EP 66 Joyful Drinking with Ellie Webb of Caleño Tropical NA Spirits

My goal this year was to invite more brands onto the podcast and I am making it happen! I'm very excited to introduce Ellie Webb, the visionary behind Caleño, as we chat about her leap from the alcohol industry to pioneering the UK's non-alcoholic spirits realm. What started as an idea during a sobering Dry January eventually led to a complete lifestyle and business revolution.

 In our conversation, Ellie walks us through her story, from the initial sparks of creativity to her delicious range of non-alc products that now graces sober bars and homes alike. We tackle the art of steam distilling non-alcoholic spirits, product expansion and innovation, but also the hard work behind being an entrepreneur, and even the market trends and consumer shifts she's noticing in the industry at large. Ellie imparts invaluable advice to those entrepreneurs with a thirst for entering the sober niche, and even words of wisdom to those looking to simply drink less alcohol. There's something for everyone, so tune in for a dose of inspiration, insider knowledge, and a testament to the power of perseverance in the pursuit of mindful drinking.

Get in touch with Caleño!
Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Follow Ellie Webb! @thejoyfuldrinker 

Thanks to Giesen 0% Wines for being our exclusive non-alcoholic wine sponsor!

Connect with Deb: @Mocktail.Mom

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Transcript

Deb: 0:01

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. Hey friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom. I'm so excited.

Deb: 0:53

Today I am meeting a new friend, ellie Webb, from Caleño. You're in the UK, am I right? I'm in the UK. This is so fun. You are the founder of Caleño, one of the first non-alcoholic spirits, am I right?

Ellie: 1:06

Yes, we launched right at the beginning of 2019, which feels like an age ago. Yeah, so much has happened since then and it's a very different space, so I'm excited to talk about that. But, yeah, very happy to be here.

Deb: 1:20

Okay, yes, I cannot wait to talk to you really, just because you've been in this space for so long and, like you said it's been, it's like a different lifetime. It's a lifetime ago, five years ago, right A lifetime ago, in this space. Yeah, you're the OG of the OGs. Okay, so you're. Are you a new mom? Is that right? Did I see that on?

Ellie: 1:38

Instagram. Yes, I am a new mom. I have a little boy called Hugh. He is nine months old, which is really exciting, so I had my business baby and now I have my actual baby. I'm just juggling the two things like running a drinks business and being a new mom, but it's been an amazing experience.

Deb: 1:57

Oh yeah, How's he doing Good?

Ellie: 2:00

Great yeah, he's thriving, he's loving it. He's been in nursery, he's got lots of friends, he's very oh that's so cute.

Deb: 2:08

That's so cute. Okay, I love it. I have two girls, mike, so I don't. We love the babies. I have a 16 year old, though, and a 22 year old, but um yes, different, you know, life stage, but every, every, every stage brings its challenges. This is true. This is so true. This is so true. Okay, I would love for you to tell the listeners, like, how you got started. Okay, so in 2019, january 2019, you started Caleño, and were you in the non-alcoholic, were you in the drink space? How did you get into?

Ellie: 2:38

this. I actually was in the drink space. I was more on the alcohol side and I guess my journey into alcohol-free began two years prior to launching. So it was really at the start of 2017 when I actually decided to do Dry January for the first time, and at the time I was working for a big alcohol company in the UK. They basically supply drinks to pubs, bars, bars and restaurants all over the country, and I had decided to go sober for a month because I don't know, I think I was in my. I was kind of. I was 27, late 20s at the time. I was probably drinking a bit too much. I was surrounded by alcohol. All the events I went to were very alcohol fueled and so you know you have Christmas and the festive season and it's very boozy. So I think January came around. I was like I want to actually take a bit of a break, so I decided to do that challenge. I found it really interesting. You know when I would go.

Ellie: 3:36

I was in my twenties, so I still wanted to go to bars and restaurants. I still wanted to go out with my friends. What I didn't quite like was being that person who was at the bar going I don't know what to order, literally just being there stuck with a pint of Diet Coke and then I'm like, okay, well, I can drink two of these and then I'm just going to switch to water and I was kind of like there's something really wrong here. Why is it? You know, I work in the world of alcohol, where there's lots of innovation, there's lots of exciting brands, but they've really missed a trick when it comes to people who are not drinking. And although you know I was in this time where I was not drinking alcohol at all, there were definitely times where I would probably go out with friends and would drink alcohol, because the options weren't that exciting if you didn't drink.

Ellie: 4:22

I really saw an opportunity and a space for drinks. That kind of resembled alcohol acted in the same way in terms of they're mixed in the same way, they're drunk in the same occasions, whether you're in a bar, restaurant or at home, and you just want that drink at the end of the day, making a cocktail. I could really see potential for that and I was seeing it. You know, I worked in the drinks industry. It was still really, really early for this category. I don't think there was much around at the time I started to do some research, I found a bunch of interesting stats around people actually drinking less, particularly younger generation. So I kind of thought that you know there's something in. I think there's something in this and it's not just me and it's kind of. It's kind of how it I guess how the idea came along really.

Deb: 5:06

Honestly, when I think I mean I stopped drinking the last day of 2020, and just how much things have changed right in, just you know, three years, a little over three years I cannot imagine that you're a prophet, that you saw this, that you saw that there was such a need, you know, and then just saw the vision for a business.

Ellie: 5:26

Yeah, I mean, I wasn't the only one, but I certainly in the beginning I felt quite alone because, you know, I solo founded Caleño. I started it on my own and I was finding my way. You know, everyone I spoke to there was there was nothing really known about this category and how do you go about creating a non-alcoholic spirit? Like I understood the distillation process and spirits. I'd done all my training. I was not an expert, but I knew enough about that to kind of then go, okay, how do we apply this to the world of non-alcoholic drinks and how do I create? So it was a it was definitely um journey that I went on and there was a lot of trial and error, finding and fumbling my way and eventually, you know, I got to something that I thought was great and then I started getting it out there and going and speaking to bartenders and restaurant owners and and putting the product in.

Ellie: 6:15

I think I like during the development process I probably spoke to 150 different bars and restaurants wow go in just cold calling and I would walk in and I would say I've got this, this product. It's meant to be a spirit, but it's alcohol free. You drink it with this. What do you think? And then I would take the feedback, go back and improve it and keep doing that.

Deb: 6:36

Oh my gosh. I mean just knocking on doors, literally growing the brand, one door at a time one bar at a time.

Ellie: 6:45

I would go, and you know this was very much no strings attached. I just, I just want to hear what you think. You guys are the experts. You make cocktails day in, day out. What do you think about this product? How could I improve it? And then, obviously later, I went back with a finished product and was like hey, do you want to?

Deb: 6:57

start. Yeah, now, now, now I have my order pad, my sales order pad. How many bottles would you like? Yes, yeah, and what's the philosophy of calling you I love? I mean just your Instagram. There's just joy exudes from every post which I am all about happiness and joy.

Ellie: 7:13

I guess that bit kind of came, I think that was. It was always there, cause I remember, even when I, when I first drew I'm I'm a big fan of just like drawing things out and like putting what's in my head I'm a bit creative like that and even the first bottle it had like colors and you know I just wanted something vibrant. So it was always there. But a couple of months after having the idea, I went out to Colombia, in South America, where I have lots of family, and I decided to just go traveling and actually see the rest of the country, because I'd only really gone to a place called Cali, which is known as capital of Salsa. It's actually where the name Caleño came from, really. So when I was thinking, I was like, oh, why didn't I know after Cali, if you're from there, you're called a Caleño. So, yeah, I mean this trip was really inspirational for me for the brand. Like so many towns and cities I visited were literally paved in color. I mean you couldn't walk like walking past, like really bright houses, and it just I think there's something about color and vibrancy that just brings you that feel good factor and that's what I wanted to instill in the brand and the philosophy of the brand.

Ellie: 8:23

I wanted people to understand they can have a great time without alcohol, because I saw that as a real problem. Like every time I went out and told people I wasn't drinking, they're like, why? How are you going to have a good night, you know? And? And there's this idea of needing alcohol to kind of fuel energy and and having a great time and, and I knew that wasn't the case.

Ellie: 8:44

I knew that, particularly in the UK, where I've obviously started, I think we have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. We use it as a bit of a crux to our, you know, social situations, probably too much. So, yeah, I think I took a lot of inspiration from this trip and I'd grown up with, with South Americans and they have a very, uh, sunny, positive outlook on life. They're very fun to be around. You know, my, my family parties were music, they were dancing, they were kind of getting up moving, and so I wanted to bring that into the brand and and that's what we did, and that's kind of what you see if you go on our, on our socials, and you see what we do. That's kind of how we bring the brand to life.

Deb: 9:24

It's incredible, I love it, that your philosophy is kind of the discovering the joy of not drinking. Right, the joy of not drinking. Yeah, you don't have to drink to have a good time.

Ellie: 9:33

Exactly, and it's kind of putting two fingers up to the world and going you know what I'm not drinking tonight doesn't mean I'm not going to have a great time. It's not a less than choice. It's I've making a really positive choice to enjoy this non-alcoholic cocktail, you know, this non-alcoholic beer, whatever it is, and I think that's what we're really supportive of. So, yeah, that's been a fun journey and and I think from the beginning, because that was so embedded in clenia from the start it's just been something that's consistently run through the brand since, since the very beginning, which I'm super proud of.

Deb: 10:04

So what was the first product that you launched with was the dark and spicy, light and zesty. Light and zesty. Okay was the first one.

Ellie: 10:11

Okay, yeah, that was the first one that was um, one that you mix with a tonic. So, still, tonic also goes really well with soda. You can put it in a passion fruit martini cocktail. And then, I think about a year later, we launched with dark and spicy. I always wanted the brand to be really accessible and I think the reason behind um for me launching dark and spicy, was like how can we make the brand appeal to people who want a wider range of mixes to mix with their drinks? And darkness spicy goes brilliantly with ginger ale, ginger beer, cola, and so how can we have and you know, even in our NPD today we're thinking about how can we expand that range and that mixability of our drinks with your MPD? What's that? Oh, sorry, I'm talking Martin. It's called new product development.

Deb: 10:58

Oh, new product, NPD, new product development. Okay, I learned a new term today, a new acronym NPD, new product development. That must be fun meetings, to be in NPD meetings what is that like?

Ellie: 11:09

Yeah, super fun. I love it. I love creating new things and I think for the first four, how long we've been going about five years we've had to. Just, you know, we've not had a big product range, we've just had right and zeth, dark and spire to you mix. One I would say is more akin to like a tropical gin, you mix it with tonic. The other ones will probably a little bit more like a spiced tropical rum, you mix it with ginger ale. We've had to be super laser focused on not trying to get too distracted and like let's launch this and this. But I think you know we're getting to that point where the products are really well established. We can, we can continue to grow and expand. So yeah, I'm always really excited about innovation.

Deb: 11:47

Okay, how has it been to see the brand grow Like you started? You know knocking on doors, you know testing out and now like, how's like? Now you have a team right, it's not just you're not solopreneur anymore, right?

Ellie: 12:07

How's the business grown and how's it felt to watch it? Watch this baby, your first baby, grow up, that person who is setting up the bar. You're handing out samples. You're like you're doing the hustling, you're doing everything, you're managing the operation. Things go wrong. You have to fight fires. Then you're doing the marketing, you're organizing, you're doing everything.

Ellie: 12:27

And I just remember like running around like a headless chicken, going like, oh, my god, I wish there were, I wish I could be split myself into two people and be here places at once. So it's that kind of crazy time in the beginning and it is hustle and you've just I think it's hard when I kind of think back to then. You know years two and three and people. I think where it really started to hit me that that this brand was growing was people I would meet in in the street. I didn't know and I would be doing an event, but oh, yeah, I've heard of this brand. I've seen really seen you in a supermarket or I've seen you on social media and it was that kind of people recognizing the brand or coming up to me or you know now messaging me and and friends of friends, and it's just like oh, actually it's working.

Ellie: 13:11

People know about the brand the industry is growing so I think you know people hear these stories about brands where they just they feel like it's an overnight success. But honestly, it doesn't work like that if you're a founder who's kind of working behind the scenes. It just takes a lot of hard work, consistency and just day in, day out going like how can we grow this, how can we build this? And yeah, over time it pays off.

Deb: 13:37

That's amazing. Okay, I'm laughing because you know, just think about like the hustle and like that you're running the operations and you know, and the marketing, you know. I just think like like yeah, you're trying to find ice for the event, or you know all the stuff, like I'm right now setting up my lights and you know doing my stuff and then sending out stuff to. It's just like you're, you're there's a lot of hustle. Yeah, there's no overnight success. There's no overnight success.

Ellie: 13:57

No, there's no Anyone that thinks that that's the case is naive. I mean, you're either incredibly lucky. Things you know these days do go viral and but even you know, even the brands that you know, potentially go viral online. They've still probably been going behind the scenes for like six, seven, 10 years and then they have this breakthrough moment where suddenly they go from their community that knows about them. They've spent time building to millions of people knowing about their brand Wow.

Deb: 14:25

Wow, okay, do you remember who your first Instagram follower was? Like? Did you start the Instagram account? I did? Oh my God, I don't know. Probably you started at zero, right Like you just started. You just started your account. Probably you start. You start at zero, right like you just started.

Ellie: 14:38

You just started your account zero followers. Yes, yeah, I was. I was doing all the instagram. Probably. It was probably one of my sisters. I have two sisters who were super supportive in the beginning. One one has worked with the brand since pretty much day one. She manages operations and innovation, so it was probably her that's awesome.

Deb: 14:57

Are you the middle of three girls or you're the oldest, youngest?

Ellie: 15:00

I'm the oldest.

Deb: 15:01

You're the oldest. Okay, I'm the middle of three girls. It's so fun to have sisters, isn't it?

Ellie: 15:05

It is, it's so much fun, sisters and, yeah, best friends.

Deb: 15:08

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Deb: 15:37

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Deb: 16:19

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. Okay, so what trends are you seeing now, 2024, I mean, we're four years out from pandemic. I know that changed a lot of people's relations with drinking, but what are you seeing as the trends you know like right now, in this year?

Ellie: 16:47

I think one of the key trends I'm seeing is definitely around the kind of ready to drink space within spirits and cocktails. I think for a long while it was just spirits and if you think about, like the beer market and how easy and accessible it is to just kind of buy a can or a bottle and crack that open, you don't really have that in spirits and I constantly see stats about the rise of ready to drink cocktails. I mean it's partly why we brought out our range of ready to drink cans. We kind of looked at the data we were seeing in hospitality and which cocktails were doing well and we were like let's create a ready to drink convenient range because I think that's what the market wants. So I definitely think that's an area that's going to grow over the next couple of years.

Ellie: 17:29

It's already in growth from the alcoholic side and we know that a lot of the market do still drink alcohol but they're looking to moderate and drink less alcohol on different occasions. So that's one area I think, particularly within spirits we're already seeing it. I mean more kind of like of the subcategories. By that I mean tequila and more rum. You know it started off with white spirits and gin, and I think you're going to see kind of more and more innovation happening in. We're already seeing it with the retailers. They kind of over-index in one particular subcategory and then they're starting to kind of try and replicate a little bit more of what they're doing in the world of spirits and apply that to non-alcoholic Interesting profile celebrity launches who are kind of bringing their tequilas or different different brands to market. So I think we're going to see more of that. I think there's there's always been a lot of attention on on the category. But yeah, that's definitely an error, I think it's just going to keep growing.

Deb: 18:32

It's totally going to keep growing. Yeah, and the rtds, which I didn't even know what an rtd was.

Deb: 18:35

It sounds like r2d2 you know, I didn't even know back in the day, now I do, but it's a ready to drink can, which you said but yeah, and I love those. I mean personally, like I'm so I feel like I'm so lazy, or you know, just it's like it's just so nice to be able to pop something open that you know is going to taste really good and you know you don't have to fuss with it, you can bring it with you even. Yeah.

Ellie: 18:57

It's like if and maybe I'm missing mint, I haven't managed to buy some limes, that's okay, because I've got a can of mojito in the fridge and I can just crack it open and drink that, and I can put it into a glass with ice if I want to, but I still get the taste. So yeah, it's just super convenient way to kind of get to cocktails.

Deb: 19:14

Yeah, yeah, okay, and you have three ready to drink flavors available and I know you just did, which I thought was so, so cute. You guys just did like a flavor reveal, like a gender reveal. It was so cute. Your instagram post about the flavor reveal for mojito was adorable. So that was just last week, is that right? It was just last week. Yes, so are those out, are they available?

Ellie: 19:32

now they are available. They are coming to the us, okay, so we have that. Still very new though. So we've we've kind of launched them on our own platforms, on amazon first, but we we've got passion fruit martini, we've got pineapple, pina colada and we now have mojito, which, yeah, as you said, we had some fun with a bit of a flavor reveal and a bit of a twist on like gender reveals gone wrong.

Deb: 19:53

So cute.

Ellie: 19:55

It comes out green and you're like what is going on?

Deb: 19:58

What are we having? We're having Shrek. That's what we're having. The baby is Shrek.

Ellie: 20:04

Yeah, I know so. Yeah, one of the guys came up with the ideas and we just ran with it.

Deb: 20:08

It was fun. That's so cute. Yes, I want to make sure everybody's following you on Instagram. Caleño Drinks is your Instagram handle, and then your personal account is the Joyful Drinker, which I love. Yes, what it's all about. Okay, what sets Kalenya's flavors apart? For maybe somebody who hasn't tried it?

Ellie: 20:26

Because I love the dark and spicy. Yeah, I think the main thing that sets us apart is that we really hero tropical and exotic ingredients. So in light and zesty, you'll find we use ingredients like pineapple and papaya, the lesser known Inca berries, which are grown in the Peruvian rainforest. It's got this kind of like tangy tart taste to it. We also, in our dark and spicy, use pineapple and coconut, some ginger and black cardamom. We we also loved our ingredients from central and south america. Wow, linked to the brand origins, but yeah, really, here are those tropical ingredients. It's why we work really well in like pineapple daiquiris, mojitos, mango daiquiris, like just really fun cocktails, rum punches. You know you can make all of those cocktails and they they lend themselves really well to Caleño's flavors so good.

Deb: 21:15

Yeah, I'm actually today, I'm doing Instagram live later on this afternoon and I'm going to mix the dark and spicy with this little. It's just like a little flavoring of like coconut pineapple, like flavor for sparkling water. Perfect, like as easy as you can, you know, get yeah, so good.

Ellie: 21:27

Yeah, I mean, I remember during lockdown, I would you know, when we were all stuck at home and couldn't go out anywhere, I was just like making cocktail after cocktail and yeah, passion fruit puree, like add that to light and zesty with a bit of soda. Delicious, you can have a lot of fun with it.

Deb: 21:43

Totally. It's so good, so good. Okay, do you want to share a little bit about, like just the process of making non-alcoholic spirits? Like, how does the magic happen, ellie?

Ellie: 21:52

So at Caleño we use a process called steam distillation. So we basically distill all the raw ingredients within each bottle, whether it's light and zesty or dark and spicy, for about two days. It kind of mirrors and follows a really similar process to spirits distillation. We're just not kind of passing alcohol through it and kind of flavoring the alcohol, so we capture kind of the distillation at the end of it and we then mature that for another two weeks to ensure that the flavors have really embedded and gives an opportunity, yeah, for the, I guess, the flavors to really set in. And then we we blend and bottle and and we get to the final bottle of Caleño. Bend and bottle. What does that?

Deb: 22:32

mean Blend and bottle. Oh, blend, I was like what are we bending? Blend and bottle, love it, that's so good. And where? Where is Caleño produced in the UK? It's all produced in the UK, yeah, yeah, okay. So do you go to the production line, like when you're in in production, do you go check things out? How's that? How does it feel to see it coming off the line?

Ellie: 22:54

Yeah, I haven't been down. I think when everything was in lockdown, they were like no, no, no, you can't, you can't come in. Yeah, yeah, come in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a, it's been a. We actually went to see our distillers fairly recently. Um, I mean all of our, all of our producers we've worked with for five, like five years since we began, really like there's a lot of trust there. They've they've kind of innovated. You know, in the beginning, when I remember starting and trying to find the right people to bottle and distill the product, it's like you, you know, we can do soft drinks and we can do alcohol, but we can't really do in between, we can't really do non-alcoholic like in spirit bottle sizes. So there was like a mismatch of equipment and stuff there, whereas you know they really had to invest over the years and they've grown with us, which is really cool. So, yeah, we have some really great relationships with those partners.

Deb: 23:41

And that's amazing, yeah, because you, we have some really great relationships with those partners. That's amazing, yeah, because you have to have those suppliers and partners. For you to be strong, they have to be, you know, just as strong. Yeah, in the background?

Ellie: 23:49

Yeah, totally, and I've been so supportive over the years.

Deb: 23:52

Wow, when did the brand come to the United States?

Ellie: 23:56

I think we came to the United States around two years ago. We really ramped it up in in in the last year. We have an amazing lady called jane who manages all of our kind of us probably spoken to, right, yes, and I've spent a little bit of time. I'd love to kind of head back. I've been in new york. We're just launching uh, you know what's on the kind of chain of alcohol-free stores and launching me this month. So that's really exciting. So, yeah, we need to grow, grow in that market and, um, you know, we're now in in total wines and more, all their stores with a cligno. So that's been really exciting. Oh, that's huge. That's huge, both bottles and hotels, you know, might be coming soon. So, yeah, okay, I shop at total.

Ellie: 24:42

I shop at Total Wine, so I will be looking for all the brands there you know the whole lineup, this category and getting behind it, which is great to see.

Deb: 24:52

So great and yeah, and if Guassan is going to be in Miami, I mean these flavors are perfect for Miami.

Ellie: 24:58

Yeah.

Deb: 24:59

It's perfect for Florida. Yeah, perfect for anywhere, right For anywhere. For anywhere. Yeah, it's perfect for anywhere. Yeah, perfect for anywhere, right For anywhere, but for anywhere yeah, I don't. It's perfect for anywhere. Anytime. It's so delicious. I just love that you started this in 2019. I can't even believe that You're so young. You're so young. I'm the one with the gray hair. How, how did you start five years ago? It doesn't even seem possible, yeah, okay. So any advice maybe that you have for somebody who's, I guess, maybe sober curious, but then also maybe somebody who's looking to get into, you know, starting a non-alcoholic brand or just get start in this startup business in this space. Any advice that you have for that?

Ellie: 25:45

I guess my advice there would be to sometimes I get the feedback that people are a little bit intimidated by this category. They feel like, oh, I need to be completely sober, alcohol free, to enjoy this category. And I kind of say just start small, like good habits, grow and maybe just introduce a couple of alcohol free drinks into your week. Experiment. Don't get put off if you try something you don't like. I mean please, please, keep going back to the category and and you know you might not like everything but keep experimenting and you will see the benefits, I think and start from there.

Ellie: 26:13

And then, in terms of advice for someone looking to get into the sober space, I mean look, it's a really exciting category, it's growing super fast, there's lots of innovation. I would say because it's a really exciting category, it's growing super fast, there's lots of innovation. I would say because there's a lot out there and I've watched it grow over the past five years from just a handful of brands to what it is today. I would say really find your niche and your audience, be as targeted as you can, I think, and that's how you'll probably cut through the noise, because when there's a lot going on it's easy to get lost. So just be clear on all of that stuff.

Deb: 26:47

Yeah, yeah. And like you were saying earlier, like it's easy to almost you want to get distracted, like oh, we could try this, try that, but like just to stay focused on what you're-.

Ellie: 26:55

Yeah, I mean, it's so easy to be like, oh, this is going on and you know, as you should grow. People reach out with opportunities and some of them are great, like we've had some really fun opportunities drop into our inbox. We were, we were approached to do like a beast in a Hollywood film. I mean, I'm talking like is like an actual person, but then we ended up in some some cool Netflix series like um, emily in Paris, I don't. You've seen that. We're on the back bar and there's some fun stuff and sometimes, oh this, oh, this is really cool. We can't say no to this.

Deb: 27:26

That's awesome. Yeah, you can't say no to this. Yeah, there's certain opportunities you can't say no to. I just love, I love your brand, I love that. Just the flavors, the taste, and just that. Your aim is to spread joy, you know, while not drinking.

Ellie: 27:37

It's not, it's not about missing out, it's what it's all about, I think, just have fun with it, you know, don't, don't take it too seriously. Just experiment, try different flavors, try different products and get stuck in. Yeah but, I'm really pleased to see how how things have evolved in space and, like you know, I think the 27 year old me who, who had this idea, just could not believe like looking forward to now what has happened in space. I don't think anyone predicted this.

Deb: 28:05

Really, could you have ever imagined right now where things are?

Ellie: 28:08

No, not, so not that there'll be so many options. And now I can. I think the dream for me was just to be able to walk into a restaurant or bar and see clean on the menu or at least see like alcohol-free options on the menu at like whichever bar. I think we're not quite there yet, but we're definitely getting there.

Deb: 28:24

Getting there? Yeah, getting there. What do you say? Okay, so if you go in a restaurant and somebody and there's not, there's not a non-alcohol cocktail on the menu, there's not a mocktail on the menu what do you typically order for yourself? Is there something that you will order for yourself? Besides, you know, if they don't have, maybe if they don't even have non-alcoholic spirits yet, obviously you're bringing them a bottle of Colenio. You're like, put this back there, please.

Ellie: 28:46

I'll then see so if they don't have like any alcohol-free beers or alcohol-free cocktails and I will say, okay, what have they got? On the mixer front, you know we work with a lot of different mixer brands and there are some like really great flavor innovations, so that will probably be my next go-to, if they did your go-to.

Deb: 29:01

Yeah, yeah, awesome. Ellie, thank you so much for popping in. It is so nice to meet you. I. I just love, love, love your brand. I love what you're doing and I'm so happy just to meet you and connect with you. So thank you for sharing with them congratulations on everything you felt as well.

Ellie: 29:16

Thank you, I've really enjoyed.

Deb: 29:18

It's so fun I'm just having a good, it's just fun. I just want to encourage people. I feel like a little bit like I'm like a like the welcome mat. You know like come on in. You know like there's good, like I'm not the expert but like like just try some things, you'll find something you like, you know.

Ellie: 29:32

Yeah, exactly, but I think people learn from that and you know they that kind of creates a route to kind of exploring new things and trying new things, and that's the start, that's the start, that's the start.

Deb: 29:44

Okay, well, the sky is the limit for Caleño. I'm very excited to watch you continue to grow and I'll be for sure looking for you guys at Total Wine and the RTDs, the ready to drinks.

Ellie: 29:53

I can't wait to try I can't wait for you to try them either. They're amazing.

Deb: 29:57

Thank you, ellie. Thank you, thank you Big time. Cheers to you for tuning into 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.