NY Launch Pod: Welcome to the New York Launch Pod, the New York Press Club award-winning podcast. Highlighting the most interesting new startups, businesses and openings in New York City area. I’m your host and New York attorney, Hal Coopersmith and it’s January. And normally we would be talking about Dry January and going alcohol free, but we’re in quarantine. So I thought, why don’t we mix it up and actually talk about alcohol because that’s probably what we need right now. In this episode, we speak to David Suk, Co-Founder and CEO of St. Luna Moonshine a New York-based spirits company, which is transforming the way people think about an old American tradition. Here’s David.
David Suk: And then I think you also have people that, that are looking for a spirit that can do multiple things, you know, for Saint Luna, I can replace the gin in a Negroni and be unbelievable. I could replace the vodka in an espresso martini and be unbelievable, you know, or I could make your traditional whiskey based cocktails or rum based cocktails.
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NY Launch Pod: So moonshine has a bad rap. Why is that?
David Suk: You know Hal I think it is truly because when you look at the bigger brands, there’s very little application for moonshine, other than, you’re going to drink it and it’s going to be super strong and you’re gonna get very, very drunk, super bad hangover, which is why with St. Luna, what we were looking at is more of how do we create an elevated experience, whether it’s a dining experience or a beautiful cocktail forward experience, how do we do that? But with moonshine.
NY Launch Pod: So when you’re making your moonshine it seems like you use rye and molasses, what’s in your process.
David Suk: So in the base is molasses and rye. So it’s almost like you have an unaged rum and all those beautiful sweet notes of vanilla and caramel meeting the peppery spice of the rye. And then what we do is, so once that’s distilled, we send it through a charred oak stave. So that’s going to give it a little bit of oaky smokiness on the finish.
NY Launch Pod: So for people who don’t know what a charcoal stave is, what is that?
David Suk: So it’s basically a big canister and you can buy charred oak at various charred degrees. So what we do is we buy that canister and then we hook that up to our distillery. And once we actually proof down St. Luna, we send it through that charred oak stave.
NY Launch Pod: And for people who are not familiar with moonshine, like I was before this, what sort of drinks are people making with it?
David Suk: You don’t typically see a lot of cocktails with moonshine because typically it doesn’t taste very good. And that was the idea I had was how do I make it taste good? How do I make it cocktail forward? So with us, I could make you an absolutely beautiful daiquiri and play up more of the molasses base in our spirit or I could make you an old fashioned and play up more of the rye base and make that equally as good. You know, when you think of moonshine, you think hangover, you think shots and, you know, that’s just not where we want it to go. We want it to go more cocktail forward, more elevated experience.
NY Launch Pod: How come people haven’t had this cocktail experience with moonshine, how come it does have that reputation kind of the way we started this interview?
David Suk: Sure. You know, I think that it just hasn’t been done before. You know, I think that people have stayed really, really true to the origins of moonshine, which is typically corn base. I mean, a corn doesn’t always have the best flavor. And I think that where we come in is that we’d like to keep true to the American history of moonshine, but just give it a little bit of a modern spin.
NY Launch Pod: And what is that American history?
David Suk: Well the American history is tied to prohibition. And, you know, the fact that you could actually make moonshine illegally under the cloak of moonlight to avoid paying taxes or to avoid the law because you weren’t supposed to be doing that. So we actually just celebrated Repeal Day this last Saturday.
NY Launch Pod: So speaking of the law and the regulations around alcohol, how did you get into this business?
David Suk: I learned on the job because my previous career, I actually sold baby blankets for the better part of 10 years.
NY Launch Pod: Very similar.
David Suk: So it was right, very similar, but a huge learning curve. And I just, I’m a huge believer that the universe just gives you what you need at the time you need it. And I was very lucky to find alcohol attorneys that helped me with all of the different registrations. And I found my distiller at the Small Batch Distillers Conference who was able to get the St. Luna recipe right on the very first try. So liquor in general has a lot of regulations and I’ve just had great help navigating it all.
NY Launch Pod: That’s interesting. You were selling baby blankets. And so why did you decide to get into this business?
David Suk: You know, so the baby blankets I was selling, so I was actually the chief operating officer of a company called Aiden and Anais for quite a while. And, you know, that was a piece of fabric that has existed for thousands and thousands of years around the world. It’s a hundred percent cotton muslin, and the founder of that business reinvented it, she modernized it and she was able to turn that business into an empire really and one morning I sort of woke up and I thought to myself, wow, like the only spirit category that hasn’t sort of had a premiumization is moonshine. And I thought that if I could actually carve that out for myself, then I wouldn’t need the hundreds of millions of dollars that these bigger brands are spending to tell you that they’re different. You know, I would truly be different.
NY Launch Pod: Why were you thinking about alcohol that needed to be premium?
David Suk: You know, it was just an idea that came to me. I was always sort of entrepreneurial growing up and I’ve always been on the hunt for what could my next idea possibly be And I just thought moonshine that could possibly be it. And, you know, most people thought I was insane that how would a New Yorker modernize moonshine? And I thought, well, let’s give it a try and see how that goes.
NY Launch Pod: What was your experience with moonshine before starting St. Luna?
David Suk: Well, I hadn’t had any, and so I had no experience. And so I thought, wow, because I’m that same person that thinks, oh, it’s going to give me an awful hangover. I can only do shots with it. And you know, I’m not going to do shots with any alcohol. When I was 20. Sure. But not now. And I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of Scott Smith, who at the time was making bar soap for the company that I was working for. And as it turned out, his passion in life was actually making moonshine. And so one morning I called him and I just said, look, I’ve had this idea for premium moonshine. Do you think I could actually fly down to Chattanooga and try the moonshine that you’re making? And so I flew down later that week and he drove me out to his buddies farm in Georgia, and he had a still set up in the driveway and we basically spent the day stilling what is now St. Luna. And I tried it off the still at 180 proof. It was unbelievably smooth. It was delicious. I just, I thought, wow, like we could actually turn this into a beautiful brand. And so Scott became one of the founding members of St. Luna. And we’ve sort of been on this journey together.
NY Launch Pod: And where are you getting the ingredients and distillation process?
David Suk: So a week after I met Scott, I took the train to Pittsburgh for the Small Batch Distillers Conference. And I had a tiny little sample that I walked around and I met a husband and wife team out of Statesville, North Carolina. And they said we could do that. You know, let’s give it a try.
NY Launch Pod: And when you have the ingredients, what’s the process like? You talked about it in terms of the charcoal filter, but you have the ingredients where they source from, how long does it take to make?
David Suk: Sure it’s actually very fast to make, because we’re not aging. The spirit, a southern distilling company actually grows the rye at their distillery. And then they locally sourced the molasses. They have everything that they need onsite. And so we basically go into fermentation, which we use a quick activated yeast that takes a matter of days before we’re able to actually start distilling. We’re in a 16 plate column still, which is quite quite big. So, you know, we can turn out small batch volume, which is currently what we’re doing, or we could turn out bigger volume in just a matter of days.
NY Launch Pod: And you’re not aging the moonshine, I presume that’s because of the moonshine process.
David Suk: It is. So traditionally you would not age moonshine. And so we’ve taken the elements of it being over proof. It’s not aged. And you know, that’s how we’re holding true to the American heritage of moonshine.
NY Launch Pod: And I was curious about that because whiskey is aged, blanco tequila is aged about six to eight months in terms of my research. So, you know, why have a spirit that isn’t aged at all? Because it seems kind of unique to the spirit world.
David Suk: It is. So, you know, distillers love that because then they’re not wasting time and money sitting in a barrel. I mean if you think about just the origins of moonshine and you’re up in a mountain somewhere, or you’re in backfields like trying to get your alcohol as fast as you possibly can before the cops potentially find you, you know, there isn’t really time to age.
NY Launch Pod: Right. Although compelling argument to be made for an 18 year old age scotch.
David Suk: Well, and that’s legal, like you’re, you’re racing the clock trying to get your moonshine out before daylight, just because it’s illegal or you’re in prohibition times.
NY Launch Pod: So you have the recipe, you source the ingredients. And then how did you decide to bring this company together to make it St. Luna? And what was that like?
David Suk: You know, it was painstaking because our original name actually was Brooklyn Clear. I don’t think it’s a great name, but at the time I did, and we got into a little bit of a legal scuffle with Brooklyn Gin because they thought that the name was a bit too close to theirs. And so we had hired a branding agency to help us come up with, what should the name be? What should the look and feel be? And my favorite color is navy. It represents the night sky on our label, there’s stars in the background. So it gives you a little bit of an elevated feel for moonshine as does the name St. Luna, which is St. Moon. The hardest part though, was just, it’s the regulations because every state is different. You’re filing things on both a federal and a state level. And we were a scrappy startup. So I’ve spent probably $15,000 on just trademarking, like just trademarking our name and it’s money that startups don’t really have.
NY Launch Pod: Well as an attorney, I will tell you that you’ve probably spent too much on trademarking, but that’s okay. How are you getting distribution after you’ve invested all that money in the trademark? How are you getting St. Luna out there?
David Suk: Sure. It’s twofold. I mean, the biggest and most successful way is pounding the pavement, which you know, is slightly different now in COVID times. But pre-COVID, you get a backpack and you’ve got your samples and you’re walking bar to bar, or you’re trying to find a friend that potentially may have bartended there or has different connections for you. That was also sort of part of the learning process. And part of the excitement really is you’ve spent all this time or I’ve spent all this time building a brand and building a product. But the excitement comes from when that person tries it. You walk into a bar like one of the first accounts I sold was Employees Only, world renowned bar and instantly they tried it, they loved it, they carried it and it’s that kind of like what you see when they actually try it, that just gets you excited to go, right. I’m onto something.
NY Launch Pod: So let’s talk about pre COVID. As you’re walking into bars, different liquor stores, how are you marketing and trying to sell moonshine, particularly because I have to imagine that a lot of bartenders or liquor store owners are not necessarily thinking about moonshine as a category.
David Suk: They’re not, but they are looking for something different and unique. It truly depends on where I’m walking into. Like I’ve walked into places where they’ve like chased me out. Now when you kind of get kicked out and you’re like, I’ve been eating here for 10 years. Then there’s other places you walk into where the bartender goes, oh my God, I’m from Alabama. I would love to try moonshine. I had met with one of the head mixologists at John George down on Perry Street from Alabama. And he was like I’ve always wanted to work with a moonshine, but there just hasn’t been anything good enough on the market to bring into John George, you know? And so he tries it and instantly his mind starts going with, oh my goodness, these are all the cocktails I could make with it. So I’m able to take something that traditionally isn’t known for being premium, but putting it into premium distribution.
NY Launch Pod: And so that’s the pre-COVID world you’re walking around, you’re talking to different restaurants and bars and presumably liquor stores. Now, how are you marketing it in a post COVID world or in a COVID world, I should say.
David Suk: Sure. You know, it changes day to day and honestly, sort of your litmus test for success, I think changes dramatically. I’m looking for any of my friends that might have connections into different bars that might want to talk to me because you’re also walking into a bar during COVID, but also with the understanding that they might not be doing very well financially. So asking them to take a chance on a new product is probably not the best sales approach. So I like to look for relationships wherever I possibly can or distributors that I’ve been able to sign is really stepped up. So they have some fantastic relationships and that’s how I’ve gotten to expand, even during COVID times. And we’re doing a lot more online, you know, a lot more with Instagram, every Monday I film a moonshine Monday show where we show people how to make different moonshine cocktails. And it’s just, you know, you have to change your approach.
NY Launch Pod: And in terms of people who are at home who have their bars and presumably drinking more, they have maybe their tequila, they have their whiskey, maybe they have their scotch, they have the spirits that they like, what’s your case for adding a new spirit and particularly St. Luna, because now you’re trying to change a behavior, even though all of our behaviors have changed, but just adding something new to the repertoire.
David Suk: Oh, sure. So I think you’re going to get people that like to try St. Luna, because they’re looking for something different and new and unique and that’s how they thrive.
NY Launch Pod: Or maybe they want to do one of those shots.
David Suk: They might, I mean, they potentially might. And then I think you also have people that are looking for a spirit that can do multiple things, you know, for St. Luna, I can replace the gin in a Negroni, and it’d be unbelievable. I could replace the vodka in an espresso martini and be unbelievable, you know, or I could make your traditional whiskey based cocktails or rum based cocktails.
NY Launch Pod: So that’s a very compelling argument. David, how do people find St. Luna moonshine?
David Suk: Yeah. So our store locator on our website, St. Luna Spirits is up to date. Please patronize your local restaurants, especially the small guys, because they are desperately in need of the revenue or you can find us online. We are flaviar.com if you have a membership, Caspers.com and reservebar.com as well.
NY Launch Pod: Well, that is a wonderful note to end things on David, how do people find out more about you and St. Luna?
David Suk: Yes. So our Instagram handle is @SaintLunaspirits. You know, I respond to every inquiry. If you have questions on cocktails, questions on my background, anything, I’d be happy to answer them. I usually post what we’re up to.
NY Launch Pod: And if you want to learn more about the New York Launch Pod, you can follow us on social media @nylaunchpod and for transcripts of every episode, including this one, visit nylaunchpod.com. And if you are a super fan of the show, David, are you a super fan of the New York Launch Pod?
David Suk: Of course I am.
NY Launch Pod: If you are a super fan like David, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated and does help people discover the show.
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