Brewsers

Brewsers #162-Erik with Huxden Syrups

Today on Brewsers, we speak to Erik with Huxden Syrups. We talk all about how they got started at a golf course, their old fashion syrup, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. Sign up for our newsletter! #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers

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Duration:: 53m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I'm your host, Rody John, and today we speak to Eric with Huxdon Syrups. We talk all about how they got started at a golf course, their old-fashioned syrup, and so much more. This is such a fun conversation, and it's a great product as well. We're seeing a lot more syrups on the market now. You don't have to do all the work. You don't have to do all the muddling. You don't have to do the peeling, the zesting, any of that stuff. Just pour the syrup in a glass, pour your favorite bourbon or whiskey in the glass as well. Stir it up a little bit. You are good to go. So Huxdon Syrups is going to help you get you there. But first, make sure to sign up for our newsletter. It comes out twice a week. You get even more information about our guests. You get fun facts, and you get to find out what's happening with your favorite podcast, all about beer, coffee, booze, and bruisers. So without further ado, here is Eric with Huxdon Syrups. I would like to welcome Eric with Huxdon Syrups. How are you doing today? Good, good. How are you? I'm doing well. So, for anybody listening, kind of paying us a word picture, where are you at? What's going on around you right now? Well, it is blistering seven degrees here in Minnesota and the Rochester. And you've got a little bit of snow on the ground, and yeah, pretty much stay indoors for a couple of months when you live in Minnesota during this time. Yeah. Yeah. We are, I mean, as we're recording right now, I am in the DFW area here in Texas, and it is 46 degrees and raining, so it is-- Yeah. Not the best. That's short weather here. See? No, not here. We-- [LAUGHTER] Like that, we kind of freak out and like almost shut down and like, "Oh, it's too cold outside. Yeah." I hear you. I got a buddy who lived down in Texas, and he was the best man in his wedding, and he was mine, and now he's lived there, I think, for both well over ten years. And I talked to him the other week, and he said, "Man, I think I'm getting a little too soft because I'm finding myself bundling up when it gets to be 45, 50 degrees." And I said, "Well, you'd get laughed at here." Oh, you'll laugh at this contest. Last week, we had an interest to know only for like three-fourths of the day, and all of the schools shut down, schools shut down the next day, just, you know, two or something of those parts. It was-- Yeah. It was hilarious. Yeah, I'm sure it gets a little wild when that stuff happens. Yeah. I mean, we're just not equipped for it, really. We're not used to it. For sure. And I've heard that it's different down here, because the humidity also adds another layer to it. Not that, obviously, Minnesota with all the lakes doesn't have more humidity, but that's just what I've heard about how different it is from being in the north and being cold and snowing, as opposed to being south and cold and snowing. Yeah. So you probably get that wet, picky snow and slushy and-- Yeah. Yeah. Well, enough about weather. We're going to talk about more fun things. Let's go all the way back in time. What is your earliest memory of alcohol? Oh, boy. I remember being told not to drink it growing up. I was living in a very Christian household, but also it was more of don't take advantage of it. So I guess my introduction to it was probably my senior year at high school, where I kind of went off the beaten path a little bit. Sports were too important to me to partake in it earlier than that, so I waited till my senior year. Then, yeah, went after it a little bit and then stopped again because I played college basketball, and that just wasn't a priority for me to hit the bottle, so, yeah, quit there and started playing college basketball for four years. Wow, there you go. Yeah. So I guess let's go forward in time and tell us the story of Huxton Phillips. How did all this begin? So in 2016, I quit my job at Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, and if you're familiar with Rochester, the world's famous Mayo Clinic is here, and you either work at Mayo Clinic or you work pretty much as an entrepreneur or, you know, real estate, something like that, but over 50% of Rochester works at Mayo Clinic. So I quit my job there because I got wind that the restaurant bar was going to be opening up at Northern Hills Golf Course, and I've always kind of been an entrepreneur, never to that extent, but I said, "You know what? I'd like to be my own boss, let's give it a whirl." And I bought a bar on a golf course with no restaurant experience, because at least the face and my wife was thankfully supportive of it, so that was 2016. Huxton's syrups didn't come up until about late 2020, and it wasn't because of the pandemic, it was just we serve a lot of old fashions at the golf course, and by the time 2021 rolled around, you know, if you're in a bar setting or you, you know, bartend or anything like that, when you're really busy, it can be kind of a pain to make an old-fashioned when you're really slammed, and so I wanted to streamline the process, and, you know, we went through so many old fashions that I just decided to batch a bunch of the syrup that I was making, you know, so it would just be, you know, pour in a half ounce or an ounce to two ounces of bourbon or whiskey, and that was it. So I had no plans of ever selling it, it was just kind of something that I did to streamline the process at the bar, and then, man, I would say six months after that, had a guy come in, and he said, "Hey, can you just bottle me some of your syrup, and I'll buy it from you, and I should make my own at home." I said, "Yeah, sure." So I started doing that, just a simple little glass jar of it, and then more and more people were asking for it, and then a guy that owns a liquor store here in town, his name's Bob, he came in, he goes, "Man, I'd sure like to sell this at my liquor store," and kind of the rest of the history. So I stopped, actually stopped production for a while because I wanted to do it right, I wanted to get a nice logo, get a good bottle, refine the recipe, and so I stopped for a little bit just because I wanted to do it the right way, and here we are today, just kind of getting it out there, so, yeah. Man, what a story, too, because I mean, I hear about it all the time with other bartenders and mythologists that, like you said, they have to make that situation faster, because people aren't as patient when it comes to wanting to get their drinks, especially if you've got a busy day, and you've got about five deep people making it old-fashioned and making any other drink that can be a little more complicated than others, is going to flow everything down, and you really are trying to turn and burn these people because you want them to have their drinks and enjoy themselves, and then also you want to be able to serve as many people as possible. So I liked that you took that and then made that into a business model, and then, like you said, when you took that break, what all did you think that you really took and kind of fine-tuned when it came to what you were going to put in it and what you were taking out of it, and, I guess, you walk us through those fine kinks you need. Well, so the first thing is with anything, if you want to tell it, it's got to have a name, it's got to have a brand. My cousin, who fortunately is a master in all of this, she does a lot of graphic work, marketing, and things like that, I just reach out to her, I was like, hey, I got to, you know, I got to do something with the syrup here, and I had, you know, it said, I want to keep a family oriented, I have a daughter named Huxley and a son named Camden, and so I was like, I'd love to call it Huxdon and just kind of, you know, rolls off the tongue nice and it's, you know, a family business, and she goes, I can work with that. And so she put together this whole, I mean, it was like 180 pages long of, you know, the book books, and, you know, the files, the font, and then she did a name study, and if you look at the logo, you'll see a winding, a winding valley and a meadow, and that's what Camden and Huxley's name mean, and then you have the orange peel as the sunset, and she put that all incorporated into a logo, and it's like, man, I never even want to thought of doing a name study, like that doesn't even register on my level, so real thankful for her and she kind of set up all the stuff, and then as far as fine-tuning the recipe, it was more of how to make it in bigger batches, and if the product gets, you know, better or worse making it in bigger batches, because I, you know, I was doing just a pretty much a 32-ounce jar to get going, you know, when it was just for the restaurant and bar, and now it's up to, you know, port and gallons and all that stuff, so I wanted to see what would change, you know, if the mixture changed up a little bit when you start adding too much stuff to it, and so with a lot of trial and error, I had to drink a lot of old-fashioned ones when I was doing it, but to bath any, I shouldn't say the bath thing, because if you have an old-fashioned and then you drink another one right after that, your taste buds kind of get a little off, and pretty much you think tastes good the second time around, so it's basically every day I would have to try one from a different batch, and then, you know, I keep it at one just to, you know, reel myself back in, but yeah, so it was just a lot of testing with it, and, you know, I wanted to get it back to where it originally was in those really, really small batches, and now I got it down to a science, and we're rocking and rolling, you know, and a lot of people are saying, well, you know, anybody can make an old-fashioned syrup, you know, it's just bitters and sugar water, and, you know, do an orange that, well, it's a ratio, it's, you know, what we do, there's a little secret that I can't give out, 'cause I think that's what sets me apart from everybody else of what we actually do, and how long we hold the syrup before we actually bottle it, you know, it's just little things like that, and it does take time, and so it's a passionate project that turned into a business, and, I mean, it's so far so good, I never honestly expected this to happen, but I'm pretty glad it did. Well, and obviously, like you said, a passion turned into a business, and that, you know, at the end of the day, that's what people really want to do, is they want that, they want to go to work and actually feel passionate about something, and they don't want to just have like that job that they go to, that they kind of suffer through, and always check the clock, it's like, all right, what am I done, can I get out of here already? You are now doing something, you know, that you do actually enjoy, and you didn't even think that this was, I mean, I imagine this wasn't even on your radar of things you could have done. Well, not at all, it was to make my life easier, and my bartender's life easier of mixing old fashions, because, I mean, if you're out of golf course, people come in, they're big bourbon whiskey drinkers and big old fashions drinkers, and it's probably our number one selling craft cocktail that we make, and man, it takes less than a minute, you know, to make for some time. If you're crushed in sugar cubes, and pouring bitters, and sirens, whatever, I mean, that's a three to four minute drink sometimes, and, you know, I mean, I guess, depending on who's making it, but the other thing is, we wanted, you know, quality control, where sometimes if you go to a bar, a restaurant, and you order an old fashions, and then you order another one, it could be completely different than the first one you ever had, so we wanted the consistency of making, you know, the drinks to be the same every single time, because you might get a bartender that puts too much bitters in it, well, now it kind of tastes cinnamon, you get somebody who maybe puts in too much simple syrup, well, now you have a very sweet old fashions, where that person maybe likes to taste the bourbon a little bit more, and now it's your consistency's way up, so you can still do that with my syrup, but, you know, it's more or less, you know, hey, do you want a half ounce or an ounce, do you want a sweeter one, or not so much sweet, but the bitters is always going to be the same, so you're not going to get the real burning cinnamon flavor, or, you know, just kind of that heavy, you know, I'm more of a sweeter guy, but I don't really like tasting like I'm drinking a campfire, if you know what I mean, right, yeah, so just a lot of consistency, you know, quality control, things like that too, that went into it, so, yeah, no, I mean, that makes sense, because I'm like you said, there are people who want the sweeter ones, and then there are other people on the other side that want way more of the smoke, and then there's also, you know, there's a component of what bourbon or whiskey you are going to put in there, because that will also change your profile as well, do you, I mean, obviously you're not sponsored or paired with any other bourbon at all, but do you kind of feel, is there one that you enjoy more, and then there's, is there one that you have your friends or other people that have been like, well, I'd like, I'd like it with this, but the way this one really kind of gave this flavor was something that I really enjoyed as well. Yeah, so our household fashion is made with buffalo trays, we have been pretty lucky to get that, yeah, we've been pretty lucky to get that on a consistent basis, so we serve it with that, and people are obviously pretty happy when they see that we are serving that, you know, a couple other people go ask for it with Makers, because they like that little fight at the end that you get with Makers, you know, I feel like sometimes that's a little, it's a little overpowering in an old fashion, you know, so people really don't tend to go one way or the other, it's just, we serve it with buffalo trays, and they're extremely happy that they're even getting a poor buffalo trays, especially now, because it's so difficult to find, but yeah, as far as, as far as people telling me, I guess, otherwise, I mean, everybody's got their, their preference, and I also, like, I guess when we weren't able to get buffalo trays, there was a couple times, two years ago, we actually were using Jim Bean, and man, you could hardly tell the difference, I mean, I'm sure I'll get some blacks for that, but I was never a Jim Bean fan, and one of the guys up to golf course, he's like, hey, just try with that, he goes this, it's a really good old fashion, and honestly, there's, I'd never heard any difference, you know, people saying that it tastes different unless they watch me pour it, and they're like, oh, you make it with Jim Bean now, and no, it's because we can't get buffalo trays, but yeah, they, they loved it, which I was pretty surprised about, but not not in Jim Bean, but it's, it was not on the top of my list to mix an old-fashioned list. So, there are people who also enjoy old-fashioned made with tequila, I know I'm one of them, especially because once I realized that was a thing, I was like, yes, give me that all the way, 'cause I love tequila, how, have you tried this with making it as tequila as well, and if you have, how does that kind of a, how does that work for you? Yeah, started kind of experimenting with other old-fashioned, you know, you have, you have rumble fashions, and you're tequila old-fashioned, and I am, I mean, I'll be honest, the only tequila I have is when I take a shot, I'm not, you know, different tasting notes for people who do you taste this and this, well, I have no clue about tequila, so I'm, I'm just starting to like, I guess, you know, try to figure out some stuff or see if that's something that would pair well, you know, if you have to make the syrup a little differently or less sweet because tequila, I guess, already is a little more sweeter depending on what you're pouring. So yeah, I, I haven't really done too much with it, but I know that different old-fashioned are becoming more popular, and probably time for me to start expanding my, my old-fashioned, but I'm, I'm pretty much sticking to this first and trying to get this off the ground and honestly, just this morning, we went live online to sell online because we were just in local liquor stores and department, or grocery stores until just this morning. So yeah, it's kind of a, you're my debut of the podcast and online sales, so it's a good day. Well, I always say you can't teach an old-fashioned trick, but apparently you can teach an old-fashioned new trick. There you go. Yeah. Well, and it's just so different, I mean, you want to sell online and you have, I mean, all of a sudden you put an email address in for one thing and you're getting 9,000 emails from, hey, sell on our site, go to shiftstation, or stamps.com or Shopify, and it's like, okay, all I want to do is just sell this online. I don't mean, you know, so I'm, I'm learning every single day and, you know, I'm a one-man operation right now, I don't have anybody who's helping, you know, besides my kids maybe putting some labels on the bottle, so if you ever get a bottle and the label's crooked, I mean, that's just the family business right there, so let's keep it in the fan. Well, I mean, that's the funny story about, like, the bitter bottles is that, uh, somebody told me this, I haven't actually, I think there's some article or documentary about it or whatever, but the bitters, the way, the reason the bottle is shaped the way it is, and then the label is as massive as it is, is because the label was actually supposed to be for a bigger bottle, but I think when they got the bottle, it was either the bottle for the size they were supposed to be or the label is actually supposed to be smaller, but it ended up being bigger and they're like, "Grew it, let's just do it the way it is," and now they're just known for it, and now other people who put, who make bitters also have gigantic labels, and they're just like, "All right, it seems to work for them, we're going to do it for us too," and so I think this, like, not aligned labels could definitely be y'all thing if that's what you want to pick up. I mean, we try to make them straight, but you know every once in a while, or, you know, we handwrite the batch number on the label, and sometimes, you know, you write in so many labels down, and it's like, "I just totally screwed up an eight or a seven," and you just let it go, you know, so, but it's funny you bring up the thing about the bitters, because it was two weeks ago, I was making some syrup, and I was like, "What is going on with these bottles?" Like, "Why are all these bottles have the oversized labels?" And I looked it up, and that's pretty much exactly what you were saying, and I'm like, "Huh, that makes sense, that's pretty cool." Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's your known for? You kind of can't change it, so you're... For sure, for sure, and it might be a great mistake or a horrible mistake, but you know, you just roll with it. Exactly, yeah, you've got to roll, I mean, that's just starting to do in business, so you've got to roll with the punches and keep going forward. For sure, and that, I mean, like I said, this is so new to me that I don't even know, like, when I was making the labels, I didn't know that a UPC had to have so many numbers, then, if you tell it, you know, in this different place, it's got to have X amount of numbers, and you know, I was just like, "Yeah, I am so much stuff to figure out. Here, all I want to do is make all the fashions syrup." And I'm looking at if I have nine or ten numbers on the back of the bottle, but it's been a learning experience, and it's... I've actually just loved every single part of it, because I get bored of things so easily that I'm onto the next thing, and with this, it's just open another door and figure it out, and here we go. So, it's really been a fun learning experience, and I'm sure my wife is probably loving it, because I'm not bugging her so much, so, yeah. Well, you're also in this, like, interesting sweet spot where you're not selling an alcoholic beverage, but you are dealing with alcohol, obviously, because, you know, I don't think people are going to drink it just straight. Not that I'm saying this, but for the most part, they're going to be always mixing it with some liquor or some sort. So, you have this freedom of not having to worry about if you can get in the grocery stores, or also at the same time being in liquor stores, and not having to worry about all that, because of the fact that you're not selling an alcoholic product, but you are pairing with alcohol, so people can go to the grocery store, buy your stuff, and, you know, buy all the rest of their groceries while they're at it, and then on the way home, where if they already have liquor at the house, they go, you know, grab their favorite liquor that they would put in their old-fashioned, and then mix it together. So, how great has it kind of been that you're not having to jump through the alcohol hoops when it comes to making a product that does appeal to the alcohol market? It's absolutely fantastic, because when I was first starting to look at it, I was like, you know what I don't see a lot of is vast old-fashioned for sale, like with the booze in it, the bitters, like everything in it, and I was like, man, I wonder if that would kind of be the same thing. So, for golf tournaments, sometimes we'll batch, you know, a bunch of old-fashioneds, and we'll just kind of pour them over ice as people come in, like, kind of, you know, had a tournament on a different hole, you know, so they can have a little fashion out on the course, and then people said, yeah, they tasted fine, but then it was like, man, that cut-off cap, you know, especially for shipping, and shipping has gotten a lot better with shipping alcohol and stuff like that, but there's the legalities of it are just insane, and so now, you know, just with no alcohol in it at all, I found that it's a lot easier, you know, dealing with that stuff, you know, even, and especially, you know, for the people that are selling it, too, inside their stores, Bob from Woody's liquor, who was the first liquor store I ever went into, he was like, Eric, this is great, because as soon as people come in and buy your syrup, he goes, they're buying a bottle of whiskey for me at the same time, he goes, that's a win-win for me, and I'm like, well, I'll keep that rolling as much as I can for you, and he goes, yeah, and he has been selling more whiskey than he ever has, but, you know, I'm not going to say a contribution to that, but obviously, the whiskey and bourbon game is pretty strong right now, and you have all these YouTube channels about bourbon hunting and everything else, so at first, I thought maybe it was a fad, but now it's crazy out there, you can't get anything, which kind of sucks, too, because, you know, a lot of your bars are not getting the allocated products that they once were, and now, you know, some of these liquor stores are, you know, I saw a bottle of Buffalo Trace the other day for $90, I mean, that is absolutely insane, because it cost $18.50, you know, so, you know, I understand they want to make money, but when they start taking advantage of stuff, it's getting a little out of control, but, um, no, I've enjoyed the process, I've enjoyed actually not having the booze in it, because people can add as much or little as they want, you know, make it their own with still the same great taste of the syrup that goes in it. Right, yeah, going back to the, getting harder to find the bourbon and stuff, I didn't know that there was such a big resale market until, so my past is, I used to work in the wine sales for 14 years, and so I would have called on some mom and pop liquor stores, and some of them would tell me, oh, this guy's back, and I'm like, what's wrong with that guy, and he's like, oh, he's part of the, you know, the bourbon resale people, I was like, that's a thing, because I had no idea, and yeah, they, they make the market so much harder for so many people, because they'll just, they'll camp out these liquor stores, wait till they get their shipment then, and then buy as many as they can or want, and it just doesn't help people that want the bourbon, but maybe have a day job, and they can't just leave to go buy bourbon, and they aren't going to, I mean, some of the liquor stores won't hold bourbon for other people, and so it's like a weird area, and yeah, unless these people know that these people are, in fact, people that just are part of the resale market, they won't, you know, they're going to sell to them anyway, but if they know, a lot of them will just cut it off, like, no, if you can only have one at a time, and it's like, for sure, so yeah, it's just really unfortunate too, it is, you know, and I know a lot of the guys here in the liquor stores, he goes, you know, that's killing us, and that's why we're, you know, we're not getting the stuff that we normally do, or, you know, we have people who, like you said, that'll camp out, and I'm in a couple of Facebook groups, you know, just bourbon and whiskey groups, and it totally switched from, hey, what have you guys tried, what pairs well with this, to, it's all reselling online, and they don't use the term sale, because they'll get flagged on Facebook, now they'll put a, like, a recycle sign if they want to trade it, and they'll put a deer with antler with a number behind it, or in front of it, that's, you know, 300 bucks, you know, for the deer, and that's how they get through with it, and, you know, there's been a couple of times where I've gone on there, I'm like, guys, you know, first of all, it's illegal, you can't be selling booze without liquor lice, and they're off their lice, and second of all, you only hurt yourself, because the market on this stuff is already jacked up, and you're making it way worse, I mean, during Christmas time, you know, it's normally when a lot of liquor stores and bars get their nice allocations, um, yep, from Martin, I got, uh, what did I get, I got a lot B, Van Winkle, 12-year, and, um, what else, uh, William Maroo, and one other weller, and, uh, you know, I had just posted it saying, you know, and I was flooded instantly, hey, I'll give you $2,000 for that lot B, and it's like, no, I drank my bourbon, or I throw it, you know, by the, by the ounce, that's a golf course, and it's like, no, I'm not, like, this is just insane that a bottle that cost me $83, you're going to pay two grand for it, like, I don't know, I mean, don't get me wrong, it was very tempting, but I'm not, I don't have an off sale license, I'm an on sale guy, so, um, but it's just, it is unfortunate that it's come to this point where it's very hard for the actual bars to get allocated stuff because, you know, all these retail stuff going on, but, you know, you get some of those good-looker stores that are putting stuff out at retail, and I'm like, yeah, that's great, and then they put it as secondary prices, and it's like, wow, that's really horrible that you're doing this, but that's their choice. True, yeah, yeah, I mean, I would always hear about it with the beer world, but it was, it wasn't something that would just be, you know, they would buy it and then resell it, like, some ungodly price, it was something that, you know, they were obviously looking to trade or, hey, I live in this area of the country, and I can get this beer if you want, you know, I'm not saying obviously it's legal, but there's a lot of other things that people do in this country, in world that are also not legal, but I think alcohol is the least of the concerns on that one, but it was always a friendly situation of, you know, hey, I have this, you know, I live in this area, you want this, let me know, I can send it to you, whatever, but yeah, this is just so egregious when it comes to the prices. Like you said, if you got something, you're buying something for $80 and somebody's offering you $2,000 for it, that's absolutely not. Yeah, and they didn't even, I mean, that was like, not even a minute after I posted it, and finally, I took the post down, because I'm like, this is crazy, first of all, I can get my liquor license taken away if people start really digging, if, you know, if I sold anything, like, that's just not what I'm doing, but I mean, it was insane, the amount of people that started messaging me, you know, for all this stuff, and you know, even at the bar, when people come in and see that, you know, I have a couple cases of buffalo trace sitting in the back, hey, let me buy a bottle from you, sorry, man, I can't do that, plus I make more selling these individual drinks with buffalo traces than I could, selling it to you for what you probably don't want to pay for it, so yeah, it's just, it's gotten crazy, but that also, I think, you know, might help my sales of the old-fashioned mix, and, you know, people are buying more stuff than, you know, in drinks in more old-fashioned, that's a win-win for me, I guess, but then you'd be posting pictures, and they don't have a single bottle open, I mean, they're all for display and resale, so yeah, I don't know, it'll be interesting within this next year, I think, if it's going to keep going, or people just kind of give up on paying those outrageous prices. Yeah, I do wonder how much things are going to start tapering up, I didn't read the article, I read the head-on, which I know is my fault, I need to do less of that, more of the written the entire article, more people, I think, also need to do that, but I thought it was the trading card business, and there was a couple other ones that were starting to go down again, because collecting, and the collectible scene, you're starting to wane down, I'm curious how much that really is a thing, I mean, now that we're talking about the bourbon as well, because I think that the fact of people having the expendable income is starting to go down, but, you know, we're also, you know, weird year, where it's an election year, and people are always kind of citing their budgets, and being super weird anyway, because nobody knows how any outcome goes. I think for sure. Next year's going to look, and all that, so I think that could have some aspect of it too, but I also think, when it comes to bourbon and alcohol in general, election years usually still go up, because people are stressed out, and they just kind of want to forget about things, and so the alcohol is definitely going to go up. Yeah. Well, you also wonder about the manufacturers that are making all this, and, you know, are their sales actually slowing down, because people aren't buying the outrageous price, you know, products that they have put in shelves on liquor stores, or, you know, are they at an all-time high, because more people are drinking bourbon, or whiskey, you know, you just, I don't know, it'd be interesting to kind of find out from the manufacturers, whether it's, you know, Buffalo Trace Distillery, which is, you know, SaaS or that company, and, you know, all this stuff to see. I'm sure their sales are up, but I'm sure they're also probably getting pretty frustrated, knowing that they're selling product A for X amount, and the liquor store's selling product A for five times that much, which I know you have to have a markup to make money, but this is, it's insane. So it'd be kind of interesting to see their taste on it. Yeah, that's true. Dan, if I could actually reach him, I would love to ask him this question. I got, yeah, I'd reach out to your old maybe buddies in the distribution and see if they have any contacts for anybody, but yeah, it's, you know, it's when you start to hear people talk about it more and more that normally that would not even be close for their subject of conversation, it's, you know, something's up. Now, when you're in a liquor store is, you know, tasting people on your product and obviously pairing it with other bourbon and stuff, what's the reception been like from other people and how much are they enjoying it? You know, it's, I won't call myself a self-conscious person, but when you put your own work out into the public and you get an email of your first review and you're going, man, I don't even want to open this. I don't want to open it. I don't want to open it. And then you open it and it was like, this was amazing, fantastic. It was the best old fashion I've ever had. I'm like, oh, okay, like this is, other people do like it. You know, and part of me is like, Eric, why are you even worrying? Because so many people liked it when you were coming in, when they were coming into the golf course and, you know, making a drink, but then that's me or my staff making it from the, or for them. And then are they going to make it right, you know, to some people that are like, oh, you know, shake an old fashion. I said, first off, don't ever shake an old fashion. You stir it. You know, and then they don't want to dilute it that much, but I was very, I just wanted people to enjoy it. You know, I just, I was very worried that for some reason, maybe would turn bad in the bottle or something like that. You know, even though I've had a bottle sitting in my fridge for a year and nothing's happened to it, so I knew that it wasn't going to go bad within a year. But, you know, from talking to people, like I was just had Heidi last week, I actually had to, I dropped off, I was there twice dropping off products because it was sold out. And I actually met my childhood, my childhood friend's parents there. They were just so happy to be walking by. And they're like, Eric, we are so proud of you. You know, I was like, who would have thought, you know, a D minus student, you know, back in high school was going to do something like this. And they're like, no, we actually had one. It was awesome. It tastes great. And I said, honestly, I was like, please tell me exactly what you think about it. Because I don't need you being, you know, nice to me or blowing smoke at my bed. I just, I want honesty and there was no air. So I get a super simple. It's very good and we'll continue to buy it. And I said, that works for me. So the support has been amazing. You know, even people that, you know, a couple people in the bourbon whiskey group who I don't even know, you know, on Facebook, you know, I put on their, hey, you know, I'd love for you guys to go out and try it, whatever else. Let me know how you, what you think about it. And they, wow, it was so easy. We didn't think it was going to be that simple and tastes like good. And I said, well, all natural ingredients, doesn't have any ties in it. There's no oils, nothing like that. And they just, they were very happy and which in return made me very happy. And still, just, I don't know, I'm pretty ecstatic that I get to walk into a store and see it on a shelf. I never thought I would have anything like that. And then watching my kids, you know, when they see the bottle, knowing that their names are on the bottle, their names are on the website, you know, in the process of making it and making the brand and to see them get excited about it. It's pretty cool. That's so awesome. How was it enough? My son is 10 and my daughter is six. So, Camden, and hopefully. But the biggest thing I get out of my son, Camden, he goes, well, why wouldn't my name first? Why is that? Of course not. Oh, man. Because I said I couldn't. Family just doesn't run off a tongue as good as Hudson. So, yeah. He likes to give me crap about that. That's hilarious. Yeah. So, I mean, we kind of talked about earlier, you know, the fact that people do make old fashions with other liquors. I had never heard of the rum one. Now I have to try one. That sounds amazing. Now that you are kind of going, you've already put this one product out. Do what does the future look like? Will you be adding more? Will you be tweaking it so that the people who do want the sweeter one can have a sweeter one or the people who do want the smoky one with the smokier one or one that pairs better with a tequila or a rum or how do what does the what does the future look like for you? So, I think, you know, I always told myself I'm going to give it a year to two years. It's just perfect this one, you know, just see how it does in selling. Man, if I can't sell an old fashion mix, I'm not going to be making something else to see if I can just save my butt by maybe changing products and maybe more people like this. So, I always said, you know, from a year to two years, how am I going to make this work as best as I can? And then along the way, I'm going to try some other things, you know, you know, if I make this sweet old fashion or, you know, a smokier old fashion, whether that's adding, you know, some toasted bitters or smoking it, you know, for a while before I bottle it, something like that, or, you know, seeing how it pairs well with different types of tequila, you know, so there's going to be a lot of research, but for right now, I see myself going another year before I really even dive into all that. Obviously, I'm going to do some testing along the way, but as far as really maybe bottling something else, I'm probably not within the year. So, 2025, we'll probably think about it, maybe making something else, but who knows if this takes off and it's, you know, self-sufficient, then maybe I can start doing some other things, because especially you don't see a lot of old-fashioned geared towards anything but bourbon or whiskey right now, as far as what comes in a, you know, pre-packaged bottle. So, I think maybe it would be a hit. I mean, like I said, this is all still pretty new to me, but I'm just ecstatic that that's gone this well so far. Yeah, I mean, I love that you are so focused on making sure that one is perfect, because like you said, there are so many people out there that will make like two or three different cues just to see which one hits and which one doesn't, and who sometimes all three don't hit in certain times. You know, maybe one will hit and the other two won or, you know, whatever it is, but I love that you are so focused on making sure that one is where you need it to be, and then you can grow from there, because you're building a foundation, and every time that you are getting more sales, you're getting more displays, you're getting more people, like you said, that we're going to come back and buy more of it than you're just building more blocks so that you can build an empire later. Well, and I mean, I never really understood like what the evolution of this product would be, and I mean, to be honest with you, I was hand labeling everything right away. Now I have a labeler. It goes on a reel and just fits them off. I was hand pumping the actual syrup into the bottles at seven and a half pumps to every single bottle, and I finally just got an actual automatic bottle filler, and it's evolving ever so much, and you know, trial and error with stuff, but pretty much all the money I make is getting pumped back into it to try to, you know, make it go a little bit faster, not the recipe at all, but just bottling and, you know, production stuff like that. So it's, yeah, it's awesome. It's ever evolving, and I'm learning an absolute ton. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, every baby step becomes bigger steps later, and I love that you're taking the money you're making, but dumping it right back into it, so that, like you said, make the process simpler, make it cleaner, and make it better for the next few batches, and then, you know, grow from there. For sure, for sure. You know, I was told, you know, once you start doing well, is when you can sleep and still make money at night, so that's kind of a goal of mine, where I know that the stuff is selling online while I'm sleeping in my bed, so that's, it'd be nice to, you know, buy a vacation for my family with money I sold out of an idea that can be, that became reality, and I think it would just be super cool. That's awesome. So I have a segment on the show I call it the Five Count, so it's five random questions, just answer as quick as possible. Okay. What is your song that you car care yoke you to? Oh boy. Right now, it's a lot of Taylor Swift because of my daughter. Well, since this is not one of the questions, but now, is there an album you enjoy more from Taylor Swift than the other ones? Obviously, all Taylor version because we're not, we've all boycotted the old ones because somehow they are. Yeah, I would have to say, oh man, what would be the, I would have to say probably the 1989, the Taylor version because that's just what we spend less than the two. There you go. Well, when she's not in the car, what do you, what do you list me to? A lot of, actually a lot of like, brutal Mars, like, flow jam. Yeah, I like to not get too crazy but something I can bellow out when nobody else is going to start so they can't hear how bad of a singer I am. I love it. I love it. I love making different voices and doing songs in different ways. Like, like, Bruno Mars is the perfect example. I'll sing it like in a country kind of voice just because I'm very funny about myself. Yeah, for sure. If you were a pro wrestler or MMA fighter, what would your name be? Oh, well, when I was a DJ, I was DJ special K. So special K, you know, something like that. And it's an S H, not a, you know, a CI. So I like that. Good. Yeah. What would your last meal be? Oh, my last meal. So I used to be a big pizza fan and then, you know, the older you get, you just don't feel the same way after eating pizza anymore. I got my number one, I guess, meal. A layer of bread, mashed potatoes on it with some turkey on the top and just pour a crap on a gravy all over it. That's my last meal. Who were going to fire you? Oh, well, you know, my grandpa passed away when I was a senior in high school and he was a very complicated man, but I have more memories of him and kind of the good things he did later in his life than I do of anybody else. He taught me how to throw my first punch, you know, and he was a gold glove boxer and he taught me, you know, you can't get anything done if you just sit on your butt and expect it to be done for you. And, you know, I watched, you know, I had to get too sappy, but I was the last person in the room when he passed away and he hadn't woken up for days and I got in the room and he actually looked right at me and he said bye and a single tear rolled down his eye and that was it. And that'll stick with me forever and there's just something about him that just, I mean, he could go to the guy with anything and he would tell you bluntly to your face of what he thought about it, whether you liked it or not. And I think that made me, you know, pretty, he was a pretty respectable guy after all that stuff. So, yeah. That's amazing. I love that. And then what would you tell your 17-year-old self? Oh boy. Don't worry about making everybody else happy. You know, don't worry about what they think. Focus on what you need to do to get better at things in life. And it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks about you. I love that. Yeah. I think you could tell yourself that at any age really. Yeah, for sure. Well, they think when 17 hits, you're so focused on how you looked at other people that, man, that doesn't matter. I don't even know the feeling of those people now. I mean. Yeah, it's funny because if you go back to your high-state unions, I know a lot of people don't. I remember going back to my 10-year and I was like, I don't really even know most of these people. Yeah. I obviously recognized them from high school, but beyond that, I don't know. I don't know. People? For sure. For sure. Yep. Things changed. Yeah. Now, if people want to find you guys online, try your syrup, buy it. How can I do all the things? Yeah. They can go on hutsonsurbs.com, tell you all about our business, where we sell in physical stores, and then also as of today, we are online selling. And then go to our Facebook or Instagram. You know, Facebook.com/hutsonsurbs, same with Instagram. And we're rocking and rolling on there as much as we can. I wouldn't say we, I mean, I, because I don't have to. But I do the best I can. I mean, you're doing great. Eric, thank you so much for your time. I love your story because, like you said, it's a passion that became a business, and you are definitely fine-tuning your business to make sure that your business can grow and will grow in the future. And I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. And at some point, you will have a team. And I hope that I can still be able to reach out to you, even though you have many people around you. For sure, for sure. John, I appreciate you having me on. Thank you so much to Eric for being on the show. Again, Hucks and Syrips, find it where you can in your local liquor stores. They are also available on Amazon. Make sure to go out and find them and, you know, do do less work when it comes to drinking. Basically, is what is all about. Pull it up, drink it up. It's going to be great. No matter what time of the year, old fashions are fun and people will always order it. While you're doing that, make sure to tag us and follow us on the social medias. It is Bruiser's Pod that is B-R-E-W-S-C-R-S-P-O-D on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter. And if you want to send us an email, it is bruiser's pod at gmail.com. If you want to follow me directly, it is Rody John that is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. Rody John is the name on the Twitter and on the tapped. In case you want to find out what I'm drinking, maybe you can have a beer together. If you want to follow me on the threads or the Instagram, it is official Rody John. And until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local and cheers. [Music]