From Tequila Roots To Fresh Victor: Reinventing Mixers With Real Juice

freshvictor.com

What if the mixer, not the spirit, is the real secret to a great cocktail? We sit down with Fresh Victor founder Ken McKenzie to explore how fresh-pressed, refrigerated mixers turn home pours into bar-quality drinks without the corn syrup, neon dyes, or guesswork. Ken’s journey starts in Guadalajara, where he learned to treat tequila as an Epicurean spirit—complex, mineral-rich, and worth savoring—and ends at a solar-powered facility near Lake Tahoe crafting nine vibrant blends designed to play with any spirit or sparkle on their own.

We crack open flavors like Mexican Lime and Agave, Cactus Pear and Pomegranate, Three Citrus and Mint Leaf, Pineapple and Ginger Root, and Jalapeño Lime, then put them to work in simple builds that anyone can nail. Think a clean, bright margarita; a rye-forward whiskey sour with proper balance; a paloma that pops with sea salt; even a jalapeño-laced highball that delivers real vegetal character, not just heat. Along the way, Ken breaks down how consistent sourcing, pH testing, and cold-fill techniques protect freshness, texture, and aroma—plus why he refuses to go shelf-stable, even when it would be easier to ship.

This is a masterclass in smarter home bartending: use better acids, trust measured ratios, and let the mixer carry the weight while your spirit provides structure. We also dig into refrigerated logistics, on-premise strategy from Vegas to New York, and clever kitchen crossovers like ceviche and grilled fish marinades. Ready to taste the difference? Grab your favorite bottle, stock the fridge, and try a blend that actually tastes like the label.

Enjoy a listener perk: use code “mancave20” at freshvictor.com for 20% off. If you loved the conversation, follow the show, share with a friend, and leave a quick review—what flavor should we mix next?

https://shop.freshvictor.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Kicking Off Happy Hour
• 2:20 Meet Ken McKenzie Of Fresh Victor
• 3:45 Tequila Journey And Industry Shift
• 9:30 Why Mixers Matter More Than You Think
• 14:20 Unboxing The Nine Fresh Flavors
• 18:40 Home Bar Wins: Simple, Balanced Cocktails
• 23:30 Sourcing, Standards, And Consistency
• 28:40 Heat, Balance, And The Jalapeño Debate
• 33:10 Shelf Stable Temptation Vs Fresh Values
• 36:30 Distribution, Refrigeration, And Logistics

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Welcome to McKay Fabio. Welcome to McKay Fabio. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

SPEAKER_06: 0:27

It is time for Happy Hour. It is the Man Cave. Happy Hour Whiskey, Cigars, Spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan.

Matt Fox: 0:34

That over there is the sexy August Gitch flag.

SPEAKER_06: 0:37

Oh, Matt Fox.

August Gitshlag: 0:37

You have to add that sexy in because we have a little bit of a foxy already name, buddy. And that's Matt Fox over there across from me in our in our usual spots. Yes. Yes. Happy New Year, fellas. Yes. Yes. We were fortunate enough to run into each other a few times during the holidays.

SPEAKER_06: 0:53

So we got an extra body on board. We're going to get uh him in the second half. Aaron's just gonna hang out right now because we have some business to take care of up here in the first half. We got a pack show tonight. The first order, yeah. First order, first order of business. And but it's the house, but it's the uh Haven House. Haven House. Haven House. So we're gonna get to Aaron and the Haven House of Detroit very, very soon. And we have our welcome cocktails. So it was welcoming. I feel better already. Cheers, cheers, cheers. And like, subscribe, leave a comment.

Matt Fox: 1:25

All the podcast things and all the podcast places, and uh yeah, so and the best thing you could possibly do is tell a friend.

August Gitshlag: 1:35

You know, guys, I love it when we have an episode like this. And I've told you about listening, I listen to a whole bunch of podcasts, right? One of my favorite ones is we do it, right? Yeah, yeah, not even ours. You know, we ranked fourth on my list of podcasts this week. But we had uh they had uh Steve Young, the football player, was on on uh Tony Cornhash's whatever he's talking about. They did an ad for a t-shirt, they read the ad about, you know, Johnny O's shirts, blah blah blah. And Steve Young goes, Hey, send me a box of that. And they go, What? He goes, Yeah, send me a box of that. And I'm I'm wearing it you know, but send me a box of that, box of that, and it became a joke on the podcast all the time. Whenever someone talked about, oh, they sent you know they got these new potato chips. Oh, send me a box of that. Let's leave them on the podcast. So this is one of those episodes where someone sent us a box of that.

SPEAKER_06: 2:17

Somebody sent us uh a box of that, and we would like to welcome from Fresh Victor. We have Ken McKenzie. Ken, welcome to the man cave. I'm almost disappointed his name's not Victor.

SPEAKER_05: 2:28

Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_06: 2:31

He's founder and CEO of Fresh Victor. He leads the first fresh pressed refrigerated cocktail mixer brand. I know disrupting expectations in the market. It is is doing its thing out there in the beverage space. And recently awarded uh food and wise number one margarita mix, which is kind of because he's an indie guy, right? He's not a big machine, he will be soon enough.

August Gitshlag: 2:53

But there's some history there. I don't see any tequila out here. I don't know what's in the box of that.

SPEAKER_06: 2:58

Oh, there's stuff in the box of that, and uh, we're gonna pull out that box of that. But Ken, like I said, welcome to the Man Cube.

SPEAKER_01: 3:05

Well, thank you so much for having me on. And you gentlemen, each of you are the victors. Oh, we know brush victory.

Matt Fox: 3:14

No, no, not around me, not around me. I was talking that that was on purpose. That was on purpose.

SPEAKER_06: 3:21

I'm a Spartan, I'm a Spartan, I'm the Michigan boy, but I did my I got all my journalism endorsements from state. So there you go. And then I got my master's at Wayne State University, downtown Detroit. I got a lot of I got a lot of sweatshirts at home, is is what we're saying. But enough about me, Ken. Before we get into the juices here, tell me about your childhood.

August Gitshlag: 3:40

There you go. There, you're gonna get that too. Yeah, there you go. Okay, yeah, where you come from, Ken.

SPEAKER_01: 3:45

So I I was born and raised in Northern California, Powato, born at Stanford. Oh, okay, had a great childhood here, ended up actually falling in love with the girl from Guadalajara, Mexico. Followed her down there and found myself in the tequila industry.

August Gitshlag: 4:02

Oh, okay. So you came from the spirit side first.

SPEAKER_01: 4:05

I came from the spirit side first, and it was it was really a journey for me, more or less, because my edgy my tequila background prior to landing in Guadalajara was shots of mixto.

August Gitshlag: 4:17

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

So when I actually landed, everybody looked at me like I was a monster. Like, what are you talking about? That's not how you drink tequila. And so once I really learned what an Epicurean spirit it truly is, it became a mission for me to really want that. Epicurean?

August Gitshlag: 4:37

Epicurean, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 4:38

All right, definitely. You know, I I think the preconceived notion, at least growing up in the 80s and 90s, was hey, tequila is meant to be consumed in large quantities and the next day. Yeah, right. That's exactly what it was. It was, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 4:53

Real that was in the 80s, sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_01: 4:55

Yeah, that's the newsletter I was getting. And you know it gets the job done quick. I was in college.

SPEAKER_06: 5:00

That was that was that's what you do. That was the memo.

unknown: 5:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:03

Once you learn that just the Blanco alone from you know agave being harvested every 10 to 12 years, you're actually there's so much mineral content and so much complexity that you learn that tequila in many ways is a lot more complex than most spirits in the marketplace. And so once once that really occurred for me or sparked in the mid-90s, it was a situation where I really wanted to share that with others, and it became something that took up the next 20 to 25 years of my life in a good way. Yeah, kept you busy, kept me very busy as the industry and segment grew so much. I mean, when I started, there was really only a prevalent handful of 100 agave tequilas that I could rattle off, and it wasn't the ones that we're talking about today. Well, now they're all owned by celebrities. Now there's you know, there was over 500 new registered marks in 2024. In 2024 alone, in 2024 alone, and so you know, for someone like me that started so long ago, it would the just the barriers to entry for new category participants for wanting to be a part of that segment when it's so competitive, and you know, you're all vying for distributors, for account placements, for menus, it made a lot more sense to me to do something adjacent. And you know, my wife being a lot smarter than I am in so many different ways had reminded me when you do these fresh mixers, please don't call them a margarita mix in the sense that fresh ingredients can be used with essentially everything, right? But gin, tequila, whiskey, mascell.

August Gitshlag: 6:48

Oh, trust me, that's how we use it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:49

Yeah, we use bubbles for mimosas, beer for shandies, you know, water for agua fresca. It really lends itself to whatever you guys are drinking.

August Gitshlag: 6:58

The shandys haven't caught on down here as a mixed drink. I I know about them, I've seen them. We you know, the line of Google summer shandy Midwest, we get our Wisconsin summer shandys, but the the old mixer shandy, yeah, it's still there, it's still out there to do.

SPEAKER_06: 7:12

Yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag: 7:13

One of the few.

SPEAKER_06: 7:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one hasn't taken so uh is there a tequila in particular that you're fond of?

SPEAKER_01: 7:20

Found of that I'm fond of?

SPEAKER_06: 7:22

Yeah, is there what's your is your go-to for oh so many.

SPEAKER_01: 7:25

I mean, if you look at El Tesoro, Ocho, Fortalesa, Casa Samatias, Kokoro, I mean, the list goes on and on.

SPEAKER_06: 7:35

San Mateus. I like the Sam Mateus. I just I got turned on to that one. Holy crap! And the and the store that here had a barrel pick of the Sam Mateus. Oh, really? And it was like aged like 10 years or something. It was crazy, but the price was like really reasonable. I I bought up four of the bottles. I was your wife now. We killed two, and then uh I I the the chief chief one love helped kill off some, and then I bought four more anyway. I I bought it they had four left. Like, well, what because when the barrel's gone, the barrel's gone, right?

SPEAKER_05: 8:08

Right, it takes a bit.

SPEAKER_06: 8:10

I loved it because the shelf one is really, really good. But this barrel pick was amazing. So, Ken, getting into the mixers, let's get juicing, right? So, this is like a crazy box. Wow, so what are we looking at here?

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

So, we living in a box, we produce right outside of Lake Tahoe. It's on 90 acres, it's all solar run, no preservatives past the gates. And so these are being blended fresh and cold-filled, and so it's actually a refrigerated product in the sense that it's fresh, and we produce nine flavors now that are designed to be mixed with anything you like. So you can't these are these are very cool.

August Gitshlag: 8:52

Oh, dude, Catherine, my girlfriend's gonna go berserk over there, right?

SPEAKER_06: 8:55

Right, right, right. And this is this is the one.

August Gitshlag: 8:57

So we're pulling them out, but ginger, pineapple, and ginger root that's gonna be your Mexican lime and agave.

SPEAKER_06: 9:04

But the one that that really uh caught my eye and is still catching my eye, and I haven't cracked it yet. Nope, not the strawberry lemon. There's a pomegranate one.

SPEAKER_05: 9:14

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06: 9:15

Where is you can see? We actually did not go through this yet, Ken. Where is it?

SPEAKER_01: 9:19

They're cold in their hands.

SPEAKER_06: 9:20

Well, I did, I did an unboxing, but then I repackaged it for two.

SPEAKER_01: 9:24

I love the live reveal.

SPEAKER_06: 9:26

Yeah, so that's what you're gonna get by the yeah, we haven't we haven't dived into them yet. But the one that happens until April cactus pear, cactus pear, and promegranate. Wow. This like really just okay. I was like, I need to I need to get my mouth on that. Um so that's uh yeah, that was worth the bell. That was worth the bell. So these are great. And what's fun about these, there's little cocktail recipes on the side of each suggested uh cocktail recipes. So I brought out some fixings to do, and we can all kind of pick one that we like, and we can kind of make make one if we want, or we can all do the same one. I don't know, whatever. Um, I'm doing the pomegranate one. Some of these call for gin, some call for whiskey, some call for vodka. So call for teaching.

August Gitshlag: 10:08

Are you doing the first draft pick?

SPEAKER_06: 10:10

I didn't bring the tequila. I want to do the pomegranate.

August Gitshlag: 10:12

I know, I know. I didn't bring it out.

SPEAKER_06: 10:14

I didn't bring it out, but and here's the thing.

August Gitshlag: 10:16

Ken I'll go get the tequila. You're you're the voice. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_06: 10:18

So you're the voice. I'll go get the tequila. So uh tell me a little bit about Fresh Victor and and how did how did it really get rolling for you and and and escalate to where you are?

SPEAKER_01: 10:31

I think you know, I think growing up in the 80s and 90s, one of the things that was so prevalent was the fact that mixers as a category had a bad name. And for good reason, they were high fructose corn syrup, neon green, cloudy, yeah, you know, things that looked like it it could withstand a nuclear winter. And so you just didn't want to, it was an afterthought. It wasn't something that you said, hey, let's go out and get mixers. It was hey, let's go out and get tequila, and then oh, what can we just put with this? Right. And so when you looked at the industry on the whole, where there was really broad market opportunity was mixers constitute two-thirds of the glass, or most of what you're drinking within the context of the cocktail. Yeah, why is it an afterthought? Shouldn't it be something that has really good focus? And then you come to think about it in the in a way of I don't want anything in my glass that wasn't on my grandma's shopping list, right? Sure, right, but people don't do that anymore. It's it's all about shelf life, it's all about warehousing, it's all about keeping it for years at a time. I wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted to say, hey, every time you drink something, you're gonna drink a quality, fresh cocktail. And the only trade-off is you got to keep it refrigerated, and you only have a certain finite amount of time, 90 to 120 days, to drink it. That seemed like a very reasonable proposition to me.

SPEAKER_06: 12:01

Sure.

Matt Fox: 12:01

So the timeline to drink it, the the bottles, and I I can appreciate why you have that timeline because the bottles are you know, they're you know, they fit in your hand really nicely, right? They're not they're not super huge, and you can get through this in probably you know, four or five cocktails. These are pints or these 16 ounce? 16 ounce.

SPEAKER_01: 12:17

I like to say an evening, yeah.

Matt Fox: 12:19

Yeah, you can get, and it that's the part of using it, you know, until it's gone. You know, a lot of folks will take a mixer, they'll stick it on their on their cabinet, and it'll sit there for the rest of their lives, and they won't use it at all.

August Gitshlag: 12:31

But this happened by cranberry juice for a party and see how long it sits in the refrigerator, right?

Matt Fox: 12:35

Right, my point. Yeah, so I'm really intrigued by the number of expressions that you have here as well. Who who's the mastermind behind the the expressions that we're looking at here? Does that something that you came up with yourself?

SPEAKER_06: 12:46

Or yeah, they're exotic mixes, you know, ginger root and pineapple and Mexican lime and agave. It's like they're they're they're dynamic and interesting mixes.

SPEAKER_01: 12:56

So I do all the formulations, and one of the you know, the basis for this really comes from the industry itself with tequila, you know, having such a strong tequila background. One of the things that you really focus on is on premise. What do people want to see on menus? And then you back that up and say, What do bartenders want to use but don't like to use? Prickly pear, prickly pear and pomegranate, that's another one that isn't the easiest thing to use. Cucumber for cucumber on lime, and so it becomes an exercise of what do we want to put in said bottle that can be used in so many different ways and make your guys' life so much easier, yeah. But keeping the quality.

SPEAKER_06: 13:43

So, who is your target market? Who are you targeting with these?

SPEAKER_01: 13:48

So it's an interesting mix, you know. When you look at being able to supply a fresh mixer, you you have several avenues, you have the on-premise, and so restaurants, bars, casinos, cruise ships, anywhere where you're gonna drink there, concert venues, airports, anywhere where you want a better cocktail, okay, or a a mocktail offering. Um, yeah, these are this.

SPEAKER_06: 14:15

I just tried the prom pomegranate and and cactus pear just straight up. And it's nice, it's not too sweet. I I I like sweeter things, but it is it's not too sweet on its own. And on the side of this fella here, cactus pear and pomegranate, it has the cactus pear cosmo. And I'm a sucker for a good cosmo, so it's calling for an ounce and a half and a vodka.

Matt Fox: 14:38

What'd you say? Put an umbrella in it, and you're done. That's it.

SPEAKER_06: 14:41

All right, I'm a happy boy. All right, ounce and a half of vodka, three ounces of the cactus pear and pomegranate, and then a half ounce of triple sec along with a lime wedge. And yeah, so that's uh we're gonna try that bad boy. I'm gonna mix that one up. I'm doing myself a little.

SPEAKER_01: 14:58

And don't be afraid just to you know, do the three ounces of fresh victory. And if you want to titrate it up to two ounces or two and a half ounces of vodka, and you're off to the races, it'll work.

Matt Fox: 15:10

So I just mixed the uh I just did the lemon sour.

August Gitshlag: 15:14

And the retreat to get my readers, so I can't.

Matt Fox: 15:16

And uh it calls for a rye, it calls for a rye whiskey. And I and I have a uh an Elijah Craig here, and it looks like a a proper cocktail that you would get at a high-end restaurant. It's got that cloudiness to it, it's got and when you sip on it, you you get that bourbon flavor. It's not over the lemon sour doesn't overpower the the rye that's in it.

August Gitshlag: 15:38

I'm going pineapple ginger root. That's my draft.

SPEAKER_06: 15:40

All right, so here's my Aaron, any of these tickling your fancy, we can make you one to.

SPEAKER_02: 15:44

I'm liking the jalapeno. Oh, all right, do it, man. He's got he has access on a steak.

SPEAKER_06: 15:50

All right, so I did it with the measuring cups, and so you're so proper, yeah. Yeah, so Ken, that's the thing about you go to a uh a fancy cocktail bar and you get the cocktail, and you're like, I can do this at home. You try to make it, people try to make them at home, and it's just never quite right.

August Gitshlag: 16:08

And and something that can charge$18 a cocktail now.

SPEAKER_06: 16:11

Something that we've learned will help that. Something that we've learned is the most the problem most people make when they get home is that they're pulling their their juice out of a a little plastic, a little plastic lemon or a a little green bottle that's been in their their fridge for you know six, eight months. It's that the store bought from concentrate or you know, not from concentrate, whatever in the bottle. It's the fresh squeeze stuff that really makes the difference. Um in it in a in a in a classy cocktail.

August Gitshlag: 16:42

I'm gonna say something I've never said on the show before.

Matt Fox: 16:44

Yes, please, man.

August Gitshlag: 16:45

This tasted better without the booze in it. I thought the pineapple ginger root was delicious. I'm like, oh, this is I'm gonna crush this.

Matt Fox: 16:52

I put a little bit of vodka in there.

August Gitshlag: 16:54

I'm like, oh man, get that vodka out of the way. This is a delicious sampler cup there, Jamie.

SPEAKER_01: 16:58

Yeah, and and that's the other part of our audience. Our our target is really being able to say, Hey, if you want to take that$18 cocktail and do it at home for a dollar between a dollar and two dollars, that's where you want to be. Home is your new cocktail bar.

August Gitshlag: 17:14

Yeah, I mean, we we trust me, we know. As a person who bartended for 18 years, yeah, I'm aware. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 17:21

So Ken, the the you curate the mixes of three citrus and mint leaf and pineapple ginger root. What this guy, grapefruit and sea salt. Grapefruit and sea salt. I like those little camelina.

August Gitshlag: 17:35

Oh, where's that one?

SPEAKER_06: 17:36

Here it is. So you curate these mixes. How how how do you go about uh getting the you know the the ingredients that you're playing with, and then how do you how do you source this into a bigger batch?

SPEAKER_01: 17:48

Great questions. First and foremost, it becomes going to the source of where you can get the best ingredients. Okay, it's really important because it has to always be the same. It has to be you have to set a standard that you can keep. And so it's not about buying things on the open market or saying who has the cheapest stuff or anything else. It's saying, hey, if you want Persian limes, you're getting all your limes in Tekoman, Kulima, Mexico. That's where we're getting all of our limes.

August Gitshlag: 18:19

We learn something every day here on the Man Cape Happy Hour.

SPEAKER_01: 18:22

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And so the the ingredients and the sourcing, what being fair trade, being kosher, being non-GMO, being preservative free, all those things are of high importance because as people vet you, they they really want to know what you're all about. And you want to be able to say, hey, I'm doing everything in the right way, and you want that level of consistency. That's amazing. We want each batch, we're testing the pH balances, we're testing batch to batch, we're making sure that it's exactly uniform in the same order.

August Gitshlag: 18:58

When you usually get that, especially like I'm done with mimosas in general because I can't drink that orange juice anymore. Yeah, I'm a man of a certain age because I was sick.

SPEAKER_01: 19:06

Yeah, don't knock it. Yeah, and that's the other thing about scaling it. You know what? You read these bottles and it's three, four, or five ingredients. It's very simple. But for me to go from the kitchen to an actual run of this stuff took me 18 months to get the first formula right.

August Gitshlag: 19:26

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Okay, I had a friend that opened a vodka company, it took them uh almost two years to get their first flavor that they thought was worthy of sharing with other people.

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

Trial and error. Yeah, balancing the acidity against the bricks or the sweetness. I know you guys are gonna cut this stuff against something. Every time I'm in Texas tasting people on this stuff, and the thing I love is when I see them drinking it straight, and I'm like, Hey, it's meant to be mixed. They say, Hey son, don't tell me how to drink.

August Gitshlag: 19:53

That's uh that's that's very Texas.

SPEAKER_01: 19:55

Hey, a depletion's a depletion, right? Like, you know, I'm happy.

SPEAKER_06: 19:59

That's uh that's The that's the thing. So many of the uh producers and the people we talk to, they say it's like we don't care, you know, should it be on the rock? Should it be straight?

August Gitshlag: 20:08

Yeah, they say drink it however you like to drink our product.

SPEAKER_06: 20:11

Uh just as long as you keep drinking, drink it however you want it. Just thank you for drinking it. It's easy to sell the first bottle, right? You get a good marketing team, you have some good people working with you that connected us. You're a dynamic guy. People are gonna try it because they they like you, but are they gonna buy a second bottle?

August Gitshlag: 20:29

I'm I'm saying that's the story of celebrity and veteran vodkas and whiskies. Yeah, you can always sell one bottle. Can you sell more than one?

SPEAKER_06: 20:35

Yeah, right. I'm done. I think we're it you caused a fight here, Ken, because we'll be we'll be fighting over these.

August Gitshlag: 20:41

Yeah, there's gonna be some thumb wrestling on who's taking what I know where to get more. So now is this uh what is this retail available? You can get distribution, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

Yeah, yeah. So only mail order. No, we there there's various ways to get it. We so we do sell it on the website, and we FedEx to the lower 48 states, and so it's really easy to get on the website, and you can curate the box any way you want it. You can get small bottles, you can get larger bottles. Oh, good to know handles because everybody deserves to have a party. Um you can go there's a tagline by distributor, it's more regionalized. We have a lot more on-premise distribution in the US, like in Vegas and in New York and in Florida, in California. Off-premise, we're just starting to turnkey like total wine and more here in California. We're just starting to turnkey some grocery.

August Gitshlag: 21:38

Well, that that's I we're familiar with that strategy. We've had uh you know, young companies on here. They're like, we want to go, we want to do Vegas, cruise ships, Miami, places where people will go, try something, say, Oh, how do I get that back in Chicago? Right, how do I get that back in Des Moines, Iowa? Yeah, and that's you know, so I that's a strategy that we're familiar with. And to hear it, you know, it's it's the spirit strategy to hear it in the in the mixer world, it kind of makes sense too. Yes, you do what you know. Yeah, I mean, I'm almost worried, Ken, that you have too many. There's so many options.

SPEAKER_01: 22:08

It's funny, if depending on where you're sitting, from where I sit, from which I can reach her. Yeah, the consumer asks, What are you working on next? How many new flavors are coming out? Oh, okay. I get it, I get that too. For a distributor, they're saying, Hey, nine works really well. You know, okay, you're covering all the bases. And the great thing for us, I've got to say, of the nine flavors, they're unique enough. We're I don't have a loser in the bunch. Each one tracks for the segment that it's addressing.

August Gitshlag: 22:40

No, I'd agree, I agree. And as a as a bartender, you talked about the jalapeno thing. There's three of these here that would make my life easy automatically off the top, and uh in a in a non-fancy bar, like we don't wear no leather aprons and shit, you know. That jalapeno line would be the top one that I want behind my bar because that's the one that I could use the most of that I don't have to work on so much. The what's where's that cactus one? That's uh that's that's that one I'd have to convince people, but that's the only one that I'd have that. But I could invent something with that.

SPEAKER_06: 23:11

Well, that's nice, yeah.

August Gitshlag: 23:13

And it's nice though. It is nice. No, but I I could see like the immediate like use for this. So let me go back immediately.

Matt Fox: 23:20

Aaron, you you use the uh jalapeno and lime one, right?

SPEAKER_02: 23:23

Yeah, I did. And how is that? It's got a great heat to it, it's got heat to it, it's got heat to it, yeah. At the at the very end of it, what'd you add to it? Vodka.

SPEAKER_06: 23:31

Yeah, it calls the the side of this calls for vodka, yeah.

Matt Fox: 23:34

Okay, so yeah, it to add that heat to it. You know, I'm sure you spent some time Ken working on how much heat should actually be in this, right? Um, how long did that take you?

SPEAKER_01: 23:44

Yeah, that's it's almost like you you you research this a bit.

SPEAKER_06: 23:50

Honest to God, we don't. We do, we do not research Jack. No, we're just the people that we're lucky your name's up under your picture there, because otherwise you'd be fec. No.

SPEAKER_01: 23:59

When when when I first launched in 2017, that the jalapeno came out, and I gotta say, we had college kids writing into us saying, Hey, we're using this weekend this uh this weekend at the frat house as a dare. And I thought, well, that doesn't encourage a separate drug ghost pepper booze mix. Yeah, so I dialed it down by a good 20 22 percent.

August Gitshlag: 24:22

That's funny. You hope you have that letter on the wall at corporate.

SPEAKER_01: 24:27

Actually, Aaron, if you take a taste of that, what I'm most proud of is that you retain the vegetable taste of the jalapeno on the back end there on the back palette, and a lot of times people just address the heat element, you know. Hey, I'm just gonna crush you with the heat. I love the heat, but I also love the fact that you can taste the actual jalapeno as a vegetable, and we use it in a lot of different ways. We use it to make ceviche, we use it as marinades to grill fish on the grill because the agave caramel go consume it how you want to consume it.

August Gitshlag: 25:04

I like that idea. Yeah, especially there we go. What is your like what's your top selling most in the most in demand?

SPEAKER_01: 25:11

By far the Mexican lime and agave. Ah, that's I'm mixing that. I'm mixing that one right now.

SPEAKER_06: 25:17

I got a little trace agave. I like the trace agave, it's yeah, reasonably priced, and you can just put this in a glass and just sip it or ice and sip it.

August Gitshlag: 25:27

I don't know, makes on a podcast like this, and the amount of booze we go through, we are all about bang for your buck. Yeah, like what is your go-to that you you drink at home that you get the best flavor for the for the bike price?

SPEAKER_01: 25:38

You're on to it, and I and I gotta tell you guys, you know, one of the most gratifying things for me after 27-28 years is having a tequila tequila brands along the way. You're basically growing with you, yeah. Yeah, you're basically buying for menu space, for shelf space at stores, for all these different things. When you have a mixer brand, you're going to the dance with everybody.

August Gitshlag: 26:01

Ocean spray, going to dance with sprite, you know, everything.

SPEAKER_06: 26:06

Right. Well, yeah, but that's the thing. Here's the another advantage that I see because every state is different, federal laws, local laws, on on moving and shipping alcohol, right? Yeah, but moving and shipping the mixers, yeah. How much regulation? How much regulation do you face? Because we talk a lot of a lot to uh uh the the bourbon makers, and just even the the trouble they go through with just their damn labels, labels, the beer guys in their labels, isn't it? So, what what what's impeding you out there? Yeah, what's uh what's what's your journey like on getting this to people? Is it pretty easy because it's just juice?

SPEAKER_01: 26:40

Well, everything's a trade-off, isn't it? Okay, uh, it felt like I was training in altitude with handcuffs on and being shoved out of a plane without a parachute. Okay, and then we start, you know, started this in 2017, and the thing that we really experienced was we don't have the federal or state by state regs in the same way that alcohol does, and so that was fantastic.

August Gitshlag: 27:06

That felt amazing because you could do so much more, but with a fresh juice, you still have to have health department crawling up your butt like in eight in in the yeah, uh everything else.

SPEAKER_01: 27:17

Yeah, there's that, but it's also you know what is really when you say what impedes you, or what really is probably the thing that I think about when I go to bed and when I wake up is what's really grinding your gears, yes.

Matt Fox: 27:29

The refrigerated uh distribution of freight.

August Gitshlag: 27:32

Ah, okay. Yeah, that's that's fair.

SPEAKER_06: 27:34

Because hey, it's gotta be fresh, Victor.

August Gitshlag: 27:36

Makes me think what was that old uh movie with James Dean with all the water rolling into the. Yeah, I know. Almost it is a take. Almost it is a take. What was the old James Dean movie with all the ice they tried to ice all the uh oh yeah, giant giant, yeah. They tried to ice all the lettuce and it's all pouring out, and they're like, we have to distribute the lettuce, and there's like this water pouring out of the side of train cars. I'm like, oh man, early challenges.

Matt Fox: 27:56

That wasn't it's a wonderful, that wasn't in its wonderful life.

August Gitshlag: 27:58

No, don't get me into my Jimmy Store. That's a different show. It's a different show.

SPEAKER_06: 28:05

So well, getting it there fresh and chilled is is a challenge. Damn it, Clarence. I can I can imagine the packaging that it came in.

SPEAKER_05: 28:12

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06: 28:13

That you shipped this to us was very intense.

SPEAKER_01: 28:16

In a good way.

SPEAKER_06: 28:17

Does that and yeah, I mean, it was like it was and and it's been keeping cool in my Michigan refrigerator, my garage.

SPEAKER_05: 28:23

Yeah, the old Midwest fridge. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 28:27

So um, how how big it's uh when you're shipping them out, do they all go out in you know, package containers like that?

SPEAKER_01: 28:36

Yeah, so that you know, like you guys were saying, everything's an iteration, and so you start with kind of a baseline of hey, we want to get the stuff out there, we want to figure things out, we want to know how what what's best practices, and using FedEx is a great resource to be able to get it out to people within a day or two. Our packaging has certainly evolved over time. Oh, good, and I'm happy where it is right now for the consumer. I think that we do a really good job of getting the 16 ounce bottles or the 64 ounce bottles out to people, and we've been getting a lot of positive feedback, especially in the last couple years.

SPEAKER_06: 29:14

I this is this is fun. That pineapple ginger root is is a cocktail on its own, and that's that mocktail. I would serve that.

August Gitshlag: 29:23

This is right, you can tell like it after I drink it with with the booze in it and without the booze, it is like you said, it's meant to be mixed, so it's like it's not concentrated, no, it is drinkable, but it is it is. I see that you guys that balance had to be a real piece of work, and I I I applaud you on that because I think you got it right for the three that I've tried.

SPEAKER_06: 29:41

Well, and that's very much, yeah, yeah, and that's the thing. It it's it's I mean, I went back to you know, you want to you go you go to the the cocktail bar and you're like I can do that at home, and you go home, you're like, I apparently can't do that at home.

August Gitshlag: 29:52

It also took, you know, it took 18 minutes for you to get your$18 cocktail because they gotta go grind things and muddle, muddle, muddle, muddle, muddle, muddle. So, tips, tips, tips, tips.

SPEAKER_06: 30:03

I I think this this levels that playing field for people at home, and then is uh not a uh a wonderful daddy's little helper, Santa's little helper behind the bar.

Matt Fox: 30:12

It's a great secret. Don't tell anybody. It is it is a cheat code. No, tell everybody tell everybody.

August Gitshlag: 30:18

Like my uh my favorite cheat code in the past was it Goya, Goya brand two liters of their ginger beer. That was a cheat code for making drinks. Oh, yeah, because everyone's paying all this money for Barrett's and all this stuff, and it's like, no, they got the perfect ginger beer in a big two-liter, do it under the bar, and like, oh, we got the perfect ginger beer. Oh my god, where'd you get your mix? You know, Ken was agreeing with you. He's like, That's a that's a cheat code for people.

SPEAKER_01: 30:39

That's what you need. You know, I compare mixology so much to baking, the the ratios and levels of ingredients are so important for balance because when it's off, it's really off. With this, you know, you can dial the ratio up or down on our mixers versus the booze versus the sparkling water, however, you want to use it. It's really easy and fun to do, and you can make it as complicated as you want. If you want to add six more ingredients to our stuff, by all means, go for it.

August Gitshlag: 31:08

That was my next question is what is the most combined that you hear about? Like who's combining what here? Oh, yeah, you could add, you know, from a formula of like your like of your mixes, like who's doing this and this and making a cocktail? Like, what's the one you hear about they're throwing together the most?

SPEAKER_01: 31:26

Variations on everything from different styles of margaritas, palomas.

August Gitshlag: 31:32

Okay, that's that's this is made from margaritaville, right? I get it.

SPEAKER_01: 31:35

It's just so easy. And when you substitute rum for daiquiris, or you substitute vodka for salty dogs, you know, there's just so many directions you can go in from a base level, and then the more complex or the more you know you want to say make it your own. I love when people do that because I feel like hey, they're really paying attention to us. Whiskey sour.

August Gitshlag: 31:57

No, they are absolutely.

Matt Fox: 31:58

Oh, yeah, whiskey sour. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag: 32:01

The lemon sour really turns up the that's the one that I stayed away from because I feel like that's the one that I would most likely do on my own. So I was going for the stuff that I couldn't like wouldn't do on my own.

SPEAKER_01: 32:12

I'll tell you guys what's really pleasant with a bourbon or you know, whiskey is the three citrus and mint leaf really lends itself to a really nice smash.

August Gitshlag: 32:24

Three, I never would have thought to put that in bourbon. I mean, I I get pissed about mint julep sometimes with two minute tea. Oh, yeah, mint is such a dominating spice. It's you know, it's a weed in the garden, you know, it goes berserko.

SPEAKER_01: 32:36

I send the another one I'm proud of.

August Gitshlag: 32:38

Yeah, send it over here. There you go. Send me send me a uh ounces of that.

Matt Fox: 32:42

Yeah, it it calls for, you know, their recipe is calling for a white rum, but I can see definitely a bourbon, you know, mix with that.

August Gitshlag: 32:50

If only we had some Elijah Craig laying around.

Matt Fox: 32:52

Oh no, look at that. It is what happened.

SPEAKER_06: 32:56

Wow.

Matt Fox: 32:57

These these are phenomenal, Ken. I just have to say, I I am I am so intrigued by every single one of these. I think I will have to fight these guys, and and we're we're gonna have a throwdown. It's gonna be a throw down.

August Gitshlag: 33:08

It's gonna be a draft lottery. Oh, we're gonna do it. Yeah, we're gonna do a draft.

SPEAKER_06: 33:11

So when it calls, yeah, when it calls for uh starting by looks comes first, so mock tail version it's you know, water it down or a little more club soda.

August Gitshlag: 33:20

Yeah, yeah, and the oh no, any one of these would make the ultimate, you know, non-alcoholic surely temple type drink with your soda or your sprites, sure. Any one of these will keep keep the kids happy, you know, keep the dry January assholes happy. Um, you know.

Matt Fox: 33:33

No, I do have to shout out to uh you know for the mocktail side with little saints. I'm gonna bring them up, but even the little saints stuff wouldn't mix well with this, I think.

August Gitshlag: 33:42

Nah, I don't think so. No, no, these are these are a that is a dominant flavor of its own. It's a whole different product. No, you think so? Different thing, different things. Different, different. I'm gonna have to poopoo that one. All right, well, I just moved. Sorry.

SPEAKER_06: 33:55

All right, we're doing a different are we doing a draft? What do I you said we're doing a draft here?

Matt Fox: 33:59

Ra, rah, re kick them in. Okay.

August Gitshlag: 34:01

Oh, what's that sorry? Is what we're taking home?

unknown: 34:03

Yeah, yeah.

Matt Fox: 34:04

But Ken, is there is there anything else that we should know a little bit more about fresh victory that you'd like to share with us this evening?

SPEAKER_01: 34:10

Yeah, yeah. I think first and foremost, it's just uh project love. You know, it's something that we took very seriously from the beginning when we saw the opportunity to really improve on the way people drank and wanting to use fresh ingredients, wanting to co-press, wanting to do all these things, we discovered very quickly were difficult industry things to do.

August Gitshlag: 34:32

I was I can't doing it right sucks. Doing it right is hard. Yeah, it's corn syrup in here, buddy. There's no corn syrup, you know, it's using the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 34:41

Well, and how many times people came to me, whether it was distributors or accounts or anything else, and said, Hey, can you make it shelf stable?

August Gitshlag: 34:47

Yeah, no, you're right, you're right. That has to be like the most number one thing.

SPEAKER_01: 34:51

And so for us, it's it really is something you know that we're proud of, that we're proud to share. It's made for family and friends and celebrating and actually having people at the table. I grew up in that way with a really big family where we, you know, a Scottish Mackenzie, a Scottish family with I'm you know, six two, and you know, I'm not a small man, but I was the smallest guy in my family.

August Gitshlag: 35:20

Five big uh you know, big log hurlers up there, big what are they called? Cable tossers? Cabers, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 35:27

The caber toss caber tossers, Scottish games every year. You know it.

August Gitshlag: 35:31

I'm well aware uh McCray as my mom on my mom's side.

SPEAKER_01: 35:35

Yeah, so you know, like when we comment together, it's about what are you drinking? What are you eating? And you know, this is something that we really wanted to lend to be able to say, hey, whatever you like, and whatever ratio you want to have it at, by all means, we're we're here for you.

SPEAKER_06: 35:51

Well, Ken, I love it. People can find you on the line fresh victor.com and then fresh victorcocktails on the socials, right? Do I got that right?

SPEAKER_01: 36:01

You got that right, and we created a code for your audience that if you just put in man cave 20, you get 20 off anyway.

August Gitshlag: 36:09

Oh wow, right on man cave 20, man cave 20. I I just wrote it down. I just wrote it down. Oh, you might won't remember that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:16

And now you guys know where to find me, so just all I need is an address and an email, and I can send more stuff out to you guys.

SPEAKER_06: 36:23

All right, amazing.

August Gitshlag: 36:24

Happy yeah, it's yeah, that's you know what I look forward to. I look forward to the first on-premise joint in the Detroit metro area that is using your product, and we'll go live from there. Yeah, there it is. We'll go live from there. If you find a place, a restaurant, a bar, a hotel in town that's using your stuff. We would love to go there. We love going out. Give them some love. We can get out of our comfort zone here, and we go, we do usually about what five, six a year, yeah, on premise on local like new bars or new places.

SPEAKER_05: 36:52

Yeah, let's work on that, and we'll help you with that too.

SPEAKER_06: 36:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So awesome, Ken. Thanks so much.

August Gitshlag: 37:00

This is wildly amazing. One of the better products we've had on here, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_06: 37:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:05

It means the world coming from you guys. Thank you so much for having me on and your time. Yeah, oh my god, thank you. I truly appreciate it.

SPEAKER_06: 37:12

And uh, we'll have all those codes and the discount code in the links and your links down in the links. And I'll share the links and we'll all share the links.

Matt Fox: 37:19

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna share, share, share away. That's cool. Ken, thank you so much. Cheers, sir.

SPEAKER_06: 37:25

We'll talk to you again soon. Cheers, cheers, cheers.