Day 448 – You like it! You really like it!

Back after 3 days!

Saturday was a long day but, one that I would do over and over. Walt Disney built an apartment over the fire station on Main street in Disney land. It is one of the first buildings as the entrances come together when people enter Disneyland. It was said the Walt used to look out and look at the guest’s faces as they saw down Main towards the castle. The smile and reaction on their faces was what Walt loved. It gave him a huge amount of satisfaction seeing people enjoy his creation.

When I am at a tasting event pouring Eve’s Apple Pie, I feel like Walt Disney. I wait for the look on everyone’s face as they taste our Apple Pie for the first time. The wows and the amazings are great to hear but, the look of enjoyment is what makes me do these events over and over. Saturday’s event at Snohomish on the Rocks, was another one of those events.

While we were sharing our Apple Pie with a few hundred people, there was something even more exciting going on 833 miles south in San Francisco. A few months ago we submitted Eve’s Apple Pie to the San Francisco World Spirit Competition to see how it fared among it’s competition.

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the largest, most influential international spirits competition in America, is judged by a prestigious panel of nationally recognized spirits experts. Judging is based on a blind, consensual procedure, ensuring competitive integrity as it remains the nation’s most respected spirits competition.

This year there were over 1500 spirit  entries into dozens of categories. We entered Eve’s Apple Pie into the flavored Whiskey Class and won a Bronze medal! Now it is one thing to like and believe in your own product and creation. It is great when friends enjoy it and tell you that it is good. It is Fantastic when you see how good it is in the eyes of strangers when they taste it for the first time. It is unbelievable that when put in front of the most discernible spirit pallets in the world that we get recognized!

Yes . . .  it is really that good!

We were notified via email Sunday night at the close of the judging. They will be posting the official results on April 4th and we will be celebrating of course! We are proud of this accomplishment and humbled by the praise of our peers. I am excited to order some stickers to put on the bottles showing off our accomplishment.

Thank you all who support us, this is your win too!

 

Day 349 – Soooooo close!

Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I get a job things are starting to get some real traction with Eve’s.

In the last 48 hours, our infused vodka recipes have been approved, we have finally gotten a hold of someone who knows what they are talking about at Walmart. We are being presented to Albertsons and Costco, and Whole Foods in California is getting closer! It is like the fuse has been burning forever and it is getting close to the powderkeg!

I’m not sure what happened but it is AWESOME!!!

While these are all very great things, they are still just potential and will take a lot of work to make them happen. This is one of the reasons that it is nice to be partnered up and have other people you can rely on to help get the ball across the finish line.

Thinking ahead we will need to be making some serious Apple Pie if these deals go down! We are already planning on Walmart starting with a 25 case per month order just in the Western Washington market. add in those other accounts and we could be at 150 – 200 cases a month with just one product.

We have two other moonshines we are just about to launch and then the vodkas in the Spring. With a good foothold of an anchor product like our Apple Pie we could be moving close to a 1000 cases a month by this summer!

Its all blue sky right now but, why not? I mean we are in a couple other states and we have a great product. We just have to figure out how to keep up with the demand and the growth and we should be good. We also have to hope that we can get our local distribution under control.

In the mean time we just keep keepin on and trying to move forward. Keep your eyes open for bottling parties because we are going to be needing a lot of help!

 

Day 322 – Tastings, Fundraisers, and Cocktail Contests

Last night we went to a local Tasting event and fund raiser for the Washington State Distillers guild.

It was awesome as events like these usually are. It was held in the old tasting room at the original Rainier brewery. A group called Seattle Uncorked has leased and renovated it calling it Factory Luxe. It is a cozy little room and there were about a dozen local distillers present for the what they were calling the Dark Spirit and Whiskey Event.

We love these types of events because they are usually aimed at industry people and we get great exposure. People pay for entry and the get to sample all kinds of spirits for the price of admission. At events like this one, if they like it, they can buy it on the spot. We always do really well at these events and especially a dark spirits event in the Fall. We absolutely crushed it last night.

One of the cool things about the event last night is that there was a cocktail contest with judges from local Seattle bars. Distillers were invited to create a cocktail and submit it to the judge panel for review. It being fall and a chilly night we submitted our Whipped Apple Cider for consideration. Apple Pie Moonshine, Whipped Vodka, and organic apple cider heated up and served. Knowing that bartenders were going to be the ones judging, we wanted to create something that was not just good but, simple and easy to recreate. We won second place for best tasting and afterwards all of the judges came over to talk to us about the product. I think we will be getting a couple new placements in downtown including the very popular Von’s Gustobistro. The General Manager and two of her bartenders love our Apple Pie. When a popular bar is famous for how many spirits they carry it is not only important to be represented but you have to have the support and passion of the bartenders to push the product. When I mentioned point of sales stuff to them they told me that they did not need it because, they would be the point of sale and would push this beverage as one of their favorites. That my friends is what we shoot for in this business. There is no better marketing available in the world, than and enthused innovator.

After the 3 hour event we sold about 2 1/2 cases. With only about 150 people in attendance that is pretty damn good for us and we had the number one selling product at the event. I would say it was a great night despite the 2 1/2 hours it took us to get there in rush hour traffic.

Hey if you want to join us at our next event it will be in Snohomish on December 13th at Dairyland Farm! Come have some fun, drink, and get some last minute Christmas beverage type gifts. Find more info here! Making Spirits Bright.

Day 226 – Competition is good.

Colin and Carol our distillers are at an event in Yakima today. It is a blues festival of sorts and there is Wine & Spirit sampling going on. If you like the samples you can buy bottles right there in the spot.

Yeah now that is a blues festival right?

Well, there is another distillery there actually in Yakima. They make an Apple Pie Product. W have been at festivals, tastings and other events with these guys there and I have no problem with them. I am an entrepreneur and respect anyone that is going to set out on their own and take a swing. They on the other hand do not like it when we show up to an event.

When they realized that we were at the same event today and in fact right next to them, they actually asked the event coordinator to ask us not to sample Eve’s Apple Pie Moonshine!

Can you believe the balls it took to even ask? Do you think they have any idea how weak and desperate that made them look? Even they know that our product is way better than theirs.

I can make that claim because I have actually done tasting tests head to head with them. Also, at any event we have been at together we outsell them by leaps and bounds.  Eve’s Apple Pie is the best in its category and we know it and so does everyone else.

We do have a couple other things coming up. Next Saturday we will be at the Washington Wine and Spirit Awards in Wenatchee at Toyota town center. That will be a good time and then in September we have a show in Spokane with Southern Wine & Spirits and in October there is the Seattle Uncorked Witchcraft-Spirits & Potions event.

Anything we can do to get the word out. Our product is the best we just need to get people introduced to Eve now!

 

 

Day 138 – A Week of Sales Presentations

Okay Sunday night and I have a good week ahead!

The focus of this week is to make presentations and move some Apple Pie! I have a couple appointments already scheduled this week including Safeway tomorrow. I will be filling that pipeline and making this thing happen.

I am a bit unsure about the meeting tomorrow with Safeway but, I am looking at it as informational as well as a sales meeting. The meeting should be pretty warm and I hope that he will be willing to share some insight on how big chains deal with spirit sales. This is something that is not only new to me but we have only had privatized liquor sales her in Washington for a relatively short time.

With a normal product there are all kinds of costs associated with getting your product in the store and on the shelves. There are slotting and reset costs. Not only are you required to pay for your shelf space, you have to contribute to the cost of resetting the section to allow room for your product or products. These decisions are now made at a corporate level at these large chains and not so much at the local store level. Stores here in Washington are still trying to figure out how to best merchandise and promote in their stores.

With the information I get from this meeting tomorrow I feel like I will be better equipped for other chain stores that are on my hit list. I have some very aggressive goals and hope to get Eve’s into 100 retail locations by the end of the summer. With every retail location that it goes into we will be focusing on the bars and restaurants around that retail location to drive sales.

When a person goes into a bar and sees a drink special or a new spirit being offered they are likely to give it a try. This is our sales floor and where we capture the retail customer. When they like it at the bar they look for it in the store.

Several weeks ago we had a call from BevMo! in Tacoma because this exact thing happened. The Blazing Onion had a drink special featuring Eve’s Apple Pie and customers loved it so much they started looking for it at locations around the restaurant.

It is a dance that I think I have figured out and now it is Friday night and I am dressed ready to try my two left feet and  see if I can execute. Time will tell.

Check back tomorrow and I hope to have great news about Safeway and Eve’s Apple Pie!

 

Day 79 – Bevmo!

Yeah today was a great day!

I spent some time finalizing the design for the display that I am designing for Eve’s Apple Pie. It will be a full case display for liquor stores and I will post pictures soon. I made a delivery to the Blazing Onion which is our first chain to take on Eve’s. They created a delicious cocktail with Spiced Coconut rum and pineapple juice that has been wildly successful at their Tacoma location. Last Friday they went through almost 2 full bottles in just one night and the response was so positive that customers have been looking for places to buy Apple Pie Moonshine. One of those places was the local Bevmo franchise.

About 1:30 today I got a call from Bevmo Corporate on California wanting to send me paperwork to be a vendor. This will be a huge boost for us. With Bevmo and Total Wine we have 2 large accounts that will take us to the next level and I cannot tell you how exciting this is!

I am getting calls regularly from local businesses that have heard of us and want Eve’s. We are doing a local Distillery show Saturday and also received a call for another show in Seattle April 5th for upcoming new products in Washington.

This is not only validation but the grassroots support we need to move to the next level! I look forward to being able to capitalize on this momentum and make some big things happen.

Wherever you go, do me a favor and ask for Eve’s Apple Pie Moonshine!