Advertise on podcast: Business of Drinks

Badger Bevs sold more than 100K 9L cases in 2025, growing more than 230% YOY. Yet more than 95% of its sales still come from restaurants, bars, and hotels. Founder and CEO David Vogel made a deliberate choice to build the premium mixer brand in the on-premise first. Drawing on his experience at Blue Buffalo and The Chef’s Warehouse, he saw an opening for a mixer designed for high-end hospitality -- and a chance to earn the trust of bartenders and beverage directors before pursuing broad retail distribution. That trust took work. In New York, David walked into bars with samples and was often turned away. Buyers might like the tonic or ginger beer, but they also needed to know Badger could deliver consistently. Today, the brand has more than 1,000 customers in that market and sells in 33 states. In this episode, David explains how Badger expanded one market at a time, why delivery frequency and service matter as much as a distributor’s reach, and what it takes to support accounts after the first sale. We also get into the product choices behind the growth -- from bartender input on flavor and carbonation to a resealable bottle designed around how cocktails are made behind American bars. For drinks founders, it’s a useful look at how a brand can grow quickly while staying focused on the customers it set out to serve. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Getting into more doors is not the same as building a scalable drinks business. As brands move beyond founder-led sales, the burden of proof changes. Early on, strong velocity and repeat purchase may be enough to attract investment.  But by $3M-$7M in revenue, investors want to see rising same-store sales, faster reorders, and evidence that the team understands exactly what is driving growth. And before raising a $10M+ round, experimentation is no longer a strategy: Founders need a repeatable playbook showing how each new dollar will translate into accounts, reorders, and sustainable expansion. Few investors have seen that transition from as many sides as Jason Sherman, co-founder and managing partner of Top Shelf Ventures. At AB InBev’s ZX Ventures, he was part of a team that completed about 200 deals and nearly $1B in investments and acquisitions. He later founded TapRm, an e-commerce platform and beer distributor serving close to 5K New York City accounts. Today, he backs early-stage companies across beverage and other “vice” categories. We discuss: 🔸 Why Top Shelf uses roughly $1K in annual sales per retail door as an initial benchmark -- and points to their portfolio company Gratsi at $4K-$5K as an outlier 🔸 Why a 5K-account footprint means little if 4K accounts sell only $50-$100 annually 🔸 What investors expect at different stages, from sub-$1M brands to companies preparing for major growth rounds 🔸 How to turn founder-led selling into a repeatable market-expansion playbook 🔸 Why brands should move beyond self-distribution early -- and choose distributors based on attention rather than size 🔸 Why financial fluency around inventory, working capital, and cash flow becomes essential as a company scales This episode is a practical guide to the moment when founder hustle must become a system. For drinks entrepreneurs preparing to raise capital, enter new markets, or build a larger sales organization, Jason lays out how to prove that growth is repeatable -- and that the business is ready to support it. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

You’re paying for tastings, winning placements, and sending teams into the field. But can you tell which of those investments are actually driving sales? For too many drinks companies, the answer is no. The relevant data is buried in spreadsheets, email chains, and program recaps that arrive months after the money is spent. In this sponsored episode of Business of Drinks, Erica Duecy sits down with Ian Ferguson, CEO of PIÑATA, to explore how brands can connect what happens in the field to the numbers that guide their next investment. The conversation grew out of our interview with Saint Spritz’s Ben Patton, who revealed that the brand uses PIÑATA to manage its nationwide team of roughly 100 brand ambassadors. But the opportunity extends well beyond scheduling tastings: It’s about helping sales, marketing, distributors, and agencies act on the same information. One example: Ian says PIÑATA has seen sell-through nearly double when in-store activations were backed by an end cap display. Yet the teams booking tastings often don’t know where those displays are happening. PIÑATA helps surface those details across teams and agencies.  We dig into: Why sampling ROI can be misleading: A tasting that helps win an opening order serves a different purpose from one supporting inventory already on the shelf. Measuring them the same way can lead to the wrong conclusions. What happens after a national account win: How to turn an authorization into actual placements, communicate expectations to distributors, and spot gaps in execution. How to measure trade relationships: Connecting bartender engagement and event guest lists to account performance over time. Where lean teams waste resources: From tastings at stores with no inventory to multiple people calling on the same accounts while others go unsupported. What emerging brands need to prove next: Working backward from a buyer or distributor meeting to capture the evidence that will help open doors. For anyone trying to make a limited commercial budget work harder, this conversation gets specific about where to start. For more information, visit www.gopinata.com For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Bizzy Coffee has grown revenue 175% over the past three years, crossing $50 million in annual revenue, producing more than 1 million bottles a month, and reaching 12,000+ stores nationwide. But the playbook behind that growth is surprisingly unglamorous. In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Alex French, Co-Founder and CEO of Bizzy Coffee, about how the company built scale by obsessing over product-market fit, pricing, repeat purchase, velocity, and distribution. One of Bizzy’s biggest breakthroughs came from a conversation Alex had while personally sampling coffee in a grocery store. A customer loved Bizzy’s cold brew concentrate -- but didn’t realize she was supposed to dilute it. That interaction helped inspire a major pivot toward the lower-priced, 48-ounce ready-to-drink format that now anchors the business. Rather than chase the single-serve cans dominating beverage innovation, Bizzy focused on becoming what Alex calls “the pot of coffee of the next generation” -- an affordable, customizable cold brew designed primarily for consumption at home. Alex also explains why price promotion has become one of Bizzy’s most important customer-acquisition tools. The strategy: Use pricing and packaging to drive trial, deliver a product people love, and turn that first purchase into repeat velocity. Bizzy is now increasing velocities even as it adds distribution -- with Alex estimating the brand still has roughly twice its current store base left to pursue. We also get into: • How Amazon became both a sales channel and consumer-insights engine• Why Bizzy brought manufacturing in-house -- and the risks of doing it yourself• How the company finally reached profitability in 2024, then faced soaring coffee costs and tariffs• The operational push that ultimately improved extraction yields by roughly 33%• Why Alex sees greater opportunity in format innovation than another new flavor• How Amazon search behavior helped inspire Bizzy’s new double espresso shots It’s a candid look at what scaling a beverage business really requires -- and why sustainable growth often comes down to getting the fundamentals right, over and over again. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

The best investors aren’t just just identifying great brands. They’re identifying shifts in consumer behavior before everyone else sees them. That’s the approach Jeff Cantalupo, Founder and Managing Partner of Listen Ventures, has taken throughout his career — from a decade in brand strategy at Leo Burnett to investing in companies including Angel’s Envy, Go Brewing, Delta Beverage, and Magic Cactus. Listen starts with the consumer. The firm conducts its own research — from ethnographies and interviews to literal tours of consumers’ fridges and freezers — looking for changes in behavior that could create the next big category or brand. One shift Jeff is particularly bullish on is “vice wellness.” Historically, some of the strongest consumer businesses have been built around ritual, identity, and repeat behavior. Now, as wellness becomes increasingly important to consumers, Jeff sees opportunity in products that combine those powerful behaviors with “wellness permission.” In drinks, that’s helping fuel what Listen calls the “social beverage” — from non-alcoholic beer to hemp-derived THC and other functional beverages. The thesis isn’t that alcohol is disappearing. It’s that consumers are becoming more intentional about what they drink for different occasions — and that’s creating space for entirely new choices. In this episode, we dig into: • The three types of innovation Jeff looks for: Product, business model, and brand narrative• Why repeat purchase, CAC payback, margins, and unit economics matter more than hype• Why omnichannel capabilities have become table stakes for beverage brands• What Listen saw in Go Brewing, Delta Beverage, and Magic Cactus• Why vertical integration can sometimes create a competitive advantage• What made Angel’s Envy investable — and why timing was critical to its success• Why a great consumer business isn’t necessarily a venture-backable business• How founders can conduct meaningful consumer research without a big budget Plus, Jeff shares one deceptively simple branding question he teaches at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management: What business are you actually in? You may sell beer, tequila, or THC seltzer. But the brands that break through often own something bigger — an occasion, a feeling, or a consumer need. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Gratsi’s boxed-wine business began as a pandemic pivot. It became the foundation for one of the category’s most notable growth stories. After selling more than 375K 9L case equivalents last year, the company expects to grow 30%+ this year to exceed 500K cases — driven by subscriptions, repeat purchases, and a carefully sequenced expansion into wholesale. Founder and CEO Stephen Vlahos originally launched Gratsi in a half-bottle format designed for casual bars and restaurants. When COVID shut down most of those accounts, he needed a product that could work DTC. Bag-in-box was lighter and less expensive to ship, while offering consumers wine that remained fresh for weeks after opening. Rather than persuading value-oriented boxed-wine drinkers to trade up, Gratsi targeted consumers accustomed to buying $20+ bottles. It reframed the box around quality, freshness, convenience, and value, then wrapped it in a simple, Mediterranean-inspired brand that strips away much of wine’s traditional complexity. That DTC foundation is now giving Gratsi an unusual advantage in wholesale. Before entering a market, the company can identify existing customers, gather store requests, and activate local demand. Once wholesale launches, retail can quickly become roughly 80% of its volume in that state — even as DTC continues to grow. In this episode, we discuss: How Gratsi grew from 2K cases to 75K cases before entering wholesale How it built nearly 30,000 subscribers averaging approximately three boxes per month How DTC data helps “warm up” a retail market before launch Why Gratsi is building geographic density instead of pursuing national distribution all at once Why its lifestyle content often barely features the product What Stephen means by “escape competition with authenticity” For drinks entrepreneurs, Gratsi offers a compelling playbook for using DTC not as the final destination, but as the foundation for much larger retail growth. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

What makes a beverage brand truly investable — and should founders be raising venture capital at all? In this episode of Business of Drinks, we sit down with Nate Cooper, founder and managing partner of Barrel Ventures, to unpack what investors are actually looking for in emerging food and beverage companies — and why building a great business and building a venture-backable business are not necessarily the same thing. Nate has been on both sides of the table: First as an operator, and now as an investor in companies including Olipop, Partake, Nowadays, and Ultra. That experience has shaped a candid view of capital, growth, and what really creates investor conviction. For beverage brands, Nate would rather see strong velocity than a huge door count. He pays close attention to repeat purchase, pricing, gross margin potential, and whether founders really know their numbers. And when it comes to financing, his advice is simple: Raise more than you think you need, spend less than you think you have — and don’t assume venture is always the smartest money. We also get into the consumer shifts Nate believes could reshape beverage over the next several years. He explains what he saw in Olipop before the category existed, why non-nicotine pouches could become a major competitor to functional drinks, how wearables may be changing alcohol consumption, and why he believes hemp-derived THC beverages could become far bigger than the industry expects. Plus: Why velocity matters more than distribution alone What founders need to know before pitching investors Why billion-dollar outcomes are far rarer than startup culture suggests How brands should navigate the “messy middle” of scaling Why the next competitor to your drink may not be a beverage at all If you’re raising capital, planning to raise, or simply trying to understand how investors evaluate emerging brands, this episode is packed with practical takeaways. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

How do you build a 100,000-case tequila brand without a big marketing budget — or, until recently, even a U.S. sales team? Arette Tequila did it largely from the bar out. The family-owned brand shipped more than 100,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, growing about 20% last year, with another 20% growth projected this year. More than 80% of its U.S. sales are still in bars and restaurants — the result of a strategy built around bartenders, independent distributors, and years of relentless market work. In this episode, we talk with Arette CEO Eduardo Orendain about what that kind of brand building actually looks like. For much of the past decade, Eduardo was essentially working the U.S. market himself, at times traveling 36 weeks a year. He joined distributor ride-alongs, went account to account, and stayed at bars through the end of the shift — listening to what bartenders and customers were actually saying. The goal was to make Arette a tequila bartenders would recommend when nobody from the company was in the room and no incentive was attached. That approach also shaped Arette’s distributor strategy. Rather than moving toward the biggest national houses, the company has largely grown alongside smaller independent distributors — and has stayed with essentially the same network for more than a decade. We also get into: How Arette narrowed its business from bulk tequila, private label, and multiple brands to focus on one Why Eduardo believes “awareness creates trial, but quality creates loyalty” Why data is a rearview mirror — and working the market can reveal what’s coming next How bartender demand turned Arette Fuerte from a distillery pour into a commercial product Why smaller brands can sometimes win more distributor mindshare by choosing smaller partners Arette’s next phase: building its first U.S. team and expanding beyond its on-premise stronghold This episode is a practical look at how patient, focused, trade-led brand building can compound into meaningful scale. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

How do you know if your drinks brand is actually growing? It sounds like a simple question. But in beverage alcohol, the answer can get complicated fast. Shipments may be up because inventory moved into distribution. Revenue can rise because of a price increase even as volume declines. And a brand can add dozens of new accounts without generating enough velocity or reorders to make those placements sustainable. In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Danelle Kosmal, Consultant at 3 Tier Beverages, about how to use data to understand what’s really happening in your business — and distinguish true consumer traction from growth that may look better on paper than it does in the market. Danelle spent more than a decade at NielsenIQ, ultimately leading its beverage alcohol practice, and later served as VP of Research at the Beer Institute. She brings a deep understanding of the datasets available to drinks companies, as well as their limitations. She explains why no single metric tells the whole story — and why emerging brands, in particular, need to know which numbers actually matter. We get into: 🔶 Why distribution is only the beginning — and velocity is critical to understanding whether a product is working 🔶 What shipments, depletions, and scan data each tell you 🔶 Why revenue growth can mask declining volume 🔶 Why repeat rate may be one of the best measures of real consumer traction 🔶 How to diagnose whether slow growth is coming from distribution, price, promotion, placement, or demand 🔶 Which numbers matter most when pitching retailers, distributors, and investors 🔶 How smaller brands can access useful data without paying for more than they need One of Danelle’s most important points: Data isn’t strategy. The goal isn’t to accumulate more reports or build bigger dashboards. It’s to use the right information to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and where to focus next. For drinks entrepreneurs trying to build healthier, more sustainable growth, this episode is a practical guide to knowing what the numbers are really telling you. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Yes Way Rosé is growing while wine is shrinking. The brand closed 2025 at roughly 167,000 cases and, in the first half of 2026, grew depletions 16% over the prior year — notable performance in a market where both rosé and wine overall have been declining. So how is Yes Way Rosé taking share? In this episode, we talk with co-founder Erica Small about the playbook behind the brand’s growth — and why there isn’t one silver bullet. Instead, Yes Way Rosé has built momentum by combining strong national-account relationships, consistent retail execution, cultural relevance, approachable pricing, and a product that keeps consumers coming back. National accounts have become the brand’s “bread and butter,” with Yes Way Rosé earning and retaining shelf space at major retailers including Target, Walmart, Publix, Albertsons, and Total Wine. But getting onto the shelf is only the beginning. Erica explains why velocity, reorders, seasonal programming, and ongoing marketing support determine whether a brand actually gets to stay there. We also get into the importance of winning the cold box, how Yes Way Rosé uses shipment, depletion, and retail data to understand brand health, and why maintaining relevance matters even after a brand reaches meaningful scale. Plus, Erica shares the unconventional story behind Yes Way Rosé’s launch: She and co-founder Nikki Huganir built the lifestyle brand and community years before there was ever wine in the bottle. And when they finally launched the wine nationally in 2018, they knew the liquid had to over-deliver. For drinks entrepreneurs navigating a slower-growth market, this episode is a case study in an increasingly important reality: When the category isn’t growing, the brands that outperform have to win share. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

How do you scale a THC beverage brand to 100K cases while preparing for the possibility that the category could be disrupted by federal regulation? Jason Dayton and his co-founders launched Trail Magic just 19 days after Minnesota opened the door to hemp-derived THC beverages. The brand quickly grew from one wholesaler to more than 60, reached roughly 5,000 retail doors, and closed last year at about 100,000 cases, with approximately 25% year-over-year growth. In this episode, Jason explains what enabled that early momentum and what became harder as the business expanded. He shares how Trail Magic moved from racing into every available market to launching more deliberately, supporting distributors more closely, and focusing on the accounts most likely to drive sustainable velocity. We also explore what actually works at retail. Jason discusses the importance of sampling, displays, consumer education, and consistent account follow-up, along with why Trail Magic performs best in stores where shoppers value flavor and quality rather than simply seeking the most THC for the lowest price. Jason also takes us inside the company’s relationship with Target and explains what it takes to earn the trust of a major retailer in a category with significant compliance and reputational risk. With hemp-derived THC facing the possibility of a federal ban, Trail Magic is now preparing for multiple outcomes. Jason shares how the company is protecting cash, managing inventory, and diversifying beyond THC with a new line of Trail Magic Cocktails in 2.9% and 8% ABV formats. This is a candid conversation about first-mover advantage, the operational strain of rapid growth, and how to protect a brand when the rules governing its fastest-growing category may change. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

Beverage alcohol is not simply in a downturn. It is undergoing a structural reset, according to Jon and Matt Moramarco of bw166. In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Jon, Managing Partner of bw166, and Matt, Chief Data Scientist, about what the total market data says is really happening across wine, beer, and spirits, and what founders and operators need to do differently as a result. Their argument is that the industry can’t wait for the old market to return. Demographic change, affordability pressure, health concerns, changing social occasions, and new competition for consumers’ time and money are reshaping demand. The question is no longer simply, “When will the market recover?” It’s, “Where is demand moving, and how should brands respond?” Jon and Matt also explain why beverage alcohol should be viewed as one market. Consumers move across categories, formats, occasions, and price points constantly. Every growth story is ultimately a fight for market share. Wine may face the biggest challenge. Since 1994, overall consumer prices have roughly doubled and median household income has risen about 2.5X. But the average price of wine has climbed about 3.4X, while Napa Cabernet pricing has risen roughly 5.7X. Premiumization created significant value, but it also made wine more expensive, complicated, and risky for new consumers to explore. In this episode, Jon and Matt unpack: • Why the current slowdown looks structural, not cyclical• Why the industry may be losing drinking occasions more than drinkers• How single-serve formats and personalization are reshaping consumption• Why health messaging has become a public-relations challenge• The difference between shipments, depletions, and scan data• Why distribution gains mean little without reorders• The “black holes” in industry data, from on-premise to private label• Which metrics belong in investor decks, buyer pitches, and founder dashboards For brands, the takeaway is clear: Stop chasing breadth for its own sake. Build depth where the product works, measure reorder and churn, improve the value proposition, and use data to understand what is actually happening, not just what the latest headline says. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Caroline Lamb, contributor: Caroline is a producer and on-air contributor at Business of Drinks and a key account sales and marketing specialist at AHD Vintners, a Michigan-based importer and distributor. Caroline Lamb LinkedIn Instagram @borkaline Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

How do you become a top RTD spritz brand without raising outside capital? That’s the story behind Saint Spritz, the wine-based canned spritz brand inspired by Italian aperitivo culture. In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Ben Patton, CEO and co-founder of Saint Spritz, about how the brand reached 55,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, grew triple digits, expanded into 43 states, and became the number-one RTD spritz — while remaining fully bootstrapped. For Ben, that constraint became a discipline. Without VC money or growth-fund capital, Saint Spritz had to measure every dollar, test small, kill what didn’t work, and scale what did. The team couldn’t afford to “buy” growth. They had to prove velocity. That mindset shaped everything: The early DTC launch through co-founder (The Bachelorette) JoJo Fletcher’s audience, the move into national retail with Target, the buildout of a 100-person brand ambassador team, and the focus on turning shelf placement into repeat purchase. One of the biggest lessons? Getting on shelf is not the same as getting found. Because Saint Spritz is made with wine, retailers often place it in the wine aisle. But consumers shop it like an RTD canned cocktail — near High Noon, Surfside, White Claw, cold boxes, and grab-and-go occasions. Ben calls that problem “wine jail,” and says better placement can drive a 3x to 5x lift in velocity. In this episode, Ben breaks down: — How Saint Spritz used DTC demand as an early signal for retail — Why Target became the brand’s first major national growth driver — What retailers need to see before expanding a brand nationally — How a bootstrapped team decides which marketing bets deserve money — Why Saint Spritz built its own ambassador team instead of relying only on third-party tasting companies — How in-store tastings can move five to six cases when the team is trained and incentivized properly — Why “accessible premium” works when the liquid, packaging, and occasion all line up — How the brand’s non-alcoholic line quietly launched on Amazon and quickly became a major growth signal — Why cold-box placement may be the next big unlock as Saint Spritz expands through beer-distributor networks This is a tactical episode for any drinks founder trying to scale without unlimited capital. Saint Spritz shows what happens when a brand combines a clear consumer occasion with disciplined spending, strong retail execution, and a relentless focus on velocity. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Caroline Lamb, contributor: Caroline is a producer and on-air contributor at Business of Drinks and a key account sales and marketing specialist at AHD Vintners, a Michigan-based importer and distributor. Caroline Lamb LinkedIn Instagram @borkaline Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

What does it take to challenge the giants of domestic light beer? In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Ari Opsahl, CEO of Tivoli Brewing and Outlaw Light, about building a new light beer brand in one of the most entrenched categories in beverage alcohol. Outlaw Light is taking aim at the biggest names in beer — Bud Light, Coors Light, Busch Light, Natty Light — with a strategy that runs counter to much of the industry’s premiumization playbook. Instead of asking consumers to trade up, Ari argues that light beer needed to get back to what made the category powerful in the first place: affordability, drinkability, and mass appeal. That pricing story is at the center of Outlaw’s David-and-Goliath strategy. While the macro brewers have continued to raise prices, Ari saw an opening for a brand that could deliver a quality light beer at a price that felt fair to consumers. But as he explains, competing with big beer is not just about liquid or price. It means taking on decades of distributor relationships, chain-store influence, stadium sponsorships, planogram control, and what he calls the “golden handcuffs” that protect incumbent brands. Ari also gets into the unglamorous realities of scaling fast. In just a few years, Outlaw has grown from a Colorado launch to more than 1 million case equivalents annually, with ambitions to reach roughly 3 million cases in 2026. But getting there means executing across chain resets, distributor alignment, pricing, scanning, floor displays, sampling, and field sales — the operational details that often determine whether a brand actually wins at retail. We discuss: • Why affordability can be a disruptive strategy in a category dominated by legacy brands • How Outlaw Light is trying to win without a Super Bowl-sized marketing budget • Why distributor “golden handcuffs” make challenging big beer so difficult • How chain placements only matter if the brand can execute at store level • Why Outlaw invested in field sales and sampling while many brands pulled back • Why persistence — hearing “no” again and again — may be the most important founder skill of all For anyone building, scaling, or trying to disrupt a legacy drinks category, this episode is a sharp look at how a smaller brand can find an opening against giants — and what it really takes to turn that opening into growth. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Caroline Lamb, contributor: Caroline is a producer and on-air contributor at Business of Drinks and a key account sales and marketing specialist at AHD Vintners, a Michigan-based importer and distributor. Caroline Lamb LinkedIn Instagram @borkaline Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

For many drinks brands, distribution can feel like the big unlock. Get the right distributor. Win the right placements. Add more doors. But inside the distributor tier, the math is more complicated. In this episode of Business of Drinks, Mark Chaplin, President, Commercial Sales at Southern Glazer’s Wines & Spirits, takes us inside how one of the most important companies in U.S. beverage alcohol thinks about growth, velocity, account strategy, data, and execution. Southern Glazer’s is the largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States. Shanken’s Market Watch estimates the company generates $25.2 billion in annual sales revenue, servicing more than 250,000 on- and off-premise accounts across 47 states. That scale makes this conversation especially useful for founders and commercial teams trying to understand what happens after a brand gets into distribution — and why more accounts do not always mean a stronger business. Mark explains why adding doors can lower sales per point of distribution, why not every placement creates the same value, and why suppliers need to think carefully about the tradeoff between expansion and velocity. We also get into the parts of distribution that are easy to underestimate: • The hidden costs of returns, wrong orders, stockouts, and poor program timing • Why trade spend gets wasted when brands are slow to decide where to focus • Why targeted “liquid to lips” often beats broad sampling for emerging brands • What makes a strong annual plan with a distributor — and why it has to start before the year begins • Why chain placements require long lead times, authorization strategy, and follow-through after the win • How the distributor salesperson’s job is shifting from order-taking to consultation as data, B2B platforms, and e-commerce change the sales call We also talk about pricing strategy, on-premise economics, convenience channel authorizations, Southern Glazer’s Proof platform, and the broader changes reshaping the distributor landscape. For anyone trying to build a drinks brand inside the three-tier system, this is a practical look at how distribution really works — and what brands need to understand before they chase the next door. For the latest updates, follow us: Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!) Business of Drinks YouTube Business of Drinks LinkedIn Instagram @bizofdrinks Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. Erica Duecy LinkedIn Instagram @ericaduecy Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor. Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn Caroline Lamb, contributor: Caroline is a producer and on-air contributor at Business of Drinks and a key account sales and marketing specialist at AHD Vintners, a Michigan-based importer and distributor. Caroline Lamb LinkedIn Instagram @borkaline If you enjoyed today’s conversation, follow Business of Drinks wherever you’re listening, and don’t forget to rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners passionate about the drinks industry. Thank you!