Lawrence Cisneros is the CEO and Co-founder of DRNXMYTH, the world’s first line of fresh bottled cocktails. He is a legally-trained entrepreneur shaping the cocktail beverage industry and focused on empowering brands. Lawrence began a career in law, working for Espiral Technologies De México as a Business Development Legal Advisor and as a Judicial Extern for The Los Angeles Superior Court.

Lawrence graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Security and Conflict Resolution. He continued to USC Gould School of Law to earn his Juris Doctor in Law, Entrepreneurship, and Real Estate Development.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The reason Lawrence Cisneros took the leap from lawyer to the craft cocktail industry
• How Lawrence solved the problem of a fresh at-home bottled craft cocktail 
• Is there a way to overcome the challenges of distributing a mixable beverage?
• Why a bartender is a gateway to a great cocktail
• How the pandemic shaped and scaled DRNXMYTH
• Lawrence talks about their unique delivery system 
• The importance of authenticity for scaling a brand

In this episode with Lawrence Cisneros

How can a brand produce a high-quality alcohol product and make it more convenient for consumers? Are you looking to combine authenticity with cocktails?

Lawrence Cisneros is bringing the bartender to you. He is a pioneer in the mixable craft cocktail industry, delivering fresh and clean ingredients combined with spirits, bitters, and liqueurs. He is here to share his story and give you an in-depth look at distributing his cocktail creations.

In this episode of Legends Behind the Craft, Drew Thomas Hendricks has a conversation with Lawrence Cisneros, CEO and Co-founder of DRNXMYTH, about successfully delivering a mixable cocktail to consumers. They discuss solving the problem of marketing and distributing a mixable drink, engagement through packaging, and empowering authentic brands. You don’t want to miss this refreshing episode.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Barrels Ahead
• Drew Thomas Hendricks on LinkedIn  
• Lawrence Cisneros on LinkedIn  
• DRNXMYTH 
• DRNXMYTH on Instagram 
• Brandon Schwartz on LinkedIn
• Scout Driscoll on Legends Behind the Craft
• Simonetta Gedda on Legends Behind the Craft

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Barrels Ahead.

Barrels Ahead is a wine and craft marketing agency that propels organic growth by using a powerful combination of content development, Search Engine Optimization, and paid search.

At Barrels Ahead, we know that your business is unique. That’s why we work with you to create a one-of-a-kind marketing strategy that highlights your authenticity, tells your story, and makes your business stand out from your competitors.

Our team at Barrels Ahead helps you leverage your knowledge so you can enjoy the results and revenue your business deserves.

So, what are you waiting for? Unlock your results today!

To learn more, visit barrelsahead.com or email us at hello@barrelsahead.com to schedule a strategy call.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:03  

Welcome to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast, where we feature top leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry, with your host Drew Thomas Hendricks. Now let’s get started with the show.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  0:20  

Drew Thomas Hendricks here on the host of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast where I talk with leaders in the wine craft beverage industry. From design experts like Scout Driscoll who works with wineries to create labels that evoke their unique story. Today’s guest Lawrence Cisneros, whose innovations have solved one of the biggest challenges with prepackaged craft cocktails. Today’s episode is sponsored by Barrels Ahead. At Barrels Ahead we work with you to implement a one of a kind marketing strategy. One that highlight your authenticity, tells your story and connects you with your ideal customers. Go to barrelsahead.com today to learn more? Now before I introduce today’s guest, I want to give a big thank you to last week’s guest Simonetta Gedda, founder of Love to Italy. If you’re looking for some creative ways to ignite passion around your brand, you’ve got to check out this episode. Today I’m super excited to be talking with Lawrence Cisneros. Lawrence is the CEO and co-founder of DRNXMYTH. DRNXMYTH is the first line of fresh bottle cocktails in the world. They invented a proprietary packaging and novel supply chain to unlock a product that many said was impossible. Welcome to the show Lawrence,

Lawrence Cisneros  1:26  

myself on mute. There you go. Thanks for having me on.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  1:30  

Thanks for being on. So Lawrence, tell us a little bit about your background, he got a kind of unique transition from law into the drinks industry.

Lawrence Cisneros  1:38  

Yeah, no, I, I was planning to be a lawyer and go down that road. And it was a pretty long journey trying to get into Law School and graduated pass the bar and all of that. And, you know, I never thought to be in business. And while in law school, I love law school, you know, I love being a lawyer, I want to practice for about a minute or so. But I mean, but halfway through it, I kind of started, you know, thinking more about how I can make a bigger impact in the world, in my community. And I kind of want to I was going down the road of you know, criminal defense, and, you know, working with judges and things like that, too, because I got a little run out of the law way back in the day. And basically thought I could be a better lawyer than the one I had, and thought that I got that that you know, was more pervasive in the industry. And I thought I could kind of help a lot more people by being a better lawyer than what I had. And, you know, I kind of started being a little more disillusioned once I kind of got into it, and thought, generally speaking, you know, I could, if I could have a successful business, and make it successful, I could contribute, you know, monetarily, and be kind of a role model in different way than a lawyer could. And so I started thinking about how I could own my own business and, you know, thinking about, you know, how I can make, you know, a lot of money, and be able to give a lot of the back and started figuring out how to do that. And, you know, to make a successful, you know, very big business, I was researching a lot and going down that route and trying to start different businesses while in law school. And, you know, finally ended up on on this towards the latter part of my last year in law school. And, you know, I teamed up with my business partner, longtime friend from undergrad, Brandon Schwarz, and had a lot of experience in CPG. And we kind of hit on this, this, this, you know, this problem in the industry, and we just went about tackling it over a number of years. And here we are.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  3:37  

Yeah, the problem. I mean, it’s been a huge problem. As far as pre pre packaged trap cocktails, they usually mean we’ve all had them. And well maybe outline that problem before we go into your unique solution. Cool. So we backed up, like what what, what are the problems that you’ve that you diagnosed in that craft cocktail industry?

Lawrence Cisneros  3:57  

Yeah, I mean, everyone loves craft cocktails, you know, Brandon, and I were going to these bars. And it was just like, we’re so amazed by the quality and, you know, inventiveness of all the drinks. And just, it was just so surprising, I had never seen anything like that, you know, and we were doing all the coolest bars in LA. And, you know, when we would go back home, you know, after a long day’s work, or a long day in law school, you know, sometimes you couldn’t go out to a bar, just that the whole, you know, the whole thing, we have to go to the physical location to get a great drink. And to have a great drink at your house, you kind of have to know a few things about making drinks. And if you try to make it on your own, then it’s you have to have a whole library of different you know, spirits, and you have to like squeeze your juices and you have to pour things properly. And it’s a whole, it’s a whole thing. And oftentimes, you know, you’re with friends, you don’t want to go be in the kitchen, making drinks all night. And sometimes the drinks don’t taste good. And it’s a whole problem at the house. And so we were like Hi, let’s go get some drinks at the store. And nothing at the store could compare to what you would get at a high end bar, but things pasteurize artificial ingredients and things that just like they’ve could never ever be served at a bar just at a kind of a high level. So there was kind of this huge void of people love these drinks, whether you’re rich, poor, black, white, old, young, anywhere around the world, despite their home, it’s, you know, it’s a huge problem to make them conveniently at the store, there’s nothing that you could take home or taken on a trip or vacation. That was the same quality you would get at a bar and several icon, maybe there was a way to kind of bottle the quality you would get at a high end craft cocktail bar and be sold at the store that you could take home. That could be a really interesting and interesting and big business.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  5:35  

Oh, yeah, yeah, no, we’ve all had that. I’m probably dating myself. But when the immediate thing when you come to mind with like a bottle of cocktail would be like the Bacardi mixers back in the day. They were fine. But they didn’t taste anything like a bar served Martini or a bar serve cocktail. And what was that aspect that was missing out other than pasteurizing and mixing and pre mixing it? It’s that freshness.

Lawrence Cisneros  5:58  

That’s that’s the essentially the core problem is how do you stabilize freshness? And how do you why the distribute fresh, and you know, even for a while, we would go to bars and talk to bartenders, hey, you know, we have this idea. We’re working on this, like, that’s not possible, you know, there’s this problem, this problem, this problem, this problem. And high level, you know, the citrus generally goes bad for a few days, and highly stable citrus, is he pasteurized and can sit on the store shelves, you know, unrefrigerated for years on end. And so there is nothing in the middle. And so what we basically went out solve is, how do you stabilize the fresh citrus? And how do you preserve it over a period of time, so that you get the same, you know, freshly mixed quality in the bar. And so what we did and what we kind of the first unlock was, we saw in the juice industry, a number of big juice companies like Suja evolution fresh blueprint, that sort of popping up, you know, at Whole Foods, Coca Cola, basically bought Suja, Starbucks bought evolution fresh, and they started using this technology called HPP, or high pressure processing, which puts 85,000 psi on the bottle in these specialized water bath tanks. And that pressure essentially prevents oxidization of the juice and gives you you know, three, four or five, six months of shelf life, although it has to be cold, but you don’t have to add any preservatives and you don’t have to keep pasteurized. And so we saw that we’re like wow, we have to use that technology and bring it to the alcohol industry and so that was kind of the first kind of leaping off point that we thought wow like that there’s at least something out there that our industry hasn’t caught on to and let’s go utilize that and then when we started doing a lot of testing and realizing that you know like there there may be some pre batch cocktails on drought that some bars where they have fresh citrus and the the booze everything is on draft like you know what the draft beer, but that’s only lasting maybe a week, two weeks, you get a lot more viscosity and all the citrus is going by but you get a lot of dullness because the spirit is very adulterating to the citrus and so we started centralizing around an idea where you know, let’s create a package that separates the booze from the cold press HPP citrus all in the same package to you not only is it a kind of a fun and engaging you know tool to create a freshly mixed cocktail but it’s something that no one else in the industry what happens if we could generate a specifically for this purpose so that was kind of the linchpin that really kind of solidified you know our ability to make like the world’s first fresh bottle cocktail.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  8:47  

That’s brilliant, brilliant it’s the from the past for the high pressure preserving the the juice and then separate in the alcohol because it does tend to not cook it but as you said kind of muddled that the longer it sits with the alcohol so as far as your bottle so describe the bottle to people because it’s fascinating the way it just combines

Lawrence Cisneros  9:09  

yeah so essentially the bottle you know we developed this specifically for for it’s kind of hard to see I missed him trying to get a little goat because the background here, I’m gonna take the take the background off on a sec here. Background filter, nine. Okay, so this one’s already twisted, but essentially, you know, it seems like a single solitary bottle. And what what we do differently so the bottom you twisted, and it’s rotatable along this axis right here. So you rotate it this way, and it opens a valve on the inside. So essentially, you’re able to move it and that is unlocking a valve on the inside. It’s it so right now it’s already been pre mixed and so I twisted it ends right there. And now everything is able to flow insights your twist to shape it up, like to put a little ice in mine to get kind of like an ice kind of shaker kind of concept and keeps an ice cold. But yeah, so that was a, that took a number of years to develop. Yeah, it’s, it was something where, you know, we because part of the issue is, is that, you know, one, there are a number of kind of, or maybe a few kind of dual chamber type packages, one was like, activate water where there’s like a vitamin in the cap and you kind of push it down, then there was like a tea of a kind where it’s like a tea solution with some carbonation, they kind of explode throughout the bottle. But they basically couldn’t hold because essentially, you know, about a barrel, tick off the label here to kind of give them a little bit of a better view of it. So essentially, you know, oh, yeah, like the ice is being held up. And so about this much or so is booze, this much as MC so it’s going to somewhat deceiving that first. And no other package could hold not only this much of a secondary chamber, but no other package could hold the HPP pressurized citrus without letting it oxidize, after it had been HPP. And so we realized we had to develop it from scratch. And that was in its, in a certain sense, kind of like, had a huge potential that Hey, man, if we could pull this off, it would be really valuable. But also, it was extremely challenging because we had to develop from scratch. So luckily, you know, we Brandon had a connection through his previous product that he had started and actually sold in an ish cosmetic shampoo company. And he was one of the foremost experts in kind of packaging and seals in the world working for huge companies, and had a direct connection to a factory. And we’ve been r&d for a number of years. And I think one of the cool parts, you know, was that because we had to develop it from scratch, we were able to incorporate a lot of the design elements that you would find in a bar. So the bottom part of the bottle has like a diamond cut, kind of shape. So kind of recreates that kind of cocktail glass in the product, the gold cap, a lot of bars you go to there’s kind of like a gold plated, you know, bar stools, and the kind of the lining around the bar. And so we incorporate a lot of those elements so that when you first visually see it, you kind of get this impression that there’s a special new interesting product that you get kind of the kind of the aim was to kind of recreate that live craft cocktail experience in a product. So apart from the twisting, and shakin and mixing of fresh soap, and that concept of you know, you’re doing it yourself, but a lot of the design elements from a bar or incorporate into the physical packaging itself.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  12:50  

That’s fantastic. It’s a very high end looking product for sure. What were some of the challenges you face bringing this to market, aside from creating your own packaging, which is revolution? I mean, that’s revolutionary. It’s a simple, it’s a simple concept. But the execution of it. Brilliant.

Lawrence Cisneros  13:08  

Yeah, no, it was really hard. It’s nice now to have it work, and people can drink it, and like it. But I mean, we, I mean, for a long time, you know, the ball just didn’t work, we had to go through, I would say 2030 different iterations of physical steel changes to the bottle, it would leak a little bit, we get bloated, you know, B would twist and it would kind of leak on people, you know, it would have bought, it would just be twisted would kind of come apart. And it’d be catastrophic failures, and a few instances. So that was, that was part of the first challenge we had overcome. Because if that didn’t happen, then we just don’t even have a product or a company. So that was hard. Raising the capital was also relatively challenging, because, I mean, generally speaking, there’s not a lot of kind of venture capital angel investment in alcohol companies. And if there is, it’s in kind of more traditional spirit, you know, beer, wine, and spirit, now, seltzers, and so forth. And normally, in any of those investments, they have an actual product, there’s a brand, you taste it, you know, maybe they get a few accounts and all that. So we had to basically raise money, we had nothing, we a brand, I put it maybe 10 15,000 each, just to kind of get it going. And it’s a way to get people to believe in a product, you know, years before it was even actual product. And so that was the second largest challenge. And then the third challenge that, you know, we called every distillery, you know, we could find California and say, Hey, we’re going to send you this package, we’re going to bring the HPP even though it’s in a different facility, we’re going to be able to bring it here and move it there where you know, and, and all of that and fundamentally, no distillery in the country has the FDA certifications to handle fresh citrus, let alone the ability to have the HPP machines which are probably about five To $6 million apiece and, you know, hugely, operationally expensive. And so what we did differently, it was the kind of the second big unlock after kind of figuring out HTTP. And then building the bottle was what everyone had done differently. And what everyone does differently now is that they basically run their orbits create and produce a product in distilleries in the first three tier, you know, supply chain, you make a distillery, you send it to a distributor, they sell it to a retailer. And so what we did different was, we basically got all of the TTB and ABC licenses to produce blend and bottle, our drinks at a already existing fresh juice bottling facility. So they had all of the existing infrastructure to properly handle it on FDA kind of basis, they already had the HPC machines. And so by bringing the alcohol licensing, which is just, you know, paper documents, all the infrastructure was in place to be able to produce this. And so we kind of brought the licensing to the infrastructure versus trying to bring you know, the infrastructure to the already established licensed locations.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  16:04  

That’s brilliant. Yeah, meaning to turn it on its head. Yeah, that’s fantastic. Um, as far as I get guests a lot, but my degree helped you with the paperwork on getting that TTB license.

Lawrence Cisneros  16:16  

You’d be surprised how little it helps.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  16:21  

I wish I would have a law degree to do that.

Lawrence Cisneros  16:24  

I mean, well, the law degree definitely helped from a lot of different dimensions of you know, being able to raise capital you know, at 2627 Brandi and I were both the same age so we were young guys and you know, trying to go raise money on an idea and now so having a law degree and his background in CPG really helped with a lot of intellectual property patents all that kind of stuff, you know, alcohol licensing and you know, everything you know, there’s a lot of legality around this business, unfortunately and in contracts, so I was able to definitely kind of absorb it and kind of being able to kind of definitely think through it in a way that I was probably a little more comfortable with them maybe most other kind of maybe younger entrepreneurs

Drew Thomas Hendricks  17:07  

are even out sourcing out the help How did you did you have any outside help navigating through this or

Lawrence Cisneros  17:16  

it’s pretty much Brandon and I just trying to make it work day after day like you know going after this that and and going there and learn something and then bring it over here. So that was in the we talked different potential advisors and there’s really very few people that had a lot of good insight because everything in these were kind of in the intersection of a few different industries kind of packaging development, you know, CPG food and beverage non alcoholics, you know, products hvp and then the third is distilled spirits and everyone’s in their own little silo. And so we had to kind of learn all parts of all the different industries and kind of be in that kind of intersection which there really wasn’t and so it was definitely really hard to kind of absorb all the different you know, challenges and pitfalls and you know, to kind of navigate our way through

Drew Thomas Hendricks  18:07  

what what advice would you give someone that’s looking I mean, not sounds lofty as to revolutionize a packaging industry but someone trying to get their you know, their foothold into into the craft cocktails are into the alcohol industry as a startup.

Lawrence Cisneros  18:21  

I mean, I would say in the alcohol industry, it’s it seems pretty hard, because everything seems to be so derivative from the next thing. It’s just another you know, seltzer or spirit and there’s not a lot of differentiation between it so if I were to get in it I would generally say you know, try to really do something different and that’s kind of what we had in mind the whole time where it’s there’s so many different products and there’s way more products now than there were when we first started that there’s so much competition in so much you know, money behind a lot of new companies, let alone all the money behind the largest alcohol companies in the world who have for all intents and purposes solid products, people are generally happy with it they like you know, with Johnnie Walker, they like their Bacardi they like you know, it works. It’s it’s an expensive, it’s close by and it works. And so you’re, you have a really uphill battle. And so if you don’t take the time to figure out whether it’s a real pain point in the market from a product standpoint, or a service dimension, I would say kind of, don’t do it and think really carefully about you know how you’re going to spend your time and your money.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  19:31  

That’s a great point. I mean, you may have a passion for whiskey and want to set up your own new whiskey distillery, but it’s not enough to just have a new whiskey out there. Or another local another local craft spirit. Yeah, Unless what?

Lawrence Cisneros  19:47  

Well, I would just always mention unless you just really have a passion for just doing that and you kind of like, I’m willing to do it. I’m gonna do it my way and you know, it’s not meant to be this huge brand new just it’s a passion kind of for you and makes a little bit Revenue keeps going up put on the table, then you know that’s just a different you know way of having a business,

Drew Thomas Hendricks  20:05  

then it’s knowing that your passion is the differentiating factor. And knowing that you’re, you know, you’re gonna create your story around it, which is what you know, many alcohol producers do, as far as promoting it. So once you’ve got your packaging, you’ve got your, you know, you figured it out, what was your next step as far as promoting it and getting it out there in the market?

Lawrence Cisneros  20:24  

Yeah, so you know, one of the cool, you know, so as we were kind of centralizing around the idea of recreating the live craft cocktail experience in a bottle, namely the fresh citrus, mix fresh with the booze, right in the moment that you created, we started drilling to meet a lot of people in the in the alcohol industry. And around the time that we were kind of actually having a product, this phenomenon of life, the influencer, bartender started coming up. And they not only knew how to make great drinks, but they would showcase it on Instagram and social media, how they make their their craft, or show showcase and bring the public into, you know, that world or showing other bartenders, what they do. And so what we did was we partnered with industry famous bartenders, and we collaborate with them. So each drink is, is in collaboration with a world famous bartender, this one’s a buddy of mine, Brian Clem. And so we put it right on the bottle, you know who the bartender is, where they live, their Instagram handle, we do a nice fun little illustration of them, it’s kind of keep it you know, in kind of in style with the the branding of drink Smith, and they also put the logo of the Spirit brand that’s inside it as well. And so because like in a bar, you’re seeing the bartender that makes your drink, you’re able to talk to that person, you know, just chit chat with, you know, learn about kind of what they like, and just back, it’s a back and forth. And so this kind of brings a little bit of that into a product. So it’s not just Lawrence’s cocktail, it’s Brian Clem Scott on, it’s a little more of a personal connection that you would have in that bar. And same thing with the alcohol brands, you know, they, you know, are able to, you know, sell their product in a different vehicle than just in a bottle at a liquor store or at a bar. But this is a concept that introduces people that may not want to buy a whole bottle of a particular kind of spirit. But can try it in a cocktail, like if, when they, when a consumer goes to a bar, they’re having a cocktail, they’re trying a new spirit, and they’re not having to invest into a whole bottle of it. And if they like it, then they can go buy it, you know, later on a whole bottle itself. So it’s kind of became like an experiential marketing and sampling vehicle for brands that wanted to do things a little differently. And it’s worked out really well. And so that’s been a fun, that’s been a fun dimension of the product and brand that it’s almost become like more of like a almost like a bar style business where you know, brands and bartenders are cutting deals left and right behind the bar to determine what goes in your glass. And so that’s kind of the same, you know, marketplace that we have, because no one else has a fresh bottling capability. And so everyone will come to us and say, Hey, you know, we want to have our drinks tastes amazing, we’re not just willing to put our spirit in a kind of a canned cocktail, that’s not going to do justice to our spirit. And so we’re able to cut a lot of really nice and cool deals with different brands. And the bartender has been a great, you know, you know, because we get the collective genius of, you know, dozens of different bartenders around the country to make drinks with,

Drew Thomas Hendricks  23:30  

that’s amazing how many bartenders Are you working with right now? I would say we

Lawrence Cisneros  23:35  

probably have about 20 that are part of, you know, people that we work with, and they love it. I mean, they get a commission on each drink. And so that’s another dimension where you know, a lot of bartenders as they know ones have a lot of experience or getting a little older, trying to find different ways to diversify, you know, their income stream, whether they’re a bar manager, or become a brand ambassador, kind of not just be kind of there at the bar, you know, Friday, Saturday nights and doing that till they’re 67 years old, but figuring out ways so they can kind of work with their with their minds, and not just their hands.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  24:08  

That’s amazing. And it’s also I could see it be huge for bartenders like I was a bartender I would love to have my face on a prepackaged bottling I mean that’s like the sign you’ve made it you go in the store as far as the store How are you how are you I’m distributing this

Lawrence Cisneros  24:24  

so we um, it was interesting kind of journey because we work on it for you know, six, seven years and you know, we live we get you know, we’re all excited, we get all the product ready, we launched the company, and two months after that. COVID hits. Yeah, and in for a lot of brands, if you were in mass market distribution, if you were in stores on shelves, it was great. You know, they’re pulling alcohol, alcohol sales went through the roof. But if you were a brand that wasn’t already in that distribution, you know process. If you weren’t on the shelf stores weren’t taking new products. So we were in one, you know, total wine, we’re in a few different stores here in LA kind of smaller, and we would sell distribute here now in California, and so we had this kind of e-commerce dimension of the company because we were looking, you know, digitally native, you know, and understanding, you know, e-commerce brands, you know, for background in particular. And it was something where we had enabled people to buy from our website, everything is done through the three tier system where the orders are routed from a third party, unlicensed kind of marketing company that are routed to different retailers that fulfill the orders no and so that that’s been a really unique experience for a lot of consumers where they were looking for bar quality cocktails during COVID and no one really had that except us and a number of maybe smaller bars that were kind of maybe selling it out of their restaurant or maybe kind of on doordash or something like that.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  25:57  

A couple mason jars of cocktails delivered during I think that was exactly big for mason jars and bars

Lawrence Cisneros  26:04  

totally and it was kind of tricky because they do a mason jar sometimes they do it in a plastic cup and it was like not what the bar was totally wanting to do but it was kind of keeping them afloat a little bit and and so you know we started you know here in El de la area doing kind of local delivery and then it just kind of you know spread from there where we you know the retail that fulfills our products they were shipping throughout the whole state and then you know we picked up another retailer in Connecticut and then New York and Florida and so you know, we went from zero to doing you know, like 30,000 units a month just on e commerce sales over the past year and so it was a really interesting you know, year for us because we’re still having to run around the city there’s COVID everywhere making new product and so we’re not really a sport so basically right now we’re transitioning back into the normal you know world of brick and mortar distribution now that we’ve kind of had a lot of people try our product love our product refined a lot of the recipes getting a lot of feedback from consumers are what they don’t like they like we’ve launched I mean we probably launched about 25 different SKUs at this point A lot of them limited release sometimes limit release that become kind of more of our classic lineup and because that just had huge, huge sales numbers for us because people want the newest and latest thing and they buy all the other cocktails as well. And so it’s something that that’s an really good kind of learning curve an experience for us and so now we’re kind of taking the best cocktails and bringing them to distributors around the country to put on you know, regular store shelves

Drew Thomas Hendricks  27:44  

that’s fantastic and they don’t have to be refrigerated

Lawrence Cisneros  27:47  

so they do have to be refrigerate okay. that’s yeah

Drew Thomas Hendricks  27:52  

so that’s that’s the main the main distinguishing factor that if the store is to carry it, they can’t just stuck it on that on one shelf.

Lawrence Cisneros  28:01  

Right and so I would say that’s one of the greatest reasons why our product is better and better tasting higher quality everything else because it is actually still perishable. The big limitation is the refrigeration however where you have to store called yet the merchandise it cold and a lot of stores and distributors just aren’t used to that some really just aren’t even equipped from it from a distribution perspective especially

Drew Thomas Hendricks  28:25  

the alcohol side there’s very few that you know that are equipped for that

Lawrence Cisneros  28:30  

Yeah, I know for sure I mean there there are more coming online you know, for example like a number of non alcoholic beer distributors that would take you know kombucha and cold pressed juice and all that would you know are now getting their alcohol license because in the same way that we brought, you know, the licensing to the infrastructure in the same way that they’re just getting alcohol licenses because they already have the infrastructure on their trucks in their warehouses. A lot of beer you know, larger beer distributors also have spirit licenses because they’ve been around for so long like like a Budweiser for example or Reyes and and they have refrigerated warehousing and trucks because of kegs keg beer. And so that’s another interesting you know, situation and in kind of a lot of regional players that are more independent players, not your typical kind of Southern wine and spirits or rndc, but more regional players that they’ll do beer, wine and spirits and they have refrigerated everything and they’re a little more specialty. So it’s a little more of a patchwork you know, network of distributors around the country. So it’s been interesting navigating that as well.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  29:37  

Man, you’re a problem solver from the packaging to then revolutionizing the distribution of it. Like every step of the way you’re you’re, you’re breaking new ground and making it easier for people.

Lawrence Cisneros  29:48  

And that’s the thing we’re like, you know, we have a centralizing idea and concept or up note, we’re gonna, we have to have it this way. There is a way to do it, but we have to kind of creatively put everything Together push, you know, different levers levers in different parts of the industry, we’ve, you know, unique kind of arrangements together. And it’s something where it’s proven to kind of be worth it because the other day people love it. And you just see kind of this excitement and just kind of sheer kind of astonishment that something like this even exist, and it’s just because other people haven’t, you know, been willing to kind of go the distance and say, you know, you know, we’re gonna do this, and we’re gonna figure out a way and it is possible refrigeration on trucks is not going to the moon, and oil. It’s been around for a while. And interestingly enough, you know, Budweiser, like 150 years ago revolutionized the industry by having refrigerator rail cars moving, you know, beer around the country, and they were also the persons to adopt pasteurization and beer. So beer was more of a localized, you know, thing that you could make ales and little ale houses and kind of just go down, you know, fill up your cat, your fill up your, you know, Growler and just drink at your house and drink there. And Budweiser was basically one of the first companies to make a nationalized bottle beer by using new technology, new distribution methods. And so, you know, to us, we kind of see that as an analogous, you know, company that now is, you know, a huge company that they because they were able and willing to kind of innovate at a level to bring people high quality product and make it more convenient, that it’s going to be successful. And so we kind of took a little bit of a page, other playbook.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  31:24  

That’s fantastic. As far as your, on your store, how did you tackle the subscription system, you’ve got some great packages for sale up there. But I’m wondering, navigating the three tier system and ensuring fresh delivery. Gotta be another challenge.

Lawrence Cisneros  31:40  

Yeah, I know for sure its challenges all around. But, you know, it’s, it wasn’t, it was a bit of a challenge. I mean, we had to work with our alcohol attorney for probably a year, year and a half to figure out how to ensure when an order goes to the website, that it is properly managed and properly handled, so that the money is not going to ourselves, it’s going to the it’s essentially going through the third party marketing company, that’s an unlicensed entity, it’s kind of like a drizzly or thirsty, or all these new companies that have kind of come about over the past number of years. And essentially having that same network in order processing or referral software in the back end, and having the money goes to the retailers and down to the distributor and distributor down to us that everything is compliant. But it’s you know, took a little bit of a creative problem solving from a regulatory legal side and software side. But that it was something that again, it was worth it. Because people can have this amazing experience. They come to the site, they see the beautiful pictures, they see all of the descriptions of the drinks and see the bartenders they can learn about the process. And we can kind of see, you know, what are they liking? What are they clicking through? What are they not clicking through. So it gives us a lot of information about the the buying process, and it’s something we wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. And so it’s been something where, you know, it’s been a really nice feedback loop, where we can make changes very quickly. And it’s something that a lot of people are going to be using throughout the future because it’s just so much of a more streamlined and, and better experience for the consumer right rather than going to a retailer’s website from, you know, Joe schmoes, you know, liquor store, and doesn’t look good, it doesn’t feel good, and it’s very kind of antiquated. And it’s not what a brand wants when trying to, you know, showcase their product. And so, you know, the company we’re working with now, cloud BB is the one that is the kind of third party marketing company. And it’s something that I think is going to be at the trend of the future as well.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  33:40  

Sure, how do they How do they ensure the integrity of the delivery is it shipped via overnight or, I mean, obviously no temperature, so

Lawrence Cisneros  33:50  

we have local, so there’s two kind of methods of getting the product. If you’re in a close proximity of the retailer, there’s a Postmates, Uber Eats integration. So order driver comes, picks it up, takes you right to the person within two hours. So if you’re local delivery, it’s a great quick experience. If you’re outside of that kind of close proximity packages are shipped. So there’s, you know, box insulation, frozen gel packs, cold drinks on the inside, packaged up, and then it’s sent ground next day deliveries to keep things cold. And so that’s how people mostly getting their packages right now. It comes to their home, they have to sign for it, which kind of causes some problems if you’re not home and things like that, or slept outside and you know, at night and all that but at the end of the day, there’s a lot of precautions around the house to be taken. And so it’s it’s an interesting,

Drew Thomas Hendricks  34:45  

that’s fun. So so cloudberry handles logistics, and they decide so if you’re in downtown LA, probably a post made type thing. I’ll just deliver it to you. But if you’re out in the middle of the desert somewhere, chances are, it’s getting next day delivered and they decide which was the most

Lawrence Cisneros  35:00  

right? So there’s a whole zip code configuration where certain zip codes are getting delivered to other zip codes are getting shipped to.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  35:08  

That’s a great solution to that. Where do you see the drink industry going in the next three, five years.

Lawrence Cisneros  35:15  

It’s drink industry,

Drew Thomas Hendricks  35:17  

cocktails, you guys are blazing our ground. But

Lawrence Cisneros  35:20  

well, I mean, just a, you know, a blade plug on our side, imagine that fresh, you know, as maybe more, fresher, healthier, more transparent, easy to understand, simpler, high quality products are going to continue to do well. You’re even seen kind of in the Psalter world, you know, a lot of one that you know, they have clean, clean ingredient labels where you kind of understand all the ingredients, there’s not all of these different, you know, you know, weird ingredients, you know, sodium benzoate, and dye this and that, that are on that people are gonna be looking towards the same trend that happened in the food and beverage industry where everything wanted to be more organic, more natural, higher quality, simpler to use and understand ingredients. So I don’t see that going away at all, for I mean, generally and spirits, I see, you know, a lot of the ones that are doing better as well that have, I see authentic stories, rather than just having, you know, some beautiful girls at a pool holding, you know, a bottle of booze, you know, that’s nothing wrong with that. But I think that kind of time has passed a bit. And kind of highlighting the the nature of the distillery, how it’s made, the quality of it, all the processes that go into it, kind of behind the scenes, I think that’s also going to kind of become more of a kind of an authentic story kind of dimension that I think a lot of brands are gonna start to employ more. And yeah, it’s it’s kind of the, the main things I kind of see generally,

Drew Thomas Hendricks  36:47  

there I come from, I come from the wine side of the industry. And for many years, we enjoy that wine was the healthiest the healthiest thing is just from grape to bottle. But then over the last like three, three years, the they’ve lost their place at the top. And it’s products like yours, where you’ve got the juice, you’ve got fresh juice, you’ve got the fresh, you’ve got a spirit in, there’s this transparency on the label where the general consumer can just understand the provenance of it and understand the authenticity. Whereas why now struggling with this bottle in the story and sulfites and whatnot, and it kind of lost that platform. Whereas what you guys are doing and what the craft cocktail industry is kind of turned it back is kind of taken that top seat and saucers are going that way as well.

Lawrence Cisneros  37:32  

Totally. And, I mean, it’s been nice on our side where, you know, a lot of companies on the bottle cocktail world, they’re making drinks in a laboratory, they go to like a special formulation house, they put it all together. And so for us, we’re literally using the same ingredients that are behind a bar or putting them in a bottle and so we can kind of tell that story show kind of the craft Enos of it, we’re wrapped wine, you can do that a bit, too. You know, people are picking grapes and you know, stepping on them or things like that. But I think for us a lot of that kind of craft, you know, so you would get the the craftniest, you would get behind a bar. For us, we’re actually able to do you know, on some of the drinks, and some of them, it’s so crappy that it’s just like, it’s so primitive. Like, we made this one where it’s like a lemon like Beijing, olio, sacrum, sherbert, or, like the peels of certain lemons and its mass rating for days. And it’s like, it’s a little too crazy.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  38:24  

Yeah, I’ve seen looking at some of the descriptions on your site, what, um, what’s your top selling cocktail?

Lawrence Cisneros  38:32  

The bourbon sours the top selling one. It’s kind of shown itself to kind of be that top dog. It, it’s, it’s great. I mean, it’s one of those things where we basically tried to marry the whiskey sour concept with a bit of an old fashioned. And people you know, you know, love the orange dimension. You know, in a, in an old fashion, we brought that kind of that dimension to a cocktail. And it’s one of those things where it kind of just works on a level where your mind just goes, wow, okay, like, I don’t even have to think about it, but it just works. And it’s something that, you know, we’re people are really pleased with and it’s something that even if you’re not a whiskey drinker, you love it, even if you are whiskey drinker, you know, if you love it even more. That’s

Drew Thomas Hendricks  39:19  

fantastic. And I’m reading on this site right now and even identify the bitters that use blackstrap bitters for

Lawrence Cisneros  39:25  

Yeah, no, it’s a we use this great company out of Wisconsin called a bitter cube. Bitter cube, and there’s a kind of a small, I’m here at the factory right now. And it’s a working factory. And it’s something where you know that we because we have such a premium product that we can go and find the absolute best and everything out there, whether it’s bitters, or the spirits or juices, or maybe we get a special kind of syrup or making most of our own syrups. And so it’s something where you know, that’s been really nice to be able to kind of be able to get the best out But that didn’t really show people like, you know, just it really comes through on each product that the quality of each ingredient we put into it.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  40:08  

Yeah, it definitely does. So Lawrence, where can people find more about DRNXMYTH DRNXMYTH and you?

Lawrence Cisneros  40:15  

Yeah, DRNXMYTH, we find it, basically just our website and our social media. So www.DRNXMYTH, DRNXMYTH.com, or on Instagram, at DRNXMYTH. And we have a lot of information on the website. And we know it’s in a number of podcasts as well. So appreciate you, Drew bringing me on. Because it really helps kind of give a lot more depth to what we’ve been able to do and how we’ve been able to do and why. And all the challenges we overcome. And it just it kind of, I think helps people understand where we’ve come from.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  40:51  

It’s an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. All the challenges in the ways that you’ve solved your uh. I don’t know people can really learn a lot from the way that you’ve kind of tackled these, tackle this and created something just completely unique. Yeah, thank you. And yet also just exemplifying all the authenticity and highlighting all the work that goes into these craft cocktails. You’ve done both, it’s fantastic.

Lawrence Cisneros  41:19  

Thank you. No, I appreciate it. And I think it’s another dimension that people think also kind of resonates with people is that it wasn’t just a huge alcohol company that just kind of spun this out and you know, within that all their consultants and agencies just two guys hustling you know, mid 20s trying to make it work and you know, not a lot of background even in the alcohol industry and just kind of chipped away at it and I think they feel kind of proud that you know, in America, you can kind of do it if you put your head to it. Work hard and nothing in are creative enough.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  41:46  

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I’m excited to see how your company grows. I think it’s got you got big things ahead.

Lawrence Cisneros  41:52  

Cool I appreciate it. Thanks for having us on.

Drew Thomas Hendricks  41:55  

Talk to it.

Outro  42:02  

Thanks for listening to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.