Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #381-Sam with Grim Reaper Coffee

Transcript

Brewsers #381-Sam with Grim Reaper Coffee · Brewsers

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers podcast about be Your a Coffee, Booze
0:22
Speaker 1: and Bruisers. I am your host, Rody John and today
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Speaker 1: we talked to Sam with Grim Reaper Coffee. We talked
0:28
Speaker 1: about how Grim Reaper got started, what the industry holds,
0:31
Speaker 1: and so much more. Sam and everybody over at Grim
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Speaker 1: Reaper Coffee is doing absolutely amazing things. It is a
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Speaker 1: fantastic cold brew that you can get in a can
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Speaker 1: and you are definitely gonna want to make sure to
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Speaker 1: get yourself some. So, without further ado, here is Sam
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Speaker 1: with Grim Reaper Coffee. I would like to foc on
1:02
Speaker 1: the show Sam with Grim Reaper Coffee. How are you
1:04
Speaker 1: doing today, sir?
1:05
Speaker 2: Good?
1:06
Speaker 1: How are you doing doing well? So for those listening
1:09
Speaker 1: kind of paints the word picture where yet and what's
1:11
Speaker 1: going on around you?
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Speaker 2: Well? Currently, I'm at my brother's house right now. We
1:15
Speaker 2: have a little bit of work to do. He's in
1:18
Speaker 2: a meeting upstairs, but I'll be joining him a little
1:20
Speaker 2: bit later. Nice.
1:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, let's go all the way back in time.
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Speaker 1: What is your earliest memory of coffee?
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Speaker 2: Oh? God, I think you know what I think it was.
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Speaker 2: My earliest memory is my father. He was always a
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Speaker 2: big Starbucks guy. So him always going down there, always
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Speaker 2: having that coffee is kind of just like put in
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Speaker 2: my head, you know, that's that's cool. You always drank
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Speaker 2: black coffee. So that's my earliest I'd say.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so even though, so did you guys grow up
1:55
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts?
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Speaker 2: Also, yes, yeah, I grew up in Melrose, Massachusetts, so.
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Speaker 1: You are more star He was more of a Starbucks
2:01
Speaker 1: guy than a Duncan.
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Speaker 2: Guy he was, which actually, yeah, yeah I was. I
2:07
Speaker 2: was the Duncan guy he was. He was a Starbucks.
2:11
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, because I know up there they are. They're rampant.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's crazy. They're everywhere every corner.
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Speaker 1: It is funny seeing the same coffee place right across
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Speaker 1: the street from each other, and was like, what do
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Speaker 1: we did you forget that it's across the street.
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Speaker 2: It is, you know, it's very You go down one corner,
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Speaker 2: you got a dunkin Don'ts there, then a Starbucks cross
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Speaker 2: the street. Go across another corner and there's another dunkin Donuts. Crazy.
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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, obviously, with the flow of traffic and stuff,
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Speaker 1: it's somewhat makes sense, but at the same time, I
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Speaker 1: feel like you're also cannibalizing off yourself. But yeah, that's
2:44
Speaker 1: about our pay grade.
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Speaker 2: What do we do? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
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Speaker 1: Well I read that you started this company with your
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Speaker 1: two brothers and your sister, But how did actually Grim
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Speaker 1: Reaper Coffee begin?
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Speaker 2: So I was like, I was a state trooper man
3:00
Speaker 2: trusets for eight years, ended up for what you do.
3:04
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you appreciate that. Yeah, I ended up
3:07
Speaker 2: injuring my shoulder, so I had to retire, and I
3:13
Speaker 2: really didn't. I remember when I was working, especially the
3:15
Speaker 2: late nights when you know, it's you need something to
3:20
Speaker 2: stay awake, everything's closed. Ended up going to the convenience
3:25
Speaker 2: store and getting a an energy drank or something something
3:30
Speaker 2: like that, and so I started, you know, the Monster's
3:33
Speaker 2: the bread bull, all that I wasn't a fan of,
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Speaker 2: like the sugar content and all that. And then he
3:39
Speaker 2: did want a coffee. Everything's like, you know, all sugar,
3:43
Speaker 2: and I didn't. I didn't want any of that. It's
3:45
Speaker 2: already unhealthy. Stayed up all night, so I wanted to
3:49
Speaker 2: do something there. But you know what, it wasn't. It
3:53
Speaker 2: didn't first turn into coffee. I me and my two
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Speaker 2: brothers we started a clothing brand after and we did
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Speaker 2: it for a out a year and I just realized,
4:02
Speaker 2: this isn't what I we can't, we can't do this.
4:04
Speaker 2: It's so it's such an oversaturated market poling brand true and.
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Speaker 1: Then also like the materials, the are the everything else.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's extremely fast paced, you know, if
4:16
Speaker 2: they if you want to, you know, if you have
4:20
Speaker 2: to have something done in the winter for the springtime
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Speaker 2: and then things done. And it was just it, I wasn't.
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Speaker 2: I couldn't. I couldn't do that. It was too fast
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Speaker 2: paced for me. But I've always wanted to create something.
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Speaker 2: And I remember thinking back to, you know, when I
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Speaker 2: was at the convenience stores in the middle of the night
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Speaker 2: and I couldn't find anything I wanted. There was no
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Speaker 2: just black coffee. There's no camed black coffee, and if
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Speaker 2: you did find one, I personally just wasn't a fan
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Speaker 2: of the taste, right, So so yeah, so I decided
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Speaker 2: that I wanted to create a unsweetened black coffee somewhat
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Speaker 2: high caffeine and just put something on, you know, to
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Speaker 2: a branding that I would like, I would buy.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, how so how was grim Reper not already taken
5:10
Speaker 1: when When I found out that y'all had this, I
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Speaker 1: was like, how did nobody else do this? Because it's
5:15
Speaker 1: right there?
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Speaker 2: You know, I don't know. I I remember I was
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Speaker 2: thinking of the names before and I remember what was
5:23
Speaker 2: it like the first name was like desk to Coffee,
5:29
Speaker 2: it was something. It was something like that. You know,
5:30
Speaker 2: Liquid Death just came out. So they showed that that
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Speaker 2: you could do something it's a little more dark, a
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Speaker 2: little more like a dark comedy, you know, branding and
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Speaker 2: people will love it and they'll buy it. And I
5:44
Speaker 2: was everything all the other branding out there is, you know,
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Speaker 2: it's bright colors, it's this. I just want something that's
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Speaker 2: gonna pop. But yes, to go back to the grim
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Speaker 2: Reaper thing, I couldn't believe it either. You know, I
5:54
Speaker 2: saw I know that death Wish has their right style
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Speaker 2: of coffee. Yeah, there was just nothing, nothing that had
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Speaker 2: a reaper.
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Speaker 1: Huh Yeah, which which fully helps obviously with I mean,
6:08
Speaker 1: like you said, Liquid Debt did such a great job
6:10
Speaker 1: and is still to doing your air job when it
6:12
Speaker 1: comes to just water, and obviously they're making tea and
6:15
Speaker 1: then now they're in energy drinks as well. But like
6:17
Speaker 1: like you said, you saw that at like concerts and stuff,
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Speaker 1: and people are like what is that? What does that drink?
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Speaker 1: And you end up with finding out water. You're like
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Speaker 1: water really, So like obviously, like you said, they opened
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Speaker 1: the door for you know, more of the darker side
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Speaker 1: and then you guys are out of Salem. So obviously
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Speaker 1: that just goes hand in hand with everything that happens
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Speaker 1: up there as well. So it you know, the Grim Reaper.
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Speaker 1: Everybody knows what the Grim Reaper is, so like having
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Speaker 1: that as your coffee mascot, like everybody knows right off
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Speaker 1: the bat, that's what they want to try.
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean it's uh, it's iconic character that
6:52
Speaker 2: just goes back from I mean thousands, uh huh, well
6:56
Speaker 2: maybe not thousands, but long you know, a long time, but.
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Speaker 1: I imagine it's yeah, there's like at least some whatever
7:03
Speaker 1: they called the Grim Reaper, but it's basically just I
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Speaker 1: mean death in one way or another.
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Speaker 2: But right, yeah, yeah, yep.
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Speaker 1: Well how did you decide like you wanted because obviously
7:15
Speaker 1: two hundred milligrams is roughly where all the outer energy
7:18
Speaker 1: drinks are at, but that's also not where the coffee
7:20
Speaker 1: drinks are at. How did you guys, decide that's where
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Speaker 1: you guys wanted to land on. I, you know, I
7:26
Speaker 1: went with what.
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Speaker 2: Well, when we tried to you know, create the the
7:33
Speaker 2: cover that we wanted, we did different like variations of
7:36
Speaker 2: caffeine levels to see which one that we liked. We
7:39
Speaker 2: did one that was like three hundred and jeez yeah yeah,
7:44
Speaker 2: that one. That one makes you know, your whole body tingle.
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Speaker 2: So I was like, I don't think we should think
7:48
Speaker 2: should do that one. And then we did like one
7:50
Speaker 2: hundred and one fifty and it just didn't. Two hundred
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Speaker 2: seemed like the good spot where you know, you got
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Speaker 2: the kick. It wasn't too much where you felt like
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Speaker 2: your heart rate was going all over the place. But
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Speaker 2: it also didn't you know, do it nothing. You know,
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Speaker 2: you want something out of it. So that's that's where
8:06
Speaker 2: we landed on two hundred.
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Speaker 1: Now, with a line extension in the future, could we
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Speaker 1: see a three hundred.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, never, No, I honestly want to do
8:17
Speaker 2: like a a half decaf oh okay one, or or
8:22
Speaker 2: go you know, kind of the other way for the
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Speaker 2: non the non caffy because there's really no decaf coffees
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Speaker 2: out there either on the on the shelf.
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Speaker 1: Too, which is weird because obviously decaf coffee sells well
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Speaker 1: and there are even if people are just wanting something
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Speaker 1: to drink and it's maybe late at night or you know,
8:43
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and they aren't looking to stay up,
8:45
Speaker 1: but they still want something to drink, and people still
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Speaker 1: love drinking decaf coffee. I'm not a fan of it,
8:50
Speaker 1: but I know there's still tons of people that are
8:53
Speaker 1: because they're still selling it and still making it. So
8:56
Speaker 1: but yeah, like you said, they're not. There's no space
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Speaker 1: out there for you know, the dcalf coffee drinkers.
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Speaker 2: No, it's not, and you know it's it completely goes
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Speaker 2: against everything that I believe in too, trust me, everything
9:08
Speaker 2: is you know, death, the decalf, none of you know.
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Speaker 1: Yes, but brown water basically yeah.
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Speaker 2: It is. I know. So I mean the three hundred, yeah,
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Speaker 2: I would. I would want to kind of do that,
9:19
Speaker 2: but it would have to be a bigger can you
9:20
Speaker 2: know what it would have to be? Right now? Our
9:22
Speaker 2: cant a twelve bounces right? Yeah, you need to do
9:25
Speaker 2: a big one. I mean, if you get if you
9:27
Speaker 2: get like a Vendi Kolbert from the Starbucks that is
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Speaker 2: roughly three hundred. Oh okay, milligrams of caffeine. Hmm. You
9:35
Speaker 2: know yeah, I know that.
9:36
Speaker 1: There's like an injury drink subreddit, and these psychopaths continue
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Speaker 1: to put like more and more of like the ingredients
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Speaker 1: that Jackson caffeine up. I'm like, guys, your hearts you're
9:47
Speaker 1: gonna explode, is not? It's not all great for you.
9:49
Speaker 2: So but I know, no, it's not. It's and it's
9:53
Speaker 2: all like when you go back to the energy drinks,
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Speaker 2: the touring, Yeah, that's it. It'd be all that stuff
9:58
Speaker 2: mixed together. It's just it's not good. Yeah, nothing good too.
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Speaker 1: I mean if I was young and I had the resources,
10:04
Speaker 1: I probably done the same thing. So like a bit,
10:06
Speaker 1: I get it. But at the same time, as an
10:08
Speaker 1: older guy, I'm like, Nope, you all might want to
10:09
Speaker 1: cut that one out kind of down a little bit.
10:13
Speaker 2: I get that.
10:15
Speaker 1: Well, So, I mean, you guys are a family business,
10:16
Speaker 1: but so what is kind of everybody's roles or I mean,
10:19
Speaker 1: obviously you guys are going to be wearing multiple hats
10:22
Speaker 1: as it is, but like, what is kind of everybody's
10:24
Speaker 1: roles when it comes to the family business.
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Speaker 2: My brother Will, he went to college for finance, so
10:30
Speaker 2: you know, he's Yeah, that's huge. That's huge because I
10:34
Speaker 2: have no idea what I'm doing with any of that stuff.
10:37
Speaker 2: So I'm very happy that he has that background. My
10:41
Speaker 2: brother Jack, he does sales and marketing, and then my
10:46
Speaker 2: sister also does sales and organizes events for us, so
10:51
Speaker 2: you know, showcase and then I'm just kind of everywhere.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, how has the how has the reception been from
10:58
Speaker 1: the people.
11:00
Speaker 2: It's been good, It's been very good. You know, when
11:02
Speaker 2: we our first run, we did so we're about almost
11:06
Speaker 2: three years in our first run that we ever did.
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Speaker 2: You know, we had a different formula and it did.
11:21
Speaker 2: It did well, but a lot of people didn't life that.
11:24
Speaker 2: They had a bad taste. It was a little too
11:27
Speaker 2: you know, it just didn't taste well. So ever since
11:31
Speaker 2: we changed our formula, you know a lot of a
11:38
Speaker 2: lot of our customers that are trying it, they're they're
11:40
Speaker 2: loving it. There's no bitter aftertaste. Its smooth, and we
11:45
Speaker 2: get most of that doing demos. You know, when you
11:48
Speaker 2: watch somebody take a sip, you can tell if they
11:50
Speaker 2: don't like it, even if they they like lie, you know,
11:53
Speaker 2: you can see it in their face, but it does it.
11:56
Speaker 2: That kind of helps us get a better reading of
12:00
Speaker 2: how our cobra is doing.
12:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, that first or that facial expression, they can't hide that. No, no, well,
12:10
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, let's talk about this. So you this
12:12
Speaker 1: is your second batchup of going about it? How many
12:16
Speaker 1: or how what was it really about the first one
12:19
Speaker 1: to the second one that really changed things?
12:22
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'll give you the kind of a
12:26
Speaker 2: little horror story that we had in the beginning. So
12:28
Speaker 2: we spent a year trying to perfect our coal brew
12:33
Speaker 2: to the point where we liked it. We knew that
12:35
Speaker 2: other people would like it. Our very first run, we
12:40
Speaker 2: you know, we found a co packer that could.
12:43
Speaker 3: Do it for us, and they I don't know who
12:50
Speaker 3: to blame if you want to blame the formulation company
12:53
Speaker 3: or the co packer, but they put twenty five pounds
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Speaker 3: of one.
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Speaker 2: Ingredient that was supposed to only have two pounds in it. Completely,
13:01
Speaker 2: so completely, yeah, completely ruined the first run. That was
13:04
Speaker 2: all the money that we put into and then there's
13:05
Speaker 2: just like there's nothing you could do, you know, you
13:08
Speaker 2: can you just have almost have to eat it, eat
13:11
Speaker 2: the costs, so that hurt. Then we ended up kind
13:18
Speaker 2: of re getting our money back together going at it
13:21
Speaker 2: again and that's how we landed our first run. That
13:26
Speaker 2: kind of opened the doors for us to get into,
13:29
Speaker 2: you know, other different convenience stores and on different shelves.
13:36
Speaker 2: And then we reformulated because we had another incident on
13:41
Speaker 2: our third run where it completely got destroyed with this
13:47
Speaker 2: lactic acid that just completely destroyed the whole entire thing.
13:49
Speaker 2: So now we knew we had to do something to
13:51
Speaker 2: kind of fix the product, make sure that it was stable.
13:55
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, when you're doing a if you
14:01
Speaker 2: want to make a shelf stable, that has to go
14:02
Speaker 2: through a process called retort where it just like you know,
14:05
Speaker 2: really heats it up and kills all the bacteria and
14:08
Speaker 2: everything in it. There's only a certain amount of co
14:12
Speaker 2: packers in the United States that have it, and we're
14:13
Speaker 2: just lucky to find one in Connecticut that had that,
14:17
Speaker 2: and so ever since we've been with them, it's been phenomenal.
14:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's always something like I feel like you should
14:26
Speaker 1: have got at least your money back with the considering
14:28
Speaker 1: that person put like over a hundred times what it
14:31
Speaker 1: needed to be in there. But yeah, like that's just
14:36
Speaker 1: part of you know, owning a business and starting things
14:39
Speaker 1: like this, is that Unfortunately, you're going to have these
14:42
Speaker 1: horror stories, you're gonna have these mistakes, You're going to
14:44
Speaker 1: have things that you've got to overcome. And obviously you
14:47
Speaker 1: guys are continuing to go and so that shows that
14:51
Speaker 1: you guys are genuinely interested in wanting to do this
14:54
Speaker 1: as opposed to like, well we tried that didn't work,
14:56
Speaker 1: so let's just try something else now right.
15:00
Speaker 2: I mean it's like I had no zero experience in this,
15:05
Speaker 2: in this business at all. So my my thought process was,
15:08
Speaker 2: you know, like we'll create a great taste and coffee,
15:11
Speaker 2: put it on the shelf, people will see the brand,
15:13
Speaker 2: they'll love it, stall it for a billion dollars. It
15:17
Speaker 2: is not going that smooth. So yeah, I mean it's
15:23
Speaker 2: there's a lot of there's a lot of lows with starting,
15:25
Speaker 2: especially being a startups, a lot of lows, but I
15:27
Speaker 2: mean the highs they're they're high. Yeah. You know when
15:30
Speaker 2: you first see that the product on the shelf, it
15:33
Speaker 2: is it isn't feeling like no other that or.
15:37
Speaker 1: I imagine you know, scrolling through uh social media and
15:40
Speaker 1: seeing your ad and like oh that's us.
15:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, that seeing having people tag us that, you know,
15:46
Speaker 2: people that we have no idea where you are and
15:47
Speaker 2: they're buying the coffee and they're taking a picture of it,
15:50
Speaker 2: and like that's that's fun.
15:53
Speaker 1: Well, I mean obviously, like when you're starting a brand,
15:56
Speaker 1: you have to decide what the name is, what the
15:58
Speaker 1: logo is going to be, what the artwork look like
16:00
Speaker 1: in the container. Obviously how did kind of all of
16:02
Speaker 1: that come together for y'all?
16:06
Speaker 2: So we I knew I wanted to do like a
16:09
Speaker 2: black a black can. The logo itself, we hide somebody
16:17
Speaker 2: off fiver fiver. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how to
16:22
Speaker 2: say it. We hired somebody up there. I gave him
16:25
Speaker 2: an idea generally what we wanted and what it to
16:27
Speaker 2: look like, and I want the grim Reaper, I want
16:30
Speaker 2: you know, him holding the mug and all that, and
16:32
Speaker 2: he did it on the first try. It was actually
16:34
Speaker 2: really really impressive. So he did that. We then hired
16:42
Speaker 2: a somebody to actually fully like design the can. You
16:47
Speaker 2: know exactly what's going to look like, what the writing
16:49
Speaker 2: we want to be on it, and they kind of
16:51
Speaker 2: just put it together, gave us like twenty different iterations
16:54
Speaker 2: of it, and we picked the one that we thought
16:56
Speaker 2: was the best.
16:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you adde on in that size can too.
17:04
Speaker 2: I most most can coffee is eleven ounces. Yeah, I
17:12
Speaker 2: wanted to do. I wanted one that will, you know,
17:14
Speaker 2: fit on the shelves next to the energy drinks. You know,
17:18
Speaker 2: I know that they're like monster job, like their job
17:21
Speaker 2: out of coffee. Those are you know, the sixteen ounces
17:25
Speaker 2: we were kind of fitting more towards the energy drinks
17:27
Speaker 2: side than it is the raising coffee, which I find
17:32
Speaker 2: I think that's what kind of really helped our decision.
17:34
Speaker 2: I think that if they were putting us with the
17:36
Speaker 2: other cans, maybe would have went sixteen ounces fit with
17:40
Speaker 2: everything else. But even having a smaller can still fits there,
17:44
Speaker 2: you know, like it's you see these big cans and
17:45
Speaker 2: you see the smaller one. It's still going to catch
17:47
Speaker 2: your eye whether you're looking for it or not. Right.
17:51
Speaker 1: Well, so, I mean when you're in stores, are they
17:54
Speaker 1: putting you with coffee? Are they putting you with energy drinks?
17:57
Speaker 2: It's it's a weird mix. Yeah, you know, so we
18:03
Speaker 2: we are kind of a lot of the coffee and
18:07
Speaker 2: energy drinks are they're relatively close to each other. So
18:11
Speaker 2: they we've tried it in the coffee side's done well,
18:14
Speaker 2: we tried it on the angie drinks side has done well.
18:16
Speaker 2: It's really been up to the stores.
18:18
Speaker 1: Ah okay, yeah, where would you like to see yourself?
18:25
Speaker 2: I I like the coffee I do like the coffee
18:29
Speaker 2: side a little bit more. You know, when people are
18:32
Speaker 2: going for anngie drinks, they're not looking for an unsweetened
18:36
Speaker 2: you know, they're looking for something that's sweet and we'll
18:38
Speaker 2: give them. And there's no unsweetened energy drink, you know,
18:41
Speaker 2: So I would rather be on the coffee side.
18:45
Speaker 1: That makes sense. I mean, you're already with everything, and
18:47
Speaker 1: then you guys are already going to be standing at
18:48
Speaker 1: no matter where you are, right so obviously with the
18:54
Speaker 1: grim Weaver being your mascot, how much fun are y'all
18:56
Speaker 1: having with not only merch because you've got three great
18:59
Speaker 1: hoodies on your website, but then also your social media
19:02
Speaker 1: and other artwork? Like, how much funny y'all having with this?
19:06
Speaker 2: I love it. It's so fun. It's it's like you
19:10
Speaker 2: can do. You know, we do a lot of cartoon
19:14
Speaker 2: stuff on social media, and I think that kind of
19:17
Speaker 2: makes it. You can just put this, you know, this
19:20
Speaker 2: iconic character into everyday situations and it's spun seeming like that,
19:24
Speaker 2: and the idea is just endless. Sure, the different all
19:28
Speaker 2: the different things we can do, it's just it. It's
19:31
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. Now.
19:33
Speaker 1: I mean, we kind of talked about some kind of
19:35
Speaker 1: a line extension when it comes to three hundred milligram
19:37
Speaker 1: or even decalf What can we I mean, are y'all
19:40
Speaker 1: working on anything else for maybe not the rest of
19:43
Speaker 1: this year because we're already halfway through twenty twenty six
19:46
Speaker 1: and obviously most when it comes to the holidays, it's
19:49
Speaker 1: it's a little hard to get stuff out there for
19:50
Speaker 1: a lot of these consumers and stores. But do we
19:53
Speaker 1: have any what is the next couple of years look
19:55
Speaker 1: like for you guys?
19:56
Speaker 2: We have been testing. I want to stay in the
19:59
Speaker 2: unsweeten Okay, yeah, I think that's kind of where our
20:02
Speaker 2: market is. There's not a lot of just black coffee,
20:05
Speaker 2: so I want to stay there, but I want to
20:07
Speaker 2: add different flavors. We were working on a French Mela
20:09
Speaker 2: one in a hazel not flavored one. Okay. You know
20:13
Speaker 2: some people who don't want anything any sugar or anything
20:17
Speaker 2: added in there, but still want a different taste than
20:20
Speaker 2: just black coffee. So that's that's our goal there, and
20:23
Speaker 2: you know, eventually down the line, I would want to
20:25
Speaker 2: I could somehow figure out a way to do a
20:27
Speaker 2: lota that it is somewhat healthy. I would I would
20:33
Speaker 2: like to go there at some point too. But right
20:35
Speaker 2: now we're going to stick with the unsweetened black coffee.
20:39
Speaker 1: I love that. So, I mean, so, what have you
20:43
Speaker 1: learned the most about because, like you said, you were,
20:46
Speaker 1: you know, just starting a merchandising braird TV brand and
20:51
Speaker 1: then now you're doing coffee and you had no experience
20:55
Speaker 1: whatsoever in this. What was something that like once you
20:58
Speaker 1: got in you were just like this is really cool?
21:00
Speaker 1: And then what was the other thing? You were like,
21:01
Speaker 1: holy shit, I'm just drinking from a fire hose at
21:03
Speaker 1: this point.
21:05
Speaker 2: Ah See, what I found like very cool about all
21:11
Speaker 2: this is the way that like the local It's like
21:16
Speaker 2: New England in general, they're very open to local brands,
21:22
Speaker 2: right you know, so I thought it was very cool
21:25
Speaker 2: that people were just like they would look at the
21:27
Speaker 2: can and be like this is this is awesome? Yeah
21:29
Speaker 2: we want to take it and and things like that.
21:34
Speaker 2: The the part that I found so I so I
21:36
Speaker 2: guess you know, yeah, what I found to be cool
21:40
Speaker 2: is just the support that you get what I found
21:44
Speaker 2: to be hard is I mean from the distribution to
21:49
Speaker 2: like all these things that just didn't the cost of
21:53
Speaker 2: getting a product on a shelf you know at a
21:56
Speaker 2: major grocery store or something like that is crazy. It's
22:01
Speaker 2: just things that I didn't think of, you know, the
22:03
Speaker 2: cost of building the price into your distribution and then
22:07
Speaker 2: broke as fee and freedom board like all these things.
22:10
Speaker 2: I just had no idea about it. So when that
22:13
Speaker 2: kind of like came to me, I was just like,
22:15
Speaker 2: oh God, the hell am I gonna go? Yeah, but
22:20
Speaker 2: it's it's good. It's good that we that I'm with
22:22
Speaker 2: my siblings and we can really you know, talk it
22:25
Speaker 2: out and figure out what the best course of action is.
22:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, getting it on you know, even the local convenience
22:33
Speaker 1: stores or local grocery stores, that's one thing, But like
22:36
Speaker 1: you said, like the bigger chains, you've got to go
22:38
Speaker 1: through so many hoops, get it through through so many
22:40
Speaker 1: interviews like this is what our brand is, this we're local,
22:44
Speaker 1: and then got to figure out if there's room for you,
22:46
Speaker 1: which is also dumb considering that, like let's say, the
22:50
Speaker 1: big companies or whatever have so many skews that they're
22:53
Speaker 1: just monopolizing the entire set, and it's like, well, how
22:56
Speaker 1: is anybody else supposed to fit in here? And also,
22:58
Speaker 1: you can't tell me that every single one of these
23:00
Speaker 1: scus sells you know enough to where it, you know,
23:04
Speaker 1: makes sense for them to still be on.
23:06
Speaker 2: The shelf, right I it's it is. It's a lot
23:11
Speaker 2: the the local grocery stores are obviously easier. And then
23:15
Speaker 2: it's you know, we had one of our main main
23:20
Speaker 2: distributors is in Portland, Maine, and they were kind of
23:23
Speaker 2: a startup when we started with them, and they've been
23:25
Speaker 2: absolutely killing it for us. So I like working with
23:29
Speaker 2: you know, brands like that. We do have another distributor
23:31
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts that's not exactly a you know, they're more
23:38
Speaker 2: they're beer oriented, right, so, so they're we're with them,
23:42
Speaker 2: and you know, I don't think that they're used to
23:46
Speaker 2: dealing with a startup brand. You know, they're used to
23:48
Speaker 2: going into stores and people like, yeah, you know, I
23:51
Speaker 2: need to get Budweiser, you know, just refilling things there.
23:54
Speaker 2: So I I am trying to get with the distributor
24:00
Speaker 2: that kind of sees where we are. And then even
24:02
Speaker 2: like that first year it was just us going out
24:06
Speaker 2: every single at any place that would take us and
24:09
Speaker 2: give them a free case, and then we would cover
24:11
Speaker 2: the cost of that free case, because of course we can,
24:14
Speaker 2: you know, giveaway everything for free obviously. So that's yeah,
24:20
Speaker 2: I mean it's the distributor tough part to get right.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I noticed. So I think what we're going
24:30
Speaker 1: to start seeing with these distributors is that we are
24:33
Speaker 1: going to start seeing more of a overall beverage company.
24:37
Speaker 1: Like you talked about where you guys are with somebody
24:39
Speaker 1: that also sells beer. Well, I work for one here
24:43
Speaker 1: in Texas that, from what I'm hearing, will also be
24:46
Speaker 1: going towards I mean, they're beverage of some sort. But
24:49
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it also is going to be coffee,
24:52
Speaker 1: energy drinks, hydration drinks, THC drinks, whatever it is. But
24:55
Speaker 1: I do think that we're going to start seeing more
24:57
Speaker 1: of a switch from where it's just all right, I
25:01
Speaker 1: have a coffee, I have to only go to either
25:06
Speaker 1: you know whatever, insert whatever distributor that doesn't sell alcohol.
25:10
Speaker 1: But now we're gonna start seeing more of Okay, well,
25:13
Speaker 1: we have done so well with alcohol, let's also do
25:16
Speaker 1: everything else as well, because everything else is growing, like
25:19
Speaker 1: Obviously the energy drink category is growing, the coffee one,
25:23
Speaker 1: the hydration so we're gonna start seeing a lot more
25:26
Speaker 1: of that, you know, which is good because I think
25:30
Speaker 1: a lot of these a lot of these sales reps,
25:33
Speaker 1: while they are in these stores on a regular basis anyway,
25:36
Speaker 1: they may not know really too much about the energy
25:40
Speaker 1: drink category or the coffee category, or the hydration drinker
25:43
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. So we're gonna start seeing more
25:45
Speaker 1: of that, which I think is honestly, at the end
25:47
Speaker 1: of the day, a good thing because then there's you know,
25:51
Speaker 1: they always say that they, oh, we put more bullets
25:53
Speaker 1: in your gun, which I'm like, in America, I think
25:55
Speaker 1: we need to stop using these gun analogies as much.
25:57
Speaker 1: But that's just me. But we you know, we are
26:01
Speaker 1: having more you know, reasons to talk to store managers
26:05
Speaker 1: or whoever it is about things that aren't just the
26:08
Speaker 1: alcohol side. So I think, you know, while it is
26:11
Speaker 1: kind of a eye opening and a new situation for
26:14
Speaker 1: a lot of these people, I think a lot of
26:16
Speaker 1: these distribution companies are starting to lean that way.
26:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I mean, the everything I've seen and
26:22
Speaker 2: even when you go in a liquor store, you can.
26:24
Speaker 2: You know, I have a lot of relationship with them
26:25
Speaker 2: because we do sell our coffee and liqut stores and
26:28
Speaker 2: a lot of them are saying that the sale sale
26:30
Speaker 2: of alcohol has gone down. You know, I think like
26:33
Speaker 2: these total you know, the total wine liquor store. I
26:37
Speaker 2: think that they're really starting to take over like the smaller,
26:41
Speaker 2: like the neighborhood liquor stores, because you know, their prices
26:44
Speaker 2: are way cheaper than them, so.
26:46
Speaker 1: Got it out. Yeah, they can't even Yeah, Mama, pop
26:49
Speaker 1: liquor stores cannot even touch Total Wine.
26:52
Speaker 2: No, it's crazy. Yeah, you know, I feel I feel
26:54
Speaker 2: for them. But at the same time, the distributor aspect
26:59
Speaker 2: of it is a lot of these beer and wine
27:03
Speaker 2: distributors are going to need to go move towards the
27:07
Speaker 2: non alcoholic sections, start really pushing that. Mm hmm.
27:11
Speaker 1: Well, of course, because we're also seeing the trends of
27:14
Speaker 1: the leakuor going down. I mean, they're the only ones
27:16
Speaker 1: that are growing right now, you know, are bourbon, whiskey, tequila,
27:21
Speaker 1: and then ready to drink. So beer's been down forever
27:24
Speaker 1: or not forever, but for a while, wine's been down
27:27
Speaker 1: for a while. Vodka got oversaturated and so did gen
27:33
Speaker 1: actually has a weird somewhat of a gin kind of
27:36
Speaker 1: just floats and it's just like one of those alcohols
27:39
Speaker 1: that you know, you either like it or you don't.
27:41
Speaker 1: And then you're not seeing that much growth in that
27:44
Speaker 1: area anyway. But everything else has been really so down
27:47
Speaker 1: that they I think now have to look outside and
27:49
Speaker 1: be like, okay, well those are growing. What if we
27:52
Speaker 1: took those also in here and try to do the
27:54
Speaker 1: same thing over there, right?
27:56
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, with liquid Depth and Red
27:58
Speaker 2: bull that's how that's really how basic. You know, they
28:01
Speaker 2: got their Red Bulls distribution just the whole that it's
28:06
Speaker 2: quite impressive what they did. But you know, like with
28:08
Speaker 2: Death they got with the beer distributors and that's that's
28:13
Speaker 2: really how they growed.
28:14
Speaker 1: Mm hmm or grow yeah. Well, I mean we're also
28:18
Speaker 1: seeing the non alcoholic category getting so much bigger as
28:21
Speaker 1: it is, like Athletic brewing is phenomenal and like every
28:24
Speaker 1: one of their beers tastes like beer, like, tastes exactly
28:28
Speaker 1: what it should. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan
28:30
Speaker 1: of the stout, but everything else is great and so
28:32
Speaker 1: but we're also seeing that category, whether it be the
28:35
Speaker 1: wine or they're ready to drinks, but they're non alcoholic
28:38
Speaker 1: because people still want people were want team better things
28:42
Speaker 1: in their body. Which I love that you guys are
28:43
Speaker 1: doing unsweetened because you know, that shows that so many
28:47
Speaker 1: people are genuinely caring about what they're putting in their body.
28:50
Speaker 1: And that's what we're seeing also when it comes to
28:52
Speaker 1: the alcohol.
28:53
Speaker 2: World, right, yeah, I mean it's it's gonna be a
28:57
Speaker 2: different world in the next couple of years.
28:58
Speaker 1: Oh big time. Yeah, I'm very curious how that whole
29:02
Speaker 1: aspect is going to work out for everybody. Yeah, Sam, Yeah, Well,
29:07
Speaker 1: so I have a segment on the show. I call
29:08
Speaker 1: it the five count. It's just five random questions. Okay,
29:12
Speaker 1: what are the last three things you googled?
29:15
Speaker 2: The last three things I googled? You know what I
29:17
Speaker 2: can tell you right now? Okay, all right? It was
29:23
Speaker 2: podcast interview prep. How to make sure that I was
29:29
Speaker 2: I was ready for you.
29:31
Speaker 1: I hope that the prep did nothing for you, because
29:33
Speaker 1: I hope you know what it did.
29:35
Speaker 2: It is Yeah, you You definitely were definitely a lot
29:39
Speaker 2: easier to work with you than other podcasts. I appreciate.
29:42
Speaker 1: I try to make this so much easier. Everyone else
29:44
Speaker 1: is still doing the question answer, question answer thing.
29:46
Speaker 2: I'm like, come on, buddies, Yeah, no, no, you're doing great.
29:49
Speaker 2: So I appreciate that. The other two are arrange me,
29:54
Speaker 2: which is you know that it's basically like the LinkedIn
29:57
Speaker 2: for like brands.
29:58
Speaker 1: Oh I did not know that.
30:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of where if you want to try
30:03
Speaker 2: to get into Whole Food or Target you have to
30:05
Speaker 2: go through range me, which I mean it's it definitely
30:08
Speaker 2: makes it easier. But yeah, hmmm is that and then
30:14
Speaker 2: just shopify? That was my that's my only Google searches.
30:19
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, well, okay, I have a question about getting
30:25
Speaker 1: into stories, but I'll ask it after after these, after
30:27
Speaker 1: that fight count? Uh number two, if you were a
30:30
Speaker 1: progress or MMA fighter, what would your name be?
30:34
Speaker 2: Oh? You know what I mean, this is gonna sound cooint,
30:40
Speaker 2: but I have to go with the Reaper.
30:41
Speaker 1: I mean you might as well.
30:42
Speaker 2: It makes right.
30:43
Speaker 1: It's right there.
30:45
Speaker 2: How can I not?
30:47
Speaker 1: Number three? Who's your first concert?
30:51
Speaker 2: My first concert? Uh? Wow? I remember in elementary school
31:04
Speaker 2: going to the Encinct concert with my sister. Okay, yeah,
31:08
Speaker 2: I think that was that was my first concert.
31:11
Speaker 1: I imagine that was a good show.
31:13
Speaker 2: You know what, I don't remember it, but I'm sure
31:15
Speaker 2: it was. Uh.
31:19
Speaker 1: Number four, who are what inspires you?
31:23
Speaker 2: I think my dad inspires me. He you know, he
31:27
Speaker 2: owns he started his own restaurant. When my grandfather started
31:30
Speaker 2: a restaurant, he took over for it and just kind
31:31
Speaker 2: of built it into this it's great. It's great thing.
31:35
Speaker 2: So seeing an entrepreneur like him has been very inspiring tonight.
31:40
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
31:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:42
Speaker 1: And number five, what would you tell your seventeen year
31:45
Speaker 1: old self?
31:48
Speaker 2: That's everything's gonna be all right. There you go, and
31:51
Speaker 2: you'll you'll, you'll be good, just keep moving forward.
31:55
Speaker 1: There you go. Something you can tell yourself at any age.
31:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
32:00
Speaker 1: Now back to getting into Target, now I hit the
32:03
Speaker 1: thought spot in my head. I imagine it's the same
32:05
Speaker 1: process even though I know they have a new CEO
32:08
Speaker 1: and from also what I heard, they just passed Walmart
32:11
Speaker 1: as the biggest I think shopping is the place to
32:15
Speaker 1: go to. But is the process still the same even
32:19
Speaker 1: though I imagine I imagine it is considering they do
32:22
Speaker 1: have a new CEO, But I am curious how much
32:25
Speaker 1: they're trying to bring in new things that aren't like
32:28
Speaker 1: everywhere else.
32:29
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, what I love that Target's doing that. They're
32:31
Speaker 2: completely changing from like the name brand on the shelves
32:36
Speaker 2: that they're taking in more startup not just not just drinks,
32:41
Speaker 2: but you know, snacks anything. So I really like what
32:45
Speaker 2: they're doing. Their whole new model is great, you know,
32:47
Speaker 2: especially when you go to a Target. The whole layout
32:52
Speaker 2: of where all like the CpG products are they have
32:54
Speaker 2: like that, this is you know, these are new and
32:57
Speaker 2: they really advertise it well for you. Now, trying to
32:59
Speaker 2: get in there is obviously very difficult because everyone's trying
33:02
Speaker 2: to get into Target, of course. So yeah, so you
33:07
Speaker 2: use the range of me to kind of send in
33:09
Speaker 2: like all the information about your products. But I've also
33:13
Speaker 2: you know, I've emailed a couple of the uh, you know,
33:19
Speaker 2: beverage brought buyers from Target, and that's one way trying
33:25
Speaker 2: to get in there. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, Okay, that
33:31
Speaker 2: makes sense.
33:33
Speaker 1: Now, if people want to find out more about y'all,
33:35
Speaker 1: follow you guys online, buy grim Reaper, support you in
33:38
Speaker 1: any way, how can they do?
33:39
Speaker 2: So? Our Instagram is Drink grim Reaper Coffee and then
33:44
Speaker 2: our website is Grimorypercoffee dot com. So yeah, I mean,
33:48
Speaker 2: any follow, any any support you're happy and you reach
33:51
Speaker 2: out to us. We love sending out three cases. There
33:55
Speaker 2: we go, let people try the product.
33:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Sam, thank you so much for your time.
34:01
Speaker 1: I've loved this and I can't wait to try Grammyper myself.
34:03
Speaker 1: And yeah, I can't wait to see where the future
34:05
Speaker 1: holds for you.
34:06
Speaker 2: Guys. No, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
34:08
Speaker 2: We'll be sure to send you some coffee too, awesome.
34:22
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. The same with grim Reaper Coffee again,
34:24
Speaker 1: definitely make sure to get yourself some Grimmereper coffee. Buy
34:27
Speaker 1: it online. If they don't have it in your stores,
34:30
Speaker 1: ask your store for it by name. Grim Reaper Coffee
34:34
Speaker 1: is absolutely amazing coffee and a can he sent me
34:37
Speaker 1: some My friends love it as well. I love it.
34:39
Speaker 1: I'm still drinking it to this day, so when I
34:42
Speaker 1: run out, I'll probably buy some more because Grimmeaper Coffee
34:44
Speaker 1: is absolutely great. So while you're definitely making sure to
34:47
Speaker 1: follow them on social media, obviously go follow us on
34:49
Speaker 1: social media. It is bruisers pod that has r E
34:52
Speaker 1: wsc r SPoD on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter.
34:57
Speaker 1: If you want to send us an email, it is
34:58
Speaker 1: brewispod at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
35:00
Speaker 1: me directly, it is Roddy John. That is our O
35:02
Speaker 1: D I E j O N. Roddy John is the
35:04
Speaker 1: name on the Twitter.
35:05
Speaker 2: And on tapped.
35:06
Speaker 1: In case you want to find on drinking, maybe we
35:08
Speaker 1: can have a beer together. If you want to follow
35:09
Speaker 1: me on the threads or the Instagram, it is Offisher
35:11
Speaker 1: Roady John. So until next time, make sure to enjoy life,
35:14
Speaker 1: drink local. Cheers