Latest / Coffee People Podcast / S6:E7 - Ryan Espi & David Elizondo, First Light Whiskey

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S6:E7 - Ryan Espi & David Elizondo, First Light Whiskey · Coffee People Podcast

0:10
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to season six episode,
0:13
seven of the roast West Coast coffee podcast, man, the
0:17
seasons. Just fly by.
0:19
I'm Ryan Walton. This is the show where I bring
0:21
you the stories of coffee professionals entrepreneurship
0:25
and coffee education. This week, we've got a real
0:28
treat the co-ceos of First Light whiskey.
0:32
Ryan SB, and David Elizondo are joining the show to share their
0:35
entrepreneurial journey and why they decided coffee whiskey was
0:40
going to be the focus of their now, award-winning Spirits
0:43
company. Just in case you need to dip out
0:46
early this week, I'm telling you right away.
0:48
The guy said, hey we want roast listeners to try this whiskey
0:52
and to make it easier, they set up a discount code on bar,
0:55
bank.com. If you want to try first like
0:58
coffee whiskey or their dark roast coffee, whiskey use the
1:02
discount code RWC. That is the capital letter
1:06
initials of this show RWC on bar bank.com.
1:10
I did this this morning and not only did I get the discount, but
1:13
the shipping was free to, which was a nice surprise.
1:17
I'll post the link in the show notes and on roast westcoast.com
1:21
and shared on Instagram at roast West Coast.
1:25
David and Ryan and I have met in real life and Beyond being
1:28
motivated entrepreneurs. And in Ryan ESPYs case a true
1:31
coffee nerd. They exude a calmness that
1:34
frankly, I'm a bit envious of and don't often find in
1:37
entrepreneurs. Today, we talked about the ethos
1:40
of First Light whiskey and how those moments in between the
1:44
moments where things slow down enough to take a deep breath
1:47
matter. So much to the success of their
1:49
business. I usually tell you to fill your
1:52
coffee mug, right? About now.
1:53
And this week is no, Different. I picked up a cup of steady
1:56
state. Roasting is Daybreak at Queen
1:58
stage Coffee House in Encinitas, California.
2:01
The first sip was delicious, but since Thursday's are essentially
2:05
the kickoff to the weekend, I'm going to spice.
2:08
This one up with a little bit of coffee whiskey and I promise I
2:11
won't judge if you do too. I hope you enjoy the first of
2:15
this two-part interview. Featuring Ryan Espeon David
2:17
Elizondo co-ceos of First Light Whiskey.
2:21
On the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
2:36
I should say, welcome to the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
2:40
If you guys wouldn't mind, I'll start with you Ryan.
2:43
Say your name. And what you're what the name of
2:45
your company is if you want. If you would and kind of your
2:48
role at the company and then we'll run over to David.
2:51
And then when we're done maybe you can tell me what your
2:54
favorite ninja turtle is. Okay.
2:56
Yeah, so hi guys. My name is Ryan, Espinosa up and
3:01
go by Ryan. SP, I'm one of the founders of
3:04
First Light whiskey. We're coffee-flavored, whiskey
3:07
company, which is our primary products now.
3:10
And then we're really focused in on being a, you know, being the
3:13
predominant lifestyle, craft Spirits brand.
3:16
And what is it that you do? What is your kind of your half?
3:19
The company? What is your role as a Founder?
3:21
Yeah. So I mean, Dave and I are both
3:23
really co-ceo. So we both run a lot of the The
3:26
management. My focus is more on the
3:28
marketing and branding side of things and you know kind of
3:32
running running the sales and marketing side of the business
3:36
and you did. Hey guys, my name is David
3:40
Elizondo. Co-founder, at first light
3:43
coffee whiskey, I'm handling like in Markus sailes, new
3:47
account onboarding, activating new regions and connecting with
3:52
our distribution team, to just spread the word and share the
3:56
Stoke and do either of you have a favorite Ninja Turtle David.
4:01
I think you're a little bit younger than Ryan and I so I
4:03
won't blame you. If, if you don't, if you're only
4:05
familiar with the newer, Turtles.
4:09
I remember playing the, the OG games and like Michelangelo
4:14
Michelangelo is the guy. Yeah.
4:17
Mine was mine. It I guess is and was Donatello
4:21
always. Yeah.
4:24
That actually, I thought would have guessed.
4:26
Those are the two. I would have guessed for you
4:27
guys because I do know you a little bit for anyone listening.
4:31
I've actually interviewed these guys once before for a different
4:33
podcast. So I know a little bit of their
4:35
story and since then they've been great supporters of this
4:39
show. You hear me, shout them out at
4:41
the end of every show and you see them in our newsletter and
4:43
stuff, but we haven't talked a lot about coffee.
4:47
That show was more about the whiskey side of things.
4:49
And so I want to kind of ask you both, if you had a first
4:53
experience with coffee way, before you started a coffee,
4:57
whiskey brand or Spirits company that made you think.
5:00
Yeah, you know, this is, this is interesting.
5:02
This is something that's going to be part of my life.
5:05
Yeah, I mean I definitely did like 100% so I guess it was, I
5:11
didn't really strike a lot of coffee until I got out of
5:13
college. So after SDSU which is about
5:16
graduation. 2013 thing in college, I was just on the Red
5:20
Bull and Monster and any colored can that they sold at the Aztec
5:24
shops, you know, to keep me awake but then after after
5:28
college, and I started down my entrepreneurial path.
5:31
I was very much a coffee shop entrepreneur.
5:35
Like I was in the web design and development space and I would
5:38
just visit every different coffee shop and post out for
5:41
hours to work. And through that, I started
5:44
really getting into coffee. And going from like drift copies
5:48
to pour over coffees to like be 60s and all these different, you
5:52
know, types of coffee and really learning flavors and whatnot.
5:55
I like Built My Own Kyoto machine at my house, like cold,
5:58
drip cold brew, got into that a lot and then like, in that time
6:03
of building, like a couple businesses, II met another
6:06
professional who we wanted to build.
6:09
He was an older guy. He owns a bunch of property here
6:11
in San Diego and kind of like in the retired space but wanted to
6:15
like have an invest in a coffee company.
6:18
So I kind of worked with him for about a year building like a
6:21
business strategy to actually build a Roastery and tasting
6:24
room here in San Diego. I visited the Starbucks Reserve
6:28
Roastery up in Seattle. I went, you know, kind of just
6:30
got, you know, learned about like, importation and just kind
6:34
of really went Deep into the coffee too.
6:36
Like we didn't end up going forward on the business.
6:39
I was kind of went a different way, but kind of build all the
6:42
foundation of like what it was going to look like and how it
6:44
was going to get executed. So from there, just say I had a
6:47
love for for coffee and really never looked back.
6:50
Like I like this morning I went to Bird Rock and had a, you
6:54
know, spent $10 on a pour over coffee and then, yeah, my
6:59
experience with coffee has been just like cheap coffee and in
7:04
college. Undergrad at ASU there's a spot
7:07
called Dutch Bros. It's like right off of Campus.
7:09
It's the go-to spot. I would have that fair bit.
7:13
I'm also drink a lot of tea during that time so I didn't
7:16
have like a really like go to coffee.
7:18
I'd have every day and then just more recently, really have
7:22
discovered like a lot more of the nuances and subtleties of
7:27
the coffee experience, really? You introduced us to Chris at
7:31
Coffee cycle and going to his class and Learning about the
7:36
different beings and different like processing, methods, like
7:39
trying the washed and natural side by side and experiencing
7:43
Blends from different regions and like, seeing how like
7:46
delicate the flavor profiles really are, and how much he
7:51
wants there is. I know, coffee is one of the
7:54
most highly nuanced flavor profiles in the world and like I
7:59
really at that time, fell in love with the Ethiopia natural
8:04
characteristics. And that's my go-to these days.
8:08
I totally forgot that you guys have taken that class.
8:10
What about whiskey, then, obviously your spirits company
8:13
that's working with coffee and I'm going to get to that
8:15
question in a minute, is, as you mentioned, it is a nuanced drink
8:18
and I feel like that'd be very complicated.
8:21
But do you remember having a whiskey that stood out to you
8:23
before starting your own Spirits company?
8:26
And then maybe Ron will start with you and then, and go to
8:29
David and then David, maybe you could speak a little bit to what
8:32
inspired you to start doing that business plan.
8:35
An at SDSU. Yeah, so for myself, this gives
8:39
back to college as well. I was not drinking whiskey in
8:43
college at all. I should say so okay, yeah, so I
8:46
mean, I definitely was It was kind of weird.
8:48
So I grew up in the country to make this story as brief as
8:51
possible up in Modesto, Central Valley California and you know
8:57
to be frank like we there wasn't a lot to do in high school so we
9:00
like drank and we had like hot like you know, High School
9:03
parties in the country and everybody got together in a
9:05
field and like, that's what? What the kids did, you know?
9:08
And so when I got saying you could say that wasn't like very
9:11
much a typical like freshmen that would just drinking.
9:14
Like I was kind of past the the the binge drinking and I was
9:17
drinking like whiskey and kind of got into Scotch like really
9:20
early and I would be like sipping Scotch at our college
9:23
parties, right? And then I moved to I've moved
9:26
to North Park shortly after and like lived on the street of 7
9:29
Grand on like my back of my apartment building like was on
9:33
the Alley it was on and this was when they kind of were Still
9:37
new. Like it wasn't what it is today
9:39
as far as like a prominent, like the flagship whiskey spot and so
9:44
as I started going there, I got introduced to a ton of different
9:46
whiskeys. I like new, the bartender's
9:48
pretty well like really like dope into.
9:52
Yeah. The the world of whiskey and I
9:55
mean I'm a scotch guys, like I really liked Oban, I always
9:59
remember that one sticking out, you know, I favor the PD kind of
10:02
smoky stuff so. Yeah, it started it started
10:05
early for me and I've liked you To enjoy bourbon a lot too and
10:09
just been been a whiskey Drinker for quite some time.
10:13
In my experience, I started encountering some Whiskey's a
10:16
little bit later in college had some bad experiences early with
10:20
vodka and just binge drinking whatever else freshman year and
10:24
then got into a little more, you know, subtle, nuanced Brands.
10:30
I think the ones I enjoyed most at the later end of college and
10:35
then coming out when I was starting, Ting.
10:37
San Diego State for the MBA program where the Centauri house
10:40
whiskeys. So like the whiskey Toki was my
10:43
first experience there and then the hibiki harmony as well.
10:47
And I really enjoyed those light flavor profiles.
10:51
And then, if I'm not mistaken, if I understand this David, you
10:55
started writing a kind of a Spirits company business plan,
10:59
or a business plan of sorts that eventually evolved.
11:01
Correct me if I'm wrong while you were in that MBA program, is
11:05
that right? And then how did kind of how did
11:06
that? All from there and then turn
11:08
into a partnership with Ryan. Yeah, so first semester of the
11:12
MBA program at SDSU, I just finished my time at Arizona
11:17
State and came back home to San Diego, and it was a marketing
11:21
management class and the semester long project was coming
11:24
up with a business plan that we presented to the class at the
11:27
end of the semester. So, did a lot of research,
11:32
stumbled into the idea of a Spirits brand, not whiskey, not
11:35
coffee whiskey. At that point.
11:37
The initial idea was vodka because it's like the easiest to
11:41
source and you just blend it down with water and you don't
11:44
have to do all this Rd and like different flavor, profile
11:47
testing. So, it seemed like something
11:49
that was actually feasible since I had no experience in the
11:52
industry at all. At that point, it was literally
11:54
just sounded like a fun concept to work on and then we presented
12:00
the project at the end of the Class, A couple other group
12:03
mates and for whatever reason, it really stuck in my mind.
12:06
That time I was surfing with Ryan and Adam are other cousin,
12:10
they know be all the time as well.
12:12
And the name first light came from the the surf report when
12:16
we're going out every morning this project was happening and
12:19
it was really inspiring moment and it seemed like something
12:23
that would work well because like from the very, very
12:26
beginning, like a core element of her slight has been about
12:28
celebrating and preserving giving back to our natural
12:32
world, the first light name and the surf report really just L
12:36
into place beautifully. And then after the project, the
12:40
other team members continued on with their MBA, they want to get
12:43
sidetracked on some whiskey pipe dream or not even whiskey but
12:47
like grass Spirits idea, but it really like the seed was planted
12:50
in my mind and right after that, I reached out to Ryan and talked
12:56
about it with my girlfriend at the time.
12:58
Now, wife Cassidy, it was something that wasn't like
13:02
immediately shot down by the closed Network and it was like,
13:05
maybe we could actually do this. Maybe there's something here and
13:08
like why not like / like take the next step and see what
13:12
happens. At that point Ryan started
13:14
diving into what the Rand would look like visually and really
13:18
like getting the core foundational elements of the
13:22
first light brand Essence, put you know, together in
13:25
illustrator and we're like doing Bottle mock-ups.
13:28
And and right after that, I got an internship at the spot called
13:32
the California Spirits company and started learning the process
13:35
of distilled. Rolling production bottling
13:38
sourcing ingredients and jumping through all the regulatory Hoops
13:44
to get this idea that was in our head into a bottle and
13:47
eventually onto a shelf. Well, that's always a challenge.
13:51
I think a lot of people have ideas, and a lot of people have
13:53
great ideas, but it's that next step, it's the putting it into
13:56
action part that that can trip you up before we go further,
14:01
could you explain to me or to us what first light refers to in
14:06
surfing terms? Like what I think, I understand
14:08
the concept of it being Sunrise, but how does that relate to
14:11
surfing and that report? Yeah, so it's a it's
14:15
specifically like the first moment that you're that you get
14:19
sunlight like over the water, right?
14:22
So if you can go out before first let you know on the dark
14:24
then be on the water like right when that hits.
14:27
So what it means is like that's the moment that the you get that
14:30
son, the sunlight coming across and you know, more kind of a
14:35
higher level. It's like that really visual
14:38
representation of the start of a new day, right?
14:41
At the beginning of a new adventure, And there was, you
14:44
know, as we were doing this in college, right?
14:46
Your you tend to stay up late for one reason or another and
14:51
then, you know, the best surface typically in the morning.
14:54
So it's like your alarm goes off and it's so easy to not get up
14:57
and, and do it right to like, sleep in or roll over and like,
15:00
choose to not do it. And there's a lot of resistance
15:03
there to actually get up in the winter.
15:05
This was winter at the time, so it's cold.
15:08
Like it's not a fun experience to get up early drive, go in the
15:11
cold, like, put on a wetsuit. Dive into like you know, Big
15:15
Surf and but after you do you get out and there's this like
15:20
every single time you're glad you did and you feel alive and
15:23
you feel ready for the day and it's about capturing that moment
15:26
and really like celebrating those, those things and
15:29
inspiring people to like choose those Adventures like whatever
15:32
it means to you. Whether it's surfing or skating
15:34
or hiking or just, you know, working earlier doing whatever
15:38
it does, that makes you feel alive.
15:40
Like the first light embodiment is like, hey dude.
15:43
Those things like overcome that resistance live, your life, and
15:46
like, it's rewarding at the end of it.
15:49
I like the surfing the part of Surfing where you're standing on
15:52
the shore. Drinking coffee.
15:54
But the other parts of it, I'm a little little hesitant on.
15:57
Yeah, I guide have to admit like some of our first product tests
16:01
were out there and it would be like with the local, you know.
16:04
We're sitting there. Drinking the coffee, testing it
16:06
out talking to people. Yeah.
16:10
It's the part where I have to get into the water that I'm a
16:12
little Yeah, I did not learn how to swim as a child.
16:16
So I'm a little nervous when I get out in the waves.
16:20
So you're going through this internship David and you're kind
16:23
of learning on sourcing Ryan's working on kind of this concept
16:26
of branding at this point is it's still just kind of this
16:30
thing that's out into the future or at what point did you say?
16:34
No, we're going to we're going to fucking do this.
16:36
Excuse my language. Everyone this is something we're
16:38
going to move forward on and I would assume that the challenges
16:42
came up that made you question that too.
16:43
Decision. You know what sort of walls did
16:45
you run into or have to run through?
16:48
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest moments early in the
16:52
journey where we're like, okay, like this is happening where
16:56
we're moving forward. Here was the first decent sized
17:01
investment we got and we actually saw like a path towards
17:05
like sourcing the materials and putting stuff in a bottle of is
17:09
a local friends and family member.
17:12
We met named Early in the journey and we met him through
17:18
the through, Jess Ryan's girlfriend, which was just very
17:21
serendipitous. And they connected we connected
17:25
with Martin, we showed them the spot, I was working at the time,
17:28
California Spirits company and did a walkthrough show them what
17:32
we were working on tasting them out on some of the early, like,
17:36
prototypes of the coffee whiskey.
17:38
So, I mean, we didn't have, like, product in Finish bottle
17:41
labeled, but we have like some early, like test.
17:43
Patches and he tried it. And it was like, once everyone
17:47
tried that first batch was like there's something here, like
17:50
this is like something different and special and soon after
17:54
tasting that we got the initial investment.
17:56
We needed to actually order the glass and order the agave and
18:02
all the raw materials like corks sleeves labels.
18:06
Everything we needed to actually put something in a bottle.
18:09
So I mean, that was like, really open to the door and then
18:13
covid-19. I'm really like the lockdowns
18:15
happened right after that. So that investment came in like
18:18
January 2020, and then lockdowns in March and it was a wild ride
18:25
really. Can we actually still do this?
18:26
All the bars and restaurants are closed, all the retail stores
18:30
are not doing tastings at all and we ended up partnering with
18:35
a local small batch, Distillery called San Diego.
18:38
Distillery in Spring Valley and connected with the owner Trent
18:42
and ask them if We could use his Distillery, like, small batch
18:45
basis. We were hand blending, the first
18:48
bottles, during that covid time like wearing masks in the
18:51
facility and hand blending in 50-gallon drums and then it was
18:55
just like hand bottle, everything.
18:56
Handmade like Ryan and Cassidy and I are in the facility and
19:01
like we've got like another like friend or team member in there
19:04
with us. Just all full manual process and
19:09
we put together the first batches like during the
19:11
lockdowns. And Not this really big local
19:16
Awards competition called the Sip Awards based in Southern
19:20
California, like was transitioning from their normal
19:24
events, where they get a bunch of people together and do the
19:26
tasting events and the judging, and they had just pivoted
19:29
towards home tastings so they send these kits to their judges
19:34
and it's all consumer judges that just applies.
19:37
It's not industry experts and they would send like he's home
19:41
kits with numbers on them. It's like numbered owls.
19:44
And as soon as we put those first batches in bottles, we
19:47
sent them to and supports we just met that first deadline and
19:51
we had two Blends at that point. One is the original coffee
19:55
whiskey or other is the dark roast in that first year, the
20:00
darkest received platinum and an innovation award and the
20:03
original took double golden. That was really like a moment
20:08
where we had put something in a bottle.
20:10
We had sent it out to the market.
20:12
We realized people really Enjoyed it.
20:14
There was something there and then from that point on, I think
20:17
it's just been one foot in front of the other like believing in
20:21
the process and and then sharing it with the community and seeing
20:25
the response to the community has given us those far as
20:28
really, just been the fuel in the tank since then and it's
20:31
like, the more people, we share with more people, enjoy the
20:34
product and then they share it with their friends.
20:36
It it really seems like anything is possible now and it's just a
20:41
matter of patience and persistence.
20:44
So that you mentioned is something that really kind of
20:47
started my wheels turning which is you shared it with the
20:49
community. I do that as well.
20:51
I mean I share the stuff that I'm working on with the
20:53
community as well. I feel like I'm pretty good at
20:56
that. Getting podcasts out or getting
20:58
writing out, or whatever. It is art that I'm working on.
21:00
Where am I hiccups? Come is the selling part of it
21:03
and you guys are a new brand in a covid marketplace where it's
21:09
not as easy as just walking into the bar manager and saying, hey
21:11
will you try this and what you buy a case?
21:14
How did you start the process of selling it?
21:16
And I'll also, I'm going to add on to.
21:19
That makes a little bit of a longer question, which is you
21:21
guys don't do a ton of social media marketing or that kind of
21:24
branding if I'm understanding, right, it's really been, kind of
21:27
like wonder One Word of Mouth. Like, getting your product out
21:31
in front of people. How did that turn into a vapor
21:35
business? A viable business where people
21:37
are buying your product, as opposed to you going out and
21:40
giving it to them and sharing it with them.
21:42
Yeah, I'll preface with with a part and all that, you know,
21:45
David will take over on some of those first key accounts that
21:48
that really opened the door for us.
21:50
So I think a part of it was, we knew we had a brand that
21:54
visually like copy people's attention.
21:56
So I mean, there was a lot of care going into creating
21:59
something something different on the Shelf, something that we has
22:03
like a modern feel with this kind of classic embodiment
22:07
really like an iconic symbol. You know, there's a lot of
22:10
intention of going into that and as We show people like, it
22:13
definitely has this like eye catching and attention-grabbing
22:18
presentation and then the, the actual flavor, the liquid, the
22:22
liquid inside is unique. And like, once you taste it,
22:26
it's really, it's something like you've never tasted before and
22:30
it's super Pleasant. And I mean, you know, every time
22:33
we do liquid to lift Hastings everywhere, there's just like
22:36
such positive feedback and response and we saw that in
22:40
those first sip Awards where they And even get The Branding,
22:43
these were like unbranded bottles, that just have like a
22:45
number on them. And like, so we knew that we
22:47
knew what we had the product was like really good.
22:50
So I mean, it makes it a much easier sell to start when.
22:53
Like, those two things have been really dialed in and then, you
22:58
know, kind of I'll let David go into the process of how he was
23:02
able to like bring on those first accounts especially during
23:05
covid-19 tricky. Yeah, I mean as you guys are
23:09
mentioning it was or really like Range time.
23:13
And it was a, it was a weird dynamic of, a lot of bars and
23:16
restaurants. Not wanting to bring on new
23:18
products, transitioning to to go only or outdoor dining.
23:23
I'm so, a lot of spots to didn't have this capability as we're
23:26
just closed completely and early in the sales process, right?
23:32
When we had our first bottles, we connected with a lot of
23:38
Off-premise account. So you have like your local like
23:42
small like liquor stores and specialty grocery stores around
23:46
some of them you know, just hearing the story hearing this
23:49
class project turned into small family business gave us chance
23:54
and did put it on the Shelf. But also in that time, people
23:57
were really tightening up spending two, and going towards
24:01
products that they were already familiar with.
24:03
So not having the ability to do the trial in those.
24:07
Doors like we could get bottle placements and some Source but
24:10
we couldn't really do tastings at that point.
24:12
Really, we saw that the way we needed to get people tasting.
24:15
The product was through local restaurant and bar Partnerships
24:20
and we connected with several spots in downtown San Diego.
24:24
I remember doing the initial rounds in the Gaslamp area and
24:29
your I was skating from one spot to the next with a little pack
24:33
of mini bottles in my hand and it would go to spot.
24:37
Poor little samples to anyone. That was willing to try it.
24:40
Oh, just a lot of people weren't even, we're just not even
24:43
willing to try the product and then a lot of people tried it
24:46
and said maybe come back next year.
24:49
You know, we're liquidating our inventory.
24:51
A few dozen knows early on and that's just part of the process
24:55
at that point it was like it felt a little more threatening
24:59
in terms of like oh maybe this isn't going to work because
25:01
we're taking all these nose and all this stuff shutting down.
25:04
Now it's just like you just roll it.
25:06
That that's part of the Process. But we connect you to the
25:09
Gaslamp breakfast company during that time.
25:13
And the manager there is Zach Taste of the product and enjoyed
25:17
it and actually was ready to give it a chance on many.
25:22
So, there are local brunch spot in downtown on the 6th and Jay,
25:26
right, by Petco Park, and have a lot of, a lot of volume going
25:30
out every day. Very popular.
25:33
And they made a Nitro cold brew coffee cocktail.
25:37
It's like a great blend with any like hotter iced coffee.
25:40
It's a very intuitive. Go to.
25:43
We have a little bit of organic agave nectar in the whiskey.
25:47
So it balances really nicely with coffee cocktails, makes it
25:51
a little smoother and sweeter than just pouring in like your
25:54
traditional whiskey, they put that on the menu and we started
25:58
doing tastings. They're just like Trey past like
26:02
small batch basis just like in there whenever we could be like
26:06
going from Able to table with masks introducing the product
26:09
telling the story and since they were already serving food and
26:12
beverage it was like easy to integrate into their flow.
26:15
They were very generous in letting us do that at the time,
26:18
they understood that we didn't have many opportunities to share
26:22
this brand and they really welcomed us, which was
26:25
inspiring. A lot of people tasted it.
26:28
And a lot of people started ordering the cocktail.
26:30
And, and now it's, I mean, been like their best selling coffee
26:34
cocktail for the past year and a half.
26:37
Just like that response has led to a new menu placement.
26:41
We just got with all the breakfast Republic's.
26:43
So that's the same Restaurant Group there and and they end up
26:47
kind of gave us a chance. They looked at the initial data
26:50
and and now we're in all the breakfast Republic's and looking
26:53
to do the same thing, just really getting out there making
26:56
people aware of the product, like, showing how well it works
26:59
with the other offerings on the menu.
27:01
And the awareness piece is so key, and we've done a lot of
27:04
tasting since, like, things started to reopen, And that's
27:07
where we've seen a lot of resonance and people being
27:12
excited about the story. People really enjoying the
27:14
product, sharing it with friends and it's the one of the most
27:18
inspiring things for me has been going to some events and doing a
27:21
tasting and then we're at another event, a few months
27:24
later, or somewhere else and they say like oh, like I saw you
27:28
there, my friend saw you there and shared a bottle with me and
27:31
like my friend told me the whole story, you know, like I was like
27:34
at their house and like they told me how it started as a
27:36
class project. Jack did a CSU and how is this
27:39
small Grassroots business and and seeing like how the brand
27:45
like story has resonated and been internalized in a way that
27:49
other people can share, I really like.
27:52
It's like that's how this will work at the end of the day.
27:55
It's like having people take in like the energy and and be
27:59
excited to share it with with their friends and Community with
28:03
that kind of embodiment there. It's, um, you know, It gives
28:08
people a brand of resonate within the alcohol space that
28:10
they don't typically typically have right like a story to
28:14
connect with. I mean, if you look at any
28:16
alcohol shelf, 80 to 90% of the bottles, are all coming from the
28:20
same few companies, which a lot of people don't know.
28:22
There's like a handful of Beverage companies that own most
28:27
of the inventory on any bar, you're looking at and so
28:30
they're, you know, they're so massive and they're so big and
28:33
they've been around for so long that they don't really have,
28:36
there's no need for them. Have this, you know, story and
28:39
lifestyle story, and like, really brand residence, and they
28:42
don't because they're coming from like these large
28:44
conglomerates, where something like us especially, you know,
28:48
the support of San Diego Community.
28:49
It's like know this. Oh, this doesn't come from one
28:52
of those. Like, this is a family-owned
28:53
business, like we're second generation immigrants coming.
28:57
Like in putting out a product here, in in our hometown, like,
29:01
and put everything we have into it.
29:03
So it and it gives it that, you know, there's just has that
29:06
authentic. Connection people have been
29:08
super supportive in the community and even in the
29:11
industry side of things too, like, you know, where we have
29:15
other distillers and people like, you know, Trent who we
29:18
work with and Nick, who we work with the Pacific coast spirits
29:21
that are just like, welcome us with open arms and like Mentor a
29:24
center, just happy to have, you know, more, you know, something
29:28
new coming into the market. I'm a note.
29:32
I know that you guys have been out and about working with other
29:36
brands and and having events, there's been a bunch of spirits
29:39
events over the last six months. Or so that I've seen you guys
29:42
pop out bad or supporting shows with coffee in general.
29:46
Coffee is a is a evolving product over time.
29:49
So I'm wondering how do you figure out how to keep your
29:53
product consistent? Because one of the things that
29:56
whiskey and coffee are similar in, is that whiskey kind of
29:59
changes as it ages. Depending on how its store
30:02
depending on how its distilled depending on the temperature and
30:05
the humidity and all those things and coffee is very
30:07
similar in that. How do you find coffee to go
30:10
into your whiskey? And when you were first starting
30:12
that process, was it as simple as like, buying a bag of coffee
30:16
and dumping it into a bottle of whiskey to figure it out?
30:18
Or, you know, I did, were you looking for concentrates?
30:21
What is it that you guys thought?
30:22
This is how we can not only make this product?
30:25
That all of these first few people seem to love but we can
30:28
do it again and again. And again over and over over
30:32
time, it's a great question and early in the R&D process it was
30:37
the bag of beans soaked in soaked in whiskey base.
30:41
We started experimenting with different whiskey profiles to
30:46
see what would balance best with the coffee profile.
30:49
We experimented with some rise, some weeded Bourbons, some some
30:54
corn whiskeys, we ended up landing on Nashville, that's
31:00
99%. Corn, 1% barley gives it like
31:03
this, like little like Smooth sweetness from the corn.
31:06
That works really well with the Blends, and it just was the best
31:11
balance as we continued the R&D process.
31:14
And in the early Blends we would do like the coffee beans soaking
31:17
in the whiskey, and it would change a lot over time, as you
31:20
mention, it would tastes like really good.
31:23
And then a month later, it would taste different, two months
31:25
later would taste different. You'd have like some light
31:28
particulate from the beans left in there.
31:30
And we realized that to make something consistent that we
31:33
could really like honor the the product and create something
31:39
that we could put out and share in the Sip Awards.
31:41
And if you're like having that experience and it's something
31:45
that is award-worthy, the customers actually getting that
31:49
same experience on the next batch or six months later.
31:53
And we ended up experimenting with some different decaf coffee
31:57
extracts. And that really we We saw was
32:01
the most stable way to make this product scalable.
32:04
So we wanted the two Flagship blends to be something.
32:08
We could scale without diminishing the profiles.
32:12
Like there are a lot of small batch products where you can
32:15
have something really special and then it starts to gain
32:18
Traction in the local market and the recipe needs to be changed,
32:21
to bring it to the mass market. And what it once was, is no
32:25
longer what it is. And we didn't want that to be
32:28
what happened with first light. These Flagship Blends, we wanted
32:32
it to be something that wasn't perhaps like quite as bespoke or
32:37
like varied batch to batch. Like you're not getting like the
32:40
same like subtle nuances of a limited release product where
32:44
it's 100 bottles and that's it. It is something that's you know
32:47
more stable and more consistent. So you're like losing a little
32:51
bit of the Delicacies of like the subtleties of the, the whole
32:54
being infusion or the ground being infusion, but then you're
32:58
getting the consistency and you're getting a Quality
33:00
product. You know what to expect this.
33:03
We believe the best best in class in the flavored whiskey
33:07
category. So we took the decaf coffee
33:10
extract. We blended it with that corn
33:12
whiskey base and added some organic agave nectar.
33:17
It's a very dark great of agave. So you get a lot of depth and
33:20
complexity there as well that you don't get with high fructose
33:23
corn syrup or cane sugar syrup that are typically the go twos
33:29
in this space. As well.
33:31
And it also let us use a lot less sugar because you're
33:34
getting this robust flavor complexity from the Agave.
33:39
So you don't need a bunch of sugar to make it really smooth
33:42
and easy drinking, which is what we wanted.
33:44
Something that was really approachable for whiskey
33:46
Drinkers and on, Whiskey drinkers alike and the original
33:50
and dark roast. Blends directly came out of our
33:52
late friends and family test batches, we had a couple
33:56
different profiles, The Originals little more whiskey
33:58
forward, get a nice clean. In coffee finish dark roast a
34:02
little more robust, you get some hints of roasted chocolate and
34:07
we tested it out to a few hundred friends and family
34:10
members right before we were ready to lock it in and put it
34:14
in in bottle and put it on shelf.
34:16
And the responses were 50/50 and we realized people have
34:20
different palettes. And instead of shoehorning
34:23
everyone into one profile, we decided to release both and thus
34:28
far. It's been surprisingly.
34:30
Split in the open market, so we'll see how it continues to to
34:34
be received at scale. I just realized my problem,
34:38
which is, I don't have that many friends and family to test
34:40
products on. I learned, I top out around
34:43
10:00. Yeah, we're lucky to have a
34:45
large family. Yeah, covid.
34:49
It was like free, whiskey samples.
34:51
Share it with your friends and friends of friends.
34:53
And yeah, it was a fun time. Is the fun thing to try.
34:58
Like during those times to, I feel like it was something that
35:01
was nice to share with our friends and family and like
35:04
lifted people up a little bit in those times, where it was like,
35:07
we walk down and like dropping off a little samples of people's
35:10
doors. You know, because I can't like I
35:12
don't taste it together, giving a little cards to fill out.
35:15
What do you think? It's okay to recap Ryan and
35:27
David are Partners, they are co-ceos.
35:30
And while there is a fluidity to their roles, they also have a
35:33
lane within the company structure.
35:35
Ryan leads marketing and branding while David focuses on
35:38
sales and development. The name, first light comes from
35:42
the surf report. It is a reference to the very
35:45
first rays of sunlight that dance across the waves.
35:48
They represent the start of a new day of a new adventure and
35:52
being out there early will not only enable you to catch the
35:55
best waves. It also reinforces that your
35:57
seizing the day, not letting it come to you.
36:01
The coffee flavor in the first light coffee.
36:03
Whiskey comes from a decaf coffee extraction, or a
36:06
concentrate, which enables them to achieve a consistent flavor
36:10
bottle after bottle. However, I also know that they
36:13
sometimes collaborate with craft Coffee Roasters, to create
36:17
unique, one-off bottles, infused with locally roasted beans,
36:21
those special Whiskey's don't have the same shelf life,
36:23
because coffee beans are ever evolving and the flavor change
36:27
over time is less predictable. But if you see one on the Alfred
36:31
Barr bank.com or promoted on the at first light, whiskey
36:34
Instagram, likely around the holidays.
36:36
I recommend snapping it up, it probably won't last that long in
36:40
The Liquor Cabinet. Anyways, as a company, one of
36:43
the first LightCore mottos is embrace the unknown.
36:46
There are no guarantees in business or in life.
36:49
So, finding a balance, and appreciating the value of
36:52
disconnecting and learning to give yourself.
36:55
A break, is just as important as grinding, hard day after day,
36:58
there is always going to To be more work to be done tomorrow.
37:02
Granted when you're doing what you love, you either creating a
37:05
new coffee flavored, whiskey or Spirit, or producing a coffee
37:09
podcast for that matter. It doesn't feel much like work.
37:13
And finally, if you are in the SoCal area from San Diego to
37:16
West Hollywood, you can find First Light coffee, Whiskey's at
37:19
every breakfast Republic Restaurant, or just order some
37:23
for yourself on bar bank.com. I remind you that you can get
37:26
15% off your first light order with the discount code, our WC
37:31
Link in the show notes and on roast westcoast.com where you'll
37:35
find this shows newsletter. You can also go direct to check
37:38
out the first light, whiskey Vibe on Instagram at first,
37:41
light whiskey, or stop by first light, whisky.com this show has
37:46
industry Partners including first let whiskey who along with
37:49
our paid subscribers. Ensure that this show gets made
37:52
every single week and help us continue to grow.
37:56
Other roast industry Partners include Cafe litter.
37:59
Most your coffee. Company steady-state, coffee,
38:01
roasting Camp, Coffee Company, coffee cycle, roasting ignite,
38:05
Coffee Company, Maria coffee, Cape Horn, coffee importers, and
38:10
a Santa Coffee Roasters. Thank you all for listening and
38:14
for supporting the show and for occasionally, putting up with a
38:17
train whistle or some truck noise in the background.
38:20
This episode of the roast West Coast coffee podcast is was has
38:25
been written produced and recorded by me Ryan Walt and I
38:28
hope this episode is found you. Happy healthy.
38:31
And with at least enough sanity to make it through the day,
38:35
always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink a coffee.