[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey, folks. Thanks for tuning in to the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry, Taste Radio. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, And Big'm with my BevNET and Nosh colleagues, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. I think now is an apt time to tell everyone and remind everyone that if you do review us on the Apple Podcasts app and send us a screenshot of that review, along with your address and the T-shirt size of your choosing, we will send you a brand spanking new Taste Radio T-shirt, which, And Big'm not making this up, is literally The Softest T-shirt you will ever wear.
[00:00:58] John Craven: What's the thread count, Ray?
[00:00:59] Ray Latif: Come on. The thread count, it was 220. I think it's 220 thread. Egyptian cotton. No, it's not Egyptian cotton. It is very, very soft. I've heard anecdotally that it is The Softest T-shirt that people own.
[00:01:14] John Craven: Cashmere T-shirts, we should do that, definitely.
[00:01:17] Ray Latif: Oh my gosh, that'd be so hot. Well, yes, it would be literally warm to wear. That's what I meant, yeah. It's not hot.
[00:01:26] Jacqui Brugliera: It's perfect for you guys.
[00:01:28] Ray Latif: Yeah, well, how much would a cashmere T-shirt actually cost? What's that, like 100 bucks minimum? Like $200.
[00:01:33] Jacqui Brugliera: Let's look into it.
[00:01:36] Ray Latif: We should get Adam Stern on here, he probably knows. Of course Adam knows. Adam knows about all the fine things in life, the finer things in life that is. Well, you know, it's the start of the new year. I still have a hard time saying 2022, a little inside humor for those who stayed and listened and watched to the end of BevNET Live Winter 2021. But yeah, I don't say 2022. Now you can just roll it off 2022. I say 2022. I think that's my problem. I just got to go back to the former.
[00:02:07] Mike Schneider: If you're from the Midwest, you'd say 20, 2022. 2022?
[00:02:10] Ray Latif: T-W-E-N-N-Y. Well, anyway, it's 2022 and not much has changed in terms of innovation that we're seeing in the beverage industry. Lots of blurred lines between the alcoholic beverage industry, the non-alcoholic beverage industry, and everything in between. Last week, the Coca-Cola Co and Constellation Brands announced that they would be collaborating on a new product called Fresca Mixed. Yes, Fresca, the brand that you know and love, a grapefruit flavored soda, now has an alcoholic counterpart to it. This mildly broke the internet, I think. It was all over the news, all over LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, all that. John Craven, I got to get your thoughts on this.
[00:02:57] John Craven: Well, first of all, I hadn't personally thought about Fresca in a little while, but I think it's pretty interesting to see Coca-Cola using its brand equity to move into the beverage alcohol space, obviously, via Constellation Brands as opposed to their own product offering. Hey, I think if they're going to do that, I understand it's lower risk to do it with a brand like that and try to reinvent it, reinvigorate it a little bit in the US here. So curious to see how the actual product tastes and what it looks like, but pretty interesting And Big suspect we'll see more of that.
[00:03:38] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, I suspect we'll see more of that. But in what form? I think that's the big question, because I think a lot of people, if they had said, OK, well, what's next for Coca-Cola Co terms of how it's going to extend its reach into the beverage alcohol industry, it already has done so with Topo Chico and Topo Chico hard seltzer. I think most people would think, oh, How about a Jack and Coke, Jack Annie and Coca-Cola Co Daniels already has a line of ready-to-drink beverages, including a Jack and Cola. It's not Jack and Coke. But yeah, I think you're right about sort of testing the waters with something Like Air Fresco, which is probably not going to cause many ripples if they decide to discontinue it for some reason.
[00:04:19] John Craven: I think there's also just the question of, you know, to play out your example, which clearly is never going to happen, but I think, you know, you'd wonder, is that going to impact sales of Coke? Right. And, you know, what a partnership like that just be maybe cannibalization as opposed to opening new things. Whereas Fresca, like again, a brand that we all probably know, and it's probably not sitting in our refrigerators right now. So, risk is low to try to reposition and grow that brand equity and use it for good.
[00:04:53] Ray Latif: Well, interestingly enough, in another news, we have a beer company that's getting into non-alcohol. We've seen this play out a number of times over the past year as well. Sierra Nevada has launched a new non-alcoholic product called Hop Smash. Again, not the first time we've seen a beer company get into this growing space of hop-centric beverages. but wondering if it's the right timing for this type of product, for the right timing for Sierra Nevada to jump into the pool, so to speak.
[00:05:27] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think it's another play on non-alcoholic beer. There's new entrance into that space, but this is just blurring the lines even more and allowing you to get that experience, but you're not getting the calories of a traditional beer and it elevates the mouthfeel and the taste of just drinking a sparkling water.
[00:05:49] John Craven: And Big think there's also a difference of positioning and use occasion for these products. I mean, while it certainly would be totally fine to drink a non-alcoholic beer like any time during the day from just an alcohol consumption or lack thereof perspective, I do think that, you know, a product like just a hop infused seltzer kind of sends a different message where it might not have, it might not be weird if like you're busting that out at like 10 in the morning, you know? And Big do think that, you know, that might change anyway with non-alcoholic beer. But right now I feel like you might still get looks for that, but you know, maybe that's what they're going for.
[00:06:27] Mike Schneider: I still haven't done it yet, but I keep threatening to bring some hoplark hop water to one of my soccer games and just crack one open at halftime and see what happens.
[00:06:36] Ray Latif: Well, it was funny actually, it's funny that you mentioned that. We're going to talk about Liquid Death in a second, but Liquid Death, I think they posted this on Instagram a while back, or not a while back, more recently, where a college professor sent an email to his entire class saying, I've seen a bunch of you drinking this craft beer called Liquid Death. He's like, it's kind of irresponsible to be doing so during class. And someone wrote back, you should do your homework. It's canned water.
[00:07:04] John Craven: I mean, that would be in a pretty incredible name for Like Air ready to drink cocktail Liquid Death. It's like, like 90 proof or something like that just takes you down.
[00:07:18] Ray Latif: Well, there's there's liquid cocaine, although I've never had that. You ever heard that cocktail? It's called liquid cocaine. I've never had it.
[00:07:25] John Craven: No, I thought you meant Cocaine Energy drink, which sadly, yes. have had that, kind of forget it every day.
[00:07:31] Ray Latif: Yeah, that was an interesting brand for sure. Hoplark is clearly doing some great things with their products. So I'm curious to see how this is all going to shake out, whether it's a question of availability and accessibility of these products, or is one just going to rise to the top because they have simply a better product, a better quality product.
[00:07:51] Mike Schneider: If it's anything like the beer industry, there's room for a lot of different variety, right? And especially now that they're extremely crushable without any impact, you could see somebody wanting to drink not only many of these, but many different kinds to try them all.
[00:08:07] John Craven: I think it also is pretty important that more brands get into this kind of hop-infused, zero-calorie space. I mean, otherwise, that's just a super uphill battle for a company like Hoplark, as it continues to scale, to be kind of going it alone. So that is certainly a nod to the idea of being a good one and that other companies think there are some legs to it.
[00:08:33] Jacqui Brugliera: I could see more breweries doing this. I know Sierra Nevada is launching it and DTC which is you know a perfect testing ground for a product like this. And it's going to allow more breweries and other brands to launch new products like this. See if it works if it resonates with the consumer. And then you either quickly move on or kind of scale into retail. And another point is I know they've launched previous products in the past under like different brands, but this product, it's tied to the Sierra Nevada brand. So I think they're just trying to give another, another product that their consumer tied to their brand can drink.
[00:09:06] Mike Schneider: Man, I hope they send us some of this because I mean, Sierra Nevada pale ale is, It is like the most perfectly crafted pale ale there is in the history of pale ale. And if it's anything like that, I want to try this.
[00:09:20] Ray Latif: Mike spent many a year drinking Sierra Nevada pale ale, especially during the advertising days, no?
[00:09:27] Mike Schneider: Yeah, yeah, absolutely right. And probably sometimes about 11, 15 a.m.
[00:09:33] Ray Latif: At least it wasn't scotch or bourbon, like back in the day, right? You know? I'd wait until at least 12.30. Yeah. Nowadays, it is Liquid Death that you're drinking at 11.30 in the morning. And you know, Mike's not alone. Clearly the brand is doing really, really well. They just raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Science Inc., a prior investor in the brand. Just insane numbers. I mean, I'm just looking at the story on BevNET. Top line revenue in 2021 was $45 million, up from $3 million when the brand launched in 2019. Just unbelievable. It's sold in 29,000 retail locations nationwide, including Whole Foods, 7-Eleven, and Target. How's that for a multi-channel retail strategy? Wow. Just remarkable stuff. I know we've talked about Liquid Death a thousand times on this podcast, but what more can we say? I don't know.
[00:10:29] John Craven: I think a valuation and a raise like that certainly is And Big sign that the investors in that company really see a huge opportunity for the path that Liquid Death is on. I think it's pretty hard to argue with it being the most exciting thing in, I was going to say the bottled water space, but the water space right now, a lot of credit for totally zigging whenever everyone else is zagging. really incredible brand and also just the package format of being in a can and all their killer execution. I mean, a lot of props to those guys.
[00:11:08] Mike Schneider: Yeah, a lot more pressure now. It'll be interesting to see what happens from a marketing and messaging perspective. A lot of times when more money comes in, there's a lot more oversight and hopefully the creative team is able to maintain control and we don't lose the, you know, just the zaniness that they're known for. I would, I'd feel pretty sad about that personally. I mean, I know it's not all about me. Obviously they're trying to make And Big play here, but hopefully they can stay true to their roots.
[00:11:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, And Big think it's exciting to see how deep they've gone with only, you know, two SKUs still in sparkling water. And Big know they have plans to launch a flavored water line. So, I mean, there's so many products that they can launch moving forward.
[00:11:53] John Craven: What are the flavors going to be called, like blood of your enemies? I don't know. That's what I was going to say. I mean, it just seems it's going to be like really weird if it's like Liquid Death lavender flavor, you know?
[00:12:05] Ray Latif: They're coming out with three flavors and they are named bury it alive. Yeah, I remember seeing this severed lime and mango chainsaw. Mango chainsaw. That's the one for me. I like that one. Yeah, well, Mike, if you're listening, blood of your enemies for the next few. Now, this is well documented. Liquid Death joined us for an edition or past edition of the New Beverage Showdown. Didn't even make it to the final round, yet is obviously one of the most successful brands ever to participate in the showdown. That being said, we are always interested in hearing about new brands and we always encourage new brands to reach out, connect with us. whether it be an email, a DM on Instagram, connecting with us via LinkedIn, or reaching out to us via an application to our Elevator Talk series. Elevator Talk being a series that profiles new and emerging brands from across the food and beverage industry. Every two weeks, we sit down with five entrepreneurs representing these early stage brands, spend about 10 minutes with them, talk about what they're doing in terms of their business strategy and their products, innovation, et cetera, along with the co-host, who is an expert in the industry, who can offer some feedback, advice, and insights. So highly encourage folks to apply to Elevator Talk. It's easy to do so. Go to BevNET.com slash Elevator Talk. We'll get you on the show ASAP.
[00:13:35] Taste Radio: We have a new episode coming out next week, so stay tuned for that. Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit vibrantingredients.com.
[00:14:26] Ray Latif: I have a couple very cool snacks that I want to talk about, And Big'm using that word cool very liberally, or ironically, however you want to look at it. Okay. I feel Like Air should start with the nutty one, the one that people aren't probably expecting from us because, you know, it's not necessarily something we do or talk about. That new snack is Doritos Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch. Oh my God, I love Cool Ranch Doritos. Guilty pleasure. Yes, how did I know? This is legit a new product? Yes. So they've combined the Flamin' Hot flavoring of Flamin' Hot Cheetos with the Cool Ranch, Doritos Cool Ranch product. Balance each other out?
[00:15:17] Mike Schneider: So they're Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch?
[00:15:19] Jacqui Brugliera: They're Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch.
[00:15:20] Mike Schneider: Great naming. Are they hot ranch? Are they going to make a taco shell out of this at Taco Bell too? Is there a Katy Perry collaboration for a little hot and cold?
[00:15:32] Ray Latif: Oh nice. As you might expect, the ingredients are not very noshy.
[00:15:36] Mike Schneider: I love Katy Perry.
[00:15:37] Ray Latif: But this is the kind of product that I think, frankly, Americans want. Can natural brands deliver the taste this might offer? I'm not sure. I'm going to open this up. I don't know if they needed to improve. You guys know you want to taste this.
[00:15:53] John Craven: No, no. Really? I think we need Joe to edit in a warning before you start talking about that product. Joe, our audio engineer. Just about unsafe content ahead. And that Ray may have like fallen off a cliff and hurt his head.
[00:16:09] Ray Latif: What's going on? They're very flaming. They're very flaming hot. Does it cool at the end? No, unfortunately, I'm not getting a lot of the cool. You're getting, I think, brief, brief hints of the cool ranch, of the ranch, that is. But these are very, very spicy. I'm not a huge spice guy anymore. So I'll bring those to the office, maybe. Please don't. Moving on to something that is much healthier for you, sorry Doritos, is a brand called Like Air. Like Air is incredible. They market themselves as better than popcorn, but essentially they taste like popcorn and puffs combined. But it's a pancake flavor? This one is their newest flavor. This is their pancake flavor, which is outrageously delicious. I don't know what else to say about it. It's a huge hit in my household. People can't get enough of this stuff. It's so good. So Like Air, they call it baked puffcorn. Puffcorns, I said, yeah, the cross between puffs and popcorn. Non-GMO, nothing artificial, gluten-free, 50 calories per cup. They melt in your mouth. Is it like corn pops, Ray? I mean, like the cereal? No, those are much tougher. These are like puffs, but they almost taste Like Air popcorn puff. I don't know how else I'd describe it. It's a popcorn. Okay. So they have this pancake flavor, which is so delicious. It really does taste like pancakes. They have a white cheddar variety.
[00:17:39] Mike Schneider: I hope so. Okay.
[00:17:42] Ray Latif: Wait, Ray, does that one taste like white cheddar? You know I have editing power, Mike, so I don't know why.
[00:17:49] Mike Schneider: I know, I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna have like two sentences on this podcast.
[00:17:54] Ray Latif: And the last flavor is butter and salt, and yes, it tastes like butter and salt. Anyway, amazing stuff. Like Air, thank you so much for sending this product. You've made my week much happier. And they are going to send product to the office, or their team told me they're gonna send product to the office, not just in Newton, but to San Diego as well, Jackie. Yes. Yes. Thank you.
[00:18:16] John Craven: How about some rind?
[00:18:17] Ray Latif: Oh, rind.
[00:18:18] John Craven: There you go. I'm not going to lie. I took this bag out of my garbage can because I kind of garbage smelt the whole bag of these things.
[00:18:25] Ray Latif: So for folks not watching the video, John pulled out a bag of rind apple chips. These are the crispy rind products, and it sounds like they're And Big hit in your office.
[00:18:35] John Craven: Well, literally your office. In my literal office, because I took a page out of your playbook and didn't share. But yeah, no, I really like the rind chips. Like that seems like just so perfect to me. So can't eat enough of those things.
[00:18:47] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Me neither. That's how the restraining order happened, because I was doing that at trade shows, just like garbage mouthing their whole booth. I need a restraining order.
[00:18:55] John Craven: Yeah, yeah. Fly By Jing. I mean, geez. Between the soup dumplings, I highly recommend. I've ordered those. The xiaolongbao, yeah. All those. Those are incredible. And the, I don't know. I mean, I know I feel like the Sichuan chili crisp. It's Like Air don't know. It's just Like Air staple for me now. Put it on everything.
[00:19:18] Mike Schneider: Everything. I had the Jong sauce last night on some tofu and dumplings and some Chinese broccoli. It's ridiculous. I mean, just it's Like Air game changer.
[00:19:29] Ray Latif: So three brands. I think we mentioned every show. We already mentioned that. Liquid Death, Rind, and Fly-by-Jade. There we go. We haven't mentioned recess yet. I haven't mentioned recess, but we do mention recess quite often. Speaking of Dry January, this is their product specifically designed for Dry January, right?
[00:19:47] Mike Schneider: Specifically designed for Dry January. This is their zero proof margarita. It's hemp and adaptogen infused. Says sparkling mocktail with lime and agave. Calm, cool, collected. I think it pays off. It's really tasty. I've been drinking it for the whole show.
[00:20:04] John Craven: Yeah, I've got another new product, one that we haven't mentioned before, which is the Kimbala Chai. Nice. It's a startup brand right now made to order in Austin, Texas and doing DTC of both ready-to-drink chai as well as some chai concentrate. We've been doing extensive chai latte testing over here at the office. Yeah. And it is good. Super recommend.
[00:20:34] Mike Schneider: Highly successful testing over here. They also make a turmeric golden milk concentrate. They've got the golden milk concentrate, the chai concentrate. We've made dirty chai lattes, we've made chai lattes, and we've made golden milk lattes. It performs really well because it's not a powder, it's already mixed. You're not getting that graininess that you're going to get when you mix. you can mix all day long before you can get the turmeric to blend properly.
[00:21:06] John Craven: But this stuff is good. We also, of course, because we're mandated, mix a little fly-by-jing and some rind chips in too. That was not so good.
[00:21:19] Ray Latif: We're not getting a check, folks. Just believe that.
[00:21:23] John Craven: I don't even think we get free product. I don't know. You know, that's fine. Happy to, happy to support the, uh, well, at least the brands that we can acquire around here.
[00:21:32] Ray Latif: So true, true enough. Is anyone doing Dry January? I know you mentioned the recess product, but, uh, is anyone actually doing it? I'm trying Jack, Jackie, you're doing it.
[00:21:41] Mike Schneider: I mean, I have, I didn't, didn't do it on purpose, but I am doing it. I'm doing Dry January.
[00:21:49] Ray Latif: More on that in a second. Jackie, you said you were doing Dry January.
[00:21:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I would call it cannabis January for me. January.
[00:21:57] Ray Latif: January. Nice. Oh, wow. Is that trademarked yet?
[00:22:01] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't think so. So I actually hit up my local dispensary and tried Wonder for the first time. So it's W-U-N-D-E-R. I don't have the product because I crushed it over the weekend. They have a line of sessionable cannabis infused tonics. So similar to, you know, can you kind of build your high as you go? So I really enjoyed those. I think they have a new flavor called Blackberry Lemon that's hitting California. So enjoyed that product. They also have these. This is a fall edition, but I'm still working my way through. I'm a lightweight pumpkin spice orbit. It's by Moon Intergalactic Milligrimage, and they have a line of edibles. and these are chocolates.
[00:22:46] Mike Schneider: Careful of those.
[00:22:46] Jacqui Brugliera: I have, I know, I've only made it through like halfway And Big got these in Halloween, so slow, slow and steady.
[00:22:54] Mike Schneider: Slow and steady for sure.
[00:22:55] Ray Latif: Yeah, I know, I know a couple folks that are doing the California Sober or California Dry January, uh, which is, I think is a great word. If we, if it's not pretty hard, you got to get that ASAP.
[00:23:08] Mike Schneider: Or Dry January.
[00:23:09] Ray Latif: Yeah. I'm not doing Dry January, but I do have a bottle of this brand, which is called Strike, S-T-R-Y-K-K. If you're watching the video, it comes in this sort of squat-ish clear glass bottle. It tastes great. I wouldn't necessarily tell someone that they can do a one-to-one replacement between this product and gin. And Big think that's because the burn on this, you can definitely tell, comes from a botanical, Like Air don't know, cinnamon? It's got this sort of cinnamon vibe going versus the burn you would get from the alcohol of the gin itself. And Big think that's that's one of the challenges for a lot of these non-alcoholic experiences. How do you replicate the burn, so to speak?
[00:24:01] John Craven: Definitely. I think that's clearly the hardest part. And a lot of those brands are doing a pretty good job at replicating the bitter and things like Genshin flavor. But the burn, yeah, I mean, that's clearly like the Holy Grail of NA spirits. But either way, those products are just coming a long way and innovating quickly, which is awesome.
[00:24:26] Mike Schneider: You've either got to have the burn or you have to just be ridiculously interesting, Like Air Everleaf. That stuff, still my gold standard.
[00:24:37] Ray Latif: Yeah, actually, I was speaking with Carlton Fowler from Goat Rodeo Capital, who will be appearing in a future episode of Taste Radio, and he was talking about how there are brands out there that are removing the alcohol from spirits, and what an expensive process that is, especially for aged spirits. But it seems like there's a growing market for this and people want the products to taste like booze if not have booze or I guess in essence be booze.
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[00:25:56] Ray Latif: Speaking of recent guests of the podcast, this past week we featured an interview with Annie Ryu, who is the founder and CEO of two brands. One is called Jack and Annie's, the other one's called The Jackfruit Company. She runs the world's largest supply chain for jackfruit, which if you're not unfamiliar, is a fruit whose texture resembles that of meat, has a sinuous type of texture, and can be used as a meat replacement for a lot of plant-based meals. They sent me some product or their team sent me some product. Jack and Annie's breakfast sausage links, which we talked about in the interview. I feel like about one to one replacements. This is pretty darn close, if not exactly what you're looking for. Breakfast sausages, which I really do like, but I haven't eaten in a while because of the obvious reasons not to. Jackie, have you tried these?
[00:26:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I'm actually And Big fan of Jack and Annie's. They're fully stocked, their entire lines and my local sprouts. So I've been working my way through every SKU And Big would say the taste of their products is pretty on point.
[00:26:56] Ray Latif: Yeah, I think it's telling of how well this brand has done in terms of replicating the flavors of familiar meat-based products and also the versatility of jackfruit. I mean, they make a meatball alternative, they make a sausage alternative, they make chicken alternative. I don't think you can say that about many types of fruits and vegetables. So yeah, I'm pretty much sold on jackfruit at this point. So well done, folks.
[00:27:22] Jacqui Brugliera: With Jack and Annie's, I think the key ingredient of jackfruit is really gonna resonate with consumers who have a lot of options as far as plant-based meats for our flexitarians, vegans, vegetarians. And when you look at the ingredient lists, there's a wide variety of ingredients in some of these products. And Big think having one key ingredient like jackfruit is going to really translate to the consumer and bode well for a clean ingredient list.
[00:27:50] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Well, once again, thanks so much to Annie Ryu for joining us on Taste Radio and for sending some wonderful products. I can't wait to try all of them. Okay, so we've established that some folks on the team are doing Dry January, others are doing canuary, and others are doing drenched January, John Craven, but I'm sticking with my tried and true moderation January, which means I'll imbibe here and there. as long as the libations are worth the sip. Lucky for me, I have a few products that very much fits the bill, so to speak. One is literally an incredible product from Waterford Whisky, which is an Irish distillery that describes itself as, quote, unashamedly influenced by the world's greatest winemakers, obsessively bringing the same intellectual drive, methodology, and rigor to barley, the very source of malt whiskey's complex flavor. Waterford Whisky a new offering made from biodynamic Irish barley, and aptly named the Biodynamic Luna. Luna is part of the distillery's Arcadian series, which according to the distillery, quote, showcases the flavors produced by forgotten ways of farming in rare barley varieties. Biodynamic farming, for those who may not be familiar, is pretty similar to organic farming, but it also incorporates a few esoteric, some might say eccentric elements that emphasize spirituality and mysticism. If you might recall, if you are familiar with biodynamic farming, you do things like bury crystal in the field where you grow said crops. It's pretty interesting stuff. Just from the standpoint of how it was created, Luna is pretty amazing. The liquid itself is even more special. Earlier, we talked about the infusion of spice in a non-alcoholic spirit. but The Softest of pepper and citrus along with the heat in Luna is pretty fantastic. You should definitely get yourself a bottle if you can get your hands on one. Going from across the pond to stateside here in America, I'm pretty darn impressed with Great Jones Distilling, which describes itself as Manhattan's first and only legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition. Great Jones is located in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood, that's short for North of Houston Street, and opened its doors last summer. The distillery looks insanely beautiful. I've only seen photos, but I need to make a trip out there really soon. When they were building the facility, apparently they also found a secret tunnel under the building that is believed to have once been used to transport whiskey and other spirits under the streets of New York. Inside the 28,000-square-foot space, which is outfitted with a custom-built still and features a restaurant, speakeasy, and event venue, Great Jones makes three whiskeys, a straight bourbon, a four-grain bourbon, and a rye whiskey. All the whiskeys are made from 100% New York-sourced grain and had been aging for the past five years in new charred American oak barrels in upstate New York in preparation for the distillery's opening. The custom bottles have a ribbed lining along the shoulder and sides of the package and pretty classy Art Deco-inspired labels. How do the whiskeys taste? They're quite impressive. I could be wrong, but I guess it's relatively challenging to produce whiskey from grain sourced from New York. There's a couple brands I can think of besides Great Jones that do it, but the straight bourbon is great and quite versatile, neat, mixed. I was pretty pleased in both cases. I'd say the same thing about the rye. and give the highest marks to the four grain bourbon, which for me is that Friday night armchair, rocks, glass, oaky bourbon that I feel like having right now. Except it's not Friday. Yet. All right, on that note, thanks so much for listening to this episode of Taste Radio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askattasteradio.com. On behalf of our amazing team at BevNET, Not Your Taste Radio, I'm Ray Latif, and we'll talk to you next time.
