Making the rum that’s worth sipping

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:06] SPEAKER_01: Hello, I'm Mario Tonigus, managing editor of Canada's Podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_01: Joining me today on Calgary's Podcast is Thomas Romero,
[00:14] SPEAKER_01: who is co-founder of Romero Distilling Company in Calgary.
[00:18] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us today, Thomas.
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: My pleasure, thanks for having me.
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: Alright, let's talk about Romero.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: Tell me what you guys do, and we'll go from there.
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: We make Rome.
[00:33] SPEAKER_02: And lots of it, what I understand,
[00:35] SPEAKER_02: what the largest Rome is still here in Canada,
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: making Rome from scratch.
[00:39] SPEAKER_02: Wow, and when did Rome start?
[00:42] SPEAKER_02: We incorporated 2018 started production in 2019.
[00:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay, and can you give me a sense of, you know,
[00:50] SPEAKER_01: how much Rome you make in a year?
[00:54] SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess in terms of barrels,
[01:00] SPEAKER_02: that's actually a good question.
[01:02] SPEAKER_02: It depends on the year.
[01:03] SPEAKER_02: It's a little bit cyclical depending on the man in setting aside barrel inventories.
[01:07] SPEAKER_02: Out of the gate, we were producing at or eight of around 80,000 bottles a year.
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: Equipment, that would be 750 mil bottles at 40%.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: Current barrel inventories, who'd be around 400.
[01:23] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 0450 barrels of Rome sitting downstairs here right now.
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: So, okay, so tell me, where does the rum go?
[01:33] SPEAKER_01: Like, and where is it sold?
[01:35] SPEAKER_02: Where we sold.
[01:36] SPEAKER_02: Right now, we're available here in Canada domestically in Alberta and the Maritimes.
[01:43] SPEAKER_02: We're down in the US with some of the distribution in Florida, New York,
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: a little bit in Arizona and California.
[01:52] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[01:53] SPEAKER_02: Thomas, what were you doing before you started this?
[01:57] SPEAKER_02: I was an oil and gas for a long time.
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: I did environment, environment regulatory,
[02:03] SPEAKER_02: and also a little bit of construction as well.
[02:07] SPEAKER_01: And so, how did this all come about, Dad?
[02:10] SPEAKER_01: As you got into the rum business.
[02:13] SPEAKER_02: Honestly, it was a bit of a fun hobby.
[02:17] SPEAKER_02: I've done it for a while and had an opportunity to make a change
[02:21] SPEAKER_02: when I was wrapping up on a major project, up in Edmonton.
[02:26] SPEAKER_02: And put together a business plan on a run-bister.
[02:31] SPEAKER_02: And I put that business plan in front of my dad to get his opinion on it.
[02:36] SPEAKER_02: And he's like, well, I'm retiring in a year.
[02:39] SPEAKER_02: If you actually decide to do this, I'd like to do it with you.
[02:43] SPEAKER_02: Oh.
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, he called my bluff.
[02:47] SPEAKER_02: So, I was that conversation happened around mid-2017.
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: And it was going to hair straight back ever since.
[02:56] SPEAKER_02: As we mentioned before, we incorporated in 2018 so we could get the loans
[03:01] SPEAKER_02: and the leases for the property here.
[03:06] SPEAKER_02: And hair straight back in construction.
[03:08] SPEAKER_02: So, what was your dad doing?
[03:12] SPEAKER_02: He is a process engineer with backgrounds in both oil and gas,
[03:19] SPEAKER_02: as well as mining.
[03:21] SPEAKER_02: Well, mining, I should have close back to where I grew up.
[03:23] SPEAKER_02: And in smart and firm, he worked in the mines down there a long time.
[03:26] SPEAKER_02: That's actually where he finished his career.
[03:28] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, your story is sounds familiar to me.
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you know the boys over at Bridgeland of Stirlery.
[03:38] SPEAKER_01: So, what is it about you guys that are in these professions
[03:43] SPEAKER_01: that, you know, whether an engineer or whatever,
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: and you just decide, hey, I don't want to do this anymore.
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: I want to own a distillery.
[03:54] SPEAKER_02: That's a good question.
[03:56] SPEAKER_02: For me personally, I wanted to do something.
[03:59] SPEAKER_02: I wanted to make something.
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: And dealing in environment regulatory in particular,
[04:04] SPEAKER_02: you're just dealing with issues on a day to day basis.
[04:06] SPEAKER_02: You don't see necessarily the end result of, you know,
[04:09] SPEAKER_02: the fruits your labor so to speak.
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: And doing something like a distillery,
[04:15] SPEAKER_02: what we do, making rum,
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: I actually get to taste the result.
[04:19] SPEAKER_02: And it's, I find it a lot more rewarding than what I was doing before.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, Thomas,
[04:27] SPEAKER_01: when you look at this whole industry,
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: you know, jump on it at a right time,
[04:36] SPEAKER_01: that you know, there seems to be whether it's craft,
[04:40] SPEAKER_01: whether it's craft spirits or craft beer,
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: if they're popular these days, right?
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: Good timing for you guys.
[04:48] SPEAKER_02: It is, I think, there's a lot of local support,
[04:52] SPEAKER_02: you know, with the support local movements.
[04:56] SPEAKER_02: And there's also some open-mindedness too,
[04:59] SPEAKER_02: as we're starting to export, I guess,
[05:02] SPEAKER_02: even within Canada, you're getting outside your province
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: or essentially exporting.
[05:06] SPEAKER_02: There's open-mindedness to try new things,
[05:09] SPEAKER_02: and there's, let's say,
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: I guess maybe an element of respect for it,
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: like given it's small, it's small batch, high quality,
[05:19] SPEAKER_02: that seems to be recognized,
[05:21] SPEAKER_02: and it's helping us to grow in some of these other markets
[05:24] SPEAKER_02: that, you know, not necessarily,
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: may have worked years ago, I guess.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you obviously been like rum,
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: you've been a rum drinker?
[05:35] SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a funny story, I got into the rum.
[05:38] SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to start an out with my wife,
[05:40] SPEAKER_02: and she's banning me from drinking whiskey.
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: Oh, so I had to find something different.
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: So I started getting into rum,
[05:49] SPEAKER_02: and I tried some of the mainline stuff,
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: and I wasn't very impressed.
[05:54] SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, if I got to go down this road,
[05:56] SPEAKER_02: there's got to be something here.
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: So I tried getting a couple of bottles up on the shelf.
[06:01] SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, this stuff actually ain't too bad.
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: And I started trying some different ones,
[06:07] SPEAKER_02: and kind of got into a little bit more,
[06:08] SPEAKER_02: and actually quite enjoy the category.
[06:10] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. That was kind of one from there.
[06:14] SPEAKER_01: So where do you get the recipes, I guess,
[06:16] SPEAKER_01: for the different months?
[06:18] SPEAKER_01: How those come about?
[06:20] SPEAKER_01: That was a lot of trial and error.
[06:22] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that was, you know, that was the years,
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: as a hobby in the shop,
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: in the back 40, just trying different stuff,
[06:30] SPEAKER_02: putting something together,
[06:31] SPEAKER_02: thinking might like it,
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: take it out, try it with the boys in the dressing room,
[06:35] SPEAKER_02: or get them out after ball,
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: or yeah, and then finally,
[06:38] SPEAKER_02: when you start getting people asking,
[06:40] SPEAKER_02: hey, do you got any of that stuff with you?
[06:41] SPEAKER_02: You might have hit a recipe that's not too bad.
[06:45] SPEAKER_02: You're not just trying to force free booze on people
[06:47] SPEAKER_02: and they're asking you for something.
[06:49] SPEAKER_02: It's, you can't across that threshold.
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[07:01] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I know,
[07:02] SPEAKER_01: and I must confess,
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: I've been in your fine establishment a few times.
[07:08] SPEAKER_01: And what I find interesting is the history there.
[07:12] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, on the walls,
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: there's those big panels telling the history going back
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: about, you know, alcohol in the province of Alberta.
[07:24] SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a little bit of that story
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: and the history there of what's up there inside your establishment
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: and why it's there?
[07:33] SPEAKER_02: Totally.
[07:35] SPEAKER_02: So, the history of rum running in Alberta.
[07:37] SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people who are aware a lot of rum was run
[07:40] SPEAKER_02: through the southern portion of the province,
[07:43] SPEAKER_02: primarily through the Krozenas Pass.
[07:45] SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: The two main players that were involved were Emilio Piccariillo
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: and Florence the Sandro, or Filimino the Sandro,
[07:52] SPEAKER_02: which went by Florence, I guess.
[07:55] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so how it all came about?
[07:57] SPEAKER_02: In 1916, Alcoholba came with the Intermino in Alberta.
[08:00] SPEAKER_02: I was voted in by referendum at the time,
[08:03] SPEAKER_02: but it was still the Eagle and British Columbia.
[08:06] SPEAKER_02: So, Emilio, who was an Italian immigrant landed in Toronto,
[08:10] SPEAKER_02: spent the pilot time in Ferny before settling in the Krozenas Pass,
[08:13] SPEAKER_02: still had all his buddies in Ferny.
[08:15] SPEAKER_02: And so, he used these friends to help bring booze from Ferny
[08:18] SPEAKER_02: to the Krozenas Pass and distributed it out to southern Alberta from there.
[08:22] SPEAKER_02: And the early days of Florence got involved,
[08:24] SPEAKER_02: as she would take along as a b-quit.
[08:26] SPEAKER_02: They would actually take, do a lot of these runs on a Sunday afternoon
[08:31] SPEAKER_02: and have her along to make it look like they were out for a Sunday drive.
[08:36] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that helped them to avoid law enforcement.
[08:38] SPEAKER_02: However, there were also lots of rival boo-leggers.
[08:41] SPEAKER_02: And these boo-leggers would often try to intercept these shipments
[08:45] SPEAKER_02: as they weren't coming across the border as they knew what was going on.
[08:51] SPEAKER_02: And very quickly, Filimino had to, or Florence,
[08:54] SPEAKER_02: had to learn how to handle herself and drive to get us some of these sticky situations.
[08:58] SPEAKER_02: It turned out she was really good at both and worked her way up to the ranks.
[09:01] SPEAKER_02: We were one of Emilio's lead hands and top drivers
[09:04] SPEAKER_02: when this whole thing came to an end, unfortunately, in 1923 and went to her untimely demise.
[09:12] SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so essentially, from 1916 when this came in,
[09:18] SPEAKER_02: up until September of 1923,
[09:23] SPEAKER_02: they were moving significant amounts of booze from B.C. from Montana.
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: Once, I should mention, B.C. followed suit in an active prohibition in 1917.
[09:35] SPEAKER_02: So they lost their supply of booze out of there.
[09:37] SPEAKER_02: Then after that, they started moving it up from Montana up to Alberta.
[09:42] SPEAKER_02: But then in 1920, with the passing of the bolster, they lost their supply of booze from Montana.
[09:47] SPEAKER_02: This is actually when the run starts to show up in the cool connection to the story
[09:51] SPEAKER_02: and the tie to rum in Alberta.
[09:55] SPEAKER_02: Up till now, these guys were just taking booze that was legal in one jurisdiction
[09:59] SPEAKER_02: to somewhere where it's illegal.
[10:02] SPEAKER_02: With the passing of the bolstered act of 1920,
[10:04] SPEAKER_02: the distilleries in the US roll shut down, everything in Canada by this time had also been shut down.
[10:11] SPEAKER_02: Prohibition was enacted in every province with the exception of Quebec by this time in 1920.
[10:17] SPEAKER_02: So there really wasn't access to alcohol anymore.
[10:20] SPEAKER_02: So rum was being run up the east coast, coming all the way in to Montreal.
[10:27] SPEAKER_02: I guess not Montreal, but the ports in Quebec that have access there off the safe grounds.
[10:33] SPEAKER_02: And then also the west coast, for the final stop in the line,
[10:36] SPEAKER_02: often being the port of Vancouver, on the Canadian side to service the Pacific Northwest in the US.
[10:42] SPEAKER_02: It was easier to make landfall on the Canadian side, less coast guard, less military, less police,
[10:48] SPEAKER_02: just less people in general, and taking across and uncontrolled land crossing the service to the Pacific Northwest.
[10:53] SPEAKER_02: And from what I understand, Millio and Florence managed to get their share of distribution coming from both sides.
[10:59] SPEAKER_02: So there was coming in by rail from east, by rail from out west.
[11:04] SPEAKER_02: They were moving some pretty significant supplies of booze right up until 1923,
[11:11] SPEAKER_02: when they were doing a transfer from Furny to Blermor,
[11:17] SPEAKER_02: and ended up getting in an altercation with police officer and, you know,
[11:22] SPEAKER_02: an officer was shot. They were charged, and they were both hung,
[11:26] SPEAKER_02: and Florence ended up being the only woman ever be hung in Alberta.
[11:30] SPEAKER_02: So I jumped around a lot on that story.
[11:32] SPEAKER_02: Normally I take that about 45 minutes to go through it on story boards, also as a guide.
[11:38] SPEAKER_02: So if I was a little scattered, I apologize if this is anyone that's a little bit up to it.
[11:43] SPEAKER_01: It's a fascinating story, and if anybody's from Calgary that's going to visit Romero,
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: there's right up on the walls, and I know that I've spent some time with a nice glass,
[12:02] SPEAKER_01: and just reading it all, fascinating stories.
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: One piece before we leave it though, so why tell that story?
[12:09] SPEAKER_02: So if it is a direct tie to Roman Obertah, that for sure.
[12:14] SPEAKER_02: It also happens to be a part of the world that I grew up in with my dad working in the mines in the Elk Valley.
[12:19] SPEAKER_02: So I grew up on the BC side. I moved to Calgary in 98.
[12:24] SPEAKER_02: And also Filomena happens to be the great great aunt of one of my good friends growing up.
[12:30] SPEAKER_02: So I was the permission from that side of the family to be telling the story in that version.
[12:36] SPEAKER_02: So there are some some unique ties to it.
[12:39] SPEAKER_02: And so it ties to Roman also from just being from the region.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling my arm, I've got goose bumps listening to that.
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: That's fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
[12:50] SPEAKER_01: But now, something else that's fascinating is one of your key people that is endorsing the product
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: and is the you can't get any more popular in Calgary and really around the world,
[13:06] SPEAKER_01: then Brett the Hitman heart. Tell me how that came about.
[13:11] SPEAKER_02: That's a really interesting connection. I really came out of the blue.
[13:15] SPEAKER_02: It started out doing some work with a marketing agency that brought him to the table.
[13:23] SPEAKER_02: And we did some smaller scale stuff. It went well.
[13:25] SPEAKER_02: We got along well. And I think that was the important part.
[13:30] SPEAKER_02: We worked well together. So after we did some of that smaller scale stuff,
[13:37] SPEAKER_02: like, well, what do you want to do going forward? This seems to be going well.
[13:40] SPEAKER_02: We seem to like the work yet. Would you like to possibly partner with us to help get the word out across Canada?
[13:49] SPEAKER_02: Well, first off, Calgary Alberta across Canada, US overseas.
[13:53] SPEAKER_02: I think I'd like to do that. It sounds fun.
[13:57] SPEAKER_02: That's what we're doing. He's definitely engaged.
[14:03] SPEAKER_02: We were just out in New York this summer for Brooklyn Bar Convent and the New York Run Festival.
[14:12] SPEAKER_02: He came out. He was serving drinks and interacting with everybody there.
[14:17] SPEAKER_02: It was a great time. We actually managed to catch the precursor to the New York City.
[14:22] SPEAKER_02: We got to watch the Dodgers play the Yankees on that same trip too.
[14:29] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, obviously, besides his name and his reach,
[14:37] SPEAKER_01: what images that portray for the brand, your brand, to have the Hitman be part of it?
[14:47] SPEAKER_02: The path that we're taking with it is of the established all of favor.
[14:54] SPEAKER_02: Given we are pushing a luxury product, we're going from someone who has now established,
[15:00] SPEAKER_02: now has some of the finer things in life, enjoys the finer things in life,
[15:03] SPEAKER_02: and one of those happens to be what we make.
[15:08] SPEAKER_02: Definitely not shy to tie back to some of the wrestling roots and kind of that connection
[15:14] SPEAKER_02: that makes people get on my age and not go back to their childhood a little bit.
[15:20] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[15:22] SPEAKER_02: Definitely not afraid to try to tie into that at all, but really his image all the way through was of excellence.
[15:30] SPEAKER_02: Even some of the cheesy wrestling lines, excellence of execution,
[15:33] SPEAKER_02: the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be, all that sort of stuff.
[15:37] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Yeah.
[15:39] SPEAKER_01: Perfect. I'm trying to remember, is there any of the brands that you guys put out
[15:48] SPEAKER_01: anything with his name on it or something that signifies he's associated?
[15:54] SPEAKER_02: We don't have anything directly linked.
[15:58] SPEAKER_02: We're more tying stuff to it.
[16:01] SPEAKER_02: We do, well, I guess sort of this, this pink can here.
[16:05] SPEAKER_02: You see that? This is our Hitman edition.
[16:08] SPEAKER_02: Jubilee braces, got some brand elements on there.
[16:12] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[16:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. We get a Christmas gift box as well that we have that we do along with them.
[16:17] SPEAKER_02: I actually just cleaned my office to him before this meeting.
[16:19] SPEAKER_02: I've been looked to bad. I had one right beside me.
[16:22] SPEAKER_02: I could have shown you.
[16:22] SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
[16:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[16:25] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, take me back and remind me there was that the first time I came into your place
[16:32] SPEAKER_01: was for an event and it was the Guinness Guinness record thing.
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: So, remind me again, what was happening there and the outcome?
[16:44] SPEAKER_02: So, we set the Guinness World Record for the world's largest cubo libre.
[16:50] SPEAKER_02: So, a rumcote in line juice.
[16:52] SPEAKER_02: We'll all mixed up in a glass.
[16:55] SPEAKER_02: We set that record on a thousand and six liters.
[16:58] SPEAKER_02: Six liters.
[16:59] SPEAKER_01: And I remember that and Brett was there for that one, but holy smokes, that was that's a lot of rum.
[17:08] SPEAKER_02: That is.
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: And so, an interesting piece with that when you do a record with Guinness,
[17:15] SPEAKER_02: when it's a consumable, it can't be wasted.
[17:18] SPEAKER_02: You actually have to have a plan to consume that product.
[17:21] SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
[17:22] SPEAKER_02: So, for our plan, we held a big wrestling event in the back where Brett's son, Dallas,
[17:31] SPEAKER_02: launched his promotion, Dungeon Wrestling.
[17:34] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
[17:35] SPEAKER_02: And so, we had the big crowd back there.
[17:37] SPEAKER_02: We took that cubo libre and we put it into kegs and then we drink it at that event from the kegs.
[17:44] SPEAKER_02: So, it was a great time.
[17:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great.
[17:47] SPEAKER_01: So, Thomas, when you look back on starting this business and getting it rolling,
[17:54] SPEAKER_01: what was the biggest challenge for you in starting the business?
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: There's several.
[18:03] SPEAKER_02: It's tough to rank one.
[18:08] SPEAKER_02: Honestly, some of the regulatory urnors, particularly at the municipal level,
[18:13] SPEAKER_02: have been extremely challenging.
[18:17] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[18:19] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to try out far.
[18:20] SPEAKER_02: I want to dive into that before I go to put my mouth.
[18:23] SPEAKER_02: But, yeah, no, I think coming out of the gate, we were hit with some stuff that we were not expecting.
[18:31] SPEAKER_02: After a lot of thorough planning coming from the backgrounds that we came from,
[18:36] SPEAKER_02: we thought we had a pretty, pretty dialed in and we were hit with some surprises that cost us a lot of money and a lot of delays.
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[18:53] SPEAKER_01: For yourself, you know, coming from your background and what you did and kind of like a, say, an office job, right?
[19:02] SPEAKER_01: What do you like about being an entrepreneur and not being in an office?
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: Well, you're in an office, but I guess, yeah, I guess not.
[19:14] SPEAKER_02: We're down.
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: We get all the tools a bit.
[19:16] SPEAKER_02: That was part of why we wanted to do this.
[19:18] SPEAKER_02: And I hope we always still have that ability to do that to get down and,
[19:21] SPEAKER_02: and still pull some levers and turn valves and sweep the floor from time to time.
[19:28] SPEAKER_02: Honestly, it was more about control of my own future to be honest with you.
[19:36] SPEAKER_02: After I got laid off in 2015, that hit me pretty hard.
[19:40] SPEAKER_02: And I kind of, you kind of build up a false sense of security sometimes when you're working with a, with a larger corporation.
[19:47] SPEAKER_02: And yes, what we're doing now is an entrepreneur is very risky.
[19:50] SPEAKER_02: Failure rates are through the roof, particularly in the business that we're doing.
[19:58] SPEAKER_02: But we're in control.
[20:00] SPEAKER_02: We're the ones making our decisions and how we're going to go forward.
[20:02] SPEAKER_02: And that to me, yeah, that means a lot.
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: Would you recommend for people that, you know, if they have that, I guess,
[20:15] SPEAKER_01: passion and an idea that to get into doing something like this, being an entrepreneur?
[20:20] SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
[20:22] SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
[20:24] SPEAKER_02: If you're only reason to not do something is why not?
[20:28] SPEAKER_02: Then why wouldn't you?
[20:31] SPEAKER_02: If you have the economic means to do it, you know, I would caution those who may not have that ability to make that happen.
[20:42] SPEAKER_02: And not have a cushion, you know, to just take a run at something blind would be foolish.
[20:51] SPEAKER_02: But if you have the means to make it happen, and your only reason is why not?
[20:56] Speaker UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[20:58] SPEAKER_01: What do you do, Thomas, outside of running this business?
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: What do you do to, you know, I know that, you know, being an entrepreneur can be busy.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: Well, not can be is busy for everybody and often it may seem to be like a 24 or 7 job.
[21:15] SPEAKER_01: But what do you do to relax and outside of the business operation?
[21:23] SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm married with three kids.
[21:27] SPEAKER_02: So chasing them around is pretty much a second full-time job.
[21:31] SPEAKER_02: They're all in competitive sports.
[21:33] SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
[21:33] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[21:34] SPEAKER_02: My oldest is rodeo and my son is competitive in Muay Thai and traveling all over the world.
[21:42] SPEAKER_02: And our youngest just got into competitive gymnastics, which is no shortage on time either.
[21:48] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[21:49] SPEAKER_02: But outside of that, when I get a chance, like to play a little bit of hockey,
[21:52] SPEAKER_02: I actually also started training doing the Muay Thai with my son.
[21:56] SPEAKER_02: Well, since I'm driving him out all over the place, might as well get in there and do it too.
[22:01] SPEAKER_01: Okay, one's, one of your children going to start in by being in the in the run.
[22:08] SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
[22:10] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I shouldn't say too much.
[22:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[22:14] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[22:16] SPEAKER_01: But so excuse me for asking, but Romero, what nationality is that?
[22:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm a dad from Spain.
[22:24] SPEAKER_01: Oh, he's from Spain.
[22:26] SPEAKER_01: Oh.
[22:27] SPEAKER_02: So they also share he casts that we mature both their amber and our cast strength.
[22:34] SPEAKER_02: Rome's dinner from a region about an hour north where my dad's from.
[22:38] SPEAKER_02: And we still have family down there and they're outskirts and stuff out for us before we order a new cast.
[22:50] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, it's really, really, really, really good stuff and it's something really bad.
[22:55] SPEAKER_02: But put it in a bad barrel.
[22:58] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[23:00] SPEAKER_01: But people from Spain aren't, it's not, it's not a, a staple there.
[23:07] SPEAKER_01: Is it like, I know I wouldn't be as much.
[23:10] Speaker UNKNOWN: Yeah, I think it's a little bit more personal.
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: Now, yeah, where do you find them?
[23:14] SPEAKER_01: You're your customer.
[23:17] SPEAKER_01: Who would you, I guess, define from a demographic port of you?
[23:22] SPEAKER_01: Like who your customer is?
[23:23] SPEAKER_01: Like young, old, male, female.
[23:27] SPEAKER_02: I'd say primary would be male range 42 65.
[23:33] SPEAKER_02: That's sweet spot.
[23:34] SPEAKER_02: Obviously, there's still lots of women that come through here.
[23:37] SPEAKER_02: There's lots of folks that are not that come through here.
[23:41] SPEAKER_02: But I would say that primary demographic.
[23:44] SPEAKER_01: That's what we, that's what we see.
[23:46] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you, do you find that, you know, there's more people, especially on the younger people,
[23:53] SPEAKER_01: liking, say, craft, craft spirits these days?
[24:01] SPEAKER_02: Yes, not even necessarily craft.
[24:03] SPEAKER_02: I'd say a trend towards premiumization.
[24:06] SPEAKER_02: I find a lot of the younger folks are drinking as much, but they do enjoy to try something unique
[24:12] SPEAKER_02: and different and spend a little bit more when they do.
[24:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[24:16] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[24:17] SPEAKER_01: And last question, I have for you, Thomas, where do you see the company going in the next few years?
[24:23] SPEAKER_02: Well, we'd like to continue to expand our footprint here in Canada and solidify our operations
[24:31] SPEAKER_02: in the states that we're currently operating in now.
[24:35] SPEAKER_02: We've done a little bit of exploration in Europe.
[24:38] SPEAKER_02: We actually sold, we had one bulk sale over there that was part of a,
[24:43] SPEAKER_02: and I've been calendar 24 days of rum, which is available across all of Europe right now.
[24:50] SPEAKER_02: So we'll see what uptake is on like on that.
[24:54] SPEAKER_02: We were just at a trade show there where we saw a lot of a lot of interests.
[24:57] SPEAKER_02: So turning interest in actual hard sales though is a very long slow process.
[25:02] SPEAKER_02: So we likely won't be touching that for a couple of years, but it'll see how it goes.
[25:06] SPEAKER_01: All right, wonderful.
[25:07] SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much, Thomas, for joining us today.
[25:11] SPEAKER_01: Oh, it was my pleasure.
[25:12] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me again.
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: That was Thomas Romero, who is co-founder of Romero's Distilling Company.
[25:20] SPEAKER_01: Sorry about that.
[25:22] SPEAKER_01: I'm Mario Toniguzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[25:25] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us today.