Buckle up, friends, and welcome to the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast.
I'm your host, Deb, otherwise known as Mocktail Mom, a retired wine drinker that finally got sick and tired of spinning on life's broken record called Detox to Retox.
Let this podcast be an encouragement to you if alcohol is maybe a form of self-care for you where you find yourself dragging through the day waiting to pour another glass.
I am excited to share with you the fun of discovering new things to drink when you aren't drinking, and the joy of waking up each day without a hangover.
It is an honor to serve as your sober fun guide.
So sit back and relax or keep doing whatever it is you're doing.
This show is produced for you with love from the great state of Kentucky.
Thanks so much for being here and big time cheers.
[0:49] Okay. Hey friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol Free.
I am so happy you you are here.
My guest today, I am so thrilled because this is one of my favorite, favorite brands, Jane Harmon of Amethyst.
Cue the clapping, cue the cheering.
Jane of Amethyst is in the house. She's the brand manager down in South Carolina.
Jane, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. How are you?
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.
I am so happy to be talking to you. First of all, we just had so much fun.
You were a guest co-host with me tonight in my membership in the happy half hour we have on Thursday night. So thank you for joining us tonight over there.
It's really fun to be able now to record a podcast with you because I just love you.
And I got to meet you in person in September at Sands Bar in Nashville.
That was so fun. That was so awesome. Yeah, it was very cool.
I was so excited to finally meet you face to face.
Same. I felt the same way. That's the best part, isn't it, about this community is just the genuine friendships and connections, the kindness of this community.
I feel like, I just feel like it's a really, really loving, wonderful space.
So yeah, to be able to meet IRL is wonderful.
100% agree. It's amazing.
[2:05] All right. So I want all the listeners to know, first of all, well, there'll be information in the show notes and a discount code and all the goodies are there.
So make sure you check it out. Make sure you're following Amethyst on Instagram, all the places.
Amethyst Instagram is Amethyst NA Spirits. So make sure you're following along, you guys.
These products are so good. I don't know. I don't know how much, how much more can I tell you that I love them?
Okay. So let's talk, let's talk a little bit. We're going to talk today.
We're going to talk about amethyst as a brand, how you guys got started, your involvement, how you got connected, and then just would love for you to share just about, you know, what you love about amethyst and kind of what's happening in the next year or so, because it hasn't been around very long, right? Right, right.
Technically, sales-wise, well, three years. We're about three years old.
Sales-wise. About to have a birthday. Yep, yep, almost.
But yeah, so thanks for having me. I I really appreciate it.
[3:00] Amethyst was kind of born out of a different situation.
Two brothers were opening up a distillery in South Carolina here in Bluffton.
And they were doing their homework and research and planning experiences for the guests that were going to come in and found out that about 20% of the people that actually walked through the door will not consume alcohol.
So So they wanted to make sure that everybody had a great experience and they were included.
So that really is how Amethyst was born.
That's why our tagline is the spirit of inclusion.
And we want everybody to feel welcome and included in the fun, no matter what.
So yeah, that's kind of how we were born. Like I said, we're in Bluffton, South Carolina.
We make Amethyst here in Bluffton, South Carolina.
I've been on board since april 2021 as the brand manager and it has been a lot of fun i've seen a lot of changes in in this industry positive changes yeah the community has been very welcoming i've made so many friends like you through this and really honestly created a lot of Amethyst fans.
It's been very organic for us because we are a small business.
[4:21] We don't have a lot of the big brand dollars behind us.
So I've had to learn how to pivot and go here and go there to grow the brand.
But it's been a lot of fun. And I think we're headed in the right direction and we're building that base.
So we're hanging in there. Yeah.
No, and you definitely, you have a, you have a nice fan base, right?
And isn't that what they say? You want like a thousand raving fans, you know? And that's definitely, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's, you guys are, you're building it and it's happening. Yeah.
So tell us a little, okay, tell everybody, the listeners about the products, like how Amethyst is created.
[5:01] What's the magic in the bottles? Because the first one that I tried was the blueberry ginger mint.
There's three different... Do you call them flavors? Is that what you say? Yes. Three flavors?
No. Is that what you say? Okay. Yeah. I don't want to say it the wrong way.
Okay. So yes, three different botanical spirits, but the blueberry ginger mint, and it smells so good when you open it.
I mean, it's like a fresh bottle of blueberries.
And when you taste it, it has that peppery... It's magic in a bottle.
So yes, there's three flavors. So tell us how they're made and kind of how we can enjoy them. Okay, cool.
Well, they're made pretty much like a highly distilled water.
Just think of distilling.
The water is distilled. It's very pure.
So if you tasted the water on its own, it wouldn't taste like what we normally are used to in our, you know, our Stanleys with our eyes.
[5:53] Elevated, elevated water. Yeah. So it's just really pure, really good.
And then we infuse the botanicals in it and uh basically then after that it's filtered and then it goes into the bottle and that's the you know the short so good way do you do tours not the down in south carolina not of amethyst amethyst okay um it would be a kind of a boring tour looking at vats of things sitting there yeah it wouldn't be like the distillery the distillery they have a good tour but amethyst we're not there yet hopefully someday we'll have a gift shop and a tour one day yeah exactly back in later yeah exactly that's that's the vision down the road hopefully so it's it's basically uh just a really pure product the extracts are our owners very picky so he tastes a lot of different ones to get to the awesome flavor that you taste in that bottle.
[6:48] And they're low-cal, they're zero sugar.
So they're just really, they're basically really good for you in different ways.
It's what we add to it that's going to make it not so healthy, right?
Yeah, possibly, right? If you're adding a bunch of coconut cream real or tonight on your mock pill.
Or you can do it like with a one-to-one. You could do like just the amethyst with what, like ginger, you know, with like a club soda or tonic water. water.
And that would be a very clean, nice, simple, simple drink. Or you can drink it neat, right?
Which I didn't even know what that word meant when I first stopped drinking. Like I didn't know neat.
No, the room's messy. No, neat is like you're just drinking it by itself, right? I know. Who came up with that? Just weird.
Who's, yeah. Who invented the word neat? That's a good question.
We'll leave that to Rich Loud. He can check that out for us.
[7:40] Or yes, or maybe Derek from Mocktail Whiz.
He's listening probably. probably and maybe he can tell us where neat came from he probably knows okay so you can have you can use amethyst as like you can drink it alone so neat or you can drink it like that one-to-one mixing it or you can put it as a replacement right like in a in a margarita we were talking about exactly earlier yeah yeah so many good drinks yeah or like a mule super versatile and that's honestly that's why we don't call it an alternative to anything because you can do Do whatever you want with amethyst.
I like that. I like that. We didn't want to be an alternative.
We want it to be whatever you want it to be.
I love that. I love that. It's so, so good. Okay. So they're considered non-alcoholic.
You can make non-alcoholic crafted beverages made in the spirit of inclusion. I love it.
[8:30] Okay. So what do you love about being a part of Amethyst? How did you get involved in the company? Did you know these guys, the brothers?
No, I did not. I actually was at another distillery previous and I was a general manager there and also wore a lot of hats and did the selling as well there.
I love that you wear a woman of many hats. Of many hats.
You guys, if you've received a package from Amethyst, it's probably been packed by Jane. Yes. Yes.
Instagram is done by Jane. Jane, you're doing it all. You're literally lifting this entire brand on your shoulders. Yes.
Doing a great job. If they haven't told you recently.
Everybody send me a virtual hug. Yes.
[9:10] Big hugs for Jane. You are crushing it.
But it's great. It's so much fun. I am not complaining. I love it.
I love my job. I love everybody.
But I was at another distillery and COVID happened.
And when that happened, And everybody, of course, you know, kind of went on furlough, layoff, whatever.
Well, pretty much all of us were laid off and they didn't bring the team back.
So that's another story for another day. But I knew that the distillery was coming to Bluffton.
So I reached out because I had met the brothers before.
And I was like, hey, are you guys hiring? And sure enough, they were.
And so they brought me in. I had an interview and I told them, yeah, I'll work in your retail store. but this is what I really want to do.
I want to be in sales. That's my passion.
And so lo and behold, we opened.
I just had my three-year anniversary with them. Thank you. We opened in March.
I think it was like March 7th.
[10:12] By April, I was amethyst brand manager because the person that was going to do amethyst decided she wouldn't be able to travel and do those kind of things because of kids and stuff like that.
So I just really lucked out. And I am just so, so grateful that they believed in me and let me do my thing.
And I did. I knew nothing about the non-alcoholic world, not a single thing.
So I had to really learn and I did and like my true Jane self I embraced everything and just went gung-ho and Met so many people the first person I met was Chris Marshall I was gonna say and then you know, it's history from there all of you guys. I've met you.
I've met so many people It's just been amazing.
Absolutely How would you explain the alcohol-free community to your friends back at the distillery?
You know, like who aren't involved in this space, because I feel like it's a really special space.
It is. It is. I usually, when I talk about this side of my friend, my friend world over here, I just explain to them, it's just really cool.
It's super cool that everybody can be open about everything and talk about things, whether, you know, it's good experiences, bad experiences, whatever's happened in their lives. I love that.
[11:41] And it's changed me. And it's like I told you guys in Nashville.
[11:46] I'm not sober, but it's changed how I like react and treat alcohol because I really don't I don't drink that much anymore.
You know, and if I do, it's, it's a celebratory thing or something, you know, it's has it made you it's just made you more mindful, would you say? Yes, very mindful.
I've been, you know, for the past several years, I've been very into trying trying to be healthier and, you know, I've lost weight and things like that.
So it just goes hand in hand to the wellness journey.
And, you know, I'll be honest, a hangover just is not fun.
So who wants one, right? So funny. We're not 22, right? Yeah.
It's like, I don't, why do I need that?
I don't need that. So I'd rather go have fun and, you know, have a non-alcoholic drink.
Drink if there's not that then you know whatever i'll just make my decision and when i do have one i usually only have one and then i stop and then i wake up the next day and i feel great right no matter what so totally that's what's for me that's what's been important and i love that i can talk to people about it and i'm not judged and then i share this on the other side and i'm like This is what it's like.
You don't have to be judgy about it. Most people know about it now.
Most people are very excited about it and want to be mindful.
[13:12] It's really changed. For me personally, I'm so happy if somebody's soberish or just more mindful or just curious about sobriety or if they're just drinking, whatever.
There's no judgment. For me, this is working great. I broke up with Chardonnay is working great for me.
And I want to encourage people that you can still have fun. But at the same time, I have no judgment.
Like, great. Have a cocktail in between your mocktails, whatever, you know, whatever works for you. Yeah, yeah.
[13:39] It makes a big difference. I'm glad that we've rubbed off on you that way.
Yeah, you know, the community that it's been, that's been good.
Yeah, because I like that you don't have to be sober to be in this space.
You don't have to declare sobriety. You can be a part of it. Absolutely.
So when you just want you want to, you know, it's not good for you.
We know that it's like I look back and you go back to, you know, things that we learn over history that are not good for us.
Do we keep doing them? Well, we shouldn't. So it's just everybody needs to to, like you said, be mindful about it. And that's where I am.
And, and I love it. It's great. So great.
[14:16] Okay. As you guys know, I love Giesen 0% wines. Their Sauvignon Blanc is my go-to on a regular basis, but they recently launched a delicious sparkling brute 0%, which is quickly becoming a fan favorite.
I am so proud to have Giesen as the exclusive non-alcoholic wine sponsor of the thriving alcohol-free podcast.
Giesen 0% wines are created through the magic of advanced spinning cone technology to remove the alcohol from their full-leaded wines.
The award-winning winemaker Duncan Shuler and his team have done wonders in Marlborough, New Zealand by creating an entire family of 0% wines with all the flavor and deliciousness you expect from traditional, quote, full-leaded wine.
Their non-alcoholic wines maintain the aroma and the body to create a low-calorie wine that never contains more than 0.5 ABV.
Globally available, look for Giesen 0% wines wherever you shop for your non-alcoholic options.
Their family of alcohol-free wines include the most effervescent member of the family, the Sparkling Brut 0%, which is absolutely delicious for any celebration.
My personal favorite, although I do love them all, is the Sauvignon Blanc coming in at only 100 calories for the entire bottle.
And not to be missed, the other members of their 0% family, the Riesling, the Premium Red Blend, the Rosé, the Pinot Gris.
With Giesen's 0% wines, there's a de-alcoholized wine for everyone and every occasion.
Give Giesen a try and let me know how much you love it. And if you want to meet their winemaker, go back to episode 33 of the podcast where Duncan Shuler joined me to share about the Giesen story.
[15:38] So I want to make sure we share with everybody that there's recipes on your website.
Yes. So they can find recipes on your website, which is amethystnaspirits.com.
Okay. So there's lots of great, great recipes there and it can be used.
I think we mentioned, right. It can be used alone as a mixer or as a replacement.
Yeah. Yeah, so what are you excited about for this year as you guys come into your third year?
What is exciting for you or for the Amethyst team?
Well, right now, I'm working on a couple of things that are getting me really excited.
I hope I don't jinx myself by sharing this.
But I am trying to expand into other countries. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah.
We've had a lot of people have been reaching out from other countries.
And this has been happening for literally over a year.
But we weren't ready to do that yet. Mentally, we weren't ready. And I think we are now.
So hopefully we will be expanding into some other countries soon.
And I'm working on some other deals I'm trying to get throughout the country to kind of spread the retail presence.
[16:50] So that's something I'm getting excited about. So yeah, I mean, just the growth is happening.
And we're super excited about it. We have a feeling 2024 is going to be a great year.
I hope so. Seriously. I really Yeah, you were at the mindful drinking fest, right? Were you there?
No, I didn't go. Yeah, I didn't make it.
I didn't make it. Yeah, I couldn't go it just it logistically wasn't working I had just too much going on and I had a dry bar crawl my very first dry bar crawl in Charleston tell us about the dry bar oh it was amazing really yes these two ladies that I've met that are in Charleston they're called the cocktail bandits bandits and they do all these like experiences and so we had gotten friendly and they're like let's do a dry bar crawl so we did and they put on the best experience there were about 25 of us, We went to four different places. At each place, we had a mocktail.
Two of them were seed lip and two amethyst.
And then we had little goodies to eat. And they were at fantastic venues in Charleston.
I don't know if you've been to Charleston, South Carolina.
If you haven't, you need to go.
[18:11] Well, down where we are in the low country, it's beautiful. So how does that work? You are walking from place to place?
Are you getting in your car, you drive to the next place, or they're close enough that you can walk? They were close enough that we can walk because downtown Charleston is just totally a walkable town and you can walk.
There's tons of bars. It's a very foodie city.
That would be so fun. There's an area here in Louisville that it's just like a little quaint little area and there's a bunch of restaurants and stuff.
So to do something like that would be so fun.
You totally need to do it. It was a blast.
We had a blast. And it had been, you remember it snowed it had been really cold and it snowed everywhere.
So I bought beanies like for everybody to wear that said amethyst.
And then of course the night we did the bar crawl, it was like 70 that day in Charleston.
Like, well, here's a beanie for next time it gets cold. You have good merch.
You like the merch. So that's my background is an industry of merch. Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
I love the merch. So yeah, you have good cups and fun, all the fun stuff.
Yeah. So I'm not surprised you made some some cute beanies for everybody.
That was very nice of you. You have such a generous heart.
Okay. So did we tell everybody the three flavors? Did we tell them all?
Oh, I don't know. Did we? I don't know if we did or not.
Okay. So I did mention the blueberry ginger mint, which was the first one I tried.
And then your brand new one, grapefruit basil. I should say brand new, right? A couple months now? Six months?
[19:33] Yeah, six months. July. So good. Perfect for like a Paloma. I mean, perfect for anything, but perfect for like like Paloma mule.
Yeah, the Paloma's good. And then the lemon cucumber serrano.
And they all have, what is it? It's not capsaicin. How do you say it?
It's capsium. It's a pepper.
It's a pepper. And it gives a burn. So if you're listening, you're a listener and you're missing that burn, that I enjoyed in my Chardonnay or from a cocktail or something, amethyst will replace that and more and you will not have a hangover.
Yes. Hangover free. Yes, yes, yes.
Okay. And your Your background is like you worked in restaurants and bartender, am I right? Like a long time ago.
Oh, yeah. I've been in food and bev forever.
My family, they've owned restaurants and bars even when I was in high school.
So yeah, I've been around it all my life pretty much.
I mean, it feels like you have a leg up on like figuring out the recipes and because you have that background. Yeah.
Sort of, but I still like cheat and go out and look at the web and try to find like inspirations and things like that. Yeah, absolutely.
[20:40] Because I like for my drinks to be really good.
And sometimes I like do them to be themey, you know, depending on what's going on, you know, if it's a holiday or something like that.
So I try to be kind of pretty intentional with what I create.
And I've created a lot. what?
They're not even all on the website yet. I know I was going to say, okay, how do you organize them? Do you have them all organized like in a notebook?
Do you have them all on your phone?
How do you, how do you organize all the recipes you come up with?
They're in Word docs. Or they have Post-it notes. Like me, they're in Post, I have Post-it notes everywhere.
I'm just like, I live, I live for Post-it notes. My house should just be made of Post-it notes.
I like Post-it notes too, but they're pretty much Word docs.
After I've written them, you know, scratched them down. I'll put them in a word doc.
So I do have them all safely somewhere. They are saved somewhere.
They are saved somewhere. Okay, good. That's good to know. Yeah.
Because yeah, it was like trying to collect recipes and stuff.
Sometimes I'm like, well, now where did I put that one? It's like a post-it note stuck somewhere.
[21:41] Craziness. Okay. So when you go out to drink, if you're wanting to have maybe a mocktail, you're not wanting to have a cocktail that night.
Let's say they don't have anything on the menu or you're not doing a bar crawl, a dry bar crawl.
Is there something you'll ask the bartender maybe to make you, like a non-alcoholic cocktail, maybe you can tell our listeners they could maybe order when they go out.
If there's... And if... I'm not trying to put you on the spot.
No, no, no. Yeah. Usually if I do...
[22:06] I'm bad because I'm a salesperson too, right? So you're like, actually, and then you pull out of your big purse, your big bottle of amethyst.
Actually, I can help you right now. Let me give you my card.
Who's your director of beverages? Yes, have them call me.
No, usually I'll first I'll ask because if I don't see it on the menu, I'll be like, hey, do you have a non-alcoholic beer? That's usually what I'll ask for first.
And if not, then honestly, I'll usually just get a water or tea or Coke.
Simple. Yeah. You know, every once in a while, maybe a club soda with a splash of crayon and a lime.
But yeah, otherwise, you know, just fine. Yeah. I don't really need it, you know, kind of thing.
Luckily, we're starting to see more on menus. So isn't that nice? Yes.
It's really nice. Yeah, it's really nice. Yes. Yes. Do you have like a favorite non-alcoholic beer? Do you like the non-alcoholic beers?
Do you like it? Yes, I do. I love them.
Right now. I'm on the blue moon moon kick.
Everybody's loving that. I've seen so many people post about it. So good.
I mean, it's okay. I did get Heineken though for Super Bowl because I made a drink. My team lost.
Oh, I was very sad. I was rooting for them. Yeah, I was sad.
My daughter was my older. My younger daughter was rooting for Taylor Swift's team. Yeah.
[23:25] They're no longer the Chiefs. They're the Taylor Swift team. I know, right? So funny.
I do love I think it's so I mean, first of all, I do love Taylor Swift, but I think it's so fun how it's just brought so I mean, my husband's like rolling his eyes like seriously, but, I'm like, it's fun. It's just all fun. But yeah. Okay. Sorry.
So I was rooting for the 49ers with you. All right. Sorry. I'm sorry you guys lost. So then after that, I was like, well, I'll have a Heineken.
So in the Heineken, not the Heineken, sorry.
Guinness. Guinness. I love the Guinness.
[23:53] Do you? Yes. It's the real deal. I mean, it tastes.
Yes. I wasn't a beer drinker before, but like, yeah, everybody says it's like the, it tastes exactly like, yeah.
And people are saying the same thing about the blue moon. Yeah.
Are saying the same thing. Yep.
And then in the The summer Corona. Oh yeah. Okay.
Okay. Yeah. In the summer. Yeah. The Corona is like, yeah.
Yeah. A gal on our membership, she lives out in Idaho and she can't, she's like, she has to like work with the manager at the, I think it's called Meyer or Fred Meyer, the grocery store out there, I think is where, and she like has them like pull it aside for her if it comes in, hide it under the desk.
And then she has to like come in and buy it, you know, like she's making the deals so she can get her Corona in the summer. That's so awesome.
Cause it's hard to, it's, I guess it sells out that fast. What about the non-alcoholic wines? Do you like any of those? Do you try any of those?
I don't drink a bunch of them, but I was always a Prosecco fan.
So I've gotten into the Prima Pave Grand Cuvée, which is their new fancy one.
I love that one if I want that Prosecco-ish, champagne-ish effect.
But the red, my favorite red that I've found, and I haven't tried a lot So I need to try more because I do love a good, good red wine.
But the joyous Cabernet Sauvignon is like amazing.
[25:15] Yes. I have a bottle behind me here. Yes, it's delicious.
It's so good. It's really good. She has almost hit it right on the nail with that one.
Yep. Yep. And if it's not perfect for you, then you add a little bit of all the bitter.
Yep. Maybe a little bit of the chocolate, you know, Malay or yeah, and you're you're good to go. So yeah, it's delicious. So good.
[25:34] Jane, anything you want the listeners of Thriving Alcohol-Free to know about you or any last encouragement you want to leave with the folks, with the friends, the friends of the show? You know, have fun.
I appreciate everyone that has purchased Amethyst.
I appreciate everybody that's reached out to me personally.
And just know I'm here. If anybody ever needs anything, I'm the one on the end of the Instagram direct message. message and Facebook, but we're here.
We want to grow and we hope that you grow with us.
Yeah, we want you to grow. Yeah, we want really good things to happen for Amethyst in 2024 and beyond.
So I'm excited for what countries to hear you guys are heading into and just for the future for you.
So Jane, thank you for being just such an encouragement to me for creating delicious products.
I know you're not the one actually creating, but for Amethyst creating, you know, delicious products that make it wonderful to have good things to drink.
You know, we're not stuck drinking Shirley Temples. Yes. Or if we are, we can spice them up a little bit with an amethyst.
Exactly. A little splash of amethyst in there. So thank you.
Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. I'm so happy that we got to connect tonight.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Love you too. Love you, Jane.
[26:53] Big time cheers to you for tuning in to the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast.
I hope you will take something from today's episode and make one small change that will help you to thrive and have fun in life without alcohol.
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social, send up a flare, or leave a rating and a review.
I am cheering for you as you discover the world of non-alcoholic drinks and as you journey towards authentic freedom. See you in the next episode.