“Knox & Dobson crafts premium, ready-to-drink cocktails expertly designed to be shared and enjoyed anywhere. Their multi-award-winning bottled cocktails are made with an uncompromising commitment to excellence in quality, craftsmanship, and taste, featuring the highest quality ingredients including premium barrel-aged whiskies, Maraska Maraschino Liqueur and authentic Angostura Bitters.”
“Whether you’re a classic Martini drinker, Old Fashioned aficionado, Rye Manhattan enthusiast, or searching for the perfect Improved Whiskey Cocktail, serve Knox & Dobson’s bottled cocktails chilled or over ice and discover the pleasure of true craft cocktails created to simply open, pour, and enjoy. That’s something we can all toast to!”
At the recent San Francisco World Spirits Competition Knox & Dobson’s Improved Whiskey Cocktail was awarded the prestigious Double Gold Medal and their Old Fashioned Cocktail garnered a Gold Medal. Both awards were in the “Ready-to-Drink” category.
Knox & Dobson will be sampling their premium, ready-to-drink cocktails at the upcoming Manhattan Beach Food & Wine Festival the evenings of Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th at Manhattan Village.
Knox & Dobson’s President, Rob Levy, continues as our guest serving up a taste of Knox & Dobson’s quality libations.
Hi, I'm Chef Rudy Soremin, Princess Cruises head of culinary arts, and the mini maker for a catch by Rudy, that's me, come serve with us when I want the Alaskan king crab of Food News. I listen to The Salkall restaurant show on AM A30KLA radio. And welcome back! It is the SoCal Restaurant Show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon, right here on AM A30KLA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. And you can also catch us on the AM A30KLA radio app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Welcome. Keep in mind, my colleague, Chef Andrew Grulle of the Calico Fish House in Huntington Beach, will be joining us a little later in the show with his usual Ask the Chef segment. And we're going to be talking about something a little controversial this morning. That's restaurants needing to be in compliance with the ADA regulations, which apply not only to the physical restaurant space, but believe it or not, their website. And we're proudly presented each and every week by a Melissa's World Variety produce. And we're picking up our conversation, we're rejoining the world of premium ready-to-drink cocktails with Knob Nox and Dobson, and we're speaking with their founder and president, Rob Levy. And they will be participating in the upcoming Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival, which is in Manhattan Village on the evenings of Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th. Rob, welcome back! We're not the only ones that are fans of your premium ready-to-drink bottled cocktails. Also, up at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, they apparently feel you're definitely worthy also. You have just gotten some pretty incredible accolades in their ready-to-drink category. Can you tell us the two styles that one major awards kind of give us the full description of those cocktails and what the award designation was, and you have to be having a big smile on your face? Yes, we're very happy about this. It's kind of re-energized our efforts. Our biggest award this year was Double Gold for our improved whiskey cocktail, which is a variation on an old-fashioned made with rye whiskey, marasca, mericino, the cur, and angestura bitters. And it's a classical cocktail. Double Gold is especially important to us, because it requires 70 dependent judges to unanimously vote that we should get a gold medal. And beyond that, we're in the final five for Best in Class for all RTD cocktails at the top shelf tasting in San Francisco. The other cocktail that won a big award was the gold medal for the old-fashioned, which is a traditional, bourbon old-fashioned with straight-aged bourbon, real sugar, natural sugar, and aestura bitters. And so both are classics, both are easy drinking, great whiskey cocktails. If you're a whiskey fan, you're going to love them. Now, in terms of the other cocktails that are in your portfolio, I'm a long-time enthusiast of the Moscow Mule, something that was created right here in Hollywood. Great story that is behind that, and our listeners who are familiar with kind of cocktail culture, Moscow Mule really popularized vodka in the United States with Hubline more than a few years ago. So tell us about your Moscow Mule. Yeah, it's a classic Moscow Mule, which is vodka, ginger, and lime. Very simple recipe, but it was our biggest challenge because it was our first foray into citrus. And when we finally crack the code, we are very happy with the result. In fact, you may not know that the New York International Spirits Competition just gave us a double goal for our Moscow Mule. So we're very happy about that. It's a real crowd pleaser, easy drinking, and it's a little lower ABV than the others. It's 20% versus 34 to 38 for the whiskey cocktails. In terms of the ginger beer component that's in your Moscow Mule, can you tell us a little bit about how you derive that? Because that can be tricky. Too much ginger flavor kind of overpowers the cocktail, and there's a very delicate balance there, in my opinion. And ours is a little bit ginger-forward. It's got a good spice to it, but it's evened out by the lime, and it tastes carbonated, but it's not. And that's because of the fresh ginger that it is. Why is, in terms of a packaged cocktail, Rob, why is the citrus component so hard to get right? Is it a matter of that doesn't travel well in terms of shelf life? I mean, I'm sure that Peter had a lot of R&D to do there. He did, and this really has taken us like 10 years to figure this out. And if you've tasted fresh juice, even a day after it's squeezed, it tastes a little bit different, and as the days goes on, it will get more and more medicinal in the way it tastes. So finding that balance and the secret that we can't disclose has been a real challenge for us. But now we feel that we've nailed it, and you'll see other citrus-based cocktails coming from us soon. What we'll be looking forward to that. Now, we can't neglect the classic martini, the classic gin martini, which is very well much back in vogue. So tell us about that, if you would. Yeah, the gin martini, everybody's very picky about their martinis. We use premium, London dry style, juniper forward gin, very refreshing, with just a hint of dry vermouth. So nobody's going to be offended by it. Even if you're not a martini drinker, this is a real easy one to drink. It's very, very smooth in our fashion. Now, have we missed anything in the current portfolio? There's one more, and that's our rye Manhattan, which is also barely aged rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and angestura bitters. And that also received the silver medal at the San Francisco World Spirit Sports. So we're very excited about that one as well. It's maybe less popular. Manhattan's in general are maybe less popular in the old fashion, but it's still a super successful one for our portfolio. You must be very pleased with all the awards that are coming the way of Knox and Dobson, because these spirits competitions, as you were mentioning earlier about the San Francisco competition, they're a lot of entries, and all of these cocktails are tasted blind, so not easy. It's validation. It's been a long road and a lot of trial and error, a lot of experimentation, and to put it out there and get the validation from the peers, not only the public, but the peers in our industry who believe this is a really good product. That's what really energizes us and keeps us going forward, because we believe it's great, but it's great to hear that other people believe it as well. Now, you mentioned there's some other Knox and Dobson styles that are on the horizon. What can you share with us at this point, because we like to tease our audience, Rob? Well, soon we'll launch a rum deckery, which we've perfected now, and now we're just preparing to put that in the bottle, and a margarita, which we'll be made with 100% of what got a CQA, so we're very excited about that one as well. Something to look forward to now, talking about excitement. On Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th at Manhattan Village in Manhattan Beach, you are going to be pouring at the new Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival, which is going to be quite a wonderful new major festival that is in the Southern California area. The chef lineup, as I'm sure you'll agree, is absolutely incredible, and it's 25 different chefs each night. Friday night has the portfolio of 25, Saturday has the portfolio of a different 25, and these are celebrity chefs throughout Southern California and also the United States. So, can you reveal, Rob, at this point, what Knox and Dobson will be pouring at the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival? We will be pouring our Moscow Fuel, your favorite. The improved whiskey cocktail, our double-word winner, Double Gold, our urban old-fashioned, and our martini. So, it should be a great night. You said the lineup is pretty incredible, very impressive for people. In terms of food festivals in general, Rob, we only see Knox and Dobson at the best high-end food festivals with very serious charitable components. Tell us a little bit more about your marketing philosophy because this is a real commitment on your part to be able to do these events. This is in terms of Manhattan Beach. You know, this is a multi-night affair. So, a lot of hours and a lot of product that's going to be going out. It is, and it has been a commitment for us from the beginning. As you may know, we were the founders of the Masters of Taste in Pasadena, which benefits Union Station homeless services, and that's where this kind of all got kicked off. We're just big believers in giving back to the community, and through the people that we've met involved with CCA and the chefs that are part of this community, everybody has the same feeling about giving back to the community, and we're happy to be a part of that community as well. Well, you know, Masters of Taste is really a wonderful event that gets more and more popular every year, and of course, to be able to do that on the iconic field of the Rose Bowl, I think that's the only event of its type that's done there. You know, for some reason, Rob, they just don't want the general public running around the field there. I can't understand why, but it definitely makes it really special. Ladies and gentlemen, Knox and Dobson Premium, ready to drink cocktails and bottles, a part of the lineup of the New Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival, coming up on the evenings of October 11th and 12th. Ticket information and all the details are available at manhattanbeachfoodinwine.com. That's manhattanbeachfoodinwine.com. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When we return, yes, Chef Andrew Grull, we're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce. We'll be right back.
