of it with the QR code. Yeah, but, uh, and usually we say simplify your business to pick a lane and go for it. I think your 750 spirits and the ready to drinks may actually complement each other well. This may be an area where you could actually get some synergies of working them together. Cool. 100% transparency is what we saw in the presentation. I know that's something you brought up earlier, Brandy. You know, what are your thoughts on that way of communicating yourself to brand owners, I'm sorry, to consumers? No, I, I think you've done a really good job, um, certainly in that, in that pitch, but definitely in the, in the product to really make it kind of stand apart and having that lane and really focusing on that being the really clear message across all of your marketing. The packaging is, is a really important factor. I think that's. resonate really well, particularly with younger Gen Z consumers. So there's aspects of environmental, but also that health and wellness of what am I putting into my body, but also it's this better for me, better for the world mentality that is really important. So I think you've kind of nailed that proposition in a really a really great way. I had a question and I forgot, um. I'll come back to me. Sure, yeah, if I can just build on that, um, so great presentation, great energy, uh, I had the benefit of, of knowing you and your, your product a few years ago, and so I was very excited to, to, to taste this. Um, what I would say on the, on the vodka, and that that was the product I knew before, and it hits everything Brandy just said. I mean, transparency, you know, very clean, pure type of product. When I tasted the liquid, absolutely felt that too. So it was one of my favorites because I felt like this is a vodka soda with lemon peel, and that is it. That's it whereas so many others, and this is just a taste, I mean it's all relative, everybody's subjective here, but for me it was, as I said, exactly what I wanted to taste as opposed to tasting stevia or artificial flavors or all this other stuff, loved it. The one thing that I didn't like or was confused by was when I think of transparency and purity, I don't think the can reflects it to me it almost, or to a few of us, I think we talked about it looking like a beer. There's a lot going on there, a lot of color. I don't get pure and transparency, and that would be my harshest criticism that it doesn't reflect the great liquid. Sure, yeah. Let me talk show. Let me, let me talk to you, OK, come on, let's talk. It is your stage float. Oh, hi everybody. So, um, yeah, OK, let me explain that. So, um, listen, I didn't want to be a granola and sandal wearing company because that's easily happening when you start talking about organics and, um, the kale, lemon peel, and cucumber is very unique and people it's like, oh, it tastes like a salad. I feel like I'm at a spa, and it's like, OK, well we, we, we appreciate that we. We want to talk to you people too, yes, we love you and I'm gonna stay, but like also we want to, you know, also be with the cool people like because we feel like we're kind of cool, um, maybe I'm crazy but um but no we we we are very like inclusive with the basketball with um sports with skateboarders with you know motocross guys so we want to talk to that. So um first of all like, OK, you said it before, it's like how do you stand out on the market? is your package. Interesting, of course the package has got to talk to me when I'm not there. I can't be at every venue and like selling my brand. So first of all, the color is so important, right? You got to catch people's eyes with the color. So that's why the color's there. And then we have to bridge the gap between this granola loving person and this cool person. So how do you do that? You gotta make it fun for them. So that's why the packaging is the way it is and I, I, I, I hear you and um. Once people taste it, they definitely know it's not a beer, but I appreciate your comments. Thank you very much. Thank you, Brandy. Do you recall your question? tend to do that to people. Paul, I do want to ask you about strategy for a second. You know, Flo talked about the basketball league that they're creating, the, the new closure. How much does that impact your evaluation of this brand and the presentation? I think those are great things to evaluate on the closure. Got to be really careful on the cost, but I love the cost. And, and what you're, you know, you're looking to achieve with that, that might be a challenge. And then the basketball league, if that, if that connects with your consumer audience and it builds community like you talked about in the beginning, that's great. That could be a good kind of organic growth thing for you to to get going. So and the energy's awesome for sure. Yeah, thanks. So yeah, I'm very excited about the pop top block. Um, I think it's gonna be really impactful and we hopefully, you know, we wanna license it I mean because I, I mean I'm not gonna just keep it on Ving stuff we do wanna license it and um we already have investors interested and partners interested and we're, you know, if we have a tling company that we're, we're also interviewing tooling companies. So if you know any tuning companies, let me know in the United States we need to talk, um, but yeah, so we're really excited about that. We think it can be a huge impact on the entire world. Outstanding. Well done, Flo. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We've met with 4 of our contestants so far. Let's meet with 5th, a 5th, or actually it happens to be 2, so maybe 2/5. Greg Howard and Larry Trachtenroy from Howard's, I'm sorry, from Howie Spikes right behind me. How are you? Hello, my name is Larry and I'm Greg. We're the co-founders of How We Spiked, and we're stoked to be here today with you and hopefully be able to answer the question about why spiked coffee. When you look at coffee, it's the 2nd largest commodity trader in the world. About 64% of Americans drink coffee every day, which works out to be at about 400 million cups of coffee a day. Um, and you translate that to a year, that's 146 billion cups per year. That's a lot of coffee. Now, when you look at the non-elk RTD coffee category, that in itself is over a $3 billion category in measured sales per year, and that's all the milk-based, right? 100%, yeah. So when you look at this slide, and listening to us, people love coffee, and who doesn't? But people also love their spirits. So we ask the question, why not both? We're seeing a lot of espresso martinis entering the market. These are mostly coffee, sugar, and alcohol. No milk or cream. And the latest data from the CGA's cocktail sales tracker reveals that espresso martinis have become more popular in the last year. And we've seen the biggest movement in this category and now reached the top 10 cocktail of the year. That's right, we saw Pabst pioneered the spike coffee category, quickly becoming the number one selling brand. Stepping back to assess, we took our combined love for coffee and alcohol and reflected on the conversations we were having with consumers, retailers, distributors, and came to the conclusion that the great innovation that we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. The best days of significant spike coffee lies ahead. More specifically, what did these conversations tell us? It's about convenience. It's about quality. And how many of these am I going to drink. The aha moment was make it great and make it strong, and it also needed a name that said why not both? So with that, Al Pacino was born. So with that inspiration, Al Pacino had to deliver a bar quality cocktail in a can, and that's one of our key principles. It all starts with what's inside. If it doesn't meet and deliver on the promise, you'll never get a second chance. It had to be right. It had to be great, and it had to deliver. And at this point earlier this year, we took home the gold and silver medal. At the San Francisco wine and spirits RTD competition, that's right. Our target in creating the formula for Al Pacino was the combination of two great things that we loved one, an iced coffee that was comparable in quality to either Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and two, Your favorite spirit coming together for the perfect beverage. Our coffees are 100% Arabica coffee, fresh cream from a New York State co op, cane sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, and to make it spike, in this case, 6 times distilled American vodka, 6 times 6. We currently have two great flavors in singles and 4 packs that are vodka spiked Original and mocha, which also has the imported Dutch cocoa. We're excited to sample the Alcacino with each of you today, and great liquid was just the beginning. We knew that we had to get the can design, the 4 pack wraps to have that right kind of coffee vibe to it. We also wanted the name to stand out and let you know what it is, El Pacino. Currently we're in 7 states in distribution, full distribution, and we'll be expanding to 6 more within the next 90 days. What's been interesting for us and really inspiring for us is that at sampling events. Uh, Brew fests, meetings with our distributors and retail partners, the, the reaction to the liquid. It's been great, you know, hands to the face. Oh my God, this is the best thing I've ever tasted. I can't believe there's 13.5% alcohol in it. Holy crap, I was never an iced coffee drinker, but now I will be. Thank you, Al Pacino. So this perfect coffee cocktail. It is much more than a nightcap. It's a uniquely delicious drink that can be enjoyed straight from the can pregame, tailgate party, golf, re ski, whatever you want, or for a little more sophisticated, uh, experience, pour it over ice. Put it in a shaker with glass, and a shaker ice with glass, a shaker glass with ice, and then pour it into an ice martini cup. On-premise loves what we have because you get two perfect coffee cocktails out of every can. And that's all about cost, convenience, and consistency in the product that they pour. OK, today's a special day. We want for you to be the first to see what's next as we continue to evolve the spike coffee category. It's much more than just a simple flavor extension. It was having the right spirit paired with the right flavors extensions. It's all about what is an Al Pacino worthy extension. With that, we'd like to introduce our vanilla bean. I hear you right. I'm so sorry, Larry. I've got to stop you. Well done, very good. All right, uh, Brandy, I have questions. You have questions. Please go ahead. I'm just going to jump right in here. Um, so you talked a lot about the liquid. The liquid is very good. Quick question, is it shelf stable because it's real there? It's one year shelf stable. One year. OK, so I think my big Feedback because the liquid is great. My biggest feedback is probably on the packaging. It's not very premium. I don't get the van. What's the van for? So the van is all about the adventure. It doesn't matter where you're going. It's just take that moment and enjoy it. So it's about the journey. Yeah, because usually cars on packaging of alcohol, maybe not a good idea, just a thought. So you don't like the van. You don't like adventure. I, I think, um, I think just having worked for big brands and social responsibility, that usually is something that when you get bigger could become an issue to be totally transparent, but the premiumness, I think when, when you think about, you talked about how important coffee is. Espresso martinis are more of a premium cocktail. I'm assuming your price point is probably a little bit more premium as well, and so the packaging to me doesn't seem premium. And the camper van also I get maybe you're trying to make it more casual color palette, the name, so you have Howie's and then the Al Pacino and then the van. So I'm struggling, I think, to put a little bit of all of those things together because liquid is great and you talked a lot about the liquid, but I think my biggest feedback would be to work on a little bit of that packaging and streamlining premiumization. Oh thank you, thank you. Nick, I'd like to get your thoughts. Also, Larry and Howard talked about, I'm sorry, Larry and Greg talked about the best days for spiced coffee being ahead. What are your thoughts on that? Uh yeah, so first point, I think Brandy said it very well, loved the liquid, particularly the main SKU the mocha liked a lot, but loved the liquid. I'm having trouble with the packaging, a lot going on. Howie's the car, so the van, the name, so all that I think could be tightened up. God, Ray, I think I already had too many RTDs before. What, what was the question again? It was about Larry and Greg talking about the best days of no, I agree. Look, I think, you know, coffee, cocktails, coffee and liquor, espresso martinis, all on fire. You know, I think it's, it's a trend that is here to stay. People love are addicted to their coffee, and we hope they're not addicted to alcohol, but they like their alcohol. You know, one question that I've always had is a broad question for the category is I always think there's something very nice. About coffee cocktails in the martini glass, as you said, as a ritual with a bunch of people after dinner, for instance, and I question whether people are going to drink 345 of these on a Saturday afternoon in the park or on a boat. Well, that's exactly right, and that's why we went to 13.5%. It was more about the quality of the drink than the quantity of the drink, you know, you're not going to go to a party and bang 4 of these down. So yeah, if you do, you, you won't feel much. In the back of the van. Exactly. You'll wake up in the van. Can you, can you amplify what you just said there? you might be in the back of the van, in the back of the van, I see. OK, fair point. Paul. What do you think of the liquid? Greg and Larry Trock talked about, you know, nailing the liquid, nailing, you know, what they were trying to do with this product. What are your thoughts? I loved it. Everybody I tried it with loved it. Taste is great. That's most important to consumers, and I think the 13 5 alcohol, that's a great spot. There's not a lot of people playing there. The riding on and kind of flanking an espresso martini, which is having a moment, makes sense. Probably need more coffee cues on the packaging, as the other people said. The packaging might need to be more consistent with the brand proposition. And the ABV might go better even in a smaller can, of 200 mL, and that on premise it's a little tough to pour one now and say another 1 may come later, so that may be helpful too. Well, we're not carbonated, so it's a still product, so on premise they can certainly put. In the well, OK, yeah, you can put it back in unopened. Sometimes people are uneasy seeing a package unopened out and get poured, but that's up to you. But and then I appreciate, I was going to ask about the occasions, but you hit on the tailgate, the golfing, the nightcap, the shake it up, and there's so much you can do. I mean you can make an affogato with it, pour it over ice cream. It's a perfect dessert, you know. I mean, my wife will make this her espresso martini with her girlfriends. It saves me from having to buy all the ingredients to actually make them handcrafted. What's the price point? Anywhere between 12 and 14.99 depending on the state relative to the tax in terms of spirit versus for which pack size 4 pack. OK, yeah. All right, Larry Greg, very well done. Thank you so much. All right, thank you. All right, um, I just want to let folks know we are running a little bit behind. So, uh, originally I said that we're going to announce the winner at 5:30 p.m. It's looking more like we're going to announce the winner at 6:00 p.m. Um, so we are holding, uh, our welcome party for Bevnet Live at 5:30. So folks who want to be in the room for the announcement, please be here. All the contestants, you really should be in here for the for the announcement at 6:00 p.m. Just want to let people know that we are running a little bit behind. All right. Up next we have Amanda Moran and Christine Ravenscroft, the co-founders of Beauty Booze. Come on up. Thank you. Hi, my name is Chris Ravenscroft, and I'm a nutritionist, and this is my co-founder, Amanda Moran, and she's an herbalist and beauty cocktail is what happens when a nutritionist and an herbalist who still love to have fun, get together and create the perfect lifestyle cocktail. So Amanda and I, we've been friends for years, but we could never understand why we had to completely abandon our lifestyle every time we drank. We enjoyed the complexity of a cocktail. We just wanted it to be lighter and to be made with ingredients that fit our lifestyle. So. On a girls' night, we asked our friends if they had the same frustrations, and it turns out that they all overwhelmingly felt the exact same way. We're all tired of having to settle. We want more from our cocktails like we get from everything else that we eat and drink. So we all wondered, how hasn't someone already made these better lifestyle cocktails? Well, a few drinks in and with the entrepreneurial enthusiasm that only alcohol can encourage, we vowed that we would be the ones to do it. And quite honestly, we were never able to back out. We were just never able to back out once we sobered up, so here we are. No, but seriously, we are on a mission to make drinking better for women. We want to make it easier for women to enjoy cocktails while still caring about what they put into their bodies like Amanda and I do. So we created beauty cocktail. Beauty cocktail is a premium low ABV6X distilled vodka sparkling cocktail. It's made with organic juices and real botanical extracts like goji berries and Aarola cherries, and as a response to all the requests we're getting, we created our beauty cocktail, which is the very first RTD cocktail to have added collagen. And our elevated refreshing cocktails are more complex like a classic cocktail, only they're much lighter. Plus they are made with skin friendly ingredients that women already know, want, and love. We're priced right in line with other female forward cocktails. However, practically all of those cocktails use only natural flavors, and they don't create their cocktail experiences using the types of ingredients that we use. And we also own our own manufacturing facility, giving us the ability to scale at need. And through our Reserve Bar partnership in our Southern California distributor, we're about to be available in an additional. 13 states, which is ideal because Southern California is a market that we feel really aligns with our brand due to their commitment to healthier lifestyles, and we believe that healthier lifestyles is the next evolution in alcohol. In fact, we are not alone. Anheuser-Busch just said that healthier lifestyle is the top trend that they are concentrating on and wanting to participate in. Our point of view is also perfectly timed. Kourtney Kardashian, she just launched a line of better for gummies that feature our very favorite ingredient, goji berry, and we all know how popular collagen is. And the benefit of using these well-known ingredients is that, well, they speak for themselves, so we don't have to. Our point of view also allows us to target to market directly to our target consumer. Obviously women, and women are an amazing target consumer. Exactly. According to Drizzly, women are the biggest buyers of RTD cocktails, with sales skewing 60% female. Yet we're being completely underserved. This creates an enormous white space just waiting to be capitalized on. I mean, we're women, we spend money on things we love. There's a reason that the beauty industry is worth almost $100 billion in the US alone. And with me being from Brazil, let me tell you, we are obsessed with these ingredients, so I completely understand when women tell us how excited they are about this product. Look, the truth is that women make up such a small percentage of alcohol founders that sometimes our needs and our preferences, they can get lost. Literally, the beauty in beauty cocktail is that it's an opportunity for us to give women a voice and for us to keep a girls' night out vow, and we're the type of women that take their vows very seriously, even when we're finally sober. Thank you. All right, well done. Uh, Nick, let's start with you. What do you think about this opportunity for a female-centric brand and, uh, you know, what kind of runway do you think, uh, uh, this brand has? Yeah, look, I think, I think the opportunity is huge. I think, you know, not just in the RTD segment we at Preno Ricard would always talk about how women were often the ones making the purchasing decisions and men, male friends, partners, whatever, were tagging along with those choices. So I think, and I do think it's a group that is not well spoken for or marketed to my I guess my hesitation, and this, I probably really shouldn't be answering this as a, as a male, but I do feel that there's two questions that came from. Number one, are you distancing yourselves from an audience that could be there with a male audience, number 1, and number 2, and maybe I'm going to put Brandy on the spot, maybe she can address it more, but is there an element of of almost like patriot like you're kind of giving the very stiff to me would be the very traditional or stereotypical cues around beauty and female health and things like that. And is that even off-putting to some women? So I thought the product, the liquid, by the way, was really good. I thought it was less sweet than a bunch of the others we tasted, but That would be my question around the female component. I appreciate those questions. So just to start with having it as a limited target consumer, we actually feel that being female focused is our competitive advantage. I mean like they say, if you think you're talking to everybody, you're not actually talking to anyone. Um, and right, Amanda? Yeah, I was gonna say, and in terms of marketing, uh, we have a huge advantage, um, just because, as we all know, you know, one of the best ways to reach consumers is through user generated content online, and the really cool thing is our consumers, they are these health conscious women who are already some. Of the biggest content creators out there. So I mean we have some of these influencers reaching out already wanting to collaborate because you know they are living that lifestyle and they get that point of view. Um, so I I actually I feel that has been really beneficial for us. And for the second part of your question. I mean, I get your question, but let's, let's look at the facts. Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, who's got the largest audience? Beautiful beauty-oriented people with beauty companies. So I just don't think. It rings true that women don't like beauty, right? It doesn't, we don't have to be esoteric to appeal to, I mean, like the things that we relate to. So I don't think we're pandering at all. I think we're providing something that women really want, but that's, that's, you know what I mean, that's just that's just us. And Brandy, I think this is a good opportunity for you to weigh in. I hear what you're saying. I also kind of hear what Nick is saying. I think from a pure business perspective, right, you are missing out on 50% of the drinking population in males, and I think it's fair to say whether you're male or female, the Better for You movement, which we talked about before, is really important, and men like goji berries, and there are men that get Botox and men who take collagen pills. So I think maybe there's an opportunity. If you're talking about these really great ingredients and the care that you have put into crafting a really good drink that you're alienating 50% of a population that might be interested in this better for you opportunity, that's just a perspective. Certainly I agree with you that the beauty element and female. Focus can be interesting, but from a longevity perspective, I think there's a lot of men that would be interested in having a really good tasting cocktail that's better for them. So I would just maybe think about that perspective. Can I, would I be OK if I asked a follow-up question just so we could apply that? Do you think it's the name, um, or do you think it's our positioning? I, I would say it's, it's probably the name if it came down to something, right? So if you, if you look at all of the, of the liquid and the attributes that you have, these product attributes that you have, and you can still be a female owned company but appeal to a wider audience, and over a period of time, that beauty element is going to be very narrowing in terms of the, the audience that you're going to have and if you had a different name and maybe um packaging that a male might feel more comfortable. So give me a new example. Babe Wine, canned wine brand that Anheuser-Busch purchased, right? It's um male and female, even though the name seems to be female. All of the marketing and everything around it is not specific to women. I think there's a lot of other brands. What I've seen in the industry in my time is any brand that launches that tends to be very focused on just females tends to have a shorter runway because you're alienating 50% of that population. If we're thinking about the larger trend of health and wellness and ingredients and all these great things that you have. You're missing out, I think, on a larger opportunity to cater to people who really want to have good ingredients. And if that's what's in your liquid, think about as a longer strategy. OK, I definitely appreciate appreciate that feedback. Yeah, we're almost out of time. Paul, your final thoughts? Yeah, I'd take a different perspective. I think more than 60% of women buy canned cocktails. I think you should lean into it. It fits and it pulls right through with your marketing. I think. You know, at some point you may, you may change that, but I'd continue to focus right in on it, and the liquid is amazing. Everybody I tried it with really liked it. Thank you and what's best about your brand is that you're not saying better ingredients, better drink. You're standing up for something and it's a lifestyle brand, and I think that's a great differentiator. I appreciated seeing that all the way through the media. We really appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right, Amanda, Chris, well done. Thank you so much. All right, up next we have Luca Forjois who is the founder of Velvet Lama. Luca, why not. Everyone had all these papers and I was like this little tiny piece of paper and now I feel very intimidated about it. But um, I'd like to start off with a big thank you to the audience, the judges, and Bevnet for this tremendous opportunity to be here on this platform. Um, And just going from there, uh, Velvet Lama, I mean, what a journey it's been. We make, you know, premium canned cocktails. If you feel like everyone here is shooting for premium and everyone has a great product, and, you know, it's hard to differentiate from that. But the story really started about, um, a few years back when I was a 20 year old coffee salesman just literally going door to door, restaurant to restaurant, bar to bar trying to sell coffee and one of these, um, bars, and I forgot there's this thing too. Am I supposed to the green button? Oh, all right. Oh, there it goes. And um So going restaurant to restaurant, bar to bar, um, one of the bars I stumbled upon was Macau Trading Co. and I tried to sell them coffee, not really understanding that they don't go through that much coffee, and day in and day out I kept going back and eventually they did not buy my coffee, but they offered me a job bar backing, and next thing I know I'm bar backing at Macau Trading Co. hacking ice, uh, putting away glassware, and making cordials. tremendous opportunity. And next thing I know, a few years later, I have the privilege of becoming a bartender there. Which, you know, as many people may not know, is under the umbrella of bars that is employees only, world renowned, top 50 bars in the world, I think. 10 years running now and it was working that service bar, making hundreds of drinks a night, being totally in the weeds. Confused at times, um, that I realized it was a rather significant problem, which was this one beverage called an espresso martini. We made our espresso martinis with fresh espresso. It's all the way in the back of the bar. It would take like 7 to 9 minutes. I think I still get anxiety to this day about it. Um, so, so very quickly, I said, or I realized someone's got to put this in a can. It turns out it's not that easy. It took like 20 months to, to put something in a can together. There were, I, I tasted, I, I can't even mention the number, 150 different iterations of beverages that I could have been first to market with, one of the first people to market with it, and it just didn't meet my standards. And ultimately 20 months later, there was something that I was really proud of, my team was really proud of, and you judges have tasted it. Some of you have not tasted it yet, but I think it goes toe to toe with what many bars even produce. Some cute photos of us all. There she is. And um parallel to that effort, we realized there were two other opportunities in the market which were the Moscow Mule and the spicy margarita. The Moscow Mule for me, as many of you might know, has a ginger beer in it, traditionally in a small glass bottle, can, takes up real estate on the back bar. And half of the time, you're pouring half the bottle, and the bartender's drinking half or throwing it away. I would drink, I would drink the other half. And that's bar costs, you know, that's money lost. So why not have the entire thing in one can, taking up the same amount of real estate. The second opportunity was a spicy margarita. Jalapenos, they're natural, they vary in spice, and what you would get often is one spicy margarita being very different in spice compared to another. And that inconsistency when you've got a bar 4 deep and someone's saying, OMG, can you make this a little spicier? It's like, my God, please. So there was an opportunity, we made it sparkling. It's a bit of a twist. It's not traditional, but it worked out in our favor. It's even more refreshing than What it traditionally would have been. Some of the cute photos going down memory lane. Um, so we've been on the market about 4 months now. It's, you know, pounding pavement, going door to door, and it's been quite a journey and um I'm happy to say it's been very successful and at least in what me and my partners have seen, we're in two states and there's pull for these two beverages and it looks like our espresso martini, which it took so much longer than the other two beverages to put together just because coffee deteriorates so quickly, we're going to have in the market in Q1 of 2023 and I'm so excited for it because the amount of interest I've had or we've had for the last two years of development has been outstanding and the product I've had people taste, um, well. Some bars have said thank God we can stop making espresso martinis and we can just have it in the can. So, just looking to the future, um, we've, we've got major retailers interested. We're talking to some pretty significant distributors, and it's, it's just been, uh, a tremendous learning experience, to be quite frank, and I'm happy to say that the beverage polls, there's a llama on it. I'd love to explain that to you guys afterwards. I don't want to get into it now. It was a long story. Um, I'm sure it's a good story. Atu, well done. Thank you so much. Thank you. I know. Ride with us. There you go. I'm a big fan of a couch trading company, by the way. Love that place. Yeah, it's, you go in and you don't remember leaving the amount of drinking. I think that's happened to me before. Yes, Paul, let's start with you. What are your thoughts on Velvet Lama? Yeah, I love the branding. I think you got, you know, the name, the logo, a little contrast on the cans. There you go. You've got the stuffed animal, outstanding. I think the espresso martini could use a little softening, maybe, you know, over ice or something would have done that, but I know those are hard, but there's a lot of them coming out, so it's, you got to definitely be at the top of your game. The other two were outstanding, the mulle and the Marg. Amazing, high calorie count. You're ahead of the curve putting your, your nutrition label on there, but they were outstanding, so um. That's great. You know, I like, I like the brand. You got it. First of all, thank you so much for that. It, it means a great deal, as you know, it's blood, sweat, and tears into this stuff, and you don't know how it'll end up at the other end, you know. Tasted great to me. had a lot of people taste it, but to hear it common consensus, especially in the market, but from a gentleman such as yourself as well, is um great feedback. But In terms of the calorie count and everything, it's a growth process. You're learning, you're evolving. I think anybody that thinks it's a one shot wonder, you get it right the first time. If you do it, bless you. But the focus was very much on flavor. I mean, that's, that's my background and the rest we can develop, we can evolve, but Flavor was the goal and I'm happy we achieved it. Yeah, Brandy, your thoughts on the brand and any questions from the presentation? I love the liquid. I thought it was great. I think your packaging is really great. What we noticed kind of in looking at all of the cans of everything, yours was very easy to tell it was a canned cocktail, right? So you knew what you were getting. And I think that's really important. What's interesting, flavor is the number one choice while consumers choose RTDs. We've been doing research on this for years and years and years, and flavor is really important. I think the calorie count thing is interesting because the whole hard hard seltzers make up over 50% of the RTD cocktails now, and they tended to be these like lighter flavors, and we see this mix of more of these lighter, kind of free from know this, know that. That element around RTDs, but the reality is that if someone wants a cocktail, you might not go into Macau and know that your cocktail is 220 calories, but it really is, right? So ultimately I think the demand for fuller flavor and that type of bar quality cocktail becomes a bit more important than worrying about that free from aspect. So there's kind of two sides. There's a binary aspect when we think about RTDs do you want something lighter. And free from stuff, or do you want really a margarita that you can pour from a can that tastes like one that would be made at a bar? And I think from that perspective, you guys have done a really great job. Yeah, I would say that I totally agree with Brandy. There's the consumers started with the hard seltzers. Now they're moving into the spirit-based, and I totally agree that they're going more for what's in it, what does it provide, not, what does it not, and what is it free from. So I totally am seeing the same consumer trends that Randy Brandy mentioned. Thank you. And Kind of driving home the same point, you know, we didn't make this yesterday. There was this massive trend of seltzers, low calories, and all this good stuff, and I applaud that whole category and tremendous job, but when I developed this, what I was looking at, or we as a team, I should not say I. It was flavor, and I went to bars. The first place I went to was my peers, and the last thing I was going to do is go to them and smile and say, Hey, I made something. It's, it's on point with what you, you know, we make behind the bar. I, I couldn't do that with something that wasn't true to form. So that, that was the first, not obstacle but opportunity and I'm in, I'm in supermarkets every single day tasting people, and the second that liquid tastes or touches their lips, I'm so happy when they grab a 4 pack. Sure, it's, you know, a massive shelf and people look at it and there's tons of stuff you could do there, but the second the liquid touches lips, it's a sell through one, yeah. Nick, on that note, would you buy a 4 pack? Yes, I would. I thought the liquid was amazing. Of course this is all subjective, as you know, $270 billion retail market. We all have different tastes, but it was exactly or very close to what I thought I would experience in taste walking into Macau. So well done there. I don't have much to add. I thought maybe the last 45 seconds, can you describe the name because you mentioned it was a long story. Can you, can you summarize it in 40 seconds? I think I can. So there used to be two stories, the professional one and then the real one, and then I realized that you can't have two. You got to stick to one. So the real one is, um, you mix in a pandemic, heavy drinking, and a friend sending you llama videos at 2 a.m. and you're like, espresso martinis are velvety, but I need the second part of the name, llamas, Velvet Lama. I love it. It's not too serious. We don't take ourselves too seriously, but this stuff is good, Velvet Llamas. Great story. Well done And well done, Luca. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, is it? You know that is the way to reach a host's heart is to give them a stuffed llama, cause It's going to be a busy next few days. I'm not going to throw it to you, Sean. This is mine. All right. Up next, we have Jack Espy and Tenny Espy, the co-founders of Spirited Hive. Come on up. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much. OK, perfect. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Jack Espy. I am the founder and CEO of Spirited Hive, and this is my sister. Hi everyone, I'm Tenni Espy, and I'm head of creative and social strategy, and this is Spirited Hive. So Spirited Hive is a canned cocktail, 100% sweetened with organic wildflower. Honey, it is crafted with just a handful of ingredients. It is 100% natural. It is 7% ABV. We sit on the shelf around 1599. We are a Nashville built company and we just launched in May of this year. And you may all be wondering how we landed on honey as our only sweetener, so Jack is going to tell you that story. So, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, when COVID hit, I was at USC about to graduate and get a job in real estate finance, and that dream went down the drain. Like everyone else during COVID, I was at home mixing up one too many quarantine cocktails. And one night, see, yeah, there you go. And one night, Uh, mixing up my two favorite drinks for all my best buddies, a Moscow mule and a Mexican mule. My friends were like, Jack, this might be the best drink I have ever had. You gotta can this thing. And at this point in time, the canned cocktail boom was just kind of getting started. And I was like, you know what, why not? I've got nothing else going on. I'll take a stab at it. So we're sitting around the bar having one too many of these, thinking about different names. And I was like, wait, guys, what about the name Mint B? They're like, well, first off, that is the stupidest name I've ever heard of, but why mint B? And I was like, you know, cause there's mint in a Moscow meal and a Mexican mule, and B, because it's sweetened with honey. And I'm like, Jack, neither of those ingredients are in both of those drinks. Little did I know I was making these drinks wrong my whole entire life. Um, but You know, this kind of sparked the whole idea in my brain about Spirited Hive, and a little bit later, it was started. We like to say at Hive that Hive was started and founded on a happy accident. So this is our tequila skew, kind of the catalyst to the brand, which is our take on a Mexican mule. It is a sweetened with a ginger and lime infused honey. So soon after the tequila, Jack's friends were like, what about a vodka? I'm a vodka drinker. And some were like, you know what, I love bourbon. Can you make a bourbon hive? So we listened and we made a vodka sweetened with honey infused with cranberry and lime, and then we made a bourbon sweetened with honey infused with rosemary and lemon. So now there was a drink for everyone in Jack's hive. So I know I just said that my two favorite drinks was a Mexican mule and a Moscow mule, but I have a new favorite drink, and I'm surprised it's taken me this long to find it because it's probably one of the oldest drinks ever, a Tom Collins, and I was like, you know what, I have to make a hive rendition on this drink. So we did, and we will be releasing this at the beginning of 2023. So this, like I said, this is our take on a Tom Collins. So it is a lemon and juniper berry infused honey. So now we have the full lineup. Anyone in your hive can have any type of alcohol base. If your friends like tequila and are tequila drinkers, they can have tequila or bourbon or vodka or gin. We really have everything. So Spirited Hive is a company based on community and quality. This means that we want you to spend as much time with your hive as you can, but we want to give you a quality cocktail, a cocktail that feels like you were in the kitchen all night making this, but you're spending time with your hive, and so here's Spirited Hive. And you're probably wondering why we keep on using this word hive. We're not talking about a beehive. We took this word and made our own definition, and that is friends you never drink without. This could be your close friends, your new friends, your old friends, your work friends, really anyone that you love spending time with, coming together with them and toasting to a life that is sweet, and having a hive with your hive. So, like I said, we are based in Nashville. We have spent a lot of time, money and effort in that city to really make a big splash and to help do so, we partnered with two pretty big sports teams. I would like to say, the Tennessee Titans. We, we are the Exclusive ready to drink of that team as well as the new Nashville Soccer Club. We are the exclusive ready to drink partner of that team as well. We have branded bars throughout both of these stadiums and this has helped make a big buzz in Nashville. So we're super excited to announce that in 2023 we will be breaking into the New York City Market. We're already in a couple places in Long Island, but we're really like diving into New York City in the beginning of 2023. Yeah, and we're also. Targeting a couple of other kind of key markets in 2023 as well, but like Tenny said, really focusing deep into the city at the beginning of the year. Thank you all so much for your time and hive buzzing all the way to the moon. Thank you so much. Nicely done. I love the idea of a Tom Collins diverge. I'm excited for that. Brandy, let's start with you. What are your thoughts on Spirited Hive, a honey-centric brand? Great presentation. I like that you in the 1st 30 seconds answered like all the kind of the key questions that we wanted, so a really good job on that. Um, so I love kind of the double entendre of hive, the bee honey stuff in there when you said you don't want it to be about bees, but also the social aspect. I think that's really, really smart. It gives you a lot to play with. Do you have any environmental ties to sort of like save the bees or any elements like that that you, that's actually a big point that we're going to be focusing on in 2020. like being in Nashville and Tennessee, there's a lot of Tennessee honey and a lot of local apiaries, so we're going to actually start sourcing some honey from local apiaries and giving back as well. Um, so that's going to be a big point of 2023. Yeah, I think that's kind of the third leg on your stool there, right, because it's an important aspect of it. Um, so I, I like the the usage of that. I would say, I guess in terms. Of the liquid, so I like the packaging. I think you've done a really good job in tying all of it together. I didn't notice, I think across all of the different cocktails. I didn't notice too big of like a taste differential. I thought it was pretty light, so I think I wanted a little bit of a stronger flavor profile because I love everything else that you guys are kind of doing, so that would be my only feedback on the liquid. Thank you. Nick, your thoughts on the brand and in particular the SKU strategy? Um, yeah, I loved the brand a lot more when I heard you, heard you guys present it just now. I think the idea of the hive and community, and we haven't really talked about this, but I'm a huge believer in not selling just the functional benefits, but the emotional benefits, so I get the emotional benefit big time there. Community. I love the whole play, the world you're creating around honey. You talked about suite and buzz and all that stuff. Love it, love the honeycomb on the packaging, all really good stuff, I think. I also like that I've talked in previous presentations about the kind of platform approach in multiple categories. What I like is you can be considered a pure play for honey, right? You are a honey cocktail maker. That's a lot easier to swallow than, and I don't want to pick on anybody, but, but, but brands that have multiple categories without necessarily a common thread going throughout them. So I like that a lot. Maybe a criticism or a question, you know, I think when we were looking at the packaging. We all kind of wondered at the top. I think you had like lemon or rosemary or something. Is that, is that right? Yeah, yeah, I don't know if you want to pull that up again, but that was a little confusing because it's like, wait, OK, now I'm going, I'm seeing honey, and then at the bottom I see bourbon or tequila, and then at the top I see rosemary or lemon. So that didn't quite fully re that didn't seem tied, tied up neatly for me. That would be the only thought. OK, yeah, yeah. So those are the flavors that we're infusing into the honey. Um, so we could probably make it a little bit more clear, yeah. I mean, I guess my point is like, if I, if I see the top right and packaging is everything and sometimes people just see the top depending on the height of other products, I think that's like a rosemary product, and I'm not sure that's the big selling point or the first the cocktail part stand out more, OK. Yeah, Paul, your thoughts, and I'm actually curious about your thoughts on the partnerships that Spirited Jave has already landed, particularly with the Nashville soccer team and the Titans. No, I like that. I think it's great the way you've dug into your home market and tested some things in a big way. And then maybe you can replicate that. You can tweak it and replicate it in other markets. That makes a lot of sense. So I applaud you for that. I think the variety of spirits you're using is right on trend. I think your creative and your packaging and your branding, a lot about your branding is really consistent the honeycomb look on the packaging, the name hive, the use of the bee, your color tones, and just kind of the community and things you build around. Around that are great. So good job there. Uh, some of the packaging may be tweaked a little bit, as some people mentioned, the black on black is a little tough on the bourbon with some of the logos. Um, but yeah, I like, I like what you guys have going on and the creative and design agency ought to be applauded if it's, uh, not internally done. Looks great. Well, thank you, and I have a question for you guys. We are thinking since we now have, you know, 4 different SKUs. About doing a variety pack, so a mix, you know, a, a mixed pack, and I wanted to get your thoughts on that. One person, because we have 45 seconds. Who wants to take it quick. Everyone's looking at me. Sure, I think you should. If you've got the 4 products, the 4 flavors already, why not do variety packs? They sell, they work. Again, I would just be consistent that you've got that theme of hive and honey running throughout whatever else you launch in the future. Perfect. Thank you. I lied. We have 30 seconds left. Who wants to take it? Anyone else? Who else? 3. Don't go to New York City. Why are you guys so expensive and so competitive. Buckle up. You live there? OK. It's home market. They live there. There you go. You only got one chance probably to get it right, and it's a tough, tough market. So we're learning that, yeah, quickly. All right, Jack Tenny, very well done. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Well, I, we are down to our last presenter for Cocktail Showdown 3, which has already been a very impressive competition. But our last presenter is Vincent Jacobi, the president of Tigroni's. Come on up. Thanks, Ray. And we have Paul as well. I apologize. Uh, I thought we nailed it with the name, but I think Al Pacino also might take the cake. Uh, so, thanks so much, Babnet, for having us. Thanks, panel. We're excited to be here. My name's Vince Jacoby. Paul Scapecchio. We are Tiggronis. We just launched this past June in San Diego, California. I was asked the other day, how's the Tago Negroni business going? Well, guess what? We're here to tell you. Oh, forgot this. So our story begins, uh, some months in the pandemic. Uh, both Paul and I have a background in hospitality. We're both from Buffalo, New York. And we couldn't help but notice there were some restaurants doing these really cool canned cocktails. And one weekend, we were traveling in Seattle, Washington, as you could probably guess, dying for a Negroni. It wasn't until we made it to Bainbridge Island on a ferry, where we found the, the Negronis. And we just thought this was the coolest thing. Hey, why can't classic cocktails be in a can?

Speaker 2 [1:28:42] So at this point we fell in love with the concept. We fell more in love with this name Tigroni. We knew we nailed the branding, but at the same time we were still two rookies in the space, so we had to look for some validators to encourage us to move forward. So in our market research we did find that the Spirit RTD saw the fastest growth last year. According to Bacardi trend reports, the Negroni was actually the 2nd most consumed RTD in the European market. Quite frankly, here when we go to drink, classic cocktails, including the Negroni, are still dominating on premise, and here in the states, quite frankly, Negroni RTDs are few and far between. So we thought, hey, why don't we become a customer of our own products and create the first brand that was dedicated to true to taste Negronis and their variations.

Ray Latif [1:29:28] So we had all this validation and at the same time we became more aware of the 100 mL can. We fell in love with it. We thought enormous potential with this, the sheer consumer convenience, the single serve aspect, and so now we just need to make Negroni, and you'd think it'd be easy, equal parts gin, equal parts sweet mooth, equal parts Campari, but Campari is proprietary, so. It took us networking for many, many months, and we ended up getting in touch with an Italian vermouth producer who introduced us to Scrappy's Bitters in Seattle, Washington, and this was fitting because this is where our concept originated from. And this this partnership unlocked what is now our differentiator, which

Speaker 2 [1:30:05] is a red

Ray Latif [1:30:05] bitter aperitibo that's proprietary to

Speaker 2 [1:30:07] tugronis, and that brings us to the juice. So as you all know, Negroni has 3 components, none of which we compromised on all. So we're going to start with our base. We have a London Dry Gin. This has hints of June. citrus, spice. We do have a full bodied sweet vermouth imported from Italy. This has vanilla, cinnamon, orange, and then lastly, the stand out of the group, which is our red bitter made exclusively for tigronis. This has a very unique flavor profile of grapefruit, dark cherry, orange, gentian root. So when you bring all this together, what you have is a bar strength cocktail that's very bright, elegant, well balanced, and what we feel the most important part has an approachable bitterness that's like by negroni enthusiasts and first timers alike. But hey, don't take this from us or our gold award in taste. Take this from our number one fan, my mother, who refuses to drink only Behringer White's Infidel and now Negroni. So as far as our market strategy, we always did want to lean in on our home networks. So right now me and Vincent are self-distributing in California. So we do have accounts down in San Diego through Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Back east, we do have formal distribution in Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts. We are in our 83 retailers to date. Most importantly, exciting for us, we did just land our first hotel account which we plan to make a massive push into next year.

Ray Latif [1:31:30] And we did all this being low cost. We produced in small batches. We have all these amazing high quality ingredients and our price point for one can is $5.04 pack for around $18. So my pitch is, hey, this is the best $5 Negroni you're going to find in California. So what does the future look like for this to go Negroni business and how do we scale? So tigronis for us is more than just a Negroni in a can. It's a, it's a cheers to our Italian heritage, and it's our passion for the most iconic cocktail of all time. So we want to continue down this path with the Troni's Boulevardier, which is a Negroni, but subbing the whiskey instead of gin for those that don't know. And then we also, we wanted to get in this because we wanted to create something that was unique to the marketplace. So just as your bartender wins you over with the classics, we also want to lead the consumer down modern interpretation. So we'll launch a Tigroni's White Negroni later in the year, and then via a sister brand, uh, a mezcal margarita. So we're super excited. Thank you guys for listening to our presentation. Go grab your tagroni and enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2 [1:32:36] Hey, we know this is the last one, so cheers, everybody. Thank you.

Ray Latif [1:32:40] Cheers. I was hoping that was for me, but it's OK. No, no, no, no, it's OK. I, I, I'm still on the clock, so it's just one sec. Paul, you've dabbled in 100 mL canned cocktails. What are your thoughts on Tigronis? Yeah, I like the name and really, really like the focus. I know it's hard to replicate Campari, um, and the Vermouths, keep, you might keep, don't be afraid to keep iterating that. It's a demanding, Negroni consumers are very demanding, know what they like and don't like, so keep that open. Like your, I love the 100 mL format. Uh, I think that's great. Um, the black is a little recessive on the shelf. It looks great in hand, but just be careful of black on shelf. Um. I think people are coming into Foolproof canned cocktails. I think that's coming. I think you're well positioned for that, um, and I think your pipeline makes a lot of sense. So, um, that's my feedback. Thank you. Yeah, let's follow up with that Brandy, you know, a Negroni-centric brand, there was a product roadmap, but what are your thoughts in terms of where the brand stands right now and its potential to grow from there? I was surprised to see those two. I love that. I think the Boulevardier and also White Negroni are two really great kind of bar quality cocktails. The packaging is is really cool. It stands out. It's different and we know that a lot of people, you know, I was surprised by this and all the research we do is that a lot of people are pouring stuff out of a can or ice, even hard seltzers and all of this stuff. So I think it's just a really cool. The portability is great, packaging, the liquid's really good. I definitely like the foray into different types of cocktails and the packaging size I think is really smart. Hotels is going to be really big for you guys. I think it's a really interesting strategy. I think you had your whole kind of list of different things to do there. I'd be curious to see sort of how brand extensions outside of Tigronni go because that's a very kind of narrow focus and it sounds like you're thinking through that, but because you have a unique packaging and I think if you really take a good distribution strategy that could be a point of differentiation. Thank you, Brandy. And Nick, I know negronis are very specific to people. What are your thoughts on the taste of this one? Yeah, I thought it tasted great. I thought it tasted great. I love probably echoing some sentiments already expressed, but love the pure play aspect of focusing on the negroni. Love the liquid. Love the small package. You know, did have a little bit of a question around, I presume that this is meant to be open and then poured over ice, right, as opposed to maybe grab and go drink on a boat in the park on a golf course, whatever, and would you have you, have you, or would you considered maybe the watered down version where you just open out of the can already chilled and it tastes diluted down to whatever a cocktail should be probably. A little lower than the 25 I think that you're, you're at, right? We designed it to be kind of in between RTD and RTS, but I think we've come to realize that, you know, we probably prefer over ice for this version and and maybe in future iterations as we kind of grow, we will look, look into more of an IT RTD style because yeah, we want, we want golf courses to be a huge part of our business. So yeah,

Speaker 2 [1:35:45] we, we went through 7 different variations and it was all about the dilution. Right, where was the sticky point? Could you drink it just out of a can? Preferred over ice. So ultimately we did land on a formula that could be both, but obviously we prefer over ice with a little expressed orange.

Ray Latif [1:36:00] Yeah, makes sense. And another comment, love the product roadmap. I think it makes sense, particularly the riffs on the Negroni. I was a little confused with the mezcal margarita back to my points earlier. Do you want to address that? Yeah, so, you know, not everyone knows the Negroni, and, you know, scalability, like where can we go next, right? So we got into Negronis because we felt that was a little bit higher of a barrier to entry, as we feel Mezcal is too, so

Speaker 2 [1:36:25] we

Ray Latif [1:36:25] want to

Speaker 2 [1:36:25] bring that to the

Ray Latif [1:36:25] RTD

Speaker 2 [1:36:26] market. That this will be under a sister brand.

Ray Latif [1:36:30] Yeah, yeah. Just, just more of a, of a, of a comment. I think having the ability to have to pour it over ice is not a, a bad thing. Um, most consumption of RTE is actually at home. So as much as we talk about portability all the time, over and over and over again, data and researchers, people drink at home, right? So 80% roughly, people are buying at off-premise to consume at home. And so a lot of the canned cocktails are enjoyed at home for occasions at home. And because of the pandemic, which I've heard a lot about like all these. Brands coming out, people are making drinks at home and they're enjoying them at home and they have the barware and the glassware, so I don't think having to pour it in a glass of rice is any kind of a barrier. In fact, I think that's really more how people are drinking and so you're set up for more of an elevated cocktail pour at home, which I think is a positive thing. Paul, you'll get the last word of the competition. Yeah, just a couple of comments on the packaging. Um, I think the 4 pack with the pop-up display is smart. I think it's very functional. The pull tab that releases that concerns me a little bit, but that's an easy rotation at some point. All right, excellent work. Well done. Thanks, Ray. Cheers. Look guys, it's all gone. OK, you know, this is the 2nd time that we've done this competition live, the 3rd time overall, and I was so impressed with all the presenters, you know, coming up here on stage is not an easy thing to do, and I thought they all did a fantastic job. Round of applause for all of our contestants today. I'm pretty sure the judges have a difficult decision to make, but make that decision they will. We're going to go to an undisclosed location. Don't look for us because they need to make a decision and we're going to announce that decision at 6 p.m. Pacific time. You don't want to miss it if you're watching on the live stream. For folks who want to find out who that is, be in this room by 6:00 p.m., uh, because that's when it's going to happen. Uh, also, I just want to let people know there is a bar back here with all of the product samples, all of the samples that were, uh, brought up today. So please taste because that's why these, uh, folks brought these products. Thank you so much again. And one more thing, how can I possibly forget? Our incredible judging panel. Thank you guys so much for all your contributions. Outstanding work. All right, we'll see you at 6.