Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
I'm a 20+ year veteran in the wine and spirits industry who loves innovation. I'm interviewing those who are creating it from agriculture to glass. We will deep dive into their journey and provide insights to help yours.
We will discuss their major industry pain points and outlook for the future. If my guest has an item to drink or eat we will try it throughout the podcast. Come on the journey with us!
Now On YouTube!! https://www.youtube.com/@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST
Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
How Suavecito Tequila Became a Top 15 Tequila in Total Wine WITHOUT a Celebrity! 🌵🔥 #AdditiveFree #ThirstyThursdays with Jeff Foss
📢I talk🎙️with Jeff Foss, of Suavecito Tequila👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁
Watch the Premiere Here @ 3PM EST May 22!
From agave farm to Total Wine top seller 🌱🥃 — discover how Suavecito Tequila went viral with zero additives, full sustainability & no celebrity hype! #FNBinnovation @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST
Jeff Foss of Suavecito Tequila joins Jessie Ott on 🎙️ Thirsty Thursdays to share how a family-run tequila brand grew from a failed agave sale to a national bestseller—with zero shortcuts. 🌟
The momentum gamechanger was giving Suavecito to all 72 Emmy Award Winners in the volume started to double, triple, etc...and was picked up in all Total Wine Stores all over the US. Great exposure for an amazing brand.
🌟 Key Takeaways:
🌱 The origin story: from agave farm to tequila pivot during the 2008 recession
🔥 Why they use agave nectar (not sugar) to create a smoother, additive-free spirit
🧪 Aged longer than industry standards: 8-month Reposado, 2-year Añejo, 5-year Extra
🌍 Eco-friendly distilling: worm composting & zero-waste production
💼 Growth strategy: how Total Wine helped them scale to 32 states
🧠 No celebrity endorsements—just grassroots hustle & great tequila
NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn
Jessie Ott (00:30)
Hello and welcome everybody to Thursday Thursdays. My name is Jessie Ott and I have Jeff Foss here with Suavecito Tequila. Hi Jeff, how are you?
Jeff Foss (00:40)
I'm doing very well. Thank you, Jessie.
Jessie Ott (00:43)
Yeah, I'm glad to have you on. And we were chit chatting just a little bit and Jeff told me this is his first podcast appearance. So welcome to the podcasting world. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, good. Cause we have a lot of fun on, on this podcast and no big surprise here. We are going to test the waters, you know, here and try some of the Suavecito.
Jeff Foss (00:52)
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
You
Jessie Ott (01:09)
And I can't wait to get into the brand. They've got some really unique positioning in the U.S. here and I can't wait to get into the story. So Jeff, where are you calling from today?
Jeff Foss (01:21)
So I'm calling from Arvada, Colorado in my basement, as you could probably tell in my video.
Jessie Ott (01:27)
No, I couldn't. I mean, there's no windows, but you can't tell it looks
pretty cheery down there for a basement. But you know, in the North, basements are pretty common to build out and have bedrooms and whatnot. I grew up in Iowa, you know, especially being in Tornado Alley.
Jeff Foss (01:32)
Yeah, right.
Yes.
Yep, definitely. Okay.
Yes. So you're from southern Iowa. Yeah, right.
Jessie Ott (01:49)
Not that that means anything anymore. It's
everywhere. So are you from there?
Jeff Foss (01:56)
so I grew up here. I moved in to Colorado when I was about two. ⁓ but, I've spent time and so I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I spent a lot of time there and then finished high school in Skokie, Illinois. And I lived with my dad. My dad was in, North side of Chicago, Rogers Park area, Chicago. So yeah, spent high school, finished high school there and then.
Jessie Ott (02:01)
Okay.
Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Foss (02:24)
Fought my way back here to Colorado where the weather is sunny. Might not be warm all the time, but it's at least sunny. Get away from the Midwest gray.
Jessie Ott (02:34)
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't realize it was that gray. I have a friend who needs a lot of sun and she can lay out when it's 30 degrees, as long as there's no wind, you know, it's not so bad and have a little heater, but she needs a lot of sun and she makes it work in Iowa. But I didn't realize Colorado had more sunny days than the Midwest.
Jeff Foss (02:53)
That's interesting.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I think Colorado, at least of the places I've lived, Colorado is one of the few that the snow melts when it's 20 degrees just because the sun beats on it during the day and it's still 20 degrees outside, but the snow will melt, which is always interesting to me. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (03:11)
that's awesome.
So are you getting any more snow this year?
Jeff Foss (03:19)
I think it's all going to be rain, but we got some last weekend. Usually we get a big one, you know, right around the switch to spring. We get a big snowstorm, but so far it's been rain.
Jessie Ott (03:31)
that's a bummer. Yeah. So what did you do when you... So how did you make your way back to Colorado?
Jeff Foss (03:33)
Yeah, my wife likes it better that way.
well, you know, it's a long story, but, you know, it was just, you know, I went to college out in, Western Illinois and then lived in Chicago, after college for about five or six years. And I just worked on my, I guess now ex-wife, I just to get back to, get out here. Cause it was just, just much better.
It made it easier because her brother lived out here. So, yeah, so we just kind of got back here and at the time it just was the right decision to do. I just love it out here and, you know, just able to get better jobs out here.
Jessie Ott (04:14)
What industries were you in?
Jeff Foss (04:15)
Yeah. ⁓
so I'm a CPA by trade. And I, I know that's a very boring thing, but, I've just always loved it. It is a very important one. but I, you know, it's interesting. I've never liked taxes. so I've never been that CPA, but, so I've always, yeah, I've always worked for manufacturing companies. I love the manufacturing realm and it's just.
Jessie Ott (04:20)
okay.
Very important, boring thing.
Okay. It's a big difference.
Jeff Foss (04:41)
making things and doing different things and you know taking raw materials and putting in making them into something just always fascinated me and so just got in the background of with my CPA and getting controllership and CFO positions and then I was a consultant for probably about 15-16 years.
Jessie Ott (04:47)
Yeah.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (05:00)
Yeah, so then, and then I just started working for my dad. So this is my dad's business. love it. and I've helped him since he, you know, started it out from, taste testing his formula in the earlier, the like 2008 timeframe, and helped him build that business plan. And once he could afford me, then I started working for him.
Jessie Ott (05:21)
Nice. Okay. So what was your dad's idea of why tequila? Like what?
Jeff Foss (05:28)
So back so in About 2000 my dad sold his construction business and retired and then one of his Warehouse guys who's from Mexico? Called him up and he had come up with some land and some other things and so Asked my dad if he wanted to buy an agave farm
So my dad's like, well, I don't know anything about it, but I'm getting kind of bored being retired. why not? No idea. Right. So, um, so he started, and one of the things that my dad has always done is he's, um, found people in that are, you know, calm subject matter experts in different areas.
Jessie Ott (05:54)
⁓ He had no idea what he was getting himself into, he?
Jeff Foss (06:17)
and always talked to them or hired them on as a for retainer just so he could learn more from them. And so one of the things my dad did when he went down there was he got this guy. His name was Dr. Luis Ramirez, who was the leading agricultural professor at the University of Guadalajara. And he had an expertise in agave.
And so my dad wanted to kind of learn from him about the agave plants and actually took him all around with him to think five or six different farms to figure out which farms would be the best. And they finally settled on one that was actually up in the hills. So, you know, we started with the highlands agave. So the.
The soil in Jalisco is all volcanic and the richer soils are up in the hills and all the rain, because all the rain kind of flows down the hill. And so it leaves a much more fertile, thicker, more rich soil up in the hills. And so my dad hopped on that. planted. So for the next six years, we planted a section.
because it takes about six years for the agave plants to fully mature for harvesting. So kind of broke it out into six different sections, started growing that first year, started growing the first plants. And then by the time that we were just time to harvest was about 2008, which here in the States was the big housing market kind of recession. So
At the same time, the agave market tanked, so my dad couldn't actually really sell his agave. So we were talking about one night, we were talking about, you know, what he could do. And I was like, I told him, I like, look, if you had lemons, you would make lemonade. So instead you have agave. Only one thing you could do is make tequila. So let's make tequila. And so, yeah.
Jessie Ott (08:17)
Can I, can I, can I
back, can we back up just a second? So was the idea of buying the land to sell the agave and not to make a brand? I mean, that was the original business plan. Okay.
Jeff Foss (08:28)
Initially it was just just the agave. Yep.
That was all it was. We were had no intention of making a tequila at all.
Jessie Ott (08:36)
Okay.
Jeff Foss (08:36)
And so, yeah, so now there's only one way to get rid of his agave, which is to sell tequila. And so again, Dr. Luis Ramirez at the time was starting to formulate a non-alcoholic version of agave, which we now know as agave nectar that's sold here in the United States. But back then it's just, was, all it was was a
a process to help diabetics in Mexico. And he was just kind of formulating how all of this would work. And we decided to take that process that he was doing and put it into our tequila. And because nobody else was doing it, it's just a differentiator from what everybody else was doing at the time. And, you know, so it's really it's taken.
Jessie Ott (09:17)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (09:22)
that unfermented agave and putting it back into the tequila. it was the sole purpose of it is to take the burn as it goes down out of the tequila.
Jessie Ott (09:32)
Interesting.
Jeff Foss (09:33)
Yeah, so we
spent about two years formulating this and finding the right barrels to age and do all these different things. so we taste tested a lot of tequila for two years. But yeah, finally got it started selling in 2010 ish, 2011.
Jessie Ott (09:50)
What
kind of barrels do you use?
Jeff Foss (09:53)
so we do, you know, most of tequila uses some sort of bourbon. so we, we're just trying to figure out which bourbon barrels that we liked. you know, we started with the Jack Daniel's bourbon and, we did do some with, just brand new American oak barrels, which had good taste to it, but wasn't quite the same as.
using an already used bourbon barrel. So we ended up, yeah, it was and it just, yeah, and you had to age it a little bit longer too. And so, yeah, so it was just, yeah, with the already used bourbon barrels, the tannins are already there, the barrel's already, you know, kind of used. And so it's easier to get that, the flavors out of it that way. So.
Jessie Ott (10:19)
Yeah, it gives that little sweetness to it. Rounds it out a little bit.
Yeah.
Now did you look at
any other kind of barrels besides bourbon?
Jeff Foss (10:46)
We at that time, no, we do. have so the distillery that we're using now does have some other ones that we are experimenting with for future releases. Yes.
Jessie Ott (10:56)
Okay.
Okay, cool. That's exciting. ⁓
Jeff Foss (11:00)
Yeah, it
is exciting. Actually, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, sure. So here actually I have one. So this is our you can see it, our founders reserve, right? So our founders reserve is one of them. And it's actually a barrel strength. So it comes out at about 50, anywhere between 52 and 55 % alcohol. And it's
Jessie Ott (11:03)
Can you talk about it?
Okay. Yeah.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (11:26)
are in the Ajo. So it's been sitting in a bourbon barrel for two years. And then they aged it for another six months in a French Oak, which in this case was a, cognac. So it has a little bit of the cognac, flavor to it, a little bit of sweetness from that cognac. And it's just, it's a fantastic taste.
Jessie Ott (11:38)
nice.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but it looked clear.
Jeff Foss (11:50)
It's not No, it looks kind of looks like it cuz there's nothing behind it
Jessie Ott (11:51)
it's not, okay. okay.
Yeah.
Wow. I mean, let's look at these different colors. Like you can really tell that's more of a purple that versus this amber color.
Jeff Foss (12:00)
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's
got a little bit. So the French oak is going to give it a little bit of a lighter amber color. But it's if you put the two together, it's a little bit darker because it's not so, you know, when it comes out of the barrel, you dilute it with water to get down to the percentage of alcohol that you're going to sell it at. So this is completely not undiluted at all. So it's straight out of the barrel and it is.
Jessie Ott (12:22)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (12:30)
Finished in that cognac barrel, which gives it a good flavor, gives us a little bit darker hue to it as well. You know, one of the other things too that we do is we have brand new glass bottles. So they're clear, cleaner. So you get the true color of our tequila. So we're not actually hiding anything out of that. And that was very important to us as well.
Jessie Ott (12:33)
That sounds amazing. Yeah.
Well, what about this movement that you're seeing on no additives? Is that something that you guys have looked into or talked about?
Jeff Foss (13:03)
So we were always fighting that. So we have in our minds, we have zero additives at all in our tequilas. Some people like to say that the because we add the agave nectar back into the tequila, that that is a an additive, which technically it is. But also technically, according to the CRT, the Tequila Regulatory Commission in Mexico,
Jessie Ott (13:23)
Okay.
Jeff Foss (13:28)
Yeast is also an additive. So according to them, no tequila really, if you put yeast in it, is additive free. So, you know, the thing that we do though is we, our agave is harvested at six years. So we let it grow as long as it is supposed to. We, it's very good. So the agave is very good.
And the hemidors actually leave a little bit of the the blades left on the outside So when they when they cut it all down, it's called a HEMA and so our HEMA is actually bigger than everybody else's because We fully harvest it. We harvest it when it's fully matured We leave a little bit of extra which adds a little bit of
How do I want the thickness to the tequila? Okay. And so what ends up happening is, that the, that don't allow their agave to fully mature and they pick them early or they have, they, you know, they don't, they don't own their farms. So they have to buy it from somebody else. So when they're buying it from somebody else, they don't have control of how, you know, how
Jessie Ott (14:19)
Yeah, okay texture.
Jeff Foss (14:44)
close that they get cropped and all of the different things. And so what ends up happening is that they'll add glycerin to their tequilas to make it thicker. Right? So you get that, you know, for us, if, you know, I should have a, champagne flute. So with the champagne flute, you can actually look and see the tears of the tequila. So if you just watch it around a little bit and you get to see that ours are actually really slow.
Jessie Ott (14:48)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (15:10)
So the slower the tears are that come down, that means the more pure that agave is. And so for us, that means there's no additives in it really when you come down to it. And so that was very important to us as well. And then with our aging, we actually double age or more all of our tequilas that are aged. So our Reposado, to be called a Reposado, it needs to be aged for two months. We actually age it for eight months.
Jessie Ott (15:19)
Okay.
Jeff Foss (15:36)
our Anejo needs to be aged for a year. We age it for two years. And then we have an extra Anejo as well that should be aged for three years and we age it for five. So again, when it's not aged for as long, then that's when people start adding caramel coloring to make it look darker than it really is. Right. And so in the end, what you're doing is your
Jessie Ott (15:41)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Foss (16:03)
you're messing with the flavors and the profile and it's not as pure. ⁓ And then for us, so they really do, but we also put the agave nectar into it. And essentially, if you think of agave nectar the way it actually is, the, when you're cooking the agave for making tequila, so you cook it,
Jessie Ott (16:09)
Great. People want that now.
Jeff Foss (16:28)
Oh, that's the other thing too, is we roast all of our agave in a brick oven. So it takes longer. So it takes 48 to 72 hours to roast all of the agave. Whereas a lot of our competition uses the steel ovens because it takes 12 to 18 hours to do it. So it goes faster, but it's not as, you don't get all the flavors out of it that you would in a brick oven.
Jessie Ott (16:33)
Okay.
Interesting. So do you have your own distillery on the on the farm then or do you work with another nom?
Jeff Foss (17:01)
So very good question. we actually, we went through several different distilleries through the years, but ⁓ we settled with our current and final distillery, right? these, they actually reached out to us and wanted to invest in us as a new tequila for them. And so they are part owner of us as well. And so they actually have all of their own farms.
Jessie Ott (17:07)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Foss (17:26)
And my dad was able to sell his farm a few years ago But all of their farms are just like my dad's up, you know up in the hills And have the same really good agave So all of our agave is a state so it's all owned by the distillery So they get to you know, and we get to with them get to define how the the hema doors cut down the hemas
Jessie Ott (17:39)
Nice.
Jeff Foss (17:49)
you know, and harvest and all of that stuff. And so it's, it's a, it is a very fantastic.
Jessie Ott (17:51)
Yep. That's fantastic.
And what's the name of the distillery?
Jeff Foss (17:59)
So it's Distilladora Agave De Azul.
Jessie Ott (18:03)
Okay. That's great. And so they do all estate down 14, 20, 24. Okay. Is there any other brands that we would know here that are made there in the U.S.?
Jeff Foss (18:06)
when it's DOM 1424.
So they have a few different brands. One of them that I think is still in the United States is called Asimbrosa, which is got a funky little bottle. ⁓ That's one that they contract for. They have a couple of their own brands. One is called Chula Vista, which I think is just mostly sold in California at the moment.
Jessie Ott (18:27)
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay. Okay. And so let's talk about the bottles, then the glass and the, they've got this really cool leather band that goes across where all the branding is. It's really, really, really sharp looking with the little Gave plant here. That's etched into the glass. You want to talk about that?
Jeff Foss (18:59)
Yeah, so you know back back in the day when my dad was first starting out it was trying to find a different bottle than what everybody saw on the shelves in the United States. And we just found this one. You know, kind of talked with the designer and kind of told him what we wanted. We wanted to be thin so that you could grab it very well.
Jessie Ott (19:09)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (19:22)
Right? But kind of a little bit longer, but not too wide. And then, you know, it's got it's got grooves on it to hold up the labels. And then it's got the agave plant on the bottom etched into it. And so it's a, you know, it's a custom bottle that we've we put together. And, you know, we want to make it different than what everybody else had.
Jessie Ott (19:41)
Yeah,
it's, it's beautiful.
Jeff Foss (19:44)
Yeah. And then one of the cool things that we decided to do was we wanted to use a...
Jessie Ott (19:46)
It is definitely-
Got the cork top.
Jeff Foss (19:56)
Yep, yep. Well, so we wanted we wanted to use a local guy to make our our labels for our nails. And so we found a guy that that, you know, he's the fourth generation leather maker in his family. You know, so it just gets getting passed on and he makes some incredible leather, you know, as.
Jessie Ott (20:18)
That's cool.
Jeff Foss (20:23)
the founders reserve, you this is, you know, a fully handmade, so that's actually hand painted, the white is hand painted. And then they knock in the...
Jessie Ott (20:35)
Wow.
Jeff Foss (20:38)
the barrel number, they also do the bottle number, and then they'll put in the proof, sorry, the percentage of alcohol.
Jessie Ott (20:47)
Okay, that's really awesome. I love that you're using a local artist.
Jeff Foss (20:52)
Yeah, I mean it was important for
us to give back to the community that they're in. ⁓ And so it was just very cool and you know the opportunity presented itself that you know this guy was in the same village as the distillery and he's taking his business from you know him and his wife and daughters to he's got 80 people that work for him now. So yeah, so it's a lot of fun. It's very cool.
Jessie Ott (20:57)
Yeah.
No way. Yay!
Yeah. So was this the original bottle design before you even tried to sell it? you're figuring out your formula, you're figuring out your bottle. Is that part of the process, the two year process that you went through?
Jeff Foss (21:31)
Now you're making me try to remember back 15 years ago. you know, I, I don't, I think this was actually the original bottle. I think that's what we did. cause we've always had the, you know, we're, we're now at a, at a place that we have to go to, you know, a higher end bottle maker. but at the time we'd found the local guy that was just making these bottles, but he could only handle.
Jessie Ott (21:35)
you
Okay.
Jeff Foss (21:52)
so many bottles at a time. I mean, he, I'm pretty sure this is custom from the beginning, from the onset.
Jessie Ott (21:53)
so much.
So you have this farm, you spend two years to get the formula right. You get the bottle, you get the local artists. So now you have a product ready to sell. What happens next?
Jeff Foss (22:11)
So we try to find the right places to go. So my dad met some guys in the Cleveland area who knew kind of some people around Cleveland and knew how the alcohol business. So Ohio is a controlled state, which just means that the state buys.
But they're also very particular on what they take in and what they, know, how they sell it and all that stuff. So we got with them, started selling in Ohio first. And then my dad then moved out here a couple of years later and we started here in Colorado. And so it was just, you know, let's start slow, you know, and let's just kind of build it up and.
You know, we don't know what we don't know. So we'll have to, you know, learn a whole bunch of different things as we go. Um, you know, and there's, you know, whenever you do that, there's always stumbling blocks here and there. Um, you know, and I wish I had done this back in the day instead of, know, you know, but, know, here we are 15 years later and we're in, you know, 32 different States. We're Total Wine at every single store and Total Wine across the nation.
Jessie Ott (23:08)
Hehehe.
Jeff Foss (23:22)
And as you mentioned, and we're talking, they're about chest level for me, because I'm about 6'6", but for most everybody else, they're at eye level. But it's right in about the middle of their shelving, and it goes across the whole thing. So we're a top 50 brand at Total Wine. And we're probably...
Jessie Ott (23:31)
wow. Yeah.
Yep.
The whole thing.
Jeff Foss (23:48)
The number 14 tequila sold in all of Total Wine stores. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (23:53)
That's huge.
So tell me about how that came about. So you were in, so was your dad living in Ohio? Is that why Cincinnati was?
Jeff Foss (24:02)
So my
dad at the time was living in Indiana and so he had met a couple of people in Indiana who then introduced him to the guys in Cleveland and Cleveland just took it and ran. Whereas, you know, Indiana kind of petered out a little bit. But then. So about the same time my son was born and so my dad then wanted to get out here and so came out here.
Jessie Ott (24:05)
Okay.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (24:25)
And yeah, so when we started, you know, out here and then got licensed here and kind of started selling here.
And then through the years, you know, we've met different people here and there, but we found two guys out of California that they, you know, spent their careers building brands and taking brands national. And so we talked to them and they loved the product so much that they took us to a distributor in California and they sold
you know, our extra in the Ajo and you know, they have relationships with all the big chains too. And so they started with Total Wine in California and the distributor bought, I think it was three pallets of their extra in the Ajo, which is 360 cases.
So about about 1800 bottles and bought that as their first buy filled all the total wines in the Southern California area and just wanted to see how it goes. And it skyrocketed. so, you know, a couple of things happened. You know, there's a one of the stores don't know which one. Some guy from the Emmys who runs the Emmys like from the background. Right. So
just kind of controls all of that stuff. He contacted my dad and asked my dad if he wanted to be, you know, one of the, how do you want to call it? Gifts, I guess. So, but he was also then the only liquor sold at the bar in the green area, the, you know, the party area in the back. And so, yeah, so he got to go for that and he had to
Jessie Ott (26:04)
Yes, they want stuff for free. Those people.
⁓ that's cool.
Jeff Foss (26:22)
We had to provide four bottles. So we only had four at the time. But he gave the four bottles that we had, Blanco, Repo, Anejo, and the Extra Anejo, to all 72 winners. And so they got to take all that. So it huge publicity for us. ⁓ So it was a lot of fun. And it was right after that that things kind of blew up with
Jessie Ott (26:38)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (26:45)
Total Wine so those three pallets went to three pallets and six pallets and then nine pallets and then and then Total Wine started getting word through everywhere and all of sudden then we get asked to be a spirits direct brand for them And being sold in all their stores and so
Jessie Ott (27:11)
What was
that decision like? mean, what were the factors that went into thinking about that relationship with Total Wine?
Jeff Foss (27:19)
So for us at the time, was, you know, the way we were thinking about it was it's going to double our revenue, you know, and double, you know, and it's going to get us that notoriety throughout. I guess the popularity into the States, right? So we're going to be a nationwide in a chain. So that's kind of what we're thinking. you know, spirits direct is a little bit limiting for us because we can only sell through total wine at the moment.
But we went from...
Um, so we did about 10,000 cases the first year, did about 20, 24,000 the second year. And then, um, this past year we did about 28 or 29,000. And then, uh, this year they decided that they wanted to beat the tariffs, potential tariffs that might be coming down and they wanted all 34,000 cases for the year, in January and February. So.
Jessie Ott (28:22)
Wow.
Jeff Foss (28:22)
⁓
We are now able to do that. And so it's been huge for us to be able to do that and to be able to kind of weather that storm for our cashflow. So we've come a long way since we first started, but yes.
Jessie Ott (28:32)
Yeah.
For sure.
So how much, I mean, do you have a limit to how many cases you can grow to then? Because I know some people that own their own land, they're like, we're done at 100,000 cases because we can't control the quality anymore at that point.
Jeff Foss (28:49)
So, you know, I'm sure there is, but I don't think we've, you know, with our distillery, you know, they have, you know, think they have almost 800 hectares of agave farms, which is, you know, I think an hectare is like four or five acres. So they've got quite a bit of farm land. And so, and they have, you know, this 100,000 square foot
Jessie Ott (29:02)
Okay. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (29:19)
cave on their, below their distillery where they house all the bottles, the barrels. So it's where the barrels age. And it's, you know, there's, you know, a couple of vents in it to get the airflow going, but there's no HVAC system. There's nothing. It's just all, you know, natural humidity and, you know, there's just natural coolness.
Jessie Ott (29:22)
Wow.
barrels.
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (29:44)
And so it's yeah, and that way that you get the better flavors because you're not adding any mechanical air tastes to anything and it's you know again kind of what they do so
Jessie Ott (29:45)
That's awesome.
100,000
square foot cave underground. It's amazing.
Jeff Foss (30:00)
Yeah, so I mean,
if we were to sell, mean, if they were not to produce another, you know, or harvest any more agave, you know, I think we could, you know, it would take us four or five years just to sell the stuff in the barrels.
Jessie Ott (30:15)
Okay. And so what's the strategy from here on out and does your, does your relationship or that spirits direct, that time out at some point?
Jeff Foss (30:27)
So it doesn't time out at them. You so, you know, the one nice thing about Total Wine is that they, add, you know, five or six stores every year. So there's just natural growth there. Right. And so, you know, we've, I think in New York city, you know, they have one store in New York city. Well, I guess, sorry, technically it's two stores, but it's one building.
Jessie Ott (30:38)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (30:52)
And it's like a square block in the Long Island. And we've grown there almost 600 % year over year from last year to this year. And so in general, we've been averaging about almost 400 % growth in total wine. So I think there's still quite a bit of growth that we can do with total wine.
Jessie Ott (31:02)
Please.
Jeff Foss (31:14)
And so to be honest, you know, that's kind of where we're at at the moment. We are going to start doing some international sales. I'm trying to get through that. You know, because we got some people in Europe that want us to start selling there. We've got some folks in Asia, you know, like got Singapore and Cambodia and some places like that. So.
You know, we're going to start doing that. Before this year, we were probably thinking about Canada, but I don't know if we want to do that yet.
Jessie Ott (31:40)
Thank you.
We, they get, so we're, we're an international agency. My, have a company and I've, I've talked to Tom also and my partner sent emails to all the different provinces and they all came back saying that their email is too full. So we're going have to get it. We're going to have to VPN that one. Yeah. ⁓
Jeff Foss (31:50)
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, you
know, so, you know, the the nice thing is that we are with with tequila. We're part of the USMCA. So at the moment we don't have to we don't have any tariffs, you know, but that might change. Never know. Yeah, it always seems to be up in the air. ⁓ So the one other thing I was one of the point that I wanted to make about our our agave nectar. Right. So when you're making tequila,
Jessie Ott (32:20)
Who knows?
Yep. Evolving door.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (32:33)
before it gets through the oven, gets roasted, then it gets smashed in the liquid, then it goes into the fermentation tanks. But before it goes into that, it can either go into the fermentation tanks or in a hydrolysis tank. And if it goes to the hydrolysis, that's where they make the agave syrup. There's no sugars added to it, there's nothing added to it, it's just pure agave that's gone through a hydrolysis.
to some chemical reaction there that makes it thick. ⁓ And that's the agave nectar that we put back into our tequila. We don't take the stuff that's on the store, the store shelves that's got sugar added to it, that's not pure agave. So the ingredients that we have are still just agave, yeast, and water.
Jessie Ott (33:08)
Okay.
So the piñas that you're using for the agave, are they in the same field as the piñas for the tequila distillation? Okay, so it's the same, it's same, same. Just a different process. Adding it back, making it a thicker, more texturized tequila, smoother, that kind of thing. That's really cool. Well, your billboard is impressive and in the editing,
Jeff Foss (33:37)
Yes. Yes they are.
Yep, same same. Correct.
Exactly. Yep.
Jessie Ott (33:57)
piece of this, will put that picture up there so that people can see the total line picture that I took where you have literally your Blanco to your extra and it's a full four foot space at eye level. Yeah. That's a billboard. mean, and you know, you're, everybody is fighting for the same space and the fact that you're a big player, like a huge player and our biggest player in the U S is, is,
Jeff Foss (34:01)
Which one?
yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (34:27)
Wow, that story is really interesting because that's really unique. I don't know of any other brand. I'm sure it's happened, you know, similarly with being, you know, in front of the right people and catching the right time. You know, it's about timing and people and, you know, all that stuff adds up to the formula of, of a brand.
Jeff Foss (34:40)
It is.
Agreed.
Yes. And we've done it without a celebrity. And for us, that's important as well because, you know, my dad has worked his tail off for the past, you know, 14 years to get to this point. yeah, absolutely. You know, and we've gone through so much. Yeah, it's been amazing on what he's been able to accomplish. And without that celebrity person to be able to get that popularity.
Jessie Ott (35:00)
Probably harder than in construction. Late nights, weekends.
Jeff Foss (35:17)
Right? And so we're, we're doing this all grassroots and it's, it's, it's been a lot of fun and it's, it's just keeps, on going.
Jessie Ott (35:18)
Yeah.
That's great. I'm so excited for you guys. Do you want to do a quick tasting? Okay. Well, I know we have different ones to taste. Do you want me, do you want to taste the Anejo? Your dad mentioned that the Anejo is your top seller at Total Wine right now.
Jeff Foss (35:31)
Sure, absolutely.
So yeah, so our our Anejo is our top top seller. It's. You know, it's like I mentioned, it's aged for two years. It's got a fantastic taste. It's actually my preferred. It's my favorite. We've actually had bartenders win Old Fashioned and. What's that a Manhattan contests with our Anejo. Yeah, so it's it's very, good. And it.
Jessie Ott (36:00)
Yeah, I can see that.
I've,
I've, well, sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to say when I was opening this, cause you, had, we had to reschedule cause I was a little under the weather and you both recommended I try a little in it. That's the secret sauce. Let me tell you. so there is some gone, but I did pour some, but even when I was opening it, there's this, smokiness about it that is really prominent and just
Jeff Foss (36:08)
No, no, go ahead.
Yes.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Jessie Ott (36:30)
just smelling it in this glass over here is really an incredible like presence, right? Like I'm here and it's really cool. And so I'm, yeah, I'm looking forward to tasting it. So which one are you going to try?
Jeff Foss (36:36)
Yes.
Absolutely.
So the one I have is called a Cristalino. don't see if you can get it. OK. Yeah, a little bit. So it's a kind of a clear one. But so we've taken our Reposado and it gets filtered in charcoal, charcoal filtration system, and it takes the color out of it. But it also gets a little bit of extra flavor from the charcoal.
Jessie Ott (36:51)
Yep, a little bit.
Jeff Foss (37:10)
So it's got an interesting flavor. It's kind of a mixture of a rapasado and a blanco. And it's great. So if you ever go to Mexico, the number one tequila in Mexico is actually a Cristalino as well. Yep, it's not near as good as ours, but we're not there yet. None at all, none at all.
Jessie Ott (37:16)
Okay.
Is it really? Interesting. Okay.
No bias there.
Jeff Foss (37:36)
All right, so I just poured mine. So the other thing that we intended when we were making this was that, you know, if you smell it, it smells really good. But the other thing that the bite by putting the agave nectar into it and take that burn out, you can actually taste all the different flavors of the agave. So the agave is a very, very robust flavor to it.
And it's obviously very distinct because everybody has that, you know, if you smell it, you kind of, you know, from from high school, your stomach kind of turn sometimes if you smell it wrong. so.
Jessie Ott (38:05)
Yeah.
I guess
you experienced that in your two years of discovering.
Jeff Foss (38:19)
Yeah, well, you it was the late 80s
and I guess everybody was doing it. ⁓ so yeah, we could say college and college. Yeah, I mean, it's for me that the flavor of the agave and the flavor of all of our tequilas is just so nice and it matches what you smell. So that's the most important thing, too, is that, you know, you smell it. It's got good aroma.
Jessie Ott (38:23)
Ha ha ha!
Jeff Foss (38:43)
and then it tastes exactly as it smells. And that's just fantastic.
Jessie Ott (38:48)
So what does it taste like? Yeah.
Jeff Foss (38:50)
This one? Well,
let's taste it.
Jessie Ott (38:53)
you
Jeff Foss (38:56)
tastes very good. So, you know, it's interesting because you get a little bit of the you get a lot of the agave flavor. You get a little bit of the reposado from the the Cristalino, but there's some other flavors. I can't really.
Jessie Ott (38:57)
Okay.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Is it more
citrus? Like sometimes they're peppery, sometimes they're a little salty or more peppery. Okay, but smooth.
Jeff Foss (39:15)
More peppery, more peppery, I think. ⁓ Yeah.
I don't
have that sommelier palate, so I can't really tell you exactly what it exactly tastes like, but to me, it tastes very good.
Jessie Ott (39:26)
Thank
Okay. Awesome. Well, should we switch over to the, in Yale? All right. Here's my fancy glass that I got from, look, you can see my reflection. That's funny. There we go. It's not, I mean, it's the same color, but it looks a little lighter when it's in a smaller glass for some reason. Maybe it's cause it's thinner. It's probably cause it's thinner.
Jeff Foss (39:36)
Sure, let's do it.
Yeah, there's that. also
has to do with the leather label on the bottle. We'll give it a little bit of different hue to it as well.
Jessie Ott (40:03)
Yeah, that makes sense.
This smells amazing.
Jeff Foss (40:08)
Yeah. Should taste just as good.
Jessie Ott (40:11)
very smooth. You feel a little bit in the back of your mouth like those sit like almost like a tart sense to it that just activates your whole mouth and it makes you water and want more. ⁓ I'm thinking
Jeff Foss (40:18)
Yep. Yep.
Yes.
Jessie Ott (40:25)
Okay, I'm getting citrus pepper. Not a heavy pepper, but that spice kind of pepper, you know, like the flavor to it. I see that it's 35 % alcohol, so guess the agave nectar kind of brings that alcohol level down.
Jeff Foss (40:27)
Okay.
huh. Yeah.
No, so we what the reason that we did that is we wanted to be more like tequila in Mexico. So if you ever go to Mexico and get a good Mexican tequila, it's going to be somewhere between 35 and 38 % alcohol. It's never 40%. So the United States puts that restriction on 40 % alcohol for tequila for actually for any spirit.
Jessie Ott (40:45)
slightly.
Okay.
Jeff Foss (41:11)
And so if you look for us, we're actually a specialty because we have we're at 35 % and that's the only reason we are pure 100 % tequila. It's just the United States regulations made us do a little bit of. I want to say dancing.
Jessie Ott (41:33)
And what is that? What did that involve?
Jeff Foss (41:36)
took quite a bit of time to find somebody that actually knew what they were talking about at the, TTV. ⁓ and that had some experience with different things, and got us to the right, right folks. and got that taken care of. you know, our whole intention was, is, I don't know how many times you've been to Mexico and you have a tequila down there.
Jessie Ott (41:42)
Okay.
Jeff Foss (41:57)
And then you come back to the United States and you look for that same tequila, you find it, but it tastes completely different than what you had in Mexico. That's the whole reason why, because it's 35 % and 40 % here, which adds a completely different flavor to it.
Jessie Ott (42:11)
Interesting.
Yeah. Huh. That's interesting. It's fascinating that you could bring it in at 35.
Jeff Foss (42:20)
Yep, it took us a little bit, you know they. Uhm, you know it it worked out. That you know with even though, cause it there are, you know. You might find a tequila now that has coffee in it, right? But it's still called tequila. It's still it's it's the same thing essentially, but it's because we have that agave nectar in it that allowed us to do that. And so with that we put the the.
Jessie Ott (42:23)
Yeah.
Yep. Yeah.
Jeff Foss (42:48)
You know, the other thing that we do is we do on our label, we do put that it's got 2 % agave nectar added back into it, which, you know, is our way of being honest about what's in the product. And so we have gotten a lot of kudos from the additive free folks that we're at least being honest about what it is, but that's, you know, potentially the only additive, the only thing that's extra.
that's in there and we don't think of it as an additive because it's pure agave.
Jessie Ott (43:17)
Yeah.
Right. It's still the same fruit. Right? It's unfermented So, is there anything else about the brand you want to mention? Is it available online or just total and that's it?
Jeff Foss (43:24)
Correct. Exactly. It's just unfermented.
so it is,
So Total Wine does have quite a bit of online stuff. So you can order it as long as there's a Total Wine near. They'll deliver. So we do that in Instacart. So Instacart will do that as well. But it's going to be delivered through Total Wine. ⁓ So other than that, we are not online.
Jessie Ott (43:44)
Yeah, you can have it delivered.
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (43:57)
gone back and forth. had been, you know, back in the day we were on one platform and you know, the problem with online is that they goes, a lot of those different online places go away quickly. ⁓ some are still there, but it also has to do with where we are. So we're based out of Colorado and Colorado has, some fairly strict rules and laws about shipping spirits.
Jessie Ott (44:11)
Mm.
Jeff Foss (44:24)
You know, and if you do it right, there's only really six states that you can ship to anyways. So it's not a.
I don't want say it's not a big profit center for us and it wasn't a revenue generating portion that we wanted to undertake at the moment.
Jessie Ott (44:37)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I don't think you need to. I mean, you're in 35 states in the high volume store that, I mean, you said you're number 14 tequila? That's incredible.
Jeff Foss (44:42)
Yeah, I'll take some.
I know, I know. been a lot of fun.
Jessie Ott (44:54)
That's amazing.
Yeah. I can imagine. So what's your website?
Jeff Foss (44:59)
It is www.suavecitotequila.com
Jessie Ott (45:05)
Okay. And we didn't talk about the name. Where did that come from?
Jeff Foss (45:08)
So we had come up with the formula and we had some samples and we were just going around and around to my friends, my dad's friends. And one of my dad's friends, his wife was from Mexico and said, know, Suavecito is what you should call it. And we're like, I don't even know what that means. What does it mean? She's like, very smooth, very smooth. And so we're like, okay.
Jessie Ott (45:33)
Done.
Jeff Foss (45:35)
And there it is and
then done, right? So, you know, it's funny on our website, we have to battle Suavecito Pomade, which is very big, you know, pomade. But other than that, that's the only thing that I can think of that was Suavecito. But yeah, yeah, that's where the name came from.
Jessie Ott (45:37)
It worked.
Hmm.
Awesome.
That's cool. So is there anything else before we move on to you and?
Jeff Foss (45:59)
yeah, so there's one other thing I want to talk about. So our distillery is, one of the two things about the distillery. One is, we have the only, as far as we know, the only female chief engineer that is responsible for the, from the agave to the bottling of the tequila. and that's extremely important to us. It's very cool.
that she is the only one right and She is absolutely amazing with what she does and the thoughts that she comes up with and you know all the different things that they do Zandra Gomez And she is phenomenal And then the other part of the so again this has to do with their distillery they are fully sustainable, so they take the
Jessie Ott (46:24)
Yeah.
What's her name?
Jeff Foss (46:52)
the dried fibers, the fibers from the agave as they crush it out and wring them out and get out of the production process. That goes to the farm. Then when you go through the distillation process, you get 54 % alcohol coming out. The other 46 % is like a dark brown sludge, which is disgusting and smells nasty. But what happens is it's a very acidic liquid.
Jessie Ott (47:13)
Mm.
Jeff Foss (47:20)
And a lot of the distilleries will just put it into the ground, which is very bad for the ground. But what we do is they have what we call it the worm farm. But essentially what it is is it's a giant compost pile. So they mix the brown sludge with the fibers. And then they add manure from the.
the donkeys and the goats and everything else. And they add that to this pile. They let it sit for about six months. And then it gets kind of dried out and it's starting to the fibers because the agave fibers are very durable. And so they got to break them down. It's gotta spend the time to break it down. But then they take it and they put it in it's about about a hundred yard.
Jessie Ott (47:59)
Freaking down.
Jeff Foss (48:07)
by like three yards wide, trough. And so they have about, it ends up being about 20 layers that go into this trough, but each layer they'll lay down and then they'll coat it with worms with California red worms. And then the worms go and dissolve it some more. And they take that then the dried fibers from that become, fertilizer from when they
grow the or plant the agave. And then they use some of the byproducts from the worms to kind of enhance that as well. So it's fully sustainable. Nothing gets thrown away. There's no waste. It's all full cycle. So yeah, love that.
Jessie Ott (48:43)
That's cool.
That's awesome.
Is that a movement of ideas that are happening in Mexico?
Jeff Foss (48:56)
I don't think so. Right
now they're the only distillery that does this. They are actually looking to make a side business out of selling the fertilizer. So they're gonna start probably start doing that. The more we help them with the byproducts and everything, ⁓ the more they're probably gonna be able to do that.
Jessie Ott (49:07)
They should.
Yeah.
Awareness. Yeah.
Okay. Well, we'd love to see that more. And cause I know that there's a movement here too, of people that are really in tune with what's going on over there in in, protecting the land. And so that is a huge selling point. And you know, when consumers understand that they're going to, that's going to be a huge point of differentiation for sure.
Jeff Foss (49:35)
Yes.
Yeah,
agreed. It's huge, you know, and yeah, you know, and one of the sad things for, you know, the tequila movement is you have the agave farmers are, kind of going there. They're dwindling down a little bit. and it's because it takes six years. So if I plant the plant today,
I don't see any return from that for six years. And so it's a hard business to get into ⁓ and to be able to sustain, you cause that first six years until you're actually selling your plants, very hard. So what you're seeing is a lot of these agave farms that are, know, somebody couldn't make money and, know, leave it or sell it. The sugar cane is just taking up that.
Jessie Ott (50:12)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Foss (50:31)
because sugarcane gets harvested twice a year and it becomes very lucrative. so, yeah, it's a very nice thing that we have the estate agave and we have all of this to ourselves. So it helps us immensely.
Jessie Ott (50:50)
Okay. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad that you spoke about that because that's huge. Yeah. So moving on to you, do you have any mentors or resources that you want to talk about that are instrumental into you kind of learning about the industry?
Jeff Foss (51:09)
You know, my dad is my mentor for learning about the industry, you know, and it's been through the years, right? So I really didn't start full bore with him until about, I think it about two years ago. So prior to that, was, you know, I was helping my dad just build business plans and doing research and, you know, going with him to the farm, talking to the folks down there.
talking to people and just kind of soaking in from all of those different pieces. But, you know, the, I think the biggest, just working with our current distillery has, you know, and going down there. we went down there in the past two December's, we'd actually took our whole team down there this past December had a company, you know, kind of Christmas vacation at the distillery. ⁓ you know,
Jessie Ott (51:58)
Fun.
Jeff Foss (52:00)
Yeah, well, you know, it's to help them that they're finally so they're on the route to date tequila. So it's a bus tour that, know, you can ride along. It's like going to, you know, Kentucky and taking a bus through the all the different bourbon distilleries. Same same concept, right? So ⁓ they're they're now open and you can buy all the tequilas that they have at their distillery. You guys will take a tour.
Jessie Ott (52:14)
That's cool. Okay.
Jeff Foss (52:25)
But they also have a local hacienda that they put people up into. It was beautiful, old, 500-year-old kind of ranch that's absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking. They actually do a lot of weddings there as well. And so we took the whole team down there, spent a week, and just being able to see and talk to the distillery, the owners.
Jessie Ott (52:42)
wow, cool.
Jeff Foss (52:55)
but also everybody that works there, and just talking to them about what they do and what they see. you know, Sandra has been fantastic in, you know, she did, taught us how to, taste, and how to do a tasting for our tequila, for any tequila and to be able to take and compare, it's just phenomenal. And so I think most of what I've learned, was from them about the, manufacturing process and how to.
really speak about the tequilas and what makes them good versus what makes them bad. Why would you add glycerin or caramel color and all those things. it was very, very important for us to not do have any shortcuts, do everything the right way and just build from that.
But then about the business stuff, my dad and running this business. it's not like any other business that I've ever run.
Jessie Ott (53:56)
No. Yeah, it's, it's, there's a lot to it. Really. And, what about any pain points or, know, what are you, what are your biggest pain points you're seeing for yourselves? I mean, it sounds like Total kind of took care of the tariff issue for, for at least for now, but is there anything else kind of lingering out there that, affects you guys?
Jeff Foss (53:59)
There is.
Yeah.
You know, it's just, you know, social media is still an enigma to me and to us. You know, we try to try to use it for the good, but you know, then there's always the bad part of it as well. You know, but as far as pain points, you know, my dad's getting older and it's just a matter of, know, what we're going to do, you know, about that if he wants to retire.
I think that's our biggest pain point at the moment is just trying to figure out what our future at Suavecito looks like and kind of taking that as it comes and trying to figure that out. I think that's probably our biggest pain point at the moment.
Jessie Ott (54:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. Cause like my next question is your outlook. So, I mean, I'm sure it's positive. You've got a lot of momentum and, and sounds like you've got other countries that are very interested. So, a lot of really good positive things are happening for swap for you guys at Swabasito.
Jeff Foss (55:13)
Yeah, you know our outlook is fantastic. You know and what we do, you know we keep a pulse on. Probably about 30 of the stores in different states, so we do tastings and you know from Thursday through Sunday in as many of the stores as we can. And they're always telling us, know, kind of what stories they have. What you know these people say what this person says.
You know, so we can see kind of get that pulse of what everybody's talking about there at the store, at the store level, because we don't necessarily get to see that, especially everywhere. And so that's important for us as well is to understand what everybody's saying and, you know, to be able to talk to all those different things. You know, the tequila industry in and of itself, I think it is booming.
Jessie Ott (55:46)
Yeah.
Jeff Foss (56:05)
at the moment, you so it's like the only spirit that has year over year growth this past year, which is great. And it's great for us, because we just keep, you know, taking a little bit of that market share here and there. But yeah, for us, that look, I think is great.
Jessie Ott (56:23)
Good. And Thursday, Thursday's final question is, what's your passions outside of work? Do you like to ski? Do you like movies?
Jeff Foss (56:24)
Yeah.
So, I mean, I love sports, but my passion is my two little kids. And I say little kids. My son's 13, my daughter's 11. I do have an older daughter who's 29, but she doesn't count anymore. No, I'm kidding. But she's an adult, she's married, she's good.
Jessie Ott (56:36)
Sports.
She's an adult. She's adulting.
Jeff Foss (57:02)
But it's
our lives right now. If I had a passion, I wouldn't be able to see it at all because my life right now is just taking my kids to, my son's a boy scout, plays basketball, my daughter plays soccer. And so it's just, we are human ubers, this is what we are.
Jessie Ott (57:13)
all the
Yep.
Yes, you you train your transportation.
Jeff Foss (57:27)
That's all we are at the moment. know, but I, you know,
so, so for us it's, it's, it's that, you know, and I've always, you know, put more into my kids than, you know, it's always been an emphasis of mine. But no matter what business I've done or been, you know, they take precedent over everything. So that is my passion.
Jessie Ott (57:34)
Yeah.
That's great.
That's great.
Okay, that's a good one to have. Two humans that are helping you're helping them to be their true self.
Jeff Foss (57:54)
Yes, yes.
They're sure trying. I don't know if they're ever going to see that, but yeah, we'll see. My son. Yeah, no, I know with the oldest one. It was 23. When she when she called mom and said, I thank you for everything you did and I'm so sorry I didn't believe you before. I now see everything that you've been saying like yes, yes.
Jessie Ott (58:01)
you
Not until older 20s.
Yeah.
It happens. Yeah, it happens.
It just takes 20 years. That's all. ⁓
Jeff Foss (58:28)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We know it's
funny. I read somewhere that you're you're doing your job right as a parent if they are fighting you for their independence, but they are sweet and nice to everybody else outside of the family or outside of outside of the home. Right, mom and dad, right? So it's it's funny because you know my my will send them off to grandma's and we'll talk to him, pick him up the next day and talk to him and.
Jessie Ott (58:46)
mom and dad.
Jeff Foss (58:56)
My son will be like, yeah, yeah, we were helping grandma, you know, clean the bathrooms. You know, we did all these cleaning and, you know, cleaning the toilets and everything else. And we're like, um, why don't you do that at home? Oh, grandma needs the help. We're like, oh, okay. She probably does. She probably does.
Jessie Ott (59:09)
That's impressive. ⁓ I like that response. Grandma probably does need the help. ⁓
Well, if an 11 and 13 year old can see that, that's pretty unique. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know any 11 or 13 year old that would ever, in any, under any circumstances, clean a toilet.
Jeff Foss (59:24)
That is pretty cool. Yes.
Jessie Ott (59:35)
Sounds like you have pretty darn good kids.
Jeff Foss (59:36)
I didn't know that they even knew how to, so yeah, I get it. I'm sure, I'm sure.
Jessie Ott (59:40)
sure grandma was telling them exactly how she wanted it done.
She was coaching. ⁓ that's remarkable. That's pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Well, Jeff, I mean, this has been great. I'm so glad we got together and were able to connect on this. This, this Old Fashioned idea is kind of in my head now, so I may have to make one of those today and test it out. Yeah.
Jeff Foss (59:45)
Yep.
Absolutely. I hear they're very good. Personally,
I drink it neat, so I don't like any of the other stuff to go in it.
Jessie Ott (1:00:09)
I know, that's the problem. I don't want to add anything
to it, but it does sound really fun. Yeah. Okay, well, I will let you get back to it then. And I'll wave goodbye. Thank you so much.
Jeff Foss (1:00:15)
Yeah.
Alright, well...
Thank you very much. It's very nice to meet you,
Jessie, and thank you for this opportunity. Appreciate it.
Jessie Ott (1:00:29)
Yeah,
no, I'm glad, I'm glad it worked out. Okay. Bye bye. Cheers.
Jeff Foss (1:00:32)
Awesome. Thanks. Here, cheers.
