A Million Balls In The Air

Or so it seems!

I'm not writing much as we are so busy nailing down all aspects of production, from the label printer, to the bottle printer, to the cork, the capsule, etc.  We've got the bottle and the booze and our special proprietary blend of botanicals sorted, though, and are also very hard at work on a website.  We're pursuing several avenues for distribution.  We've already been invited to our first event which is a perfect fit for us . . . so the blog's been taking a bit of a back seat for the moment.

Tasting Serge's cocktails

Serge has created two cocktail recipes just for us!  He ran them by me at his restaurant, Serevan.  They are incredibly good, which, of course, is no surprise.  The pink one is watermelon based, with mint and St. Germain, and the other one has pear puree, cardamom, lemon juice, saffron and fresh herbs.  The receipes are going on our hang tag, and I will absolutely post them here.

Box to distributor

OK, so this looks like nothing, but actually, it is big.

The box contains the mock ups we had done. They are going to the largest distributor in the US, to get a senior executive's perspective and advice He's seen our written materials  and been encouraging; now it is time for them to see our actual product.

The UPC Code

So, we need one.

This is more complicated than it looks.

However, after about 2 weeks of angst, Three Meadows Spirits now has one!  It did take speaking with a customer service representative as the website is, erm, USELESS and puzzling over the various documents just served to drive me batty.  However, it is done.  Hurrah.

Mock ups

We are getting really close to being able to show you the bottles, but not quite yet.  However, while we nail down the actual production of 6,000 bottles of our vodka, we've had a couple of bottles mocked up so we can show people what they really, and accurately, will look like.  They're looking good!

We've been approved!

Another huge milestone has been passed -- our label has been approved by the TTB!  Yay hurray!

Now we turn to nailing down the nuts and bolts of production -- we couldn't get quotes on label printing, for example, until we knew what the label would be.  So far we've firmed up our bottle supplier and should have label quotes within a week or two.  We are also getting closure quotes, and bottle decorating quotes as some of the label is printed directly onto the bottle.  I hope we'll have that information within a couple of weeks, and then we can start placing orders.

While it is wintry outside, we are working away

Things are quieter as we are still awaiting word from the TTB.  However, we continue to refine the label and bottle.  Alex Isley justified his world class reputation by doing mock ups of our bottles and putting them on actual store shelves to see what pops more.  We considered, though ultimately rejected, changing the text color from black to white.  On the shelf, the white pops more, but parts were harder to read up close and the black looked more elegant.

We also made contact with a bottle supplier, and have slightly changed the bottle.  it is a little slimmer, and very elegant.  (It is also available in relatively small quantities, is made near our distiller, and can be had at any time).

We are thinking about our website, and about distribution.  Serge is going to get busy designing our cocktails after he gets through the Valentine's Day rush.

Unfortunately we are not the exception to the rule

The rule, that is, that getting your label through the TTB is difficult!

We've had one go-round with the Agency, and have revised the way we are describing our spirit.  Our latest version contains the language the TTB themselves suggest we use, so you would think this would be a slam dunk for approval.  But as our lawyer pointed out, not every slam dunk goes in . . .

We are *hoping* to hear this week, but it could go longer.

In the meantime, we are working on our hang tag and website, and turning our attention to distribution.  More later --

Tito Gives Advice to people starting their own brands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldWJCAc8frA

The Best Chef in the Hudson Valley is creating a cocktail for us!

We've completed our label and are starting to focus on the "hang tag" that will go on each bottle, and Serge Madikians has very generously agreed to create a cocktail recipe or two.  Serge owns Serevan, an amazing restaurant one town over from us.  Check out the gorgeous website.

Serevan is a country restaurant with an intimate sensibility. Over the past ten years, chef/owner Serge Madikians has developed an original, distinctive cuisine based on both his proximity to the farms of the Hudson Valley and his heritage as an Armenian from Iran.

I met Serge when I took my parents to his restaurant several years ago.  Hanging on the wall was an old photograph of a Tehran street scene.  My father took one look and instantly recognized Cafe Naderi, which was THE place to be when he was a young man.  We told our server this, and Serge came over -- his grandfather started the famous cafe!  

Cafe Naderi in 1947

Naderi café and hotel were built in 1927 by a Armenian immigrant called Khachik Madikians. It was named so because it was build along the then Naderi Avenue. The founder started his career in Tehran first with baking confectionaries and he used Naderi restaurant to introduce Iranians to European foods for the first time. Later on, he built another hotel with the same name close to Naderi café. After Grand Hotel, the Naderi Hotel was the second hotel to be built in Tehran. More about the istory of Cafe Naderi here

And with that "small world" connection, I was lucky enough to meet Serge, who is one of the most high profile, talented chefs, working on not only a local, but national, stage. I am thrilled that Three Meadows will experience some of his creativity and genius. We are unbelievably lucky!

So, we can't say this, but I wish we could!

Read the government warning.

(Alex and his team put this in, greatly improving the standard caution that no one ever reads . . . but it is not actually legal to change the language one iota, so sadly, it had to come out).

And on to the next step

Having obtained our Formula Approval, we are filing for our Label Approval this week.  We've refined it and made it even better.  Though i say it myself, it is world class!

The question on my mind right now is that our designer added some -- extremely funny -- text to the standard government warning . . . I doubt it can stay in, but we're running it by our lawyer.  Whether it stays in or not, I'll post it some time on the blog, but first I want to get the answer.