Back in November, I was invited to take part in an entrepreneur-centric event in my city called STL Startup Week.

I knew I’d talk about how I ended up running a cocktail business and what all that entails, but it also felt important to cover how hard and emotionally draining it is. To that end, I felt it was important to talk about the “fuel” I’ve found that sustains me when the going gets tough.

When we start a business, I think it’s also important to ask, “Why am I even doing this?” Is this for money, fame, because I feel pressure, because I want to, or something else? For the toll it takes, I worry about people making the decisions for reasons that are about money, fame, or impressing others.

We’re at a time in history when entrepreneurship is being lionized. It’s hard and perhaps admirable. But, I also believe that running a company is not a more ennobled path. It is simply a path. We need to be honest with ourselves because life is too short to be doing things for others.

In the talk, I mention a Google Doc with links, quotes, etc. You can access it here.

It’s also available here on Youtube.

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Zack Abbott is the co-founder and the inventor of the proprietary technology behind ZBiotics. This product is built upon the idea that we have been attempting to tackle those rough mornings after drinking alcohol incorrectly for decades, if not longer. Long-standing research shows that neither dehydration nor electrolyte imbalance is what causes that next-day misery. 😲

Getting into the science, when the body begins to break down alcohol, one of the bi-products that is created is called “acetaldehyde”. This is highly toxic. As I understand it, the liver is great at managing acetaldehyde, but not all of it makes it to the liver. Some of it lingers in your gut, where it is not broken down well, gets absorbed into the body, and wreaks havoc many of us are familiar with. Zack and his team have worked to create a product that helps your gut do a better job at breaking down the acetaldehyde in your cut called, “pre-alcohol”.

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They’re not here to claim they have a magical cure-all, but a growing number of customers are swearing that it is making their next mornings much better, if not completely better. I have tried it on a couple of occasions when I’ve had some drinks and feel that the following days were great.

Aside from the alcohol space, Zack and his team are working to reclaim the term GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) as one that can be a good thing. On every bottle, you’ll find “Proudly GMO” written. Zack talks about this in the episode. Read more from them here.

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Alexandre Gabriel (Instagram) is the owner of Maison Ferrand, which produces products like Citadelle Gin, Ferrand Cognac, and Planteray Rum (formerly Plantation Rum). Several years ago, among many conversations about rum, Alexandre realized that no one could tell him with great clarity about the rules and history of Navy Rum.

He decided to get to the bottom of things and commissioned the author and enthusiast Matt Pietrek to get to the bottom of things. Matt spent time in England researching things and not only began to uncover important details but also met a gentleman named Michael Fogg, who ended up providing a world of information they came to rely upon.

This year at Tales of the Cocktail, Matt and Alexandre hosted an event to announce the release of an entire book on Navy Rum, 300 Years of Royal Navy Rum and its Techniques. It has two different sections. In one, Matt showcases the history of Navy Rum and in the other, Alexandre lays out the 7 pillars of producing it. I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy for my conversation with Alexandre, but it appears the book still has not been released. You can sign up on Matt’s website to be notified when it is released.

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To honor Michael’s contributions to the research, Alexandre named the rum “Mister Fogg Navy Rum”, as Michael has since passed away.

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Molly Horn is the Cocktail Strategy Manager for Total Wine & More, the country’s largest retailer of wine and spirits (Forbes). Molly’s responsibilities include tasting, recruiting, branding, and marketing new first-to-market spirits, as well as educating sales floor team members on spirits and mixology.

Before the pandemic, spirit sales accounted for ~27% of Total Wine’s sales. As a result of the pandemic and a growing national interest in spirits and cocktails, in some stores, spirits now account for as much as 50% according to Molly. The company created her role to help them keep up with demand and enthusiasm.

In this conversation, we talk about additive-free certifications in tequila, the NA movement, some of her guilty pleasures, how she thinks about training her staff, and more.

To the NA movement, according to Total Wine’s internal numbers, ~80% of NA sales are made to people who also drink alcohol, which helps highlight that its growth is being fueled by people who are enjoying NA products at times instead of or in addition to products with alcohol.

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Molly came to Total Wine with more than a decade of expertise developing and managing bar programs in the D.C. Metro area. She was head bartender at Farmers Restaurant Group. She is a Certified Sommelier and a judge for events like the IWSC (International Wine & Spirit Competition).

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Natasha Bahrami, aka “The Gin Girl” (Instagram) fell in love with the spirit of gin after an eye-opening experience with a dirty gin martini in her early years as a restaurateur. Since then, she has worked to expand the knowledge, experience, access, and appreciation of the gin spectrum with her guests and the world. Elevation of the spirit of gin is her priority.

Natasha is the proprietor of The Gin Room and Salve Osteria (Instagram, website) in St. Louis, MO, boasting hundreds of fine gins and an ever-changing creative cocktail list. She is also the owner of the bottle shop, Grand Spirits.

In 2015, she expanded her focus nationally, launching a robust education platform Ginworld (website), a company created to help elevate the category of gin in cities domestically and abroad. For the last 6 years, Natasha and the Ginworld Ambassadors have hosted the largest gin festivals in the United States bringing distillers, educators, and brands together to expand knowledge and experience with the spectrum of gin.

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Dr. Kevin Peterson (Instagram) is one of the driving forces behind the perfumery Sfumato Fragrances (website, Instagram) and Castalia Cocktails (website, Instagram) in Detroit.

Kevin landed on my radar because of his book, Cocktail Theory - A Sensory Approach to Transcendent Drinks. In addition to calling on his background in perfumery as a study of flavor, one of the things in particular that Kevin investigates is how to extend the lifetime of a drink, which involves working against the forces that can throw a drink out of its ideal state: temperature, dilution, and aeration.

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Charles Joly (website, Instagram) is a renowned mixologist, media personality, and innovative bartending entrepreneur. We met to discuss his latest collaborative venture The Riff Raff Club (website, Instagram) with Virgin Hotels.

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Charles says if you want to see more pictures of his dog Jackson, follow him on Instagram.

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Joe and MariElena Raya launched are the driving force behind Bittermilk Bottling Co. They produce an array of cocktail/mocktail mixers and syrups as well as ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails.

They met at the Culinary Institute of America, and when they decided to return to Charleston, MariElena’s hometown, they took over a space her family had run for years and opened The Gin Joint, which is considered to be one of the city’s original cocktail bars of the modern era.

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Allen Katz (Instagram) founded the New York Distilling Company (website, Instagram) in 2011. He was in the industry for many years before this and during a trip to the town of Plymouth, England to visit the Plymouth Gin Distillery, Allen was overcome by the urban location of the distillery.

Many historic distilleries were often located in the countryside to be near the produce when it was harvested from farms. As a proud resident of New York City, this left him wondering if this might be possible in New York. Since its beginning, NYDC has focused on distilling products with historic ties to New York, specifically gin and rye whiskey.

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Not long into the running of the distillery, Allen found himself at Cornell’s College of Agriculture discussing grains with historical ties to the region. He was later sent 10 seeds in a white envelope called Horton Rye. After years of cultivating these seeds into an amount that could be field tested, 14 years later they now have a rye whiskey called Jaywalk Rye.

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Marshall Minaya (Instagram) is the beverage manager of Valerie, Madame George, and Lolita in Midtown Manhattan. The work of running three programs aside, we sat down to discuss his newest “project”, being a father to Florence, and how he is attempting to balance it with work.

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