BevNET's Cocktail Showdown - Winner Announcement & Interview

Speaker 1 [00:04] All right. Viewers at home, welcome back. We're about to make the announcement on who is the winner, what brand is the winner of BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 competition. Uh, a very challenging competition, uh, well, uh, a competition full of very good challengers. Uh, one of them will be the champion, uh, and receive a $10,000 industry awareness package from BevNET. Before we make that announcement, uh, I wanna go to the judges and talk a little bit about, uh, in general terms, what they saw out of this winner, why they thought it deserved the title of BevNET's Cocktail Showdown champion. Sebastian, let's start with

Speaker 2 [00:38] you. So, um, in, in general, I would love to say that, you know, this was a big variety of, of companies out there, big variety of products, as we said before, for everything from 4% ABV up to 40%. So, um, it. Like there was a, there's a reason to, to like, um, any concept there's a different reason for every concept, right? Um, but we're also facing right now a lot of competition in the RTD market, you know, there's so much competition, there's so much fight for shelf space, uh, calories have to be in, in, in, in the right amount, the price has to be in the right amount, so there needs to be some level of differentiation, um, and some, you know, consumers need something to needs to be easy to understand and, and very, you know, good to relate to.

Speaker 1 [01:20] Absolutely. Saeed.

Speaker 3 [01:22] Um, yeah, I mean, this competition is about ready to drink and what we saw, at least what I saw in this winter is that it was ready to drink and I was able to, I, it made me want to go back to drink more of it. So, and the juice in this, you know, in this can was amazing, so definitely appreciated it.

Speaker 1 [01:44] Tiffany.

Speaker 4 [01:45] Yeah, I think they, um, just, they, they nailed the taste. It's classic, which is what's selling, um, but they also nailed the shelf, and it has some viability that others don't on the shelf. So, uh, for me, it's also cool. There's a cool it factor. There's a question they ask, is, is, is there something just cool about it? It's just cool and so that that obviously uh means a lot obviously today authentic yet traditional at the same time

Speaker 1 [02:15] so and Carlton,

Speaker 5 [02:17] this was hard um it was really hard you guys did a great job, everyone um and I, I think it's important to note too that like because of the differentiation between these products it's not like we're comparing them against each other, um, and we all bring our own lenses, you know, I, I, and, and different criteria of how we judge but. I do think at the end of the day, the winner has a really interesting chance to be a leader in in a category that's gonna be next. We were doing this 5 years ago, 10 years ago, we would have been trying to find the next White Claw. We're not trying to do that. White Claw's already got a massive share and truly's got a big share behind that. So that's, we're, we're not looking for someone who might have a David shot against a Goliath in their category. We're looking for someone who could build the next Goliath, um, and I, I think that that really affected my decision on, on what, what I thought was the best.

Speaker 1 [03:02] Once again, great feedback from the judges. Thank you guys so much. All right, um, just before we make this announcement, just before I make the announcement, uh, I just wanna note that, uh, we are going to do a quick interview with the winner, uh, just after we make the announcement and after this room clears out. So viewers at home, stay tuned, uh, and for all the folks who participated once again, amazing, amazing job. Congratulations. You all have created great products in France. Thank you so much for being with us. And please talk to the judges. The judges want to talk to you. They want to see you afterwards. They want to, uh, offer you some more feedback and advice. I think each of them had about 1 minute. Uh, they want to offer you at least 5 minutes. So how about that? All right. The winner of BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 competition is. Golden Rule, congratulations. I went out to the sea. Well done. Congratulations. Congratulations. Well done. Now we're gonna take some photos, but before we do that, I just wanna say once, uh, again, thank you all so much for being here. Thanks all for, uh, all of you at home watching. We're gonna do this again in June, but in the meantime, Golden Rule, the winners of BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 competition. Thank you. All right, as promised, I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of BevNET's Taste Radio podcast here with the winners of BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 competition, Hunter Sprole and James Mauk of Golden Rule. Congratulations, gentlemen.

Speaker 6 [04:38] Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Couldn't, uh, couldn't have expected this. So, uh, really appreciate you guys hosting us and being here. When you

Speaker 1 [04:45] heard the announcement, you weren't expecting it.

Speaker 6 [04:47] No. Not really. This is an amazing field of competitors. So I mean, it's pretty humbling to to have seen our name up there. I mean, we're really excited to partake in, but yeah, weren't

Speaker 1 [04:59] expecting it. Yeah, I mean, it's difficult because there were, it was a tough competition. 10 brands, 10 great concepts, uh, as the judges pointed out, liquid packaging, route to markets, uh, potential for these brands, all great. Um, let's start, uh, from the beginning. Golden rule for folks who may have missed your presentation, what do you guys do?

Speaker 6 [05:20] So, I'm sorry, I missed that, I missed the end

Speaker 1 [05:22] of it in the room. Yes, for folks who may have missed your presentation, Golden Rule, what is it that makes you different? What do you guys do?

Speaker 6 [05:28] We do ready to drink cocktails that emulate what you would get at a bar. So everything is to-proof, uh, working off of our own recipes. So our margarita is 27% alcohol. It is as straightforward as it gets tequila, triple sec, lime juice. Our old fashion is orange bitters, uh, a high rye bourbon. Everything is meant to be exactly what you would get at a bar. Again, just proper cocktails.

Speaker 1 [05:54] And great packaging too, you know, uh, one of my friends, uh, knew that I was going to be judging this competition and happened to see your, your, uh, can of your old fashion, and he's like, Is that an Eames chair? That is really cool. It's a style

Speaker 6 [06:09] of an Eames. Don't go into that one there.

Speaker 1 [06:13] Yeah. OK. Oh, I see, I see what you're going. OK, so it's not exactly an Eames chair.

Speaker 6 [06:16] It's might be an extra leg on there or something. I don't know.

Speaker 1 [06:19] Um, how did you come up with the packaging? How did you come up with the branding because it is very distinct?

Speaker 6 [06:24] Yeah, so the idea was really off of Matchbooks and, um, I grew up, as I said, in the restaurant industry and, uh, my dad's restaurant had this. Basically a box of matches that people at the bar would pick out of and they would write little notes in them and they'd put them back in for other people to find. And as we were developing this whole idea of the golden rule and everything and sharing things, it was like, oh, these matchbooks, they're so synonymous with bars and restaurants and they were always a thing. Like, what if we could Capture that imagery and really have that like these are our little cocktails. Take them with you wherever you go and kind of have like a destination to it as well. So I mean it's a family recipe from the margarita and kind of where that recipe came from and that's part of where the image imagery came from for that margarita and then, you know, you get to the old fashioned and I think it was just a conversation. It's where do you like to enjoy an old fashioned and. Yeah, a style of Eames chair came to mind. It's, you know, kicking back after a long day and just put you in that kind of destination for where you might like to enjoy one of those types of drinks.

Speaker 1 [07:24] Camping can be a destination in the forest, yeah, get out there in the hills,

Speaker 6 [07:27] beaches, forest camping is something people like to do.

Speaker 1 [07:31] Yes, indeed. Inside joke if folks who saw the entire competition, um. A destination is also something that's interesting at the, the word in that um there was some talk about where this package can go um and uh talking about airplanes, uh, talking about uh cruise ships and things like that. I mean, have you already talked about, uh, have you already talked to some folks in those types of travel industries? I mean, what's the plan?

Speaker 6 [08:00] So yeah, we've, uh, we've approached them. We're, we're trying to get into that and I mean, one of the things is education. We see no better avenue to educate people on the 100 mL size of cocktails than airlines, right? You have such a captive audience and I think people can still be a little skeptical on the ready to drink segment in general. So if we have a captive audience, this new style of cans. It fits. I mean, you could walk through, uh, TSA with it. It is 100 mL, so you could get through. They might as well just have us on board anyways, um, and so there's a, a lot of things that work for us, uh, in, in those segments, and, uh, yeah, we're hopeful and we're pursuing those as avenues to, to really sell the, sell the drinks.

Speaker 1 [08:44] Absolutely. Um, last question, you know, I think some people wonder like. Once I get a product that has resonance that people appreciate, um, would you change anything when you're talking about your business strategy, what have you learned to this point? Because it seems like there's a lot of appreciation for what you guys have created, but what are some of the learnings? What are some of the lessons that you have to incorporate into the future of your company?

Speaker 6 [09:09] I mean, again, I would take it in that, yes, we definitely are incorporating things throughout, right? We're so young, we're still getting our feet wet in this industry. Um, we came out with things that we like and we want to continue to come out with things that we like to drink because we think they're fun and it's engaging, but, you know, if that some people have said already, it's like you're old fashioned strong. And like, we can take that as a wink wink, like maybe take a couple proof off of that or something. We, we're continuing to evolve. We know that this is gonna be a journey and we're kind of in just the infant stages of it. We're excited to see where it takes us with new cocktails, uh, you know, evolving the margarita recipe. Probably pretty stuck with because of our family, but there are some other things that we could evolve and uh we're excited to see where that takes us. So yeah, I'm not wanting to, you know, overextend ourselves too soon. I mean we wanted to start with when we start with the margarita first, followed up with the old fashioned a couple of just classics and. I mean, of course, as we alluded to, want to extend the line a bit, but not get too far ahead of ourselves and, you know, continue to take feedback from the market, but stay true to just what we like to drink, as James said.

Speaker 1 [10:17] For now, enjoy the day, enjoy the evening, right? Now, my question is, how many of these can you fit inside the trophy? I mean, like let's say if you pour 2 ounces, that can, that's probably at least what?

Speaker 6 [10:35] 70s. I don't try that right now we'll we'll

Speaker 1 [10:35] experiment.VIOVID we can try something like that in the meantime, congratulations. It was an honor. It was honoring all the participate on stage but you guys are the champions. Golden Rule once again, champions of Bevnet's cocktail showdown 2 competition. Uh, just a reminder to our live stream viewers, we're back on here at 8 a.m. Pacific time for the semi-final round of Bevnet's new Beverage showdown. You don't wanna miss it. In the meantime, just saying thank you so much to our amazing team at Bevnet. Uh, the behind the scenes folks have been working their butts off, and, uh, I think it shows that they are real professionals and signing off with the amazing folks, uh, who participated in our competition. These guys are awesome. I'm Ray Latif, and we'll talk to you next time.