Man Cave Happy Hour
Welcome to Man Cave Happy Hour – Whiskey, Spirits, and the stories that go along with them.
Join Jamie, Matt, and August as they take you on a spirited journey through the world of fine drinks and fascinating conversations. Broadcasting live from top lounges, distilleries, and happy hours, they explore the best new spirits, uncover hidden gems, and dive into the stories behind the bottles.
From master distillers and cocktail experts to bartenders, foodies, and entrepreneurs, every episode is a toast to craftsmanship, creativity, and the love of a great drink. Whether you're a whiskey connoisseur or just love a good cocktail, pull up a chair, pour a glass, and enjoy the ride.
Produced at the Podcast Your Voice Studios
Man Cave Happy Hour
Happy Hour Goes Finnish: The Story of Loncaro Long Drink
Dive into the refreshing world of authentic Finnish long drinks as we welcome the team behind Lancaro to the Man Cave Happy Hour. This eye-opening conversation reveals how a paralyzed founder's dream evolved into a mission-driven beverage company revolutionizing the ready-to-drink market with clean, natural flavors.
Discover the fascinating history behind Finland's national cocktail, born during the 1952 Olympics as an efficient way to serve refreshing gin drinks to thirsty visitors. You'll learn how Lancaro transformed this traditional recipe into something uniquely their own, tackling the notorious "cloying sweetness" problem that plagues most canned cocktails. The team's passionate flavor scientist breaks down their meticulous development process, explaining how they create drinks that maintain their aromatic qualities even over ice – a rarity in the RTD world.
What truly sets this brand apart is their Lumi line – completely unsweetened cocktails at just 96 calories that rely solely on sophisticated flavor development rather than sugar or artificial sweeteners. The founders challenge listeners to scrutinize labels and understand industry terminology tricks, highlighting how "no sugar" often means artificial ingredients are lurking inside. Through their transparent approach and commitment to quality, Lancaro offers everything from traditional grapefruit to innovative flavors like dragon fruit, pineapple, and white peach.
Beyond creating exceptional products, Lancaro supports Next Step Fitness, a non-profit organization founded by Yanni after his diving accident left him paralyzed. With locations across the US and internationally, Next Step provides specialized gym facilities helping those with paralysis regain mobility and hope. Try Lancaro yourself – now available at Kroger and experience how good intentions and meticulous craftsmanship create truly remarkable drinks.
https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour
www.ManCaveHappyHour.com
Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit
Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox
August Gitschlag @rawgusto
Merch www.WearingFunny.com
Jamie Flanagan: 0:01
I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour. I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. Fine cigar. It is time for Happy Hour. It is the man Cave Happy Hour Whiskey, cigars, spirits and the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 0:33
I'm Mrs Vino, aka Kristen Carlson, and it's the Jamie and Kristen show tonight it is, it's our first date.
Jamie Flanagan: 0:40
It's date night. It's date night everyone.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 0:44
Sorry, Matt and August. Yeah, that's it.
Jamie Flanagan: 0:47
So we're going to get into this in just a minute. The Lancero we got some skinny cans, we got some robust cans. We have all kinds of flavors to try out. Before we do that, I want to find out. You had a big wine dinner and it was sold out, standing room only. How did your wine dinner go?
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 1:04
It was great it was a good time. You know it was at my favorite restaurant. I say that because I ran it for a while Nico Evali in Plymouth.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 1:14
The De Palma family has owned it for over a decade and it's authentic Italian cuisine. It's intimate and I love everyone there the staff, the guys you know, the front of house, back of house, all the guests, all the regulars that are there. It was a blast, it was a good time. Everybody had great food. Ray shout out to Ray, the GM there you came up with some really awesome culinary ideas and I really appreciated that. And yeah, the wines appeared perfectly.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:45
Everybody was happy when and it's a precursor, because you have a big trip to spain planned and we talked about that in a previous episode, so people can roll back and check that out. But if people are interested in in more about the spain trip, what? Uh? Where do they go?
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 2:01
what do they can just go to mrs vinocom cool there you go yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:05
So yeah, I was so happy that that dinner sold out for you. Sometimes you do those things the summertime vacations. You know people are like, oh, I don't want to be inside, but you sold the joint out.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 2:15
That is awesome. Yes, it was fun. It was a good time. Thank you everyone who came out.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:19
Yeah, and the other awesome thing is you got cool friends.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 2:23
I do have some cool friends.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:24
You have some amazingly cool friends and you have some friends that came up with this and are promoting this with a long caro Seltzers Are they seltzers? That's not the right thing right, no. We're going to bring in the experts. We got Kathleen and Sarah here and they're going to say Jamie, what the heck are you talking about? But, ladies, I'm kind of outnumbered here. Welcome to the man cave.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 2:48
Oh yay, it's the femme cave. Now it is.
Janne Kouri: 2:54
We've done it a few times and let the ladies take over.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:56
We like doing that, but yeah, so how would you describe this drink?
Sarah Lopez: 3:01
So it's not a seltzer, because it would be a cocktail, because we use real distilled liquor as opposed to fermented malt.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:08
All right. So canned cocktails authentic long drink. So I know there's a long drink out there, right, you see it around, and so this is that just the style of the canned cocktail. Yes, and that's why it's called a long drink. Yes, so it's called a long drink.
Sarah Lopez: 3:25
Yeah, so it's actually um a fun misconception long drink is a category. It's not a name.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:30
It's a an actual category that was created someone else was just really too lazy to come up with anything besides just long drink well, you know, ours is actually pretty cool, ours is the least lazy because, lankero is how you say it in finnish.
Sarah Lopez: 3:45
We changed the K-E to C-A to represent where we're from. So it's a little bit of home and it's a little bit of us here.
Kathleen Berki: 3:52
So it's Lankero.
Sarah Lopez: 3:54
Oh, okay, pretty slick.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 4:05
Yeah, no, that's really clever, because I was telling Jamie before we got in here. I'm like you know, I can't wait for Sarah to get on and just tell us more about you know, the fact that this is a Finnish cause. This is only something that comes from Finland, right? The long drink is Finnish, exclusively to that culture.
Kathleen Berki: 4:16
Yes, he's not waiting by the
Sarah Lopez: 4:20
way, and then I just want to dive in yeah, there's a great way to describe it, and how I typically describe it is mexico has the margarita. It's their national drink, it's typically lime, whereas finland has the long drink and it's typically grapefruit. So you can equate it that way, okay, just like how mexico has the lime margarita and people like to get crafty and fun, and they started making things like strawberry margarita, mango margarita. We too have taken the long drink with its, you know, authentic grapefruit. We've kept it pure, but then we've started making our own, which is I see you're drinking our passion fruit we have tangerine. And then we made it even more our own with the Lume, where we have dragon fruit, pineapple and white peach. Yeah, so I the Lumi, where we have dragon fruit, pineapple and white peach.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 5:03
Yeah, so I just tapped into, so I have had the original ones. What do you think of that one, because this is your first time having that.
Jamie Flanagan: 5:11
Yeah, yeah, are they all grapefruit based?
Sarah Lopez: 5:13
They are not, so what's? Very fun about this is the base is exactly what you're reading on the flavor, but they're all long drink base, whereas they are gin. They are a long drink, it's just we've gotten crafty with what fruit we use. Which fruit, what fruit? What fruit, which fruit?
Jamie Flanagan: 5:30
yeah, all right, we got uh someone else is uh jumping in here. Hang on, we'll bring him in he's making his appearance.
Kathleen Berki: 5:38
There he is. They're made of. Let's say that there are materials that some other civilization has created. And they have atomic-grade printing.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 5:52
Yeah, I was just going to say someone's going to have to help them out because we've got reverb.
Jamie Flanagan: 5:55
I don't know what's going on there. Sorry about that, yanni, when you go into the settings there's like a echo cancellation. So make sure you have that checked and then we'll. We'll try again. I bring you back in, yeah in just a second. Yeah, so I, I'm, I'm susceptible to suggestions, so I, because you were saying grapefruit and I'm like, okay, am I smelling grapefruit?
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 6:18
I'm smelling, I'm smelling fruit yeah, you know what you should. You know what. Try this try, the original try. Can I have you do it?
Sarah Lopez: 6:25
in order.
Sarah Lopez: 6:26
Yes, I think so you, you kind of went backward, but it's okay. I know you have had a lot of drinks in your day, so you'll be able to cleanse the palate quickly. Yeah, I would start with citrus. This is our authentic and our citrus is grapefruit. That is what all the long drinks have been made to be, so hopefully you like it. So we shall see. I don't want to say too much. These are secrets, but we use multiple grapefruits in this, so you'll get a lot of complexity. So I have a question.
Janne Kouri: 6:56
This smells different.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 6:58
Yes, yeah, that one is crushable. So I have a question about the grapefruit origin and it being in Finland, because I'm a you know horticulturist by nature and last time I checked grapefruit- is not native. So how did that come to fruition? Let's get into the history of that.
Sarah Lopez: 7:18
So here's a fun thing for the Summer Olympics back in 1952, they knew they had to satisfy so many people coming in. And how do you satisfy not only a ton of people but a ton of fins? I don't know if you guys have ever drank with fins, but it is a good time.
Sarah Lopez: 7:36
And so they thought what are we going to do? They mixed why? Grapefruit, nobody knows. They mixed grapefruit with gin and some soda. Honestly, it was grapefruit soda and they thought we could pour it on tap. We could serve a lot. It's only 5% ABV, we could satisfy everybody. They're not going to get sloshed here come the Summer Olympics. It's in Finland. Everybody got sloshed anyways 5%. Abv A little bit more, but it stuck, and so, in fact, the government had the patent on this cocktail for a long time only.
Sarah Lopez: 8:10
So what's fun is oh that's an expired yane comes into play, who was born in finland, and he says you know what it's about time this drink comes to the states. We've been drinking it growing up. You know, in finland it's not as closed off as here as 21. You know, everybody drinks a little bit, and what's fun about that is it was before the RTD boom. So this was like way, way, way back when, unfortunately, he had an awful accident diving in the ocean, hit his neck, broke his neck and is now paralyzed. They call it quadriplegic or paraplegic is how we know it, but now it's tetraplegic and what's really a bummer is it's not a bummer. Actually. What's a bummer is that he's paralyzed. But the better part of that is he went on to create Next Step. It's a nonprofit gym for those with paralysis that we give profits back to.
Sarah Lopez: 9:00
And what it does is yes, it supports those with paralysis or those with, you know, other disabilities that can actually go to a gym. So imagine you want to work out but unfortunately you can't run or you can't lift. At Next Step we will help you with trainers, get your workouts in rehab, have hope again, move again. And what's fine is we have centers.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 9:26
We're going to try it again with Yanni, here we're, try to bring.
Jamie Flanagan: 9:27
yeah, we're gonna try and bring yanni hey, welcome back, is it?
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 9:29
working now yeah I've tried like 80 different ways yeah, welcome, yanni, it's so nice to meet you. So sarah was just on the heels of your story, your story, and then I, you know, obviously on your, your packaging, you have, you know, the next steps QR code, so I was sharing that and we can still frame that later on for you guys to use. But, yeah, so Sarah was just telling us about what next steps is and how it helps individuals with you know, who suffer from paralysis.
Jamie Flanagan: 10:05
So, yanni, so doing the gym and creating the gym, it's helped you physically, but what? What has it done for you? You know spiritually, or or you know mentally for you?
Janne Kouri: 10:18
Yeah, I'd say, you know, living with I personally have a spinal cord injury but living with paralysis obviously it's as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical challenge. But having the opportunity to exercise and get healthy and recover from my injury obviously, you know, is very uplifting and helpful from a mental perspective.
Janne Kouri: 10:46
And it's because I've been able to have success in my recovery and that's given me the opportunity to, you know, live a full life and travel and, do you know, most of the things that I always wanted to dream of doing I can still do now because I've been blessed with the opportunity to have access to the best rehab and the best trainers in the world. So it's every day. Going to a place where you just get inspired by people that are working so hard to help others is very motivating and you know it's led to this. It's led to, you know, I had this dream of launching Long Carrow back in 2006. I had a business plan ready to go to bring Long Dream to the United States, and that's when I broke my neck. So that kind of dream got shattered. But it led me to the opportunity to start next step and change people's lives in that way. And and fortunately, you know, a few years ago this idea kind of re-emerged and teamed up with some close friends and got to meet sarah kathleen through that. And here we are.
Jamie Flanagan: 12:04
So let's go. The next step Is it one location or is there a few locations? We have seven in the United States.
Janne Kouri: 12:11
All right, two in the Ukraine and then two in New Zealand, soon to be four in New Zealand. And our next center that we are working on, another center in the Midwest and then another center in well Pittsburgh.
Jamie Flanagan: 12:28
Wow. So do you have vending machines with Loncaro in the lobbies? I'm hoping.
Janne Kouri: 12:35
It might show up in our fridge every now and then.
Jamie Flanagan: 12:37
Yeah, yeah, yeah All right, so tell me a little about. Let me tell you about the cocktail itself. About now. Let me tell you about the uh, the cocktail itself. Where? How did you? Because that's it's. It's a traditional, it's a standard cocktail in finland. What's your take on it? Is this, is this the standard, or is this? Do you have your particular flair to this?
Janne Kouri: 12:56
yeah, yeah, so it's. It's the uh, I'd say it's the first, the original long drink. You, you know. I'd say it's the first ready-to-drink cocktail ever created. So it's like the OG canned cocktail. And how it all started was after college. I was bringing a bunch of friends back home to Finland every summer for midsummers and all my friends from the US. All they drank while they were there was the original long drink and at the time we only had like Mike's Hard Lemonade and some really crappy wine coolers here in the US and we didn't really have any really good canned cocktails. And I just saw an opportunity. Then, obviously, things changed and my life took a turn on Next Step. But I saw an opportunity back in 2019 with the explosion of these canned cocktails in the US, so just started speaking with some close friends and we just kind of said I had the at that time. Next step was doing really well and I felt like I could take some time to launch finally launch his business. So that's what we did and yeah, that's awesome, yanni.
Janne Kouri: 14:18
Yeah, with Sarah's help, my cousin we came up with what I believe is the best version of the long drink, but obviously it was, you know, based on other past formulas.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 14:34
But uh, we came up with something even better yeah, I think so too, because you know, coming from the beverage world and you know, when I had originally was introduced by Kathleen to Sarah last week, I was really interested in the formulation process and you know, just thank you for sharing your story and especially about next steps. So my husband and I were were big in the fitness community and we'll talk offline. Especially when you mentioned Midwest, I'm going to say Michigan is in your future, sir, but Sarah, talking to Sarah about the formulations, because obviously there's competitors on the market. We're not going to name names, but I've had the competition before and it always had this weird, you know, bitter, odd aftertaste. So, sarah, I wanted you to kind of like talk about the, the, the sweetener. I guess like, or is there any sweetener? Like, obviously I just tapped into the Lume. Did you try one of these?
Jamie Flanagan: 15:33
lighter ones. I'm on the pineapple, so that's the thing about the aftertaste, Like a lot of these canned in the skinny, a lot of the let's just call them the skinny can drinks. Yeah, yeah, the low-cal ones, dad, you don't like them.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 15:45
Yeah, what do you think?
Jamie Flanagan: 15:46
of you know, and I was like you're like, well, these aren't, you know, skinny cans. They're there, that's going to be the light one I was like. So I was getting ready to not like this one. Out of the skinny can, I tried the pineapple. These are fresh, these are the ones, the cocktail, the regular first, 1.0. They're nice, they're nice cocktails. They're fresh, they taste, they're crisp, they're fresh and so I was waiting for an aftertaste on this and I'm not getting the aftertaste on the pineapple one.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 16:13
Yeah, hang on, I've got like four drinks going on there.
Jamie Flanagan: 16:17
As I interrupted, we were talking about the flavors in the secret sauce. Sarah, what can you tell us about the secret sauce and the flavors?
Sarah Lopez: 16:26
Well, the best part about Lume is it's unsweetened, totally unsweetened. I think we can talk a little bit about education on the terms sugar versus sweetener. So a lot of people will say you know, our drink has no sugar, which typically means they've added sweetener, usually like either a natural sweetener or an artificial sweetener, more likely an artificial sweetener. Or they'll say no sugar added, which actually means there's already sugar in the formula within itself, like maybe a juice or so what we say is no sugar, no sweetener, because that's what it is. It is just completely unsweetened. We don't add anything. Our flavors themselves are so ripe and vivacious. The flavors are not basic, they're not typical, they are ours. We meticulously crafted them. Some might say too much, so, maybe a little too picky, but when we finished our product I mean Lumi took almost a year to formulate properly and when we finished it, we were very proud because they are juicy, they are ripe.
Sarah Lopez: 17:28
They're juicy, they're ripe, they're bright and without needing any sugar or without needing any sweetener. To innovate in an oversaturated market with something that nobody else has come out with yet. And I'll tell some people it's a fun fact If you read people's cans, if they say no sugar, flip to the composition statement that are required on every can, statement that are required on every can, and you'll see it'll say gin with soda water plus you know, fake sugar, this fake sugar, that you know, with juice.
Sarah Lopez: 17:56
this coloring that one, umi, is it's truly, truly so clean. Rttv statement is gin with carbonation.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 18:07
That's how clean it is, and that's a required statement.
Sarah Lopez: 18:08
I love it and then falsifying.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 18:10
That's crazy. And then I'll have to say this because thankfully I mean just so you know you get, you get to take some cans home, cause I know.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:19
I I confiscated this one but the tangerine.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 18:21
So where is where am I getting on my palate the sweetness from this tangerine? Cause, this tangerine by the way is it's killer like it is, because when I was a toddler, lived in florida and, as you know, tons of citrus, specifically tangerine, and when you know, you know when you open up the tangerine and that and that peel and you see the oils come off. This is the cleanest tangerine rtd I have tasted and I've tasted a lot and I'm sure you have too. Did you tap into this tangerine?
Jamie Flanagan: 18:55
one, I cracked it that one's good. Again, they're the full strength, but they're both 5%. Yeah, they both come in at 5% alcohol. But the first iteration, what was the original? Just the original. Just the original. Yeah, cleaner, just a little cleaner, a little brighter a little cleaner a little brighter and I'm getting a little more of the bubbles with the loomy the yeah, would you call it seltzer taste is it's dry, it's a little dry it's definitely drier, and that's what I like about it.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 19:29
So what's the? What's the calorie composition difference here? I know that the Lumos are 96.
Sarah Lopez: 19:34
The only calories are coming from the gin, so it's the equivalent of taking a gin shot, so don't have to worry about that. I will say these are vivacious, and for those reasons we don't need to know the calories, because life is too short, so don't worry. I will say though there is nothing fake in here that the sweetness you're getting is from cane sugar. So it's real calories for real food. And what's nice is with you touched on the tangerine, you know, opening it from the peel and seeing that I am such a somatic person.
Sarah Lopez: 20:05
These flavors come about with experiences and feelings. It's a little bit of escapism when you have Long Carrow, you're not just having a cocktail to get drunk, I mean, you're really opening an experience for yourself, a somatic feeling, maybe a memory. You feel it in certain places there's a shape, there's a color.
Jamie Flanagan: 20:25
These flavors are very, very complex.
Sarah Lopez: 20:28
They were made with so much love, but I always say they were made with like blood, sweat, tears, arguments, midnight emails. It sounds like family. I mean, we all just had such a strong hand in it that we know they're the best they could possibly be, because we nearly fist fought over a lot of things. But that's how you get the best product in the end is when everybody feels so strongly about it.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 20:53
Yeah, Well, that's family and that's what. Hang on, I'm going to turn around so everybody can see, because this is the definition of family right here.
Kathleen Berki: 21:08
Oh, there she is, hang on, I like it.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 21:10
I, on the other hand, I am not Finnish. However, I do have some Swedish in me, so I'm neighbors to you all. I'm neighbors to you, yanni, I'm a neighbor.
Janne Kouri: 21:20
Neighbors and rivals.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 21:22
Oh yeah, both. It's all right, I'm such a European mutt. It's probably only a couple percentages, but anyways, I digress.
Jamie Flanagan: 21:29
So, Yanni, this is brewed up in California. Is that where our flavors and our fruits are coming from?
Janne Kouri: 21:36
We have two co-packers, one up here at West and one on the East Coast, and then we have a flavor house that we work with as well.
Jamie Flanagan: 21:45
Okay, so a flavor house. That's where the secret sauce comes from.
Sarah Lopez: 21:49
That's where our food science chemists are. They are not a joke. I won't name them because we don't want anybody to find them, but if I could name them by name, shout out. They know who they are. We go to them with what we want and just the amount of connection of working with them through the years is we almost share a brain by now. And when I go there and we do our tastings and we're really working on our narrations and it's almost like you're summoning the same energies within each other and you're asking for certain things, not in a flavor composition, but you're almost saying how you want to experience it.
Sarah Lopez: 22:28
And they're reading it and you're taking all this information and turning it into a can and into something. You can drink it, what you're consuming when you taste these, yes, or fruit and flavors, but truthfully, huge discussions about the word experience keeps coming to mind. It's definitely an experience when you have long hero it is.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 22:48
I'll say this because, like I said before referencing other competitors out there, this was so clean and I just immediately I'm like I need to know why grapefruit and yanni. You know you weren't tapped in yet, but sarah went into detail on, you know, the 1952 olympics that were in finland. Because I'm like you know, last time I checked, I mean I I've got a garden but there isn't any grapefruit that grows there.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 23:13
So just her going into that story, you know, after I had tasted these, because I'm like this tastes so much different than other long drinks that I've had in the market, so it was really cool just to hear you know that cultural history of this specific drink and the fact that so the long drink, so that is classified in finland like that's a category.
Janne Kouri: 23:37
That's a category, oh wow yeah, it was for, for forever is only one company that was allowed to make it, and then it's probably only about 10 years ago they opened up the market. So now there's various different brands in the market. Forever is only just one that everybody's drinking.
Kathleen Berki: 23:58
What's pretty amazing is there's one brand that has completely dominated that whole category. So when I met the team, I just knew that they had something special and we could absolutely disrupt the market. But nobody was really tapping into like authenticity, the way that we do.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 24:19
And, yeah, and the fact that you guys are supporting, you know, next Step, I think that that's very, that's very cool. That's something that, you know, I'm a huge believer in. When you're, when you're bringing a product to the market, you know, not only should the product be great, you know, easy to consume, easy to find, but it's the extra special, like when I'm shopping and and there's a product or a brand or a company that gives a percentage or gives back in some way to the community, the world. You know, whatever organization, I'm going to choose that one every single time. So I'm glad that we got to talk about the next steps. And, yanni, your story is very powerful and the fact that you have that personal experience and you've and you've woven it into this product and having it benefit a community that you know that now we're all a part of, because we're all consuming it.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 25:14
We're drinking it. You know you guys are creating these, so that's very that's an added bonus and it's a humanitarian thing that, I think, is something that everybody just should take note of in the beverage industry.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:27
I keep going back to the flavors and the drink itself. And because we do a lot of bourbons and whiskeys and but we will do vodkas and gins, but this with, uh, the finish. We always talk about the finish, yes, in the whiskeys and the finish in this it's, it's very just tangerine it's, it's uh, once, once the drink is gone and it's not, it's not strong, it's not like a big puckering face or anything.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:50
But when the drink is gone, the finish on the t's not strong, it's not like a big puckering face or anything. But when the drink is gone, the finish on the tangerine is just very tangerine.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 25:55
It's very like I just ate one of those halos and it's like yeah, yeah, and and here's the other thing too so the nose on this yeah because a lot of rtds. If you pour them over ice you lose it. You don't smell anything. This has been sitting in ice for a little bit everyone. This is the tangerine one, which is my personal favorite.
Jamie Flanagan: 26:16
Yeah, I can still smell it. I'm going to fight you for the next can.
Sarah Lopez: 26:19
Well, you know what's fun, baby, we really play with those acids. Mrs Vino, I know you know this, but acids are essentially the salt of the cocktail. You know, salt with food really wakes it up. The salt of the cocktail. You know, salt with food really wakes it up. The acids are what you need and we really play with those acids. It's a fun story. We kind of delayed our launch because we knew that that clean finish is just so important. We weren't quite there yet. We had planned a launch. We thought we're not like 140% happy with what we have. Let's keep working on it. So much work went into that finish because that cloying feeling when you're thirsty after a cocktail, nothing is worse.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 26:59
You know like.
Sarah Lopez: 27:00
Oh, chug water after an RTD, yeah.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 27:03
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head with that word cloying, the cloyingly sweetness of certain RTDs that are out there. You're right, it's like sticky and you're like, ooh, I feel like I need to cleanse my palate. These, you don't.
Jamie Flanagan: 27:15
All right. So, kathleen, which is your favorite flavor? It's like which is your favorite kid, but, kathleen, do you have a? Do you have a favorite flavor out of these iterations here?
Kathleen Berki: 27:25
So I I love the tangerine for the original. I do love them them all, though, and it is like asking if you have a favorite child and I love the tangerine and the citrus. Yeah, when it comes to loomy, I can't pick a favorite yet okay yeah, I'm going through.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 27:42
I'm going through all of them, which, by the way, this is my first time having the loomy and this tangerine is or I, I'm sorry, the dragon fruit killer the white peach. You were right, sarah, when we were talking earlier. I know here.
Jamie Flanagan: 27:58
I'll just call the Ubers now. Yeah, call the Uber now.
Kathleen Berki: 28:01
Sorry, I took my charcoal pills. I'm all good, but that white peach.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 28:06
You know it's really hard to replicate that flavor in any way, shape or in any way possible, and that white peach is so fuzzy and juicy and yeah. So please, please, jump in. I know you want to.
Sarah Lopez: 28:23
You said the word you can call out cloying that I said, but I'm going to call out the word you said fuzzy. What a lot of people don't know is that peach skin is so important to what a peach is.
Sarah Lopez: 28:32
So if you take away that sort of the drink is not hairy for anybody listening but it actually is biting into a peach, if you think of like peach rings or any sort of peach flavored anything you get. It's so confectionary and especially with the Lume light. None of our drinks are confectionary, but with Lume the point was to be clean, unsweetened, fresh. We really tapped into it and I keep boasting, but I truly think we've innovated in such an oversaturated market with fruits that are exactly as they should be, exactly what you're imagining when you have the physical fruit. It's not, you know, peach with gin, plus this, plus that it's genuinely a juicy peach that happens to have, you know, properties that are making you feel good. But it is really like our pineapple, so golden, golden pineapple.
Sarah Lopez: 29:28
And that dragon fruit is. It's not a real known flavor for people, but our dragon fruit is more of a, I would say, on the tartar side, but still fruity. So like margaritas. It's not, it's not similar to a lime, but if you like that sort of texture and taste, I think you would like dragon fruit and Lumi. What's fun about it is it is. It's a full body mouthfeel with the cleanest ingredients possible. So you really don't miss out on anything. You're really not missing anything when you drink Lume thinking oh, it's unsweetened.
Sarah Lopez: 30:04
It's not going to be hot like booze or strong like an old fashioned booze or strong like an old-fashioned. It's genuinely just perfect and I I really challenge people to try it if they think they're not going to like an unsweetened cocktail, because I don't think you understand that all the cocktails on the market are maybe a little bit too sweet, so when you try ours, you're like whoa yeah, with our original line. Even though they're sweetened, you try them.
Jamie Flanagan: 30:28
You said it's so clean on the end that you're like whoa yeah, it's fresh that if I were just, I would say fresh and clean uh is what I would, how I would describe yeah, these, uh, these, I would say fresh and and dry dry, very yeah, and those are, but these but these are just fresh and clean oh yeah just just gorgeous yeah, they're both.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 30:49
Yeah, both of these lines are incredible and I think you hit the nail on the head, sarah, when you you know, when you're talking about other RTDs that are in the market and and individuals and educating the general public about you know not sweetened or unsweetened or no sugar added, and just knowing that these loomies, these specific, you know 96 calorie ones, don't have any, you know sugar or sweetener, and you know they're, they're unsweet, I mean that's, that's incredible, because the fruit flavors on these are so intense I know that you guys are using. I know why you're keeping things secret, cause I can tell.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 31:29
I kind of know what you're doing, but I won't say anything because uh, yeah, I don't want to.
Sarah Lopez: 31:38
I don't want to say it's not. You know, you pull a pineapple flavor and you throw it in a can. I mean, these are very built in. They're very layered, layered to hit certain points in your mouth at certain times. They're meant to hit certain points in your mouth at certain times. They're meant to have certain effects on your mouth. They are well, shout out to Cal Poly Pomona, my background. We do a very good job at incorporating science with alcohol. We have a great, great hospitality management program with a beer, wine and spirits focus and we get deep into these things. And so when we found our absolute best flavor house, you put just these two you know entities together, which is us at Long Carrow and our flavor house, and you just get the best of both worlds, because going into the can is more than most people know. It is genuinely a giant science program or science project that turns into a really good cocktail.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 32:35
You're an alchemist, you're an alcoholic. I thought you were going to say alcoholic. I was like no no, no, an alcohol alchemist, you're an elk. No, it's great.
Sarah Lopez: 32:44
I always joke like Long Carrow. I don't know if you guys know this. It's only four people, so I always joke we're, we're we. We kind of made a company and now we're just supporting our own drinking habits because we were tired of all the RTDs on the market and luckily we have the power to make our own RTDs. So, especially with Lumi and it being so new, it's just fun to say we're tired of all this crap. Why don't we just make something good that we want to drink and we're pretty picky. So if we all drink it, we know the market will drink it.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 33:17
So yeah, yeah, no, that's no. And you can tell. Like I said before, the quality is there and I'm and I'm sure you're you know your, your secret team, your, your scientists, your ingredients, you know where you're procuring your, your produce and your fruit from. You can tell because, uh, yeah, there's a lot of RTD, rtds on the market, where you know they just come up with something and then they and they and they put it out there. So there's no intention. You guys have intention, not just with the formulation of the beverage, but you also have that intention of helping individuals who have suffered from paralysis. So having both of those is why you have success, why there's going to be more growth, because you have intention behind your product and you also have a cause behind your product and you have a leader, your founder yanni, who is is all encompassing of all of that. So that's really cool, you guys, very cool.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:17
Yeah, let's talk about government politics for a little bit.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:21
Oh no, I'm, but I'm, I am I am let them lead in, I am serious because with a lot of the, the whiskey makers and the, the spirit makers, we to they face a lot of challenges with getting their product to market because of the government regulations, even down to the labels and what can be on the labels. And so with these complex or these interesting fruits and interesting flavors you're bringing in, are you facing any governmental challenges bringing anything to market? What are you facing as far as that goes?
Sarah Lopez: 34:54
A whole lot of paperwork.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:57
It's awful, isn't it awful?
Janne Kouri: 35:00
When we launched, our initial strategy was to import the recipe, the mix, from Finland, but because of those regulations, we could not do that because the ingredients were not approved in the us. Oh, so that, then, kind of which turned out being a good thing, because that led us to developing a brand new recipe, which turned out to be, you know, the best recipe we think we could have ever created. So it worked out, but it delayed us probably like six months or so.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 35:37
I mean, that's not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
Janne Kouri: 35:39
Yanni.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 35:39
And here's the thing it gave you guys an opportunity to do something proprietary that is only for Loncaro, which is so. It happened for a reason right. It was a good problem to have, because now it's a problem that is proprietary and now you own it.
Janne Kouri: 36:02
Yeah, and we also hadn't met Sarah yet when we had that plan. So we didn't realize how great she was at creating these recipes. It all kind of came together, you know, accidentally I it was.
Sarah Lopez: 36:19
it's a very funny thing when I said it's a long story. You know we delayed a bit. Actually, what it is is we got in 5 000 cases. We could not wait to jump into the market and sell these. Yana has a fun photo of me like holding our first case as we're unloading it into our storage unit. You know, hermosa, summer it's so hot we're sweating. It's our own little old unit that we're unloading by hand. We grab these cans. We're so stoked. We're working out of a WeWork. At the time it's called Unita out here, just love it. Now we have our own office. But this was back when we were in Unita and we're like, yeah, guys, we're about to sell this and we crack it and we're tasting it and we're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, because it was, if we're not cloying the other end of the spectrum.
Sarah Lopez: 37:01
And so it was no, it wasn't good is what the word would be, and so what was really fun is being able to tell Yane, I got this. This is literally what my whole life has led to. Let's reformulate these. And it was just citrus at the time, and we worked on those and that's how we came up with our original. And then we saw such success that we're like you know, let's get crazy. And came up with our next two. And we thought let's get so crazy because we're really tired of drinking sugar, and came up with our next three, which is fun.
Sarah Lopez: 37:35
So who knows? Well, I guess we know. I was going to say what you can do when you put your mind to it, but we know.
Jamie Flanagan: 37:42
Well, let's talk about availability and packaging, where. And then like because I love the tangerine, can I get a six pack of tangerine or do I got to buy the?
Sarah Lopez: 37:51
This is how we acquired number one salesperson ever, kathleen Berkey. This is her domain, so I'm going to shoot you over to Kathleen to say but let me, let me say we have some really cool updates coming into the market that Kathleen will help you learn about.
Jamie Flanagan: 38:08
Kathleen, talk to me. Where can I get my mitts on this?
Kathleen Berki: 38:11
Yeah, so so we are in Ohio, michigan, kentucky and California. We just recently launched in Kroger, which is super exciting. Yeah, kroger, yep, yep. So yeah, we we're really growing very, very fast.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 38:29
That's awesome, Is there?
Kathleen Berki: 38:30
do you guys, have you guys?
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 38:31
have like a locator on your website. Yes, we do on our website store mapper.
Sarah Lopez: 38:36
And we do have to shout out one person by name Dennis Sullivan of Gelson's here in California. He took us on into Gelson's markets. It's a grocery chain out here, a premium grocery chain. One week into launching we had no sales, we had no history with him. He tasted our product and he said yep, and there we were in that sort of the whole Gelson's chain and that Gelson's win helped us with our Kroger pitch, which Kathleen put us in front of Kroger very sneakily at a Cincinnati wine fest and little did we know, as we were, you know, talking with people and selling to people that we were unbeknownst to us, cold pitching to Kroger who then took us on into district, district after district after district, so it's been a really insane snowball.
Jamie Flanagan: 39:26
Kroger, it's, it's. You know I love the, the small and independent party stores. In Michigan we call them party stores, convenience stores. But the convenience of the big stores and having them have the big products and then for someone making it for you guys to get it in there, congratulations Thank you. That's really going to set things spinning. Are you going to be able to keep up with all the summer shenanigans?
Kathleen Berki: 39:52
We hope not, but we know that we can. We're anticipating blowing through some cases.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 40:00
Hey. So just out of curiosity, kathleen, for the small mom and pops, because I know you shop at Keiko's, I go to Quintoro's and Westbourne Market, so you know for those buyers out there which distribution company can they call up in Michigan and say, hey, I want some of this. Lunkaro, great Lakes.
Kathleen Berki: 40:20
Wine and Spirits. All right, that's what I wanted.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 40:22
All right, shout out to my buddies at Great Lakes Wine and Spirits. Yeah, so all the mom and pop shops out there, you know, get your mitts on this Lunkaro and if you haven't tried it, request a sample.
Jamie Flanagan: 40:35
This will do well in Birmingham. It will do well up and down the St Clair Shores Nautical Mile.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 40:42
Oh, big time.
Jamie Flanagan: 40:43
Yeah, this will do well.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 40:45
This is a boat drink. This is going to replace what's in the market that people are aware of, because this is a lot cleaner. It tastes I mean. There's no comparison.
Sarah Lopez: 40:55
There really will never use anything artificial ever as a brand. We are all very passionate about that. I really challenge people to examine their go-to cocktail or or what they think they like. Examine the can examine the packaging really, read that composition statement, really look at what brands are hiding behind marketing words. Again, you know the whole no zero sugar, but is there zero sweetener or the whole added? We just challenge people. Really look at what you're drinking and I think they'll start to see it's important to have something that's actually clean, actually natural.
Sarah Lopez: 41:31
And like I said, from four people, so you're not benefiting this giant conglomerate. You know who already is outsourcing their flavors and outsourcing their things. We're doing everything in-house by hand between the four of us, and it's cool.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 41:46
Wow.
Jamie Flanagan: 41:47
That's impressive, with all the natural yeah, go ahead.
Janne Kouri: 41:50
I'll say the other, I think, interesting thing about long-caro and just the long-drink category in itself, compared to other RTDs, is that a bartender can't just make it Like any bartender can make a margarita, can make a vodka soda, can make a rum and coke, et cetera, et cetera. A bartender can't just make a long soda to make a rum and coke. You know, you know, etc. Etc. A bartender can't just make a long drink yeah, right it's.
Janne Kouri: 42:18
There's a lot more that goes into it than just pouring vodka into a glass and then pouring some soda water and you know whatever over it. It's a much more complex cocktail that you can't just make. That takes, as Sarah's alluded to, takes lots of time and effort to actually create it the right way.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 42:41
Yeah, I'll definitely attest to that, yanni, because I'll buy a diet grapefruit soda and then I've got some really good gin at home. However, that is the cheap and dirty way. If you want something that is natural and super clean, finish, don't go with the diet grapefruit soda. Just go and pick up some Lunkaro, because I've done that too. I've made my quote own long drink at home. And you're correct, yanni. No, you can't make that because there's complexity and there's layers of flavors in here and, like I said, I can't get away from the fact that these have a nose on them. You know me being a sommelier. That's the first thing, you know. You look at the wine, you smell the wine, you taste the wine. This you know. You look at the packaging it's beautiful, beautiful. You pour it in this. The nose on all of these. It's incredible. And even over ice, because usually when you pour something over ice, specifically in rtd, it's lost. It is lost like immediately or within a couple minutes. These, I mean. It still has a nose on it.
Jamie Flanagan: 43:46
It's pretty incredible yeah, I, I've never had a tangerine a cocktail, because I like, I'm a, I'm a girl drink drunk, put an umbrella in it. I'm pretty happy. I like people, but I this tangerine. I've never had a cocktail that's like, like and I like this tangerine. Flavor is straight up. Yeah, it's there, it's very nice, all right. So I don't know, I'm not sure who wants to field this hard question. Might be kathleen so coming in on the shelf with all these natural ingredients and all these special secret sauces, what are we paying for this?
Kathleen Berki: 44:23
so 12.99 fora, six-pack oh all right.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 44:27
Yeah, it's surprising right.
Kathleen Berki: 44:29
We drink like a super premium cocktail.
Sarah Lopez: 44:34
Wow, oh wow, and it looks like it, so you'll see the natural cloud.
Jamie Flanagan: 44:37
Sorry, we got a lot of sun going on in Hermosa Beach, but this is a natural cloud, very, very traditional to the original long drink in Finland and that natural cloud poured over ice poured in a wine glass.
Sarah Lopez: 44:48
It's stunning, it really is. So, even high-end restaurants will pour us in a glass over ice versus over can is almost a different experience, and we we like to drink here at long carol, so we make something called the long carita, truly the easiest cocktail you've ever had. You pour long carol over ice, a shot of tequila with a fresh squeeze of lime. That's it, and think of it as a base, so you'll have like we have all those things in the studio try.
Sarah Lopez: 45:17
If you love the tangerine, try it with a shot of tequila and a fresh squeeze of lime tahin rim. I mean all the flavors peacefully. We? We have so many craft cocktails made with long caro that it's almost scary. Where I always joke, people are like what do you guys do with your time? We're like we make cocktails with our cocktails, but it's like our office has a 10-foot bar Yanni's there. Now we have big trees on our ceiling with lily of the valley, flowers hung by hand.
Sarah Lopez: 45:46
There was a crazy summer when we did the office A lot of decor by hand. It's been a fun, fun time oh that's awesome. You should try a long corrita whenever you guys are ready for a margarita on the boat, on the porch, drinking, you know, for a tailgate. It's an easy cocktail In the studio.
Jamie Flanagan: 46:04
It might happen In just a matter of moments.
Sarah Lopez: 46:08
Yeah, I mean matter of moments. Yeah, I mean we, with our variety packs, we always really want to go with something that these experiencers are like juicy, they're, vivacious, they're, they're almost vacation-like this passion fruit, I'm sure you guys have tried. Mrs Vino, you talked about the, the, the smell sticking around. We, we specifically top note these on purpose, because we know how important it is to crack it, grab a great top note. We also know how important those base notes are and we really really weave them in together to keep them around to make some, you know, more vivacious than others. So as you're drinking it, you're really genuinely, I don't know. I almost want to say like in love with what you're drinking, versus just downing a cocktail.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 46:51
Yeah, yeah, no, these are no. These are great. These are great and I'm so glad that we're able to, you know, find these in Kroger and you know, 1299 for a six pack that's, that's killer.
Jamie Flanagan: 47:02
I'm an Irish boy and I usually try to, you know, and then there, that's the ballpark, you know, and it's, I'll pay for that. When it's something I like. You know I'll pay for it, but it's not that much more than the crafts and the other things out there. Right on par with that, for sure.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 47:27
Yeah, these are definitely glad that we got you on before 4th of July, because anybody who's looking for something to bring to fourth of july parties yeah, get these lancaros, take them well. Yeah, and think of us because that's our third anniversary.
Sarah Lopez: 47:43
We actually launched on july 4th, so, oh my gosh, think of us drink. Actually, our first fourth of july was Yana and I on the strand with our CFO, david, and we had the longest day probably possible. We started at about 7 am on the sand at Hermosa Beach at Ironman. It's a big run paddle six hands try not to puke.
Sarah Lopez: 48:05
Whoever does it fastest wins, but it's about 20,000 people, so we started there with giving out all of our cocktails for our launch. We ended late at night. The three of us took a nap in the office because it took so long that was such a crazy day and then went back out to get everybody drunk and I loved that day, but I think it was probably the worst day in the history of our company. On 4th of July, kathleen was so lucky to have not been with us quite yet then, because I think we it was just bad.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 48:36
Kathleen, it was bad. It sounds like a party. It sounds like a good time.
Sarah Lopez: 48:41
It was a bad time it was a good time but, it was a bad time.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:43
It was the best of times.
Sarah Lopez: 48:45
It was the worst of times.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:47
All right. So we got nextstepfitnessorg and we'll put links in the show notes for everybody. So nextstepfitnessorg and then loncarocom, simply loncarocom. And get all the information there.
Janne Kouri: 49:03
What do people find like the cocktail room and things? Can I do two more plugs?
Jamie Flanagan: 49:08
Yes, plug away.
Janne Kouri: 49:10
Yeah, so Loncaro long drink is our new instagram. And then also for next step, every year we do two charity bike rides. So we actually did one around lake michigan last september. We just did san diego to manhattan beach, and then we are riding from cleveland to cincinnati this coming october and how many miles is that, yanni? That one is going to be like 330 oh yeah, that's a little more than I can stand.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 49:46
I mean, I can lift really heavy weights, because that's how I train, but I am not endurance I will support you I will support you in in other areas.
Janne Kouri: 49:56
It's flat it's a flat ride and 90 of it is on paved bike trails yeah unless 90 of it is downhill we'll get you an e-bike there you go there you go, you get to cheat a little bit.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 50:16
You know what?
Janne Kouri: 50:17
no, no, we'll get one of those tandem bikes, or I can put you or I can put you I'm gonna need a three-wheeler is joel, who's our my you know right hand man Next Step, and my other friend, lars, who is a huge supporter of our ride. They're actually riding a tandem bike together, oh yeah.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 50:42
So we won't be alone, Jamie. What?
Jamie Flanagan: 50:44
could go wrong, it's like 500 pounds on a tandem bike. I might need a bike taxi where we're sitting in the back covered up and somebody up front pedaling.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 50:51
Yeah, I knew it, we'll have a cooler. I knew you were going to say that, as long as you can pass me some cold drinks while I'm pedaling.
Sarah Lopez: 50:57
There's a lot of drinks on the ride. There's a lot of drinks.
Janne Kouri: 51:00
Yeah, you're not going to come up with an excuse to fall on the phone. There's that.
Jamie Flanagan: 51:05
Oh, my God.
Sarah Lopez: 51:05
Well, thank you, thank you, thank you and, yeah, good luck with that and as more magic happens, you got to come back and share these stories as they keep unfolding. Kroger just started, so this is probably the start of the magic here. So thanks for having us on and, if it's okay, can Kathleen plug our new Kroger markets?
Kathleen Berki: 51:34
Oh, hell, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so you can find us in Michigan and you can find us in Cincinnati right now.
Jamie Flanagan: 51:43
Okay.
Kathleen Berki: 51:44
Awesome. We're working our way through Awesome, every city, every state.
Jamie Flanagan: 51:50
Awesome.
Kathleen Berki: 51:51
Yeah, thank you so much.
Jamie Flanagan: 51:53
Yep, you got it. So there you go. Man Cave Happy Hour. Like subscribe, leave a comment, do all those podcast things and all the podcast places, and we'll do it all again very, very soon.
Kristen Carlson, Mrs. Vino: 52:02
Cheers, cheers, cheers Thank you, bye guys, bye guys, thank you.
