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[00:00:52] Ray Latif: Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're tuned in to Taste Radio, the leading podcast for entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators in the food and beverage industry. She helped redefine premium soda. Now she's rethinking the martini. In this episode, Sharelle Klaus shares how the lessons, missteps, and successes of building dry soda informed the launch of Sharelle Klaus, a lower-proof gin brand designed for today's intentional drinker. Sharelle reflects on how her second act is more focused and collaborative, shaped by patience, humility, and a deeper understanding of distribution strategy, brand clarity, and long-term scale. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm supremely honored to be sitting down with the great Sharelle Klaus, who is the co-founder of Sharelle Klaus. Sharelle, it's great to see you.
[00:01:55] Sharelle Klaus: Hey, Ray. It's so good to see you as always.
[00:01:58] Ray Latif: Absolutely. We don't see enough of each other lately. The last time we sat down and had a drink was about six months ago.
[00:02:05] Sharelle Klaus: Yes, it was.
[00:02:05] Ray Latif: In a bar called Overstory, if I'm not recalling. Yes, Overstory, yep. Yes, in New York City. And part of it was to celebrate the launch of your brand, your newest brand, Sharelle Klaus. Exactly. Yes.
[00:02:18] Sharelle Klaus: It was a beautiful party and we loved having you there. So thank you for coming.
[00:02:22] Ray Latif: Yes. Thank you so much for inviting me. As I mentioned, you and I have known each other for some time. You are also the founder of an amazing brand called Dry Soda. which people recall was one of the first premium soda brands on the market. Sharelle Klaus is a gin. It is a lower proof gin than is typically on the market. This is 20% alcohol by volume. Most gins on the market are about 40% alcohol by volume. And it definitely feels like a sophisticated option. I'll be at a lower ABV at a lower ABV. And I don't even know why I say I'll be it because sophistication isn't necessarily specific to a particular proof as we've seen with a brand like Dry Soda. And I think throughout your journey as a beverage entrepreneur, you've really understood what that term means and what premium means.
[00:03:16] Sharelle Klaus: Well, I think first and foremost, it's what's in the bottle. It's how does it taste right? And dry became very popular early on because we had really unique and elevated flavors, right? We had a lavender, a lemongrass, those weren't flavors people saw. And it tasted really good and it tasted very different from anything else. It was, you know, much less sweet. So it had this more sophisticated. And then from a marketing standpoint, we started out in high-end. Restaurants, right? We were served in champagne flutes. So I understood the value of a drinking occasion and that ritual. So ritual is really important in my mind in any drinking occasion. I'm a total foodie, but a beverage is just an important part of that. So with Sharelle Klaus, what came about is this idea that I wanted to create a gin that I could have in a martini, which to me is the ultimate sophisticated drink, right? And there's no place to hide in a martini, like your base spirit better be really, really good if it's going into a martini. And to me, martinis, the height of sophistication and but I didn't know if it could be done because perfectly honestly, I drink martinis and I can't have as many as I used to and still do my 8am yoga class or continue my night as long as I wanted to. But I just didn't know if that could be done. But I knew that I would only create this if it was good enough to be in a martini. And not just that I thought it was good enough to be in a martini, but that it was the top mixologist around the world would think it was good enough to be in a martini. So that's how the idea came about was that same idea of how people are drinking the ritual behind it. And could we replicate that for someone but give them Because I always, it's all about more experiences and more options, right? That like our mantra with The Dry was social drinking for everyone. And that's continued, that thread of my sort of goal in life has continued with Sharelle Klaus.
[00:05:06] Ray Latif: In the broader sense, you know, is this part of a trend? Is this just something you felt was going to click with a lot of people or how do you evaluate that opportunity?
[00:05:17] Sharelle Klaus: So I've learned a ton of lessons with dry and I knew that I wanted to apply those. And for me, there was, it was a few things. That's my own personal experience, right? Of, I know I'm not the only one that feels this. And it's my experience with these consumers with dry. Like, you know, we, I wrote the guide to zero proof cocktails during COVID and I got to know the consumers even better during that time. I really, obviously 21 years of dealing with consumers and their drinking habits and how they're drinking and where they're drinking. But that opportunity also opened me up to all these zero-proof spirits as well. And for me, the zero-proof spirits just didn't hit. It was a less than. It was like an Entenmann's cake. It was always going to be less than. It wasn't going to be the full experience. And I'm not really interested in anything that doesn't give me... I don't want to give up anything. So that was one piece. As I started thinking through this, the other piece is, and I think any beverage entrepreneur out there listening to this can appreciate this. It's also not just about the retailer or the bar or restaurant and what they need. It's about your distributor. What does your distributor need? Because route to market. is obviously the most challenging part of any beverage experience. I think you could talk to any beverage entrepreneur and they all have their challenges with that. So I was like, what is an issue that the distributors are dealing with right now? And it is alcohol sales are softening, right? And they're not, I think, seeing the repeat buy of the non-alcoholic spirits the way they wanted. Those weren't quite performing in our interviews with both salespeople and the upper echelon, the CEOs, not the CEOs, but the executives of the distributors that they, the promise wasn't there for the zero proof spirits, but they do need, they need increased drinking occasions and they need people drinking increased drinks, more cocktails. So what better option than to bring back the three martini lunch? so to speak, right? That's a new occasion there. And now instead of zebra striping, people can have a cocktail and then they have to go to like a soda water. Now they can actually have two or three martinis and have that base spirit and drink more. And so now you're solving the problem for the bars, the restaurants, and you're solving the problem for the distributor. And like, so super interestingly, we just launched with Southern Wine and Spirits in New York and January is usually their slowest month, right? Here we are talking about a dry-ish January and this opportunity to really create real volume in January for them. And they're so excited about that and that innovation. So those are the three sort of prongs of how I looked at this. Is the consumer going to want to buy it? Are the bars and restaurants going to want to buy it? And am I solving this problem for the distributors and are they going to get behind it? Because if a distributor is not going to get behind it and you're not solving a problem for them, it's tough to get their attention. So I felt like we had all three of those things.
[00:08:19] Ray Latif: It feels like there's a lot of parallels between what you're doing with dry soda and what you're doing with Sharelle Klaus in that. There were people who kind of gave up on soda because it was high calorie, high sugar. It had ingredients that people didn't want, whether there was the, you know, full strength, so to speak, or the diet versions. There were ingredients that people just wanted to stay away from. And then we saw brands like Dry Soda come to market. We saw, you know, these new, better for you, functional sodas come to market and people came back to the category or people were more inclined to say, yes, I will have this type of soda or that type of soda. It also introduced soda to a whole new generation of consumers that said, this is for me. This is a brand that represents me and my values and my culture. So I think there are two things that you could be targeting with Sharelle Klaus. One is bringing people back to drinking, bringing people back to gin. And two, bringing new consumers to the category saying, well, you're not going to have a rough day tomorrow because you're only drinking half the alcohol that you normally consume in a martini. But which is the bigger audience? Where do you see the most opportunity between those two types of consumers?
[00:09:36] Sharelle Klaus: That's a good question. The consumer on premise in the bars that we're in in New York, because we're in most of the top bars in New York, they're there for the cocktail experience. And so they're probably having more now. However, our D to C business is all of a sudden just kind of gone uphill. We've had a couple of press pieces and I've been communicating with some of those consumers and they are actively seeking out options for themselves to be more intentional with their drinking. And interestingly, I got an email today from a customer who she came to Sharelle Klaus because she tried all the zero proof gins. And I was fascinated by that because to be honest, I never assumed that somebody that was going for a zero proof spirit would come to a low proof. I thought if you're going zero proof, that just means you don't want any alcohol at all. So that sort of opened my eyes. I was like, oh, Okay, it's good to know that that's there's a spectrum for people and I knew there was a spectrum. I just sort of assumed if you were going to your spirits, you were fully out. So, I think that's yet to be seen Ray. Like, that's what the whole point of this is. And our focus in New York, we're just now launching in Miami is to really focus on this consumer and understand. How they want to use this and what's going to make sense for them. I'm seeing how it makes sense for the bars. I'm seeing how it's making sense for our distributors. And now we're learning from our consumers. The other thing I wanted to point out that we haven't quite talked about yet, but that I think is super critical. is credibility in this spirit space. So like I said, I came up with the concept, but can that even be done? And who am I from this, you know, woman from NA to come in and try to build something here? So that's why I partnered up with Leo Robitschek, who was a friend of mine that I met actually doing a A visit for Seattle commercial like years ago that they put us together and Leo is royalty in the industry. And, you know, he, he created the 1st Michelin starred cocktail program at 11 Madison Park and has trained. I'd like to say, like, 30% of the top bartenders in London and New York right now numbers probably a little high, but it seems like that. Everywhere we go, they're around. And then from him, we brought in Nick Strangeway, who is just a master distiller out of the UK, who has created gins for Beefeater and Absolute and his own brand, Hepples. And it was the credibility of those three and the fact that Nick, we all came together and said, we want to do this, but if it doesn't work, we're not going to launch it. Like, is it good enough to be in a martini? And we took it to the 15 top mixologist in New York and the 15 in London, and we had them try it and give us their feedback. And we got a resounding yes. And these are like martini masters, right? Like, these are the real deal. And that's when we knew we had it. And without that piece, I just, I think the idea is great. And all of those other pieces I had are great, but that's one of the reasons why Southern believed in us too, right? They saw we're in, within a few months of launch, we were in most of the top 50, like in the world's best bars, we were in in New York and London menus and getting this like repeat velocities and this repeat by, and it's because of that. So that, that is kind of the final linchpin of how this worked. and why it works is because it's really good and it tastes good and we worked really hard to get it there.
[00:13:00] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, industry credibility is really important. At the end of the day, the people that are really going to judge your brand are the people drinking it most often. The bartenders will put you on the menu. The bar managers will help you get there. The distributors will help you get on shelves at liquor stores, but taste is king. It always has been. How much of your experience with understanding how people perceive taste at Dry Soda informed you about the way to approach flavor and proof for Sharelle Klaus.
[00:13:36] Sharelle Klaus: So in this situation, I know what I don't know. I knew what my favorite gins were. They're a London Dry Style gin. Those are all my favorites. And Nick and Leo and I all sort of gave our list of our favorite gins of what we like, but I left it to those two. I said, here's what I know is that it has to deliver. And they know that. These guys are incredible at what they do and have incredible experience. And so this is an area where I'm like, I don't have to tell them that they knew that. And it was more like, they were concerned I was going to push them in a certain like, oh, it's good enough. Let's just, and I'm like, no, because I know how important that part is. But more importantly, they know it. And it's their names, their names are literally on that bottle. So they wanted to make sure it was, it was really good. So we had an idea that it was definitely going to be a gin forward. So Lend and Dry is definitely more gin forward. And how we got there is, was very complex and complicated. and not easy, but we did it just with that. It was all about the martini. And it's interesting because it works amazingly well in a martini. Negronis and gin and tonics are awesome, but it was about that martini. So it only informed in the fact that I knew, like when we brought Nick in, I said to Leo, I'm like, does he have the chops to really create this? And he's like, of course, this is the guy. And the fact that we all agreed, if it doesn't work, we go our separate ways. Which, you know, it's not easy for an entrepreneur like myself, but so I just, I mean, I, I had very little to do with that piece of it. Cause I had to let them go. I will say the interesting thing that we told Nick was because he went into this lab in London and worked on it. And then we took it to an upstate distiller in New York and did a small batch and then scaled it up in New York, uh, New York distilling. But I didn't give him any sort of. Cogs like there was no parameters and there was no parameters on the ABV. I said, just go see what you can make. And we got really lucky that it came in at half because that was sort of what I was hoping for, but it was like taste first. Taste before ABV, taste before cost.
[00:15:40] Ray Latif: Did you feel like you were much more prepared for the launch of Sharelle Klaus than you were when you launched Dry Soda? Did you feel like you had as much information and you did as much research and as much product testing and market testing for Sharelle Klaus as you did when you launched Dry Soda? And did it matter?
[00:16:01] Sharelle Klaus: Yes, I cannot tell you how much fun it is to do this brand after everything I've learned. It's unbelievable. It's just been a night and day difference. So yeah, I was very intentional about the launch, how we launched, where we launched, and everything from that point on, like how we're scaling, which distributor we went with. That distributor conversation was fascinating because I had this concept, right, that I'm answering a problem for a distributor. But what I didn't know was, are they going to get that? And after we launched, we were able to self-distribute through Park Street, which is a, we had time to get a little momentum, but it was interesting. We had five of the top distributors coming to us and vying for us. And with Dry, I practically had to sell my oldest child to get that going. Like it was unbelievably hard to get a distributor with Dry. And here. We had, you know, we had them all coming to us and we, that was a. Fully new and really cool experience. I mean, I can't tell you how cool that part was, but yes. So I feel like it's not just the launch, but like everything that's gone into this and timing and patience. So we have, you and I talked about this just before this started about what I got called by my earlier distributors at dry. Yeah. And it wasn't a pleasant name, but it was around relentless and something else along those lines. And it's because I pushed so hard. I was pushing, pushing, pushing ahead expectations. But this time I come into distributors understanding their pain points and how do we help solve those so that together we can build this. So I'm quite confident I'm not getting called out anymore. And they were very lovely at our GSM.
[00:17:45] Ray Latif: What Sharelle is referring to is the last time we sat down for an episode of Taste Radio, which was almost, well, the episode was published almost eight years ago to the day. And the first line in the copy is, distributors called her a, quote, relentless bee. Everyone knows what the bee word here is. But Sharelle Klaus paid little mind to their insecurities. She was too busy building a business. One of the things you've noted a number of times in this current conversation of ours is that Leo and Nick have been integral to the development, the creation and development of this brand. If I'm not mistaken, Dry Soda, you were running things solo. You were a solo entrepreneur, solo founder. If you had to go back and do it all over again, Would you have launched with a co-founder? How much does the co-founder matter in what you're doing now and all the time you're running, the two plus decades you were running Dry Soda?
[00:18:44] Sharelle Klaus: That's funny you ask that. No one's asked me that question before. I don't think so. I enjoyed being there on my own and figuring this out, but that being said, I also had a lot of really brilliant people around me that I, that was one thing I brought in. I had great board members. I had great team members, advisors. So I just love that experience with dry and it just brought so much. It is interesting. However, I think this is super funny. I launched Sharelle Klaus. And two weeks later, I got married. And so I had been single most of my time with Dry and didn't have a partner. And then all of a sudden, now I have a business partner. So I fully embrace that concept in this last year. But I really enjoy having a business partner now. Leo is quite a bit more involved than Nick is as well, but Leo and I, we talk a lot because he's very, very involved, like day-to-day type stuff. And especially in this business, I have so much respect for this industry and I have so much respect for what I don't know. And I will say from this perspective, the learning curve is much, much quicker now. Like with Dry, there was, I had to find out all of this stuff on my own and there wasn't someone to tell me. I was also, in my early 30s when I started dry and I thought I knew everything whereas I am a much wiser older woman now and understand the value of of being able to have people help you with those answers a little easier.
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[00:21:26] Ray Latif: I mean, I've, I've asked the question about solo founders to a lot of entrepreneurs who have launched their businesses by themselves. And it's about 50, 50. The response is sometimes they'll say, you know, I, I wanted to run the show on my own. And then the other half of the time, the folks are saying, Oh, it would have been so much easier and so much more helpful to have someone by my side. There's a loneliness that a lot of people mention when they talk about entrepreneurship. And I think. If it were me, I would love to have someone advise me, but I think I'd want to run the show on my own. At the same time, if I didn't really know how to run a business, it would be nice to have someone who could just run the day to day. And that comes up a lot. There's some entrepreneurs that I just spoke with a couple of days ago. They were like, Hey, Ray, do you know anyone that could just run our business for us?
[00:22:15] Sharelle Klaus: Oh, that's funny. Well, I will say that to be fair, I would love to give a shout out to David Clark, who runs our operations for us and who was with me at Drive for years and is now running operations at Sharelle Klaus, that he's been a really integral part to this whole thing. And so I do feel like in some aspects, he was a partner, even though obviously, he's not necessarily like a co-founder. Having him by my side through all of this has also been really helpful and he's just as excited as I am by the whole thing. So it's, it's, it's kind of, yeah, how you surround yourself with people and, but yeah, I mean, I do like being the boss, I think.
[00:22:57] Ray Latif: Being able to focus on sales and marketing and promotion of the brand and partnerships and so on and so forth feels like your wheelhouse and doing that in an industry where you're not as well known as you had been in, in NA could be a little scary, but what's been your approach, what's been most effective for your pitch? How do you get people interested almost from the get-go? Is it from the liquid? Is it the branding? Is it the opportunity? What's really getting people excited and out of their seats?
[00:23:28] Sharelle Klaus: Well, yeah, so we're in the midst of actually raising a round right now. So it's been, I'm one of those weird people that really likes to raise money because it causes you to get so focused on the value of your company and what you're doing and be able to articulate that. And you also then see, oh, where maybe are we, we don't need to be focused on that or whatever. So I find those, I find conversations with potential investors to be some of the most valuable conversations I have. And I think really what is resonating right now is both, well, I have to, I'm sorry, I'm gonna say three things. One is the taste, right? Is that it works, like this product actually tastes good. I think it's the momentum. It's really hard to deny how quickly we've grown and scaled in New York. And like I said, in these top influential, impossible, you know, bars to get into that, that really then help that halo then really helps grow it the rest of the way. And, and then I think it's, it's the timing, right? The timing is right. It's the customers are buying it. The repeat is there. It's. It's I guess it's the momentum, right? Like, it's just the momentum is here and I'm seeing it. So when we talked about the importance of operations, it's why David is critical to this company right now, because of, I mean, we're talking, this thing is scaling faster than I expected. And so like, you know, we're already having like, distribute, you've got to be ordering more, you got to be ordering more. So I'm not going to be a relentless bitch and asking them to order more, but like just getting them on the right cadence of getting that done. But it's, it's making sure that we are set up to be able to grow this thing as quickly as it's beginning to happen. So I think that's it. And I think it's because also every everybody gets it as soon as They think, oh, I do want two martinis, but then I can't have wine with dinner or whatever it is, right? Like, it's just such a universal tension that we all feel. And when people get that, yeah, it just kind of opens the doors.
[00:25:27] Ray Latif: Do you see Sharelle Klaus as a lifestyle brand as much as it is, you know, an alcohol brand or a low ABV alcohol brand? Is this the gin, I think, that people... We'll say, this is the gin I have in my house. Or is this for, you know, specific occasion type of gin? To me, lifestyle would mean that this is my gin. This is the one I always go to versus, you know, occasion based gin.
[00:25:52] Sharelle Klaus: Thank you for answer. I was actually going to ask you. So tell me what you mean by lifestyle. So, yes, I think that's the perfect question because, yes, this becomes my gin. Sharelle Klaus is my gin. That was why I said we are a gin company first. So there are a couple of other brands out there that are low proof, but they're like doing they're doing all of it. They're doing tequila. They're doing, you know. the brown spirits and all of that stuff. And that is not something we're interested in doing. We're not trying to be the poster children necessarily for low ABV where like we are a gin company. And that is something I have said from the beginning to every single person on our team and repeatedly over and over again to our social media, to our press people, we are a gin company and we're just a gin company that you can drink twice as much of. So yes, the lifestyle, this becomes Sharelle Klaus becomes your gin. To me, that's how you create a new category is that you be that thing for them. And you're not, you're not the special occasion. You're not the, just when I don't want to drink as much, this is, it's good enough to be your gin, your everyday gin. And that was not easy to get to and not, you know, I don't think we're seeing that in any other brands out there in the market right now.
[00:26:59] Ray Latif: So how long was this in development? Sharelle Klaus that is.
[00:27:03] Sharelle Klaus: Yeah. It took us like a year to get it all done. And that's because I'm very pushy.
[00:27:10] Ray Latif: Sure, throughout this conversation, I feel like there's one word that has sort of been the through line for everything that you've mentioned, which is focus. You're focused on being a gin company, first and foremost. You're focused on the New York market. You're focused on being great tasting. You're focused on that on-premise opportunity and making the bar the front lines for your brand. I would think a lot of that learning, a lot of that emphasis on focus came from your experience building Dry Soda, where frankly, I think there were times when I saw Dry Soda maybe lose focus. And it was easy to because there were just so many, so many places you could go. There were so many trends that might affect how people would perceive the brand or drink the beverages. Is that the case?
[00:28:01] Sharelle Klaus: Absolutely. For sure. Like with Dry, again, that's sort of your, your first time entrepreneur, right? That's some of the different pieces. And, and just what's crazy is that I started that brand to be an elevated experience for people when they weren't drinking alcohol. Right. And we very, because we had like a third of the sugar of a regular, a quarter of the sugar of a regular soda and all that stuff. We became a better for you soda and that's when our sales really took off. We experienced such high growth. But that wasn't why I started the brand and we wanted to kind of get back to that because then we started like we wanted to zero sugar. We were trying to chase all these different things. So yeah, I mean, yeah, and that's painful to go through. I think it's almost impossible not to go through for a first time entrepreneur. So I stopped beating myself up about that because it didn't take a few years of like, You know, you can be hard on yourself, but it was one of those really critical lessons and now bringing it in into here, who are we, what are we and what problem are we solving and sticking to that. And so like, interestingly, just a few weeks after we launched, Leo came and was like, we're getting so many requests for an RTD, you know, cause we have, we do give to the press these like ready to drink freezer martinis and Negronis and they're amazing. And I was like, I'm like, great idea. No, like, no. And here's why. And we will know when the time is right to start it. But like, we are a gin company, and this is the problem we are solving. And we're going to solve it this way. And we're gonna now that doesn't mean that I'm not open to sort of seeing these other pieces out there for interesting, like, I didn't think DTC could be big for us. But maybe it can't be because now I'm realizing that people are searching for this kind of thing and our sales are not what I, I mean, they've went super high up really fast. So. I have to be open-minded, but focused on what we are and understand if I'm going to open up these other opportunities. Like I said, now we've got to like retail. I mean, we were in retail in New York, but now chain retail, right? Like that we are going to start to open up that we're still going to stay focused and make sure we're not going nationwide with anybody tomorrow. Let me put it that way. I can assure you of that because I want to make sure that we have that consumer messaging. They understand it. And I can answer some of those questions you're answering, right? Like, is there going to be a lot of education needed and how is that going to look? So, and I don't have all those answers yet.
[00:30:26] Ray Latif: All you have to do is get John Hamm to be your spokesperson and be like, I'm back to drinking three martinis a day for lunch.
[00:30:33] Sharelle Klaus: Do you know him? Can you help me out there?
[00:30:36] Ray Latif: I wish I could say yes, but the answer is no.
[00:30:41] Sharelle Klaus: Yes, I know. We need a little Mad Men here.
[00:30:44] Ray Latif: Yeah. I mean, I think it would be a natural. Well, you know, it also, I guess that brings up a good question. You know, who is this for? Because people know Jon Hamm for Mad Men. People know him for other things as well. But Jon Hamm is, I don't know. 50, something like that. I want to say he's probably 50 years old. Have you identified a particular demographic or age group that you want to tackle that you think is the right consumer for a Sharelle Klaus?
[00:31:08] Sharelle Klaus: So sort of, yes. I mean, yes, we're definitely, you know, we're in the urban areas. We're in New York, Miami right now. We're also a woman and queer owned brand. So that brings its sort of own like focus on certain areas. For instance, we're very much focused all of our Our sort of charity or give back type stuff will definitely be towards the LGBTQ group. But from a interestingly, I right now, I think we're it's we're looking probably more millennial right now, because we're in New York City, we're in those bars, but the consumers that are starting to buy online, those are varying. And I think Gen Z. is a very intentional drinker, and we do understand that they do still drink, that they are drinking, they're just drinking differently. So I think we're very open to that target consumer first, but I think right now it's cocktail culture. We're definitely in that we are, that's the national sort of first group are these cocktail enthusiasts and people that are going to these you know well-known bars and establishments so right now that's what it is but I never love that question in any of my stuff because it's like yes we do but it's also like you're you it's always a little challenging to because you're not trying to to eliminate anybody but yes there is a focus probably right now on you know a little higher income and it's more psychographics versus demographics I think
[00:32:35] Ray Latif: I ask because it might help you refine your communication, your pitch. It would depend on what bar you want to approach, what retailer. So I saw, I think you're sold at Ray's Bar, which is a dive bar in New York City or divey-ish.
[00:32:49] Sharelle Klaus: It's a hip, brave spot.
[00:32:49] Ray Latif: It's a hip, brave spot. dive bar. It was built as a dive bar. So maybe that will inform our listeners about what kind of dive bar it is. And you're also sold at Overstory, which is just spectacular.
[00:33:02] Sharelle Klaus: I think the 11th best bar in the world or something just got coded. Yeah. And I do think there's a slight juxtaposition that I also just generally love, which is we do not want to be too precious, which to be honest, happened a little bit with Dry, right? And we also have these two founders. So, you know, Leo is, He's, I call him aspirational. He's, you know, kind of perfectionist, like bartender, everything's super tidy and neat. And he's amazing. And then we have Nick, who I call the Gandalf of gin. I don't know if you see this picture. He's got the long beard and he's like the coolest guy was like, ran the Groucho club in London. And like, this just knows all the super cool hip people. So there's sort of like, I sort of like dive bar versus over story. It's kind of like, you know, or Long Island bar or whatever. It's kind of like those two guys also bring this really cool I think tension and juxtaposition to the brand itself.
[00:33:50] Ray Latif: Well, Cheryl, I think that no matter what brand or what company you decided to get into, Post Drive Soda, I think you were going to come to the table with a lot of intentionality, a lot of passion, and a lot of excitement for a space that needs a shot in the arm. And I think it all comes together in Sharelle Klaus. This is a very intentional brand at a time when people are looking for products like this. So I am thoroughly thrilled to see where this goes from here. And somehow I think we're going to be talking again in the near future. We'll probably see you on BevNET Live before much time passes. So thank you so much for taking the time right now to sit down with me. I know our audience is going to get a lot out of this conversation.
[00:34:34] Sharelle Klaus: Thanks so much, Ray. You know how much I love you guys at BevNET and all your support over the years. So thank you.
[00:34:40] Ray Latif: Thanks again. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. 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. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time.
[00:35:34] Sharelle Klaus: you
