The Original Southside - A Cocktail Born from Family Tradition

Ramon Vela (00:02.534)
Welcome back everyone. This is gonna be a great show. I have with me Meredith Mills Merritt, who is the founder of SouthSides. Welcome to the show.

Meredith M. (00:31.432)
you

Meredith M. (00:40.749)
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:44.354)
Well, I appreciate you making time. know you're busy building the brand and whatnot. And so to take a little time out of your schedule really is, is, a lot to us. And I appreciate it. And I can't wait to introduce you to our audience. So first of all, thank you for sending me some of the samples. I always love it when someone, a brand sends over some samples that I can try because

It's one thing kind of talking about the brand, but it's kind of nice to feel it and experience it for yourself. So thank you so much for that. And we'll talk about more about that. I got a lot of little goodies there too. So let's start off with my favorite question, which is a question of gratitude. And just for everyone out there, I asked this for two reasons, maybe three, but two main ones. I'm a big believer in gratitude.

I've had some very dark moments in my entrepreneurial and personal life and gratitude has been one of those things that have helped me through that stress. And now I'm a big believer. do a gratitude meditation and it plays a big part in what I do to stay sane. And if you're out there and you're feeling stressed out, gratitude is a great way to help you. If you, can Google it, you can find out how to do it. People journal, people pray, people meditate.

But if you're feeling that way, I highly recommend it. The other thing or the other reason why I ask this is it is so easy for consumers, for people to see a product on the shelf or online and just simply think it's some faithless corporation. What I want you to know is that there are real people behind these brands. People like Meredith and others who bleed, sweat and tear over their product. And I want you to get to know who these people are.

and know that there's real people who try with all their might to create a great product, to bring awareness to that product and who care about their community and so forth. So getting to know someone is kind of like bringing it down to a very personal level. And that's what I really love. So with all of that said, Meredith, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential?

Meredith M. (02:59.002)
Yes. So I'm going to be slightly selfish. There are two. And I think being an entrepreneur, as I'm sure many of your other entrepreneurs that you've had on the show would agree that it's so much more trying than you even anticipate it to be at points. And so I really enjoyed this question and I couldn't narrow it down between the two. So the first is someone who I was very loosely connected to. I would say at the time, you know, we were friendly, but I wouldn't say we were friends by any means. Her name was Lindsay.

And she texted me a photo out of the blue of herself in her wedding dress, drinking a Southside. It was her wedding drink on her big day. And so to have that in someone's special moment, so special, kind of made me stop in my tracks for a second. And it really brought kind of that vision together. It was something that I never anticipated. She did not owe me a single thing in the world.

And to see South sides in that format, which in my mind and maybe many other people's minds is reserved for like a really fancy bottle of champagne or something else. That was really cool. And then the second actually comes from my husband whose name is Matthew. And when you're building something and when you're doing these things, you're not always going to be the best version of yourself, especially to your friends and your family. And so I was always really cognizant that I wasn't bothering them or harassing them too much or being too much of a terror basically. so.

my husband, without telling me had actually nominated me for their entrepreneurship program called Moonshot. He had talked to their CEO. He had built slides. He had campaigned on my behalf and then got, I had gotten the opportunity to speak to all of his office offices, which was amazing. And it was like, absolutely the highlight of my career. And so to have someone so close to you be so proud to you.

Be so proud of you is just a reminder of how lucky I am and like really kind of drilling in on that gratitude piece because I know some people aren't as fortunate when it comes to support from their loved ones or you know when you get started on things. Sometimes you have a list in your head of these people are going to be super supportive of me and then it turns out that they aren't and so it would both of those moments for me were just really a forced moment of kind of looking at how.

Meredith M. (05:17.66)
fortunate I am within the business, also just for myself. And so those are, those are my two that I'm sharing.

Ramon Vela (05:24.78)
Wow, I love that. And those both go to the heart of the question. And I love it in the sense that it's also one of those things that we don't really talk about too much on entrepreneurship is that we always build up the skill set and we always build up the entrepreneur, whether you're going to like an incubator or, you know, mentor mentee relationship. It's always about the entrepreneur. But the reality is

We are not islands. And so we have all these people around us and we hope that people are supportive of this dream of ours, but sometimes they're not. And sometimes it's for different reasons. It may not be a mean thing or anything. They just, in their own minds, they may think, well, you know, that's like a moonshot. Like you're never going to get there. You're never, you're never going to do this or that. And unfortunately we have to deal with that as entrepreneurs is just kind of have that strong belief and conviction that, Hey, I'm going to

put all my 100 % effort and try and do what I can. So when you do have those people who are, they just believe in you because they see something in you and they know that that person, that thing inside you wants to come out and wants to shine and wants to be big and wants to build this vision into a reality. It's really, I mean, it's pretty cool.

you're right to be 100 % grateful for someone like that in your life. Well, and thank you for bringing it up. This is a great topic. I always tell people, like, this is one of those things, mental health and relationships are one of those things that we just never really talk about. Everyone talks about everything else, but those are like the two biggest things. know, like whenever I talk to entrepreneurs, like the mental health and their relationships are in...

Meredith M. (06:54.428)
I

Meredith M. (07:08.401)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (07:18.254)
And sometimes the ones that we have to sacrifice are just really difficult. So anyhow, thank you so much for that. So let me start off. I always like to kind of get a little bit of background on this, on them, but on you before I start. But I have to say, so here's a can and this, I know how a light shining here. So hopefully people out there can see it. If you're listening to this, I'm holding up a can right now and I'm trying to make sure that I have a...

It's not blurry. But if you are online and eventually see this on YouTube, you'll see the can of it, but I'm holding up a can of Southside Gin. Now I'm actually not much of a drinker anymore. However, I don't have anything against alcohol. I just don't drink it. But I definitely don't drink beer. Beer is too feeling. It just makes me feel bloated. just doesn't taste very good to me anymore. But I have to say, when I opened this and I wanted to try it,

I was just like, wow, this is pretty good. Straight out of the can. This is really good. I can actually see myself drinking this. used to enjoy a gin and tonic. And so it immediately brought back those memories of a gin and tonic. But it's, like you said, it's very refreshing and it tastes really, really good. So, you I never know what to expect with some of the brands, but I love the taste. And I think the taste, first of all,

You know, I know we're gonna get into some of the ingredients and I think it's pretty cool. Some of the things that you have on here, it's organic, all natural, and gluten-free ingredients. So you've made a better for you product. But bottom line, it's like the taste has to be there, right? So I think you've already nailed it with the taste and we'll talk about the ingredients in a second. So I just wanted to bring, you know, start off the conversation with, wow, this is a great tasting product.

Meredith M. (09:04.707)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (09:15.758)
And then we'll build from there. How, why, where did the concept begin? And why are you doing this? Because it's hard, especially in the alcohol space, in the beverage space, it's hard, alcohol space is even harder. What's motivating you?

Meredith M. (09:20.624)
Thank

Meredith M. (09:34.321)
You know, I ask myself that question almost every day. I, my background was in beauty. So I was doing both brand and product for, you know, companies large and small. I started in the, you know, teenage acne space. And then I moved into kind of some of the anti-aging and preventative skincare.

Ramon Vela (09:37.538)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (09:56.372)
And one of the things that I loved the most was just diving into the ingredients and understanding how it's made. Like I was always a how it's made video junkie. It was really cool to me and taking something from an idea to a global product launch and understanding what that roadmap was. I felt really lucky that I got to do that in my career. And so I kind of turned around and realized, hey, I'm doing a really good job of launching products for other people. Like, what if I, you know, looked and did something for myself?

This was after COVID, after the advent of beauty TikTokers where everyone was super highly self-educated. The industry was super saturated. It felt like for a time, every celebrity had their own skincare brand. So I knew for myself, I didn't want to move into beauty because to be honest with you, there wasn't anything competitive that I had to offer. And so when it came to this, the inspiration was twofold. So the first was

I went to undergrad and grad school in Texas. If you know anything about Texas, you know that August and September are hot, hot, hot, hot. And I was at a tailgate with some friends and I am gluten free. And so I can't really drink beer. Actually, I can't at all drink beer unless it is a gluten free beer. And I was either relegated to some sort of really artificial tasting, super bubbly alcohols.

Ramon Vela (11:03.085)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (11:13.283)
Amazing.

Meredith M. (11:22.438)
thing, which I call it a thing because I'm like, the ingredients, don't think it deserves to be called a drink, or DIY like Bloody Mary. And I apologize to all the Bloody Mary lovers out there. But it's just it is tomato soup for me. love cocktails, but I couldn't do it. so that really got me wondering, you know, why don't nicer things come in a can? And then the kind of second piece that was the true

Ramon Vela (11:31.182)
Thank you.

Meredith M. (11:49.448)
kick to get my rear in gear was I went back to school at the University of Southern California. I had a wonderful professor by the name of Hank Wozniak in his class. The project was to create a ready to drink cocktail, but for the project, it had to be wine based just based off of how the wine category was performing in light of the rise of popularity of those spirits based RTDs. But during that process, I still got all of this.

wonderful market information on white spirits, more specifically. I grew up in a gin family. I had a great gin recipe. Gin was poised and ready for this Renaissance. it was kind of like the light bulb moment, so to speak, of I have something really interesting to potentially offer that's different, that hasn't been done before. Or if it had been done before, maybe they didn't take the ingredient approach that I would have necessarily myself agreed with. so

Instead of doing the wise thing during COVID, which would have been investing in my 401k or Roth IRA, I hired a company to help me commercialize my family recipe. It took us about 13 months end to end to perfect the formula. I was super picky. I didn't want any artificial colors, artificial sweeteners. I wanted it from the beginning to be.

what we call Whole Foods compliant. I'm a Whole Foods shopper. I'm an Arowan shopper. live in Los Angeles. It's important to me. And I also knew that alcohol, no matter what they say, is not good for you. And you know this, but red wines, tequilas, types of alcohol will tell that they're okay to have and even quote unquote, healthy, which is just not the case.

Ramon Vela (13:12.322)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (13:33.432)
what I was seeing with the consumer was they were actively still drinking and they wanted moderation. So how do you give them something and meet them in the middle where it's like, I'm going to let you indulge and have this drinking occasion without feeling the need to sacrifice those mental and physical health goals, which I know we talk about some people the next day say that they, you know, they, addition to the hangover, they have like an anxiety hangover and they call it hang anxiety.

And so having this, you know, was 10 % very purposeful allowed them to, you know, still have what they wanted and not feel so bad on the other end. So that was really kind of the impetus for all of this.

Ramon Vela (14:17.162)
Wow. And I will say, for everyone out there, if you want to take a look at what we're going to be talking about, you can go to drinksouthsides.com. That's southsides with an S dot com. Drinksouthsides.com. I have to say that the drink itself is, I know that I'm sure there's some sugar in it, but it doesn't feel overly sugary. It doesn't feel like there's some ready to drink.

type of beverages out there that to me just are filled with a lot of, it feels like they're, sometimes like drinking candy or something like that. Like they filled it with so much sugar and all sorts of other stuff. just, doesn't, but this one feels light. It feels a refreshing. It, I obviously can taste the gin, but I can also taste the, you know, the other elements of the lemon and the mint and so forth. So I think you did a great job on the.

Meredith M. (14:50.024)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (15:15.518)
Like I said, I'm not a big drinker, but I do love something that tastes good. And this actually tastes really good. So I was really, really happy to see that. So as you got started, I'm sure you know this now, but it's a very difficult industry, especially the alcohol industry from a distributor standpoint. I've had this conversation with a lot of folks. It's really, really difficult.

And so what have been sort of like your strategies to work through those challenges?

Meredith M. (15:55.476)
Yeah, and I appreciate the notes on taste because I agree with you. I think above all else, it has to taste good and it has to be good.

And this kind of ties into the question, I live my life and when I was in the beauty world and even just as a shopper for anything from personal care to groceries, I like to look for things that have the least amount of ingredients necessary to make a product. And I think that it's really coming into vogue right now in terms of public conversation, whether we like it or not with the Make America Healthy Again movement and drawing attention to some of these things. so...

That was exactly the ethos that we had when we got this thing started, knowing that, you know, alcohol is tough and it's a saturated category, especially with the ready to drinks. And so when you kind of think back to like your, your marketing 101 brain, it's if you're entering a hyper saturated category, you've got to carve out your own niche. And for us, gin was that niche, but even more specifically.

We wanted a full flavor, know, like you said, full sugar. It doesn't have a ton of sugar, but it still has sugar. So I'm not making the claim that it's low calorie. I'm not making the claim that it's low carb, which like a lot of some other RTDs will do. It's got more calories. You know, it's, it's a, it's more of a bar quality cocktail in a can. It was also a flavor profile that I hadn't seen on shelves yet. There were years and you know, albums and albums on my phone where I would go into different liquor stores in different states and places and take a picture.

of what the offerings were and for the canned format for gin specifically, a lot of them were like the gin and tonics kind of like you would expect. And then here and there, there would be maybe a Tom Collins, which is fairly similar or an adaption of sorts, but I hadn't seen a Southside done yet. knowing what I know now about the innovation process and how particular people can be about mint. I love mint. I'm a mint lover. Some people are super polarized by it.

Meredith M. (17:53.218)
And it's a really hard flavor to nail without feeling toothpastey, as I'm sure you understand. So that was how we've been able to drive a lot of the success on top of, I am just an organic shopper. And I know that some people, when they think of alcohol, they're like, it's not healthy anyway, so why should I care? I'm trying to reshape that and say, okay, you know, maybe we do care a little bit more. Maybe we do have the ingredients, but we also still offer.

the taste and the function of an alcoholic beverage, which is at that 10%. Because again, people drink for a bunch of different reasons. Personally, I drink for a little bit of the buzz and to take the edge off. so offering that I don't think was bad with this option for the better kind of ingredients. So that certified organic piece has really been another key to our success where I would like to say we're early movers in the space, especially as it relates to gin based RTDs. So

just taking advantage of some of the trends that we had kind of seen and they could have potentially come true at the time, it's nice to see that they actually did come true and that they are working in our favor for now. So.

Ramon Vela (19:00.172)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, and by the way, there is sugar in the drink, but from my perspective, and I'm very observant of sugar taste and qualities, it doesn't feel overwhelming. So doesn't feel like I can tell that there's something sweet in there and so forth, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. So for anyone out there concerned about sugar, it is there, but it's not overwhelming at all. And I've covered...

Meredith M. (19:13.96)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (19:28.63)
alcohol brands here and I've also covered non-alcoholic brands. And here's the reality is that I know there's certain trends and so forth, but humans have been drinking alcohol probably as long as we've been around. so, you know, I think the ticket is not necessarily make it a non-alcoholic world or an alcoholic world. It's really to provide people with choices.

Meredith M. (19:41.734)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (19:55.5)
Sometimes you're going to drink, sometimes you may not drink, but you want to have choices on either side. And I think that if you are going to have like alcohol, then you look for something that has great ingredients, that's organic. That's kind of, you know, a better for you version of what you're going to have. It's never going to be great, obviously, but it's, you know, you can leave people with options. And I think that's the reality of it. People want options. Sometimes you feel like drinking, you're at a party.

Sometimes you're at a party and you have something going on the next day. You're going to do a hike. Maybe you don't want to drink. It's I believe like instead of forcing the trends or seeing the trends and thinking, well, this is the way the market's going to go. The reality is it's going to always be both and you got to give people options. So this is what I love about what you're doing here is that you really created a really great option that tastes good. You know, the ingredients people can get behind it and then it tastes great.

Meredith M. (20:40.379)
Right.

Ramon Vela (20:53.166)
But what have been some of those challenges that you faced, like either from a startup or from an industry standpoint? I want the audience to kind of know a little bit about, you know, the ups and downs of what you've been through. What would you say have been the biggest challenges for you right now? Is it building awareness? Is it getting out into retail space? Is it working with distributors or retailers? What would you say would be the biggest sort of challenges there?

Meredith M. (21:21.552)
It's kind of an all of the above. And then I'll also add in something that I'll expand on as well, which actually kind of touches on the sugar component. In addition to the brand awareness is also just like the consumer education as it relates to alcohol and alcohol consumption as well as sugar, because you have all these non-alcoholic options, you have these THC based options, you have these mocktails, but

you know, going back to that, I think with alcohol specifically, and I didn't know this, I actually ended up reading the founders of Honest Tea's book called Mission in a Bottle, which was incredible for anyone thinking about going into the beverage space, or even if you're not, I highly recommend it as a read. I read that like before I even got started. And I think I didn't know this at the time, but all beverages, alcoholic or not, have to go through a distributor.

And the distribution and the three tier distribution system is so different than what I was kind of, I'm not going to say raised by in my corporate career, but it was so different than going direct to the consumer. was so different than walking into, you know, an Ulta and Sephora and only having one set of gatekeepers and them being the retailers. But you have this added layer and sometimes even an additional layer in certain four tier states like Texas, where you have to.

fight for that shelf space. So even just getting an option to be taken into a state will take as a win. And then from there, you go on to some of the retailers and the issue with the retailers is they may not work with your distributor. so then you put yourself in a situation and like, you know, in a franchise state where you can't switch and you can't fulfill to this retailer who you said you could fulfill to. And it's just every single day is a learning curve for me. And again,

Part of that comes with the fact that I chose to go into an industry where I had no experience, but I thought I could make some changes. And so I think my naivete was actually really powerful because it allowed us to do something different, but don't get me wrong. It is not all glamorous all the time. There have been some very serious conversations, some very heartbreaking conversations.

Meredith M. (23:32.808)
and you honestly just have to pivot. And so I think first and foremost, what I want everyone to know is if you have an independent beverage brand that you love, please support them and please go to your retailer just to know that the battles that we've fought to just even get on your convenience store or gas station shelf is a lot.

And so that's been, that's of course the biggest one is that three tier distribution system. But obviously building brand awareness is also hard and expensive. This is an industry that requires a lot of capital consumption upfront. And then, know, hopefully one day you sell or you start to do enough volume that you start to pay for yourself a little bit. And then kind of that last piece too, touching back on the education piece, this was something that I pulled straight from what I like to call the, you know, beauty.

product launch blueprint, which was anytime you launched something, you went through the full ingredient list, affectionately called the inky list, and you broke down the ingredients and what you thought was important and what you thought the consumer would want to look at. We're starting to see that a little bit more in faster moving consumer goods, groceries, cereals, things of that sort. But when it comes to alcohol, things still feel a little bit like the Wild West.

And there was this huge craze with COVID where people were drinking a ton and then people were like, my gosh, the market is declining. The market's going back to normal for alcohol consumption, but there is definitely more competition as it relates to some of these, like I said earlier, THC-based beverages, mocktails, so on and so forth. I love to alternate.

When I'm having an alcoholic beverage, I'll switch to a mocktail or I'll switch to a sparkling water just to kind of cut it down between. that forces this education in what I like to call vice swapping. It's not a term that I invented, but it's just kind of something that I think is important for the listeners where my example that I'll give you is let's say you really want a cocktail, but for some reason, be it societally, your friend group, I don't know what it is, you're like,

Meredith M. (25:42.396)
gosh, I really shouldn't drink. So I'm gonna grab this mocktail. I would encourage everyone to look at the sugar content on the mocktail. Look at the ingredients on the mocktail because you might be trading it for what I'm gonna affectionately call hummingbird water. So if sugar is your concern with the alcohol, because alcohol, even if it has nothing else in it, also breaks down into sugar. You're never gonna avoid the sugar.

it doesn't necessarily make sense that way. Same thing with some of the THC drinks. There are artificial strains of THC that are known to make people sick. The state of Tennessee actually just banned a couple strands. And then on top of that, some of the ways that they separate the cannabinoids from everything. And again, like I'm not a THC expert, but when I went, I went shopping at one of their larger retailers that sells both alcohol and the THC beverages. And the guy behind the counter was educating me on all of this and my jaw was on the

lore. And the way that they separate it is by injecting PFAs, which are forever chemicals into the product. you're drinking a can of additional chemicals. so kind of touching back on that, that consumer education piece has been huge. And basically just telling people, pick what you want, like literally pick your poison, because it's never going to be perfect. And if you want it to be perfect, then

Unfortunately for you, water. So that's where that comes from.

Ramon Vela (27:11.562)
Yeah, well, I mean, it kind of goes back to what I said earlier. It's like, think people are going to, mean, humans have been drinking alcohol for, you know, since we've been around and however long that is, but it's not going away. But I think the striving for a better versions, I think is the right move. And I think...

Meredith M. (27:36.712)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (27:37.332)
Nowadays, people are open to different things other than, let's say, beer. Because I know beer has always been the huge numbers out there. I think people are just open, even in that category, that people are open to different things that are carbonated and whatnot. So I think it's a great time, but also a very competitive time to be out in the market.

And so I can I can really understand that component of it. And then plus, think like the industry has some built in obstacles in there that also make it very difficult for people to get in there. I think I told you in our pre interview that I interviewed a brand that's no longer around, but I think they sold to a larger company, but it was a brand called Bev and there were a wine company in a can. And I remember asking her

Meredith M. (28:25.612)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (28:33.25)
you know, what would you tell your younger self? And she said, she would ask her younger self like, you know, not so much like share, she wouldn't share anything with her younger self. She would just ask her younger self to remind her like, why am I doing this? You know, like, why, why did you ever start this and so forth? Because it is difficult and it is challenging. And so, so I love that part of it.

Meredith M. (28:45.476)
You

Ramon Vela (29:00.504)
So walk us through some of your wins. Like, so for instance, I always want people to know that this road is difficult because even consumers love to hear this and they can relate to you in many ways. But I know that you've also had challenges, but you've also had some wins. At what point did you realize like, okay, this, you know, like, and there's different milestones, right? Like you get the formulation right, right? You celebrate. That's great. You got it.

Now, what other, early on in the gratitude question, you shared with us another milestone, which is, this woman who you kind of knew, but weren't great friends with, and she really loved this product and was having it on her wedding day. What other milestones have you had where you think, okay, this is encouraging, this looks like we can make this work here. Was it getting into a retailer? Was it selling it someplace?

Meredith M. (29:31.392)
.

Ramon Vela (30:00.238)
Describe one of those milestones where you felt like, okay, this is worth it here. think I see an opportunity or I see the roadmap here. If we can make this work, this is where it's going to go or whatnot.

Meredith M. (30:14.791)
Yeah, absolutely. This actually happened to me very recently and I was getting my haircut and you know, just like anything you tell

You tell them all your secrets. tell them how work is going. She's known me for the last six years since I got really started in my career at a more serious level. And she told me that she had a client come in talking about this great new canned cocktail that they tried at this market. This is in Palm Beach, Florida. And you're like, why are you getting your haircut in Palm Beach, Florida if you live in Los Angeles? Don't ask. It is what it is.

Ramon Vela (30:27.874)
the

Ramon Vela (30:50.926)
Thank

Meredith M. (30:55.956)
And it was this woman who had found us at this market. It's an independent market. It's not a chain retailer that has been so supportive and so wonderful to us. So I'm very grateful to Kate at Amici. So if you're listening to this and you're in Florida, definitely give them a visit. But this woman had come in and was talking to the girls about this great new canned cocktail that she had tried that was being sold at Amici that was made with gin and it was organic.

And they both looked at each other and they were like, my gosh, she's talking about Southsides. And so when I came in, they told me this story. And for me, think I'm so focused on brand awareness and I'm so focused on consumer education. And I'm so focused on word of mouth more than, you know, anything else at the moment that that was the true kind of marker for me to be like.

Ramon Vela (31:28.206)
Thank

Meredith M. (31:47.912)
this this could work. And I never want to say this is working because just when you say that it feels like, pardon my French, it hits the fan. But you know, this this is working. And so that was really, really special for me. And I think just, you know, anytime I even am able to go into a store and see it on the shelf to have something that came from inside of your mind and up in front of you in that format is really cool and really powerful and

Ramon Vela (31:53.848)
the

Yeah.

Meredith M. (32:14.732)
it is truly what keeps me on the wheel. Like it keeps me on the treadmill. It keeps me working hard. It keeps me moving towards these goals. And it's also nice to know that a family recipe that I would just share with my own friends and family that my mom would make during the summer is something that other people are including and liking in, you know, fun aspects of their life. I think that's really cool. So.

Ramon Vela (32:40.078)
And have you shared this with, well, I'm sure you have, but your family, the ones who grew up with this, have they given their thumbs up like, this tastes like mom's recipe or whatnot?

Meredith M. (32:56.184)
I had them all in on the R &D process as well. Like I was, I was literally having them, you know, try these samples and we were all giving notes and we were all giving feedback. And I, you know, probably 90 % of the way I made sure that it tasted almost, you know, as close as possible. But then, you know, mom's recipe has to get mom's seal of approval. And so she was actually the one who gave it that final, final, final, you know, check mark of yep.

this does my recipe justice, I'm happy with it. Let's share it with the world. So it's been through and through a family project. So I might be the sole founder, but do not let that fool you. It has been such a family affair behind the scenes that it's been really fun to share with them and her as well, because again, she's the mastermind behind this whole thing.

Ramon Vela (33:44.878)
Well, that's great. so there's a couple of areas where I want to make sure we touch on. And I want to start talking a little bit about the products. I know we've talked around the ingredients and things like that. But I want to get into the ingredients. But two other areas. I guess both one operational, one entrepreneurship. So let's start with the operational side of it.

Building awareness obviously is huge. What's your strategy right now? Are you, I'm not familiar with alcohol and advertisement, but I'm assuming that there's restrictions. I don't know if there's restrictions, maybe the way that there are with THC products when you're online, I don't know. Maybe you can fill us in on that. So where are you seeing that awareness happen? Is it online? Is it on TikTok? Is it influencers? Is it?

organic, where are you seeing that building of awareness and is that where you're doing your educational process?

Meredith M. (34:47.272)
So we had identified pretty early on in terms of our go-to-market awareness tactics that there were three things that worked super well for us and it was all in real life. So IRL and encouraging the industry term liquid to lips because everybody has to try this before they buy it just so that they know how good it is. The taste typically wins people over.

But how do you get in front of those people? The first is industry festivals. So that can be anything from LA Wine Fest, which we participated in before, Tales of the Cocktail, which we have not participated in, but just as another example. So really where people are going to drink alcohol and try new things. The second is

key partnerships. So anything from, you know, we have been fortunate to work with the company Blade that's based in New York, that's the Air Mobility Company. So we were their exclusive canned cocktail of their route that took people from Teterboro, New Jersey out to the tip of Long Island and Montauk. So if you wanted anything other than a water, you had a south side, you had a flyer, you had all of this. And so where are these people who, you know, were taking bets that they're going to enjoy the drink?

Same thing actually with our Florida Panthers sponsorship. So they approached us completely organically. The head of partnerships girlfriend actually saw us on Instagram and I was like, okay, I'm doing something right. And so that's been a wonderfully fruitful partnership for us. But again, we wanted to be in front of people who we took the calculated bet that they would enjoy this drink, become repeat purchasers, be open to trying so on and so forth. And then the last, the third piece of that kind of like go to market strategy is

any sort of branded, again, liquid to lip event. So separate from industry festivals, separate from the key partnerships. This can be anything from your local tasting at an independent retailer or a total wine or something like a co-host dinner with other brands, which we've done before, or something like the Bridgehampton Polo sponsorship, which we just did on the 19th of this month and we did last year.

Meredith M. (36:53.128)
It can be anything, but really truly kind of the thread and the tie through there is it's all in real life. think my experience is social media in general is really hard and you have to feed the beast and in beauty, the amount of content and the amount of money and the amount of time that goes into some of these things, I don't know if a lot of consumers know. I think social media managers are the most underappreciated.

people on the team because everybody just assumes that, you know, it's social, it's easy. I see this picture on my phone and you know, that's that. No, absolutely not. The analytics that go behind it, the thought that gets poured into it, the launch plans, all that. I was like, we don't have those resources as a company. Same thing with digital ads. I've worked for companies that have spent literally over $100,000 a month on digital ads only to see, you know, horrendous results.

Ramon Vela (37:22.306)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (37:48.904)
And we just, again, did not have that type of money. And so I was like, how are we going to, to your point, build this brand knowing our restrictions? And so then I thought back to myself, I was like, okay, we're inspired by a 1920s cocktail. How did news spread a long time ago? Word of mouth. How do you build word of mouth? It's slow. It takes a long time, but

it ends up being worth it. build this army of brand advocates. so, you know, starting slow, understanding it's going to be a slow burn and understanding that doing these things IRL for lack of a better term is just where we had such a better time spending our money. And we just saw better results. And I think if you ask anyone in the industry, it's tough. You can't really work with influencers. You can't necessarily promote specific retailers due to Tidehouse laws.

there are a lot of restrictions. so for me, was like, I would rather be totally safe than sorry, and kind of take myself out of that sandbox. And so if you look at us on social media, Instagram, specifically, you'll notice that it's more of like a mood board. So we're inviting you to kind of take a look at what our world is versus educating on the product or anything. And then we also have a TikTok, which is more for awareness, but we can't.

actively talk about, you know, the cocktail because alcohol, you know, it does not like it when you talk about alcohol. has to be, you know, targeted to 21 and up. You are reaching a limited number of accounts. So we are doing it basically on ingredients or like a day in my life as the founder or things of that sort, just to kind of get the name out there. But it's a very different launch strategy as it relates to the digital world than it is in kind of our physical world. And so we're still largely focused on the physical world for now.

Ramon Vela (39:36.238)
Wow. so, well, let me ask you this because I was planning on doing one. Is there anything stopping me from doing a product review?

Meredith M. (39:45.512)
No, no, there's no if you know, if you love it, absolutely. But as the company, you know, I can't advertise to, you know, what could potentially be a minor or and again, it's just not my wheelhouse. I joined this crazy industry with with less experience. And so I have to I have to just, you know, know what I'm good at and know where Southsides works. And if you believe me, if you're a consumer and you love Southsides, please talk about it.

Ramon Vela (40:03.672)
Hehehe.

Ramon Vela (40:15.246)
Yeah, well, I definitely will. You know, when you were describing these these events or different events, I started thinking, you know, you would be really cool. I don't know if you're familiar with these, but there's like speakeasies. Have you seen those? I mean, I know there's one in there's one in Highland Park, there's one in Pasadena, and I just thought like, hey, this is kind of like, I don't know, there's kind of there's some alignment there. So and yeah.

Meredith M. (40:15.799)
Hahaha!

Meredith M. (40:28.54)
Yeah. Yeah. my gosh, yes.

Ramon Vela (40:42.86)
And I don't even know if they have them around around the country. I'm sure they do because they're kind of they seem kind of novel. And even though, you know, they they hearken back to like the 30s or the 40s or whatever, when there was, you know, the prohibition. So, OK, so my next question before we get into the product is entrepreneurship. So you've shared a little bit about us. But what would be what would you

Meredith M. (40:59.595)
For sure.

Ramon Vela (41:12.694)
not necessarily tell your younger self, but what would you tell someone who is starting out, who is brand new, that you are still growing the business, but you've already gone through the initial launch stage in your building. Is there anything that you would tell someone who's listening to this and has an idea and wants to start something? Maybe or maybe not in the alcohol space, but maybe in the beverage space. Is there anything that you would recommend to them?

Meredith M. (41:13.288)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (41:42.774)
potholes that you can share with them to maybe help them avoid those.

Meredith M. (41:49.278)
Yes, I think the biggest thing about this industry is sometimes things can feel so overwhelming and so out of reach that you have to and I've talked about this before.

phrases, you know, think big, but act small. have a legal pad. I ripped through legal pads like it's nobody's business. And when you take the time to look at some of these things on your list that you need to accomplish with even within the beverage world, if you can bullet by bullet out exactly what you need to do and take tiny steps, that has been the most impactful thing. It kind of reminds me of, know, like the

put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking out the door. I think it's from one of those older school Christmas movies. I sing that in my head sometimes, which is so lame, but it's true. And then there was a funny kind of expression that my dad actually would always ask us, which is, how do you eat an elephant? And the answer is one bite at a time.

Ramon Vela (42:41.602)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that.

Meredith M. (43:03.344)
And so those all kind of tie in together. And so if you're an entrepreneur, if you're thinking about getting started or even just in your life with things that may not even be related to business, if something feels super overwhelming, which believe me, it will, taking the time to take the small steps really does add up to something large. And it's super rewarding when you get there.

It's not without a lot of trial and tribulations, but having it kind of in front of you and knowing what you need to do is half the battle, at least.

Ramon Vela (43:39.47)
Yeah. And I think that's good. I was speaking to someone the other day, interview, think it was a Yonica Cordina and she also started her business. It's a hair care business, but she started it and she had no idea. She was a private assistant, a PA, and she had no idea what she was doing, but she had this idea for a hair product, a heatless way to curl your hair.

Meredith M. (44:09.159)
Ooh.

Ramon Vela (44:09.434)
And it was just something she came up with. And I know that she experienced, she got a patent. It was this really cool novel idea, but people started copying her patent without her permission and creating products and so forth. And she was getting very frustrated with it. And she finally decided that she had to change her expectations of things.

Meredith M. (44:23.528)
Right. Right.

Ramon Vela (44:37.568)
you have to just accept some of these things that are just going to happen. And you have to just take them one day at a time and one day at a time because it could overwhelm you. And these challenges could overwhelm you. And you sit there sometimes. And listen, this is where those like your husband and others come in, because there are moments during entrepreneurship where you want to quit. Like you're done. You want to just you want to you want to just like forget all this, just walk into the walk into the sunset and never look back and.

Meredith M. (44:57.186)
Yeah.

Yes.

Ramon Vela (45:06.786)
You know, and you need those people in your life who are going to say, you know what, you can do it. You know, and take a deep breath, you know, take a walk, whatever, let's start again tomorrow, whatever. But they transfer that belief onto you. And it's really meaningful and really can be very helpful to you. sometimes you just need to think, you know what, I expect there to be a lot of crap every day and I just have to deal with it.

Meredith M. (45:20.36)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (45:35.982)
I have to systematize it, I have to figure it out, I have to not let it get overwhelming and just have to work through it. And that was a great reminder, like when she was saying that, she goes just, her expectations, she just switched her expectations and it became easier, not 100 % easier, but just a little easier to take. yeah, I mean, I think that advice is good whether you're an entrepreneur or not. So let's talk about the product.

Meredith M. (45:52.74)
.

Ramon Vela (46:04.034)
Let's talk about the ingredients. We went around a little bit and talked about obviously the gin and the mint and some of the sugar, but walk us through this formulation. You can start with the ingredients. You can start with how you describe this recipe, wherever you wanna start.

Meredith M. (46:23.058)
absolutely. I think just really quickly, I know that that kind of entrepreneurship piece can be really threatening, I think, at times. But I did just want to include there was a really interesting quote from actually the CEO and one of the founders of Nvidia and it was it lives in my head. It's the person who's willing to suffer the longest wins.

And so just having kind of the inherent knowledge that these things are going to be a million times harder than you expect them to be. And just at times how crazy you'll feel just knowing that you're also not alone, but back to the, back to the product question. I would. Yeah, it's fun. It's not fun, but it's like, it's so real and like only, only an entrepreneur can understand it. And so for

Ramon Vela (47:00.782)
Thank you. That's a quote. Yeah. Yeah.

Meredith M. (47:10.586)
For the product itself, first and foremost, I just wanted it to do my mom's recipe justice. And her recipe was always so refreshing. So the key word that I kept in my head was I want this to be so fresh feeling. I want you to be able to obviously drink it out of a can, but you know, even better pour it over ice and you know, jazz it up a little bit with this Brigham in. But it needs to no matter what be something that you open on a hot day, you know, say you're at the golf course and you take

one sip and immediately your brain is like, this is awesome. And so it took us a while to get there. And the balance, I think of everything between the sugar and the gin and the botanicals was something that was very purposeful. I know a lot of people who are still really hesitant on gin or who have had a really terrible experience with gin who are just so against trying it. so, you know, 99 times out of a hundred

when someone says to us, I don't like gin, we're like, we would encourage you to try this. It's a much more floral gin. It's actually our own proprietary compound gin. So it's our own mix of GNS, which stands for grain neutral spirits plus botanicals. I was very purposeful in that. I didn't want it to feel super junipery. I wanted it to have a little bit more of a citrusy kind of floral approach than something that tasted kind of like tree bark. think some people is how they've described it to me.

Ramon Vela (48:35.192)
Thank

Meredith M. (48:38.074)
And so that was very purposeful. So even starting with the base gin, we had to start there. Then you add in, okay, how do I want the botanicals to come across? The sugar helps cut, I think, the potential abrasiveness of certain types of alcohol, especially gin. So that has made it really smooth. That makes the formulation feel really clean. And by clean, I mean just feeling clean, not being clean. It is a cleaner approach, but I'm never gonna call alcohol totally clean.

Ramon Vela (49:07.608)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (49:07.784)
And then from there, the sugar. So people sweeten with a whole bunch of different things. You can use monk fruit, you can use allulose, you can use glycerin, you can use corn syrup. I was like, let's use organic cane sugar. For me, I am just a believer that that came from the ground, not a lab. And I'm gonna put it in the cocktail to sweeten it because you really can't get better tasting than cane sugar. So again, like I love a Mexican Coke.

Ramon Vela (49:33.442)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (49:36.262)
like they use the cane sugar and Coke is not healthy at all. So even from the sugar component, same thing with the organic lemon juice. So instead of doing a lemon flavoring, we use organic lemon juice concentrate, which is great. Makes it nice and bright. And then for the kind of mint component, we worked on these super custom

organic, compliant profiles that would compliment the beverage and really kind of push it over the edge. In my original recipe and in the family recipe, we make a muddled mint simple syrup and we muddle mint in the glass. I, you know, I think what's also important for consumers is having an understanding of modern manufacturing capabilities and what you can actually accomplish in some of these contract manufacturing settings.

knowing that mint was a really tricky flavor, I was like, okay, we're really gonna have to focus in on this. And so that was the best way that we found that was, you know, the best way that we could bring this to market with the best level of our capabilities and not have it taste like toothpaste. So I think each and every ingredient was a decision, which is really great. And, you know, if I have time later on, I can reference a story where

Ramon Vela (50:48.418)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (50:59.314)
where that was called into question. But I would say in terms of the product that I just feel like it was just super purposeful and I only wanted it to be refreshing and do my mom's drink justice.

Ramon Vela (51:09.134)
Well, I I tell you that I think you did the job because it definitely feels very refreshing, tastes very refreshing. And as I mentioned before, in terms of like the alcohol, I mean, the sugar, it doesn't feel overwhelming. I could taste the mint, I can taste the lemon. I really enjoyed it. I really, really did. I would recommend that if you're looking for a refreshing alcoholic drink,

this is definitely one that you should look towards. And again, I'm not a big drinker myself, but so for me, taste is, I'm not like tied to anything. Like I have no loyalty to any beers or anything like that. I know some people are very like particular about what they drink. I'm not that way. I just want something to taste good. And it's warm where I am. I'm in Southern California, as are you. And it's warm, know, and if you're experiencing, you want to hang out during the beach, you want to hang out at home at a barbecue, you want to go out.

Meredith M. (51:49.416)
You

Right.

Ramon Vela (52:09.342)
This is very refreshing. You mentioned something the other day or not earlier about being whole foods ready. What did you mean by that and how does this apply to that?

Meredith M. (52:21.576)
So I knew from just a retail standpoint that like my dream retailer as an entrepreneur was going to be Whole Foods. And so Whole Foods, as we all know, has a list of rules that you have to adhere by in order to be accepted in an application. And even then, you know, it's such a competitive place and everybody wants to be in there.

So when I was sitting down with our R &D team, I told them, I was like, this needs to be able to not only be certified organic, but also Whole Foods compliant. So there are certain, you know, hidden things within some natural flavors. So you have natural flavors and you have artificial flavors. There are food dyes that aren't allowed. There are all sorts of things. And so just making sure that that wasn't made with any of it. I mean, I went into this wanting it to be as natural as possible. So that was never really like a concern, but

you know, say that that really wasn't on the agenda and I didn't care what they put in it. And then I wanted to apply for Whole Foods. I would have been in a world of, reformulating and, all of that. there are even within, I think natural flavors can get a lot of flack, which I totally understand because some companies will use it as a way to sneak in, you know, less than ideal things. So even within our natural flavors, we have these.

flavor ingredient sheets that break down exactly what's inside. wanted, like I said, to make sure that they were organic compliant and still fit within the all natural category. So that has been super rewarding because I'm, you know, we just got into Whole Foods in June in Illinois. So if you are in the Chicago area, you can find us at your local Whole Foods. I would recommend you check our map because it changes all the time.

Ramon Vela (53:57.614)
Thank

Meredith M. (54:03.388)
That was a really wonderful win. And I know it's easy to kind of tout the glossy like, yay, we're in Whole Foods, which don't get me wrong, I did for a hot second, but our goal is to be great partners to them. They've been great partners to us and hopefully one day expand into more states where it's legal to sell spirits and grocery, but that was an important stipulation. A bunch of these natural grocers and more health-focused retailers for us in Southern California, Arowan is a really good example.

Ramon Vela (54:09.132)
Mm-hmm.

Meredith M. (54:32.006)
They have really strict product guidelines, which is kind what you want. so, you know, knowing that going in is helpful because then you can provide that to your teams and be like, I want to follow these guidelines. but that's not always the case. So.

Ramon Vela (54:43.469)
Moving.

Yeah, do sprouts sell alcohol?

Meredith M. (54:50.478)
I don't believe that they sell spirits. I do know that they have beer and wine. So I love sprouts. I am a sprouts girly as well. So if, you know, if they change their mind and they know where to find me.

Ramon Vela (55:02.35)
I never noticed it before. Well, like I said, this I think is great. And something I thought of when you were speaking was, I have not put this in the glass, but I will say, and I'll put it out there, that if you put this in the glass and you gave it to somebody, I would find it...

I bet people could not tell the difference between this coming out of a can and they're making it like in person. This is that good. Like this tastes like, just right out of the can, it tastes like it's like if you were, if we were at your house, your mother's house and she just made this, I almost feel like it feels like you can't tell the difference. Like if you pour this into the glass,

you offered it to someone at a party or whatever and they tasted it, they would never know it came out of a can. Like it's that good. Like it just tastes refreshing. It tastes good. It tastes made with a lot of love and care. And I don't know if that's a good or bad analogy, but I just kind of feel like that it does. It tastes like someone just made it and it doesn't feel, because I've tasted drinks before where you could tell it's just like, is not, mean, it tastes okay, but you know I mean? Like you could tell that it's,

Meredith M. (56:25.199)
Right.

Ramon Vela (56:31.598)
It's coming out of a can or a bottle, whatever. This one feels like someone just made it. Like if someone poured it in the glass again, or in one of your cool cups, you know, I just don't think people could tell the difference. So I hope that's a good testimonial. But this has been fantastic. I want to be respectful every time. I really enjoy this conversation. And I can, and I genuinely mean this.

Meredith M. (56:42.336)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (56:59.502)
I just for everyone out there, they might know I'm not a huge drinker. I don't have anything against alcohol, but I can tell what tastes good and what doesn't taste good. I've, you know, I've had lots of drinks in the past and I can honestly say that I think this is just a really good, refreshing and delicious tasting drink. So if you're out there and you're looking for something for the summertime or wintertime or wherever, give this a try.

So I think you meet our tagline, which is a products we're buying, brands we're supporting, because I love your story. I love your resilience. I know this is a tough market, but I think you have created a really great product. So thank you for that. Well, and I'll do a review. Actually, for those out there, I just dropped my first newsletter. It's called The Ones to Watch.

Meredith M. (57:46.032)
Thank you. That means so much.

Ramon Vela (57:56.538)
And every episode or every newsletter, I will do a new product review. So I did one of a brand called NoNormal, which is a coffee brand for the outdoors. It's a weird, it's an interesting product and it's kind of weird. And it comes in an aluminum, sort of like a toothpaste looking thing. So it's kind of weird, but it actually tastes really good. So I'll do one of yours in there as well.

Meredith M. (58:23.832)
That would.

Ramon Vela (58:24.814)
So look forward to a future episode. But thank you so much. Before we let you go, social media and where people can find you.

Meredith M. (58:34.512)
Yes, so we are opening up distribution in new states as best as we can. So I would encourage everyone to go to our website, drinkssouthsides.com. We have a map feature that I update as often as I can. So you can kind of see if we're available in your market to go pick up in store. We also ship nationwide, which is great. So if you really want to try us, but we're not there yet.

You can do that and all of our socials are at Drink Southsides and we are excited to see you.

Ramon Vela (59:06.562)
Well, this is great. So I would encourage people to go to the website and sign up for their newsletter. And that way you also just keep updated on products and whatnot. And that's actually something we haven't really talked about. I'm assuming that down the road there will be some new products, some new versions, new things coming down.

Meredith M. (59:33.844)
Yes, so I am excited to share that we have three things in the Innovation Pipeline. I won't share too much because it's still kind of early days, but keep your eyes peeled for some fun stuff. And I am...

optimistic about them as well.

Ramon Vela (59:52.706)
Yeah. Well, I love the website. So it's nice clean website. Lots of really great info on there. Is that your mother? There's a picture of you and someone else there. Is that your mother? nice. yeah, that's great. And so go to the website. You can find it at drinksouthsides.com. So a size with an S, drinksouthsides.com and your Instagram or TikTok.

Meredith M. (59:55.08)
Thank you.

Meredith M. (01:00:02.958)
Yeah, yeah, that's her.

Meredith M. (01:00:22.504)
It's the same at Drink Southside's, so it's pretty easy to find us. We kept it all the same.

Ramon Vela (01:00:28.054)
Okay, great. So this has been fantastic. Thank you so much. Everyone out there. I highly encourage you to to go to the website and even better find it in your local area. Give it a try. And I know that if you're open to these type of drinks, know, mixed drinks or gin or anything like that, you're you're going to love it. If you're tired of just drinking beer and you want to try something new, you're going to love this. It is not.

Meredith M. (01:00:49.256)
.

Ramon Vela (01:00:57.834)
overwhelmingly sweet, it is just right, it's refreshing, either put it in a refrigerator and or drink with ice, but it tastes amazing. So highly recommend it. And thank you, Meredith. This has been fantastic and I appreciate you coming on and sharing with us about the brand.

Meredith M. (01:01:18.644)
Absolutely, anytime. The original, yeah, I Southside or Southside, but the brand, the original Southside, yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:01:21.132)
So everyone out there, we have just had Meredith Mills Merritt, who is the founder of Southside. Is it Southside with an S or a?

Ramon Vela (01:01:37.216)
Okay, so go check it out. This is, like I said, this is a great tasting product and I highly recommend it. So go check it out. Beyond that, everyone, I always tell you to stay sane, stay safe, stay healthy. Please, there's a lot of craziness in the world. And so one last thing. There's, we've been going through a lot since the pandemic and then the economy and then geopolitical wars and politics. And it's just driving everyone crazy, I'm sure.

feeling people a lot of, there's a lot of feeling of anxiety around. So let's do ourselves a favor and just remember that everyone is going through something. And if we can do that, I know, and be a little kinder to each other, I know we can make this human experience a better one. So beyond that, everyone, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.