DC Coffee Drinkers: Healthy for the Planet, Healthy for People. Rahm Roast Coffee from Dr Christina Rahm
Today we’re talking coffee! The rich and delightful taste of Rahm Roast, crafted from carefully selected coffee beans straight from Guatemala.
Dr. Christina Rahm is a scientist, supermom, devoted partner, and the ultimate coffee aficionado!
With a passion for detoxing and a mission to uplift lives, she’s not just about the lab coat life; she’s out there exploring the globe in pursuit of both science and the perfect cup of joe.
Today’s conversation has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit FlavRReport’s YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger:
So what I love the most is your introduction, Dr. Christina Rahm, “Mother. wife, scientist and coffee lover.”
Dr. Christina Rahm:
Thank you. Yeah I always start with mother. Now my kids are older. I’m like, am I supposed to say mother to adult children? They were such an integral part of my life. And hey, that was the reason I started drinking coffee. Just to be honest, I had to stay awake to take care of them.
Joe Winger:
Do you remember what first inspired you to get interested in coffee?
Dr. Christina Rahm:
Motherhood, basically..
I grew up in a home where everybody loved coffee but me. I remember when I had my 1st child, and I was thinking, how do all these mothers stay awake?
I worked back then too. It was a lot, working and taking care [of my first baby].
I was delusional because I thought I’m going to have my son, and I thought, I’ll go back to work on Monday. Cause you don’t know. I remember that Monday getting up and calling my mom and saying, “This is not doable. What am I going to do?”
I had a job where they let me take him to work, but still it was a lot. And my mom was like, you’re going to have to drink coffee.
So I started drinking coffee.
My parents loved it growing up. They would offer us coffee with cream and sugar when we were little.
I grew up on a farm and they would offer it and I’d be like, no, I don’t like it. I was the only one in my family that didn’t like it, but I learned to love it after I had a child.
Then I three more [kids]. But I love the taste of it.
Also, as a scientist, I had a pituitary tumor and different types of cancer.
When I started researching, you can’t ever claim that a natural substance cures anything, but I did notice there were certain types of coffee and coffee beans that caused cancer cell death, apoptosis.
So it was one of the things that I added to my regimen.
What happened was, the cancer metastasized and I was trying to eat everything from spirulina to coffee to resveratrol.
I did give up alcohol for a while.
Then someone said one glass of alcohol is good because of the resveratrol.
So I added wine back in [to my diet].
But like I learned to love [coffee]. The more I researched it, the more I understood that it had mold and mitotoxins and it had all kinds of things.
Even though the pure bean could help from a physical perspective and from a healthcare perspective because of the pesticides and GMOs in the land, air and water that we have.
I hate bringing up the topic because people [think] the environment’s not that bad.
The problem is, regardless of your political stance, our environment is not healthy like it used to, because we’ve had so much pollution/
Nuclear war and when a nuclear war happens, it does not leave the stratosphere.
It disseminates across our world.
So a our things – plants and herbs and roots and seeds – you have to be very careful where you get it.
Most of my career I focused a lot on detoxification and really helping clean out the environment.
Things I’ve worked on… You can go to the store and buy coffee or buy vitamins and they can have heavy metals, lead, mercury, horrible things in it.
I don’t want to scare people.
Instead, I’ve worked on creating some things that hopefully will help people feel, look, and be better because we just all need to be as great as we can be.
There’s no easy, one pill solution, right?
Coffee was definitely something for me.
People drink [it] every day, and if they’re going to drink it, I’m hoping they drink something that’s, free of mitotoxins, that has a good pH level, that is fair trade.
I had a whole list of things that were so important to me.
When Rahm Roast launched I was very happy because we ended up getting a 91% cup score. We worked really hard for that. Only 1% of the coffee in the world has a score that high.
But I think what was more important than a score, what’s that going to do for you?
What really matters to me is that the coffee did not have toxins and the coffee did not have heavy metals and it hadn’t been exposed to GMOs or pesticides.
If my name was going to be on it it better be something that’s really helping people and making their life better. That was important to me.
Joe Winger:
Two words you said a second ago, let’s connect them: coffee and detoxification.
What does that process look like for Rahm Roast?
Dr. Christina Rahm:
I went all over, even to Ethiopia because [they] have great coffee.
I would meet with different coffee plantations and different owners trying to find a really good place. We ended up being able to find a place in Guatemala that was on top of a mountain, which had never been exposed to GMOs and pesticides.
The water’s clean, the air’s clean.
It was a very isolated place. We decided we wanted to partner with a business that was small. All they cared about was making something that was just really unique and special. [Unlike most other businesses] they were not worried about mass production.
They’re worried about making sure that it tastes good, which taste was important to us.
But the biggest issue was let’s make sure that everything is fair trade, the organic, the vegan, we wanted everything. I wanted to be sustainable.
For me, sustainable is not enough.
We need to remediate things because you can to be sustainable. It’s not completely accurate, right?
I have a lot of patents based on remediation of things and making sure that you’re not just detoxing, but you’re helping the plants and you’re helping everything grow.
Because we should have this much top soil [gestures to 6 inches] and now we have this much top soil [gestures to 2 inches] and there’s not enough nutrients in it that help the plants and the roots and the seeds. They’re just not the same.
We explored all of that and came up with a process to clean the beans and detox the beans of any kind of monotoxins, mold, fungus, bacteria, viruses, anything surrounding it.
I developed that in 2015. I started by basically writing a series of patents that had to do with getting rid of nuclear waste.
The regeneration of land, air and water and the human body and also the reversal of aging.
What I’ve learned as a scientist and as a human being is to admit failure every day, and then to admit that I’m going to try to be better every day.
And that’s what happened with the coffee.
It was a one step process that involved a four day process to make the cleaning and it’s made from basically a zeolite silica trace mineral vitamin mixture which goes in and cleans the beans.
I think that’s the reason our cup score is so high because the PH level basically getting rid of all those minor toxins, all the things, the beans that are harmful or could be harmful creates a ph level that is very conducive to our body.
I don’t know if you know this, but our Earth is composed of silica and water, right?
As humans, we are too.
So when you put something in your body, you want to make it compatible bioavailable to the body. And I would say that’s another proprietary thing that I do. And I work on things I’m working on.
Understanding the DNA of a coffee bean, and understanding our DNA and then understanding how they would work copacetically together.
Another thing that was really close to me that I actually have not talked about in any interview is the fact that. With coffee and coffee enemas and different things that people have, there’s like a 70 percent increase right now in colon cancer. It’s horrible. And I would credit that to the environment and to all the things we’re being exposed to.
And even vegans are getting colon cancer. Even younger people. You can look it up.
It was in the New York Post, everything else. So I wanted a coffee that a doctor decided functional med doctors or doctors in other countries wanted to help with this area that could use it as a colon cleanse as well.
Again, I have not talked about that anywhere, but for me, it was essential because as a person that’s had so many different types of cancer, I want to put things in my body that will help my body.
What’s interesting about what I do for a living now, I used to work in pharmaceutical and biotech and we could say.
We don’t cure bronchitis, but here’s zithromax to help with bronchitis and it does right from my perspective.
Giving people things that make their body, make them achieve the greatest thing they can, that, which is to be their best self, it’s so important.
And if those things that we give them can also improve the cellular health of their body by making the healthy cells healthier and making the cancerous or the sick cells not even wanna be there, then that is a goal.
There’s been all kinds of studies, there’s all kinds of information which shows that could be possible.
But again, the problem is in theory, yes, that can help people in different areas of health.
But in reality, I don’t feel like it has because I think the coffee beans and coffee has been exposed to so many things in our environment that then sometimes we’re putting more toxins into our body.
So that was really a major focus for me when I worked on the coffee.
We drink coffee every day and we deserve to have really good coffee.
I’m not saying,me making spaghetti and saying my spaghetti is the “best spaghetti in the world.”
I will tell you that I’ve traveled to 89 countries and I’ve studied this for years and this has been a topic of mine since I was in my twenties, that has been important to me.
Then my oldest son, my Mom used to give him the coffee with the sugar and the cream and he would just keep drinking it.
And I would get in an argument with my Mom about why are you giving my Son coffee now?
He’s bouncing off the walls. He just loves it.
So he put fire under my feet on it. I was like, I’m too busy working on all these other projects.
He was like, “Mom, you have to make good coffee.”
Because some people drink four or five glasses a day. So it needs to be healthy for you.
It’s just like water. If you’re going to drink water, you want to drink healthy water; and water is part of the process when I make the coffee too. It’s a specific type of water that helps clean the beans.
It’s interesting. I tried to do it in the United States. I could not find a master coffee maker that could do what I wanted.
I found one in Cyprus [Greece].
So I was in Cyprus introduced to an award winning coffee grinder coffee maker.
He’s won awards all over, [ he] understood my process, understood how to do it.
Then after you tasted it, after it went through the process, he was like, this is amazing. This is the best coffee ever. And again, it makes sense.
Like when we’re healthy, we look better, right?
When coffee beans are healthier, they taste better. They’re better.
It’s just simple and I love it.
I think it’s magical how science works and how all of our DNA is connected. We’re connected to a leaf on a tree. We’re also connected and able to bring coffee to the world that’s going to help people.
I think it is probably one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most in the last three to four years of my life.
Joe Winger:
That’s beautiful. Obviously you have a huge scientific background. Our audience is into the flavor. Food, spirits, wine, coffee based on flavor.
I’m sure you can understand how science can intimidate so many of us.
Is there a very simplified way of explaining what makes Rahm Roast good for the body, good for the planet?
Dr. Christina Rahm:
It’s like going to an organic farm up in the mountains where everything’s perfect and tasting a bite of a watermelon and it just tastes so great.
Or of strawberries.
When you go to these places on these islands that have never been exposed to GMOs and pesticides.
And you’re like, why does this taste better?
Sometimes in the United States, you’ll buy a rose for someone and it doesn’t even smell like a rose, but then you’ll go to a tropical island where they don’t use GMOs or pesticides and it smells so beautiful.
This is the most beautiful rose. It smells so amazing.
The coffee was made and sourced from a single source in a place that was the perfect environment that we could find. We looked everywhere.
Then the process. That was made basically cleaning it until it was beautiful and perfect. It’s like you brush your teeth, you take a bath, you look better.
If you don’t shave or brush your teeth or take a bath for two years, then you may not look the same as you look today.
This coffee has been cleaned in a very holistic way, organic way using only natural.
It tastes amazing. It tastes almost like chocolate.
It’s very smooth.
Using zeolites [like they] used to line the ducts of the Aztec and Incas and Mayas and the pyramids. It’s documented throughout history and all I did was take a process and make sure it was cleaning so that it would look beautiful.
I think it’s simple.
I sourced it from the most amazing place that had not been exposed to pesticides and GMOs, that was fair trade, that everything was a sole source farmer.
We knew everything about the history. I want your audience to also know this.
It’s not just the beans and the plants.
It’s the parent plants and the genetics behind it.
When you see race horses. They breed, right? You pay a lot of money if you have a winner from the Kentucky Derby. Because it’s genetics.
There’s a genetic component and there’s always this debate about genetics and the environment.
Which one’s better?
And so to me, both are important.
So I looked at the genetics of the plants and the seeds
I made sure the environment was a really good environment to raise a healthy environment to raise these amazing coffee beans. And then we just cleaned them and made them even more beautiful so that everyone could taste how amazing they are.
Scientists made GMOs to try to make plants bigger, better, right? That failed.
So as a scientist I went back to school, I went to Harvard and studied nanobiotechnology for a very different reason than most people think.
I studied to see how we could reverse it.
Things naturally from things that we’ve put into our world that weren’t natural, that have hurt us.
Joe Winger:
Incredibly inspirational.
From a corporate point of view, can you talk a little bit about what inspired you to pursue the social responsibility of the company?
Dr. Christina Rahm:
In my career, I worked for the government. I’ve worked for a lot of the top pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
I would say I failed at that in many ways.
Our economy depends on spending a lot of money on health care.
It was a hard time for me, but I never gave up.
From my perspective. Since I had cancer, since I had Lyme’s disease, since I had a child that had cancer, I’ve devoted my life to trying to do the right thing. I have an opportunity to be alive for a reason.
It was a blessing, even though I didn’t feel like it was a blessing when I was diagnosed. I have a warrior strength of fighting anything.
We’ve just got to be better humans, right?
My goal is to make every person have the longest, best life possible.
That means mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And as a scientist, I feel like it’s on my shoulders and my responsibility to tell the truth and to do it in a positive way instead of being a whistleblower blowing things up.
I want to offer these things that can help people.
About 8-9 years ago, I started really stepping up and talking about social issues, working on female empowerment. I just always try to talk about how we can empower.
When you have gifts, if you have influence, if you have money, if you have power, your job is to protect those weaker than you or that need help.
And somehow we’ve lost that in our move for success.
We think we don’t we forget about that. But for me, that’s my motive to make social change is to it’s my responsibility to be a good human. I’m going to die someday. And I’m going to have to answer for everything I’ve done on this earth.
So I have to try every day to be better.
The coffee was something that was for a social change that I think we need to be aware of without scaring everyone.
And so that has led me to move past that. To run companies. I have 22 companies actually under DRC ventures and a lot of people don’t know that. So there’s 22 companies that I’m actually in charge of right now, trying to make some good social changes in the world.
Joe Winger:
For our audience who wants to learn more about your and Rahm Roast Coffee, what are the best ways?
Dr. Christina Rahm:
DrChristinaRahm.com is my website.
I’m on social media at Instagram, LinkedIn
The root brand sells Rahm Roast at RahmRoast website. We also donate from every bag of coffee to philanthropy as well.
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The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the whole conversation on our YouTube channel.
There’s so much to go over with you because you’re in a great area of Oregon.
Last year we had the privilege of covering the 2022 McMinnville Wine Classic, your Pinot Gris won Best in Show and Best White varietal.
According to press announcements it’s the first time ever for a Pinot Gris. What was it about that bottle and that year that brought you so much acclaim?
The vintage we won that on was the 2020, and I think our Pinot Gris is fairly consistent. So I actually personally felt that the 2021 vintage was better than the 2020. What I think is going on there is that in our growing area Southwest of Eugene we have our vineyard in what’s called the Lorane Valley. We’re a relatively high elevation vineyard compared to the rest of the Willamette Valley. We get a lot more hang time on our Pinot Gris, which allows more flavor development and preservation of acidity, as well as slower and lower accumulation of sugar.
So we ended up with a higher acid, lower alcohol wine that’s very expressive in terms of fruit flavors.
I wanna let our audience know a little bit about your background and what brought you to where you are today. Your education in soil and winemaking, but I hope you’ll touch on your Peace Corps time, and your work in Guatemala with soil education.
As I was finishing up my Bachelor’s Degree at Oregon State University, I became involved with a couple of different grad students, helping them with their research projects, basically. At the beginning of my junior year [I had already] switched my major from Pre-Vet to Crop and Soil Science.
So the projects I was working on with these grad students involved soil research. One of these grad students had been in the Peace Corps and talked about it frequently and also had a professor who had been in the Peace Corps. They both inspired me to look into it and do it.
I ended up going to Guatemala. The project I worked on was called Corn and Bean Seed Improvement and Post Harvest Management. We were trying to counteract the invasion of commercial corn seed into Guatemala and Latin America. It’s replacing the land raise varietals or the traditional varietals of corn. We were working with those traditional varietals to improve their performance in the field by selecting the plants that were growing well and were the most disease resistant.
The program started four years before I got to Guatemala, so I was the third volunteer and we were really showing some really good results.
Something I love about winemaking is such a mix of science and magic, or science and artistry. And it sounds like science is very strong with your background and the magic that you bring to the bottle.
Yes, I would agree with that.
So let’s switch back from Guatemala. You’ve got some great soil types. Let’s talk about how you use the soils in your region to bring such delicious flavor, characteristics and aromas.
In our vineyard, we do have some Jory soils, and I think most people who know about the Willamette Valley know that Jory is the preferred soil in the region particularly for Pinot Noir.
Our vineyard is dominated by Bellpine soil. Bellpine is kind of an analog of Jory, but it’s formed in sedimentary rock rather than basaltic rock or volcanic rock. So there’s some significant differences in the chemical makeup of the soil that contributes to the flavor difference in our Pinot Gris compared to some others.
The last time I visited, what I heard overwhelmingly from the winemakers is you have to be okay with inconsistency year after year.
I want my wines to represent the area that they’re from and the varietal from which they’re made and different weather during each growing season as part of that representation.
So based on the weather and the level of ripeness of the fruit and what we’re tasting in the grapes before we bring them in, we will make some adjustments to how we do the vinification to try to push it in one direction or another, to be at least somewhat consistent.
Let’s talk about the wines themselves.
Let’s start with the Pinot Gris. The comment I hear the most is white peach. That’s new. I usually hear pear, red apple peel, quite a bit of citrus.
Commonly I get stone fruit comments on our Chardonnay. Whether it’s our still Chardonnay or our Blanc de Blanc.
Then there’s the Brut Rose, the Pinot Noir 2021, the House Red Blend. A lot of people will remember 2020 and how that vintage went for us. I refer to that year as the worst year of my life.
Let’s talk a little bit about what made it such a bad year.
We had beautiful weather during bloom. I started to feel like it was going to be a really great vintage. We’re seeing a really modest crop load and smallish berries, which leads to more fruit forward. Right around Labor Day, the major fires started. Smoke came into the valley for about two weeks which was extremely disheartening.
In the Willamette Valley that was really our first experience with that level of damage to the fruit. So a lot of people were scrambling, worried, and ultimately didn’t produce Pinot Noir in 2020.
We made less than we had planned. We applied some techniques to mitigate the smoke effect.
Can we talk about what you did to mitigate?
Well, there are two things that helped the most. One, we sent some grapes to California to go through a process called flash. It’s a kind of thermovinification method where the must is heated to 80 degrees celsius and then pumped into a vacuum chamber that boils at a much lower temperature. The water and the skins of the grapes “flashes” to steam in the the vacuum chamber. That steam carries away a lot of bad things. Those things are responsible for the bulk of the smoke effect that you might find in a wine.
Then following vintage and some aging, we did some reverse osmosis to remove the smoke effect from the rest of our wine.
At the tail end of vintage, I had surgery for appendicitis. As I was about recovered from that, I got covid right at the end of 2020.
Fortunately ’21 and ’22 were very similar to 2020 and how the vintage started and ended up, we had some really beautiful fruit and beautiful wines. I’m really excited about ’22 based on what we have in barrel right now.
Some people approach wine from a food and wine pairing point of view. I’m not sure if you are a chef or a home cook, but do you have any suggestions for great food pairings for some of your bottles?
I think with our Pinot Gris, I really enjoy seafood.
It’s really good with salad. Brut Rose, I always say if you’re making a dinner and you’re not quite sure what wine to serve with your dinners sparkling wine is always a a crowd pleaser. It’ll go with dishes from salad to steak or pizza. The acidity of sparkling wines makes them really versatile in any kind of food. Fatty foods in particular pair well with more acidic wines, kind of a palette cleansing.
For our Pinot Noir, traditional pairings like salmon and chicken.
When you’re going through a year, from growth to harvest, what are the traits or elements that get you excited saying it’s gonna be a good year?
Last spring we had a couple of fairly severe frosts after bud break and it was an interesting year because of that. We ended up, to everyone’s surprise, with a vintage that was quite nice and yields that were not really affected by the frost. The vines bounced back with their secondary and tertiary buds set fruit, set a really good crop. We got a nice batch of wine out of it.
If we get into harvest in the rainy season, sometimes your hand is forced and the grapes start to get ripe, the skin softens an they become more susceptible to botrytis and other bad things that you don’t want.
But ’22 was nice. We weren’t really forced right up until the end. Around October 20, we had the first big rainstorm come in. 20% of our fruit still hanging. We brought most of it in before that big rain.
But I think we had really good ripeness even at that point.
You’ve been doing in-person and zoom wine tastings, do you have a favorite part of that wine tasting process?
My favorite part, without a doubt, is just when I see somebody tasting my wine and the look on their face shows me that they’re really enjoying it. That’s a big reason why I’m in this industry, what we do makes people happy.
Do you have a certain memory of including either your wine or someone else’s wine in a great celebration?
Several memories. My father and I had a wine business of our own from 2002 to 2015. [A few years in] we had a celebration at a steakhouse in Portland. I ordered a Puligny Montrachet off the menu. I still remember that wine quite vividly and how impressive it was. That changed my mind about chardonnay in some ways.
In Oregon, there’s a lot more chardonnay coming out of the Willamette Valley now is a good thing, but it’s still been an uphill battle for producers to get that chardonnay wine passed the gatekeepers, the distributors.
You go to a distributor and they’re like, “Everybody drinks California Chardonnay or white burgundy. They don’t know about Oregon Chardonnay. And when you say Willamette Valley, everybody thinks Pinot Noir, which is great. But we’ve kind of pigeonholed ourselves with that. There are a lot of other nice things that can come out of this valley like Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. So we have some work to do on the marketing and publicity to let people know.
Any lessons your winemaking team has learned this past vintage that you can share?
I think that happens every year. Let’s not assume that I know everything because I learn stuff every year as well.
One of the things that I really stress with people who are working for me during harvest, is the importance of fermentation temperature.
It’s with white wine, with aromatic whites in particular. You really have to keep the temperature under control. Yeast likes to get hot and ferment fast, so you have to keep those ferments cool, whatever the method is if you’re in stainless with jacketed tanks or if you’re in barrel and you’re taking the barrels outside at night or wetting them down to keep the temperature down. It’s super, super important.
With the white wines, you get a temperature or a fermentation that’s too hot and you end up with a wine that’s like generic white wine. It doesn’t have varietal character left in it, that’s something I stress a lot.
Then when you talk about red wines, the style of red wine that you’re making is so dependent on a lot of things, but temperature is a big thing. So if you do a cool ferment on a red wine, you’re going to have a red wine that’s fruit forward and aromatic, but it’s not going to be very extracted. It’s not gonna have a big tannic backbone to it. In that way it would be out of balance.
Like with our Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, we do a couple of different fermentation methods that end up having different peak fermentation temperatures and then we blend them together to get a wine that is crowd pleasing, easy balanced. So one of my big things is temperature.
Are there any topics in winemaking that you wish got more attention?
The fact that I don’t do this alone. If I didn’t have a team behind me doing the right thing and supporting production in the winery, starting with our vineyard and our vineyard manager, who is amazing, grows amazing fruit, all the way through to the marketing team selling the wine or promoting the wine and the sales team selling the wine. I think it’s really important for people to understand that it’s really a team effort. I’m the winemaker, I get the publicity, I get the recognition but there’s no way I could do it by myself.
I’m sure you talk to young winemakers all the time. Is there one huge piece of advice you would give a young winemaker from all your experience?
A big thing would be, and I’ve made this mistake when I was a young winemaker, if you’re about to do something to a wine and you think you know what you’re doing, but you’ve never done it before, make a phone call.
Ask another winemaker that maybe has had the experience and has done that. You’ve got a 5,000 gallon tank of wine and you’re gonna do some kind of adjustment that you’ve never done before. Get some information first.
Building network, building community, reaching out to those with either more experience or more diverse experience.
Yes. And in most wine regions, it is a community and people are happy to share their information to help the next guy out. Because ultimately, if we’re all making really good wine in the Willamette Valley, that enhances our reputation as a region. So I think it would be a big mistake for us not to share information.
Let’s talk about where people can find more information.
On Iris Vineyards website and social media. Our website is IrisVineyards.com and our handle on every social site is @IrisVineyards.
So thank you again for your time, and it was, it was great to have this conversation.
Thank you, Joe. I really appreciate your time.
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DC is in the “FORVR Mood” with Jackie Aina for Limited-Edition Crown Royal Blackberry Flavored Whisky
DC is in the “FORVR Mood” with Jackie Aina for Limited-Edition Crown Royal Blackberry Flavored Whisky
Crown Royal and FORVR Mood Co-Founder, Jackie Aina, Partner to Release Limited-Edition Candle Inspired by Popular New Flavor Crown Royal Blackberry Flavored Whisky
Jackie Aina, from FORVR Mood, Partners with Crown Royal Blackberry Flavored Whisky
With bottles flying off the shelves nationwide, Crown Royal Blackberry Flavored Whisky has proven to be one of the brand’s most popular flavor offerings.
FlavRReport.com on YouTube
This is an innovative whisky blend deserving of a partner just as creative to kick off the summer. Jackie Aina, a well-respected creator and entrepreneur, whose brand, FORVR Mood, garnered a wait list of over 45,000 customers prior to its launch in 2020, was a natural choice for the brand.
Aina’s love for the new flavor inspired her curation of the limited-edition Crown Royal Blackberry x FORVR Mood candle.
Appropriately titled, Berry On Top, this delicious scent is crafted with notes of blackberry, complemented with whisky accord and vanilla.
Limited quantities of the candle will be available online at Forvrmood.com *while supplies last
This exclusive new scent will be unveiled at the Crown Royal Blackberry Stand!
The Crown Royal Blackberry Stand is an adult twist on your traditional lemonade stand , where creativity meets cocktails and spotlights business owners, via the collaboration with Jackie Aina and FORVR Mood.
With the entrepreneurial spirit of a traditional lemonade stand at its core, the Crown Royal Blackberry Stand will provide a platform for rising founders via the brand’s partnership with 501(c)(3) organization, Black Girl Ventures Foundation.
Attendees that visit the stand are invited to sip signature cocktails and shop the exclusive Berry on Top candle as they learn more about Crown Royal charity partner Black Girl Ventures Foundation.
Black Girl Ventures Foundation is an IRS § 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing underrepresented founders with access to community, capital, and capacity building to meet business milestones that lead to economic advancement through entrepreneurship.
Crown Royal’s partnership with FORVR Mood and Jackie Aina is rooted in the support of Black Girl Ventures Foundation.
To further their efforts, Crown Royal will be donating $50,000 to Black Girl Ventures Foundation from the Crown Royal Generosity Fund*, where half of the donation will support the BGV Pitch Program.
More information on the organization’s mission, programming, and ways to support the Black Girl Ventures community will be found at The Crown Royal Blackberry Stand.
“Our new Blackberry Flavored Whisky is one of our most flavorful yet!”
Hadley Schafer
VP of Crown Royal
“…It was important that we found the perfect partner to not only celebrate this exciting new release but also one whose passion for creativity and entrepreneurship aligned with our vision for The Crown Royal Blackberry Stand,” said Hadley Schafer, VP of Crown Royal. “This collaboration with Jackie Aina and FORVR Mood not only highlights this flavor profile in such a fun and unexpected way but also makes a meaningful impact by supporting the next generation of 21+ business owners.”
For more information about The Crown Royal Blackberry Stand featuring Crown Blackberry x FORVR Mood By Jackie Aina in Los Angeles on June 14th and 15th, and more juicy Crown Royal news visit @crownroyal on Instagram to sign up for the Crown Royal newsletter.
“Finding new ways to flex my creativity to craft something that I know my supporters will love is exciting for me,”
Jackie Aina
“So, when I was approached by Crown Royal for this partnership it was a no-brainer for me, especially after seeing all the hype for their new Blackberry Flavored Whisky and learning they’re supporting a cause close to my heart with Black Girl Ventures. I’m excited to partner with a brand that shares my values!”
Crown Royal Blackberry Whisky has an ABV of 35% and is available nationwide for a limited time at a suggested retail price of $26.99 for a 750mL bottle.
*Crown Royal Generosity Fund is a donor-advised fund, administered by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, a nonprofit entity organized under IRC §501c3.
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DC wants the coolest cocktails — Bark and Barware Shows You How with Cocktail Smoker
DC wants the coolest cocktails — Bark and Barware Shows You How with Cocktail Smoker
Bark and Barware enters the cocktail market with their premium cocktail smoker, including 6 flavors.
Bark and Barware’s Harel Levy
Today, Bark and Barware’s Harel Levy joins us for a conversation about cocktails, creating your long-lasting drinking crew, picking the right flavors, the perfect pairings and more!
The below conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the full conversation at our YouTube channel.
Joe Winger: Can you tell us a little bit about your story? And what inspired you to create this cocktail smoker kit?
Harel Levy: I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last seven years. While there are no mistakes, I actually found [the cocktail smoker] by mistake. I was planning to buy something for my Dad. I usually won’t give something if it’s not 100%. So I’d rather not give a gift that I don’t really like. Because I really care about what the recipient is going to feel.
“I really love the idea of cocktail smoking kits. […] It’s another tool to have a great night.
I don’t want to give something cheap, because if you really love someone, you really want to make sure that everything is spot on, right?
Even on yourself, you will be more forgiven in terms of what you buy than someone else.
I really love the idea of cocktail smoking kits. It’s not that it’s only cool and it’s a great addition to having those nights with friends, with family. It’s another tool to have a great night.
I went to Amazon and I saw there is no one who actually sells it in a premium, wooden box. And with many flavors. I talked with [my company’s] CEO about it, what’s missing here.
Bark & Barware’s Smoker Kit
We came up with a wooden box. It came from my passion to give something that looks good.
For almost a year, we went back and forth with factories. The smoke. The flavor. Details with the box.
When we released it, we were very happy. We knew my criteria. If I can give it to my Dad, not being afraid he’s not going to like it. Then I know that other people are also going to enjoy it because I have high standards for giving a gift to someone that I love. That’s how we came up with the product and the product.
The second thing we are planning is to bring a mixologist, make it a more holistic experience.
Extend the journey with our customers, give them cocktails, give them recipes, give them ideas, The journey doesn’t end when the transaction happens for us. We want to continue to build trust and serve our customers.
Joe Winger: You have a very comprehensive website. Can you walk us through your Cocktail Smoker Kit? When we buy it what do we get?
Harel Levy: There are six different chip flavors, the culinary torch, the smoke lid. Ice tongs, whiskey stones. Unfortunately, we don’t include butane [gas for the torch] because shipping is very heavily regulated,
“In every smoker kit you get six different chip flavors, the culinary torch, the smoke lid. Ice tongs, whiskey stones.”
We have six flavors: cherry, oak, pear, maple, hickory and apple. Our plan is to listen to our customers and come up with new flavors based on what they ask for. It’s not a one-time product release. We’re going to offer refills, extensions, more.
Each taste is very delicate. The world of wine, flavor, alcohol is so wide and you can get very specific sometimes. When you do get specific, you get the best results, right?
Joe Winger: Has there been one or two major lessons you’ve learned?
Harel Levy: Initially we had more flavors. After we gave out samples and heard about which flavors were the favorite, we removed some.
Joe Winger: You mentioned flavor pairing. What’s your favorite cocktail pairing?
Harel Levy: It’s a tough question because taste is something that is extremely subjective.
We usually put it with scotch. That’s our personal preference. Our customers get very creative with their ideas. That’s why we initially started with those six flavors. But listening to customer feedback, it’s going to grow and change.
Joe Winger: Over a year of research and development, were there any unexpected surprises?
Harel Levy: A lot of people agreed with me on the wooden box. People started asking for smoke refills. They’re going through the smoke faster than I thought. When we launched, I was expecting this to be used for special occasions. But people are using it every week, all the time.
Joe Winger: In the past few weeks, I’ve been in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia. All those places have bars where they’re serving smoked drinks. Now people want to have that experience at home.
Harel Levy: That’s going to make you the hero of the party. You’re the one who brings the cool stuff. I always like to do that.
We really advise [anyone trying this] to taste all of the flavors. Not just one or two. The spectrum of what flavors someone likes or doesn’t like is very wide. You’re probably going to really like 1-2 [of the flavors], and less like the others.
Those 1-2 that you really like, we’re going to offer you refills.
When I host friends [at my house], I drink scotch and it goes well with cherry.
But it’s like a game. You try a lot of things. You find out something that you’re really going to love.
“That’s going to make you the hero of the party. You’re the one who brings the cool stuff.”
Joe Winger: This first kit is a starter kit or a sampler kit. I get those six flavors and I get to decide, “Oh my gosh, I really like this one. Now I need a refill.”
Harel Levy: Exactly. It’s exciting me on a personal level because I’m curious […]. What’s going to make people upgrade a scotch that costs hundreds of dollars?
I can play with the flavor. That will upgrade an experience for the end customer cost hundreds of dollars. I did my part, right? And for them, they’re going to be over the moon. They’re going to be super happy. It’s just going to become one of their routine.
“What’s going to make people upgrade a scotch that costs hundreds of dollars?”
Joe Winger: There are smoking kits all over the place. Dozens of competitors on Amazon. Why should someone choose Bark and Barware?
Harel Levy: It’s the full experience that we offer. It starts with the package. Then the flavors. Most of our competitors offer four, we offer six. We tasted all of the competitors and our flavor is better. Otherwise I would not have released the product.
Our post-purchase [experience] the recipes. We’re working with a mixologist to just create a mini course to go with the kit, go with specific drinks. Customers are going to have access to all of it. How do I mix it? What should I mix it with?
Joe Winger: What does the future of the brand look like?
Harel Levy: We’re planning to release big packages [re-fills] of each flavor. Second thing is the mini courses. We really want to inspire because that’s fun.
The process of drinking with friends, the process of smoking. It’s a fun process. You sit on your balcony, with friends, you open a bottle of wine as well. That’s a fun process.
Our goal is to inspire. Someone [will realize they] like a specific cocktail. We will give them all of the information on how to make it, how to mix it, then we earn a customer for life.
Joe Winger: You mentioned picking a cocktail is like picking a favorite kid. It’s so hard to do. What is your favorite cocktail to use with your smoker?
Harel Levy: Yeah, so that’s a great question. I like the combination of the apple and scotch.
Joe Winger: Because you’re a foodie, are there any specific cocktail and food pairings that you really enjoy with any of your specific flavors?
Harel Levy: My favorite is having an apple flavored scotch with a ribeye. Someone I work with loves the hickory flavor. That’s the beauty of this world, every person has their unique taste.
Shop for Bark and Barware’s Cocktail smoker hit on amazon here: https://amzn.to/3P5c42g
Learn more at: https://www.barkandbarware.com
Bark and Barware enters the cocktail market with their premium cocktail smoker, including 6 flavors.
Bark and Barware’s Harel Levy
Today, Bark and Barware’s Harel Levy joins us for a conversation about cocktails, creating your long-lasting drinking crew, picking the right flavors, the perfect pairings and more!
The below conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the full conversation at our YouTube channel.
Joe Winger: Can you tell us a little bit about your story? And what inspired you to create this cocktail smoker kit?
Harel Levy: I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last seven years. While there are no mistakes, I actually found [the cocktail smoker] by mistake. I was planning to buy something for my Dad. I usually won’t give something if it’s not 100%. So I’d rather not give a gift that I don’t really like. Because I really care about what the recipient is going to feel.
“I really love the idea of cocktail smoking kits. […] It’s another tool to have a great night.
I don’t want to give something cheap, because if you really love someone, you really want to make sure that everything is spot on, right?
Even on yourself, you will be more forgiven in terms of what you buy than someone else.
I really love the idea of cocktail smoking kits. It’s not that it’s only cool and it’s a great addition to having those nights with friends, with family. It’s another tool to have a great night.
I went to Amazon and I saw there is no one who actually sells it in a premium, wooden box. And with many flavors. I talked with [my company’s] CEO about it, what’s missing here.
Bark & Barware’s Smoker Kit
We came up with a wooden box. It came from my passion to give something that looks good.
For almost a year, we went back and forth with factories. The smoke. The flavor. Details with the box.
When we released it, we were very happy. We knew my criteria. If I can give it to my Dad, not being afraid he’s not going to like it. Then I know that other people are also going to enjoy it because I have high standards for giving a gift to someone that I love. That’s how we came up with the product and the product.
The second thing we are planning is to bring a mixologist, make it a more holistic experience.
Extend the journey with our customers, give them cocktails, give them recipes, give them ideas, The journey doesn’t end when the transaction happens for us. We want to continue to build trust and serve our customers.
Joe Winger: You have a very comprehensive website. Can you walk us through your Cocktail Smoker Kit? When we buy it what do we get?
Harel Levy: There are six different chip flavors, the culinary torch, the smoke lid. Ice tongs, whiskey stones. Unfortunately, we don’t include butane [gas for the torch] because shipping is very heavily regulated,
“In every smoker kit you get six different chip flavors, the culinary torch, the smoke lid. Ice tongs, whiskey stones.”
We have six flavors: cherry, oak, pear, maple, hickory and apple. Our plan is to listen to our customers and come up with new flavors based on what they ask for. It’s not a one-time product release. We’re going to offer refills, extensions, more.
Each taste is very delicate. The world of wine, flavor, alcohol is so wide and you can get very specific sometimes. When you do get specific, you get the best results, right?
Joe Winger: Has there been one or two major lessons you’ve learned?
Harel Levy: Initially we had more flavors. After we gave out samples and heard about which flavors were the favorite, we removed some.
Joe Winger: You mentioned flavor pairing. What’s your favorite cocktail pairing?
Harel Levy: It’s a tough question because taste is something that is extremely subjective.
We usually put it with scotch. That’s our personal preference. Our customers get very creative with their ideas. That’s why we initially started with those six flavors. But listening to customer feedback, it’s going to grow and change.
Joe Winger: Over a year of research and development, were there any unexpected surprises?
Harel Levy: A lot of people agreed with me on the wooden box. People started asking for smoke refills. They’re going through the smoke faster than I thought. When we launched, I was expecting this to be used for special occasions. But people are using it every week, all the time.
Joe Winger: In the past few weeks, I’ve been in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia. All those places have bars where they’re serving smoked drinks. Now people want to have that experience at home.
Harel Levy: That’s going to make you the hero of the party. You’re the one who brings the cool stuff. I always like to do that.
We really advise [anyone trying this] to taste all of the flavors. Not just one or two. The spectrum of what flavors someone likes or doesn’t like is very wide. You’re probably going to really like 1-2 [of the flavors], and less like the others.
Those 1-2 that you really like, we’re going to offer you refills.
When I host friends [at my house], I drink scotch and it goes well with cherry.
But it’s like a game. You try a lot of things. You find out something that you’re really going to love.
“That’s going to make you the hero of the party. You’re the one who brings the cool stuff.”
Joe Winger: This first kit is a starter kit or a sampler kit. I get those six flavors and I get to decide, “Oh my gosh, I really like this one. Now I need a refill.”
Harel Levy: Exactly. It’s exciting me on a personal level because I’m curious […]. What’s going to make people upgrade a scotch that costs hundreds of dollars?
I can play with the flavor. That will upgrade an experience for the end customer cost hundreds of dollars. I did my part, right? And for them, they’re going to be over the moon. They’re going to be super happy. It’s just going to become one of their routine.
“What’s going to make people upgrade a scotch that costs hundreds of dollars?”
Joe Winger: There are smoking kits all over the place. Dozens of competitors on Amazon. Why should someone choose Bark and Barware?
Harel Levy: It’s the full experience that we offer. It starts with the package. Then the flavors. Most of our competitors offer four, we offer six. We tasted all of the competitors and our flavor is better. Otherwise I would not have released the product.
Our post-purchase [experience] the recipes. We’re working with a mixologist to just create a mini course to go with the kit, go with specific drinks. Customers are going to have access to all of it. How do I mix it? What should I mix it with?
Joe Winger: What does the future of the brand look like?
Harel Levy: We’re planning to release big packages [re-fills] of each flavor. Second thing is the mini courses. We really want to inspire because that’s fun.
The process of drinking with friends, the process of smoking. It’s a fun process. You sit on your balcony, with friends, you open a bottle of wine as well. That’s a fun process.
Our goal is to inspire. Someone [will realize they] like a specific cocktail. We will give them all of the information on how to make it, how to mix it, then we earn a customer for life.
Joe Winger: You mentioned picking a cocktail is like picking a favorite kid. It’s so hard to do. What is your favorite cocktail to use with your smoker?
Harel Levy: Yeah, so that’s a great question. I like the combination of the apple and scotch.
Joe Winger: Because you’re a foodie, are there any specific cocktail and food pairings that you really enjoy with any of your specific flavors?
Harel Levy: My favorite is having an apple flavored scotch with a ribeye. Someone I work with loves the hickory flavor. That’s the beauty of this world, every person has their unique taste.
Shop for Bark and Barware’s Cocktail smoker hit on amazon here: https://amzn.to/3P5c42g
Learn more at: https://www.barkandbarware.com
