BevNET's Cocktail Showdown - Winner Announcement & Interview

Speaker 1 [00:06] All right. Welcome back. As I mentioned, uh, now is the time to announce the winner of Bevnet's cocktail showdown. The winner will receive once again a $10,000 ad package from Bevnet. And an engraved trophy that you, the winner, will only be able to have. You'll be the very first winner of the cocktail showdown. So it's a, it's a very special trophy in that. Now, it may not seem like the judges were deliberating for, for very much or for very long, but they had been deliberating a little bit longer than it might seem. Uh, and it was a pretty tough competition. And the judges took their time to really engage in some really thoughtful, uh, conversation to get down to one brand. That one brand is once again the champion of Cocktail Showdown One, Bevnet's Cocktail Showdown one. All right. I think enough for me. Oh, and by the way, this glass is meant to, uh, be, in lieu of the trophy, we have this glass in which I'm going to share a cocktail with the winners of the showdown. OK. The winning brand For Bevnet's cocktail showdown one is. Wandering barman, congratulations to the founders Darren Grea, Julian Mohammed, and Roxanne Maliki. Roxanne calling all the way from Corsica. Julian, Darren, Roxanne, congratulations.

Speaker 2 [01:33] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Definitely appreciate it.

Speaker 1 [01:38] Well, we definitely appreciate, uh, you guys participating, uh, a, a very tough competition. Uh, again, I think we started out with about 80 brands applying to be part of this, uh, 10 brands in the, uh, competition itself down to 1, 80 to 1, and you guys are the champions. Uh, congratulations once again,

Speaker 2 [01:58] and those other brands were amazing. Yeah,

Speaker 3 [02:00] we're, yeah, we were very thank you to all the brands. Thank you to everybody involved. We, we, yeah, this is amazing and we greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 1 [02:06] Yeah, you know, so. As the judges were deliberating, um, a few of the things that they mentioned about Wandering Barman, uh, and some of the things that they really appreciated was that, uh, your package and your overall positioning was really helping to drive forward this segment. Now, it's still, uh, you know, a very young category, the ready to drink cocktail category. Um, but as we're starting to see more and more brands come in, There are, you know, some that are pretty similar in style and positioning. And I think what they really appreciate is that they, you guys brought something that they saw as pretty unique to this market and to this category. Um, you know, I, I know we've already talked about this and you talked about this in your, in your pitch, but Can you talk about why you thought that what you presented and, and how you, how you, you know, put this brand together was the right thing for this category? Was it, was what it really needed for more and more people to take notice?

Speaker 2 [03:08] Um, I think really it was our experience in the hospitality industry. It really came from our need to have this, uh, when we owned bars and restaurants and work and worked in

Speaker 3 [03:19] bars and restaurants. Yeah.

Speaker 1 [03:20] So, you know, I think that's, that's a really interesting point is that your experience came from hospitality, but you know, in terms of like product in, in creating a brand and brand building, what, what do you, what do you see as your biggest challenges going forward?

Speaker 2 [03:35] Ah, um, I, I don't know, Bill, I mean, well, we need, we definitely need, um, because we don't have a product background, we, our biggest challenge is definitely figuring out how the CPG, uh, space works in terms of marketing, um, and positioning. So, um, we're definitely looking to. Expand our knowledge with regards to that and that's,

Speaker 3 [03:56] that's

Speaker 2 [03:57] gonna be

Speaker 3 [03:57] a challenge we're

Speaker 2 [03:57] good

Speaker 3 [03:57] at, at, uh, you know, the, the hands-on part of it, the creating the putting, you know, putting it in the bottle, um, we've got that down, so I think any help that we can get. Uh, with regard to marketing or, you know, being out there, you know, in that, yeah, uh, aspect of it, I think,

Speaker 2 [04:15] and also another challenge is, is convincing, uh, in some respect, and we've done a really good job of that, of, of bars and restaurants, um, that it is OK to serve a batched cocktail. That's definitely a challenge. Um, or it's been a challenge, but people are coming around now. COVID really helped with that, um, as mainstream starts to get used to drinking batched cocktails, they're, and they're open to new experiences, um, I, I think the, the Gen Z generation are really interested in experiences and trying new things and, and. And, and novelty. I think the, uh, the renaissance of the, like the bartender with the, the, uh, the braces, that's kind of slowly fading away, I think, um, as people look for more, uh, interesting or not interesting, but just like newer experiences, and I think that's kind of where we, we are sliding in there. Um, we found in bars and restaurants that, that were concerned about carrying us, that, that they, some of our friends we persuaded to carry, carry our products, they, um, they started selling them and, and consumers were really like into the bottle, uh, which is not something that we were totally expecting. And so that, there's, there's definitely a market for this, I guess is what I'm saying. We're getting a little tongue-tied here.

Speaker 1 [05:28] No, I, you know, I know, it totally makes sense what you're saying. I think it might be surprising given that you were so focused on the liquid that so many people would be interested in the package and the label, but it has become a key part of what you do. In fact, I think that was something that the judges all mentioned is that, you know, if you look at Um, a lot of the brands that, uh, are in this category, a lot of them are in cans, and, uh, you're coming into this with this flask, which just looks different on the shelf.

Speaker 2 [05:52] Yeah, so the reason that was the reason for this. We, we knew that there was, because it's 100 mLs, there was gonna be a minimum amount of retail, uh, uh, space, basically for our, our, our product, so we wanted it to pop. So we figured a flask would give us the most real estate, um, and you put it on the back bar and people are like, what is that, we got a lot of accounts actually from people just looking at that.

Speaker 3 [06:13] Shout out to our design, uh, team, uh, and their, their name is actually Team Design, uh, who did an awesome job on all of our labels.

Speaker 2 [06:22] They and they represented us, uh, which is amazing. They kind of looked at us and, and they, they somehow they represented who we are and

Speaker 3 [06:29] we were their first alcohol brand, so I think that kind of played into. It being a standout, uh, bottle or, or representation of something that's a little bit different, we're not a typical alcohol brand,

Speaker 2 [06:42] we told them not to look at the, the market and what's out there and just to like hear what we've got to say and then come up with, with some expression of that.

Speaker 1 [06:51] Now, you know, you guys mentioned uh retail and I wonder for folks watching who are retail buyers and might be saying, hey, I really like this product. I'd love to have it on my shelves. What is your dream retailer? What is the ideal, ideal off-premise retailer for you guys?

Speaker 3 [07:07] Anybody that wants to carry us is a treat for us. Anybody that understands. And gets it and, and would give us a shot, you know, uh,

Speaker 2 [07:17] we, we focus with boutique, um, wine and spirit stores right now because there's a it tends to be a relationship between the, the store owners or the cashiers and the customer and they will educate the customer, and I think as our brand grows, we can move into the more high volume liquor stores that don't necessarily have that interaction with their customers where they can just recognize us and be like, we want, we were interested in, in that brand or that brand looks great, we'll, we'll try that. Mhm.

Speaker 1 [07:43] You know, Roxanne, we didn't get to hear much from you yesterday. We didn't get to hear anything from you, uh, excuse me, we didn't get to hear anything from you today. You know, I think one of the things that, uh, I'd love to hear from you is sort of where you see this brand going from here. Um, you know, the, the, the toughest thing I think from, uh, you know, thinking about where you are. Now is where you could be in 1 year or 2 years or 5 years, especially for an early-stage brand, but goals are really important. Where do you want to be? Where do you guys see yourselves, um, in a year's time?

Speaker 4 [08:18] I mean, in a year's time, we really just wanna focus on building this brand as a national brand, you know, we really wanna, you know, we went through the hard part of having to prove to people that this was a real solution and we had to think outside the box, but um, now that RTDs are more accepted, we can really start thinking about where a really good cocktail can be served and how we can. Wasteless behind all kinds of bars and in the industry, so, uh, a year from now is national and then we've had a huge amount of demand internationally and um and I see we see a lot of potential there and we are constantly in R&D and we're brainstorming all kinds of formats as well, so, you know, there's a lot of potential, I think for us that's even more exciting. Uh, seeing a year from now, especially opening our tasting room now, we're gonna have a space where we can educate people on how to batch cocktails and, and do, you know, really show that great quality can be done in a great and different way.

Speaker 1 [09:17] And once again, where is your tasty uh tasting room gonna be located? It's gonna

Speaker 4 [09:21] be in East Williamsburg, Bushwick.

Speaker 1 [09:24] There it is,

Speaker 2 [09:25] Street, Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 [09:27] Very cool. Well, uh, I'm a fan of Peter Luger's. Are you guys in that area? Is that where, uh, is it? Not too far,

Speaker 4 [09:34] not too

Speaker 1 [09:34] far. OK, so I, I, I think this is gonna be a good plan for some point in the near future is to, uh, visit the tasting room, have a cocktail or two, head to Luger's for dinner, and, uh,

Speaker 2 [09:47] Sure, yeah, definitely, let's do that.

Speaker 1 [09:49] I'm excited. But in the meantime, can we share a cocktail

Speaker 2 [09:51] now? Absolutely. All

Speaker 1 [09:53] right, I have in my hand, uh, wandering barman's swipe right. This is an old fashioned made with bourbon whiskey, 32% AB ABV. Oops, I forgot to shake it. Shake in the bottle. That's what it says, folks, right on the label, uh, right on the cap. Excuse me, shake. All right, I hope I shook it enough.

Speaker 2 [10:09] Yeah,

Speaker 1 [10:09] you did. OK, good. And here we go. Uh, to the champions of Bevnet's cocktail showdown one. Darren, Julian, Roxanne, congratulations. Very well deserved.

Speaker 2 [10:21] cheers. Thank you to all the other competitors too. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [10:26] Yes, and, and that's a great point, you know, congratulations to all the participants in this competition. Once again, um, you know, the, the talent level, the quality that we're seeing, um, in this category, you know, it has been remarkable. It, it, you know, in some ways. It's, it's even more impressive than we could have imagined because so many of you guys come from hospitality and not necessarily from a brand standpoint. But yet your presentations, your pitches, your products, all excellent. And it, you know, it did take a lot, uh, to win this, and Wandering Barman, you guys had it, um, and I'm really excited to see the future of the category, the future of your brand, um, and, uh, speaking on behalf of the judges and everyone at Bevnet, um, well done, well done. Congratulations once again. Thank you

Speaker 3 [11:15] so much. That's amazing. Thank you, judges. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Roxanne.

Speaker 2 [11:20] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [11:21] All right. That brings us to the end of this competition, Bevnet's Cocktail Showdown one. This was our inaugural, uh, edition of the showdown. We are planning to do a lot more of these in the future. Stay tuned for much more coverage of the ready to drink cocktail category, our events and competitions that will be coming in the next, uh, in the, uh, near future, months, dare I say. Uh, but we're really excited to keep an eye on what's happening. Uh, in this segment and really excited for the entrepreneurs that are leading the way. Signing off on behalf of the amazing team at Bevnet, I'm Ray Latif and we'll talk to you next time.