109: Transparent Labels with Broda Beverage

Courtney Sandora: Foreign. Hey, everyone. Welcome to E Drink Social. My name is Courtney Sandora, and throughout this podcast series, you'll be hearing from myself and the Go Social team. Go Social is a PR and social media marketing firm with offices in Denver, Colorado and Louisville, Kentucky. We'll be discussing social media trends and influencer best practices in the food and beverage social media landscape. If you have any questions and want to reach out, you can find us on, um, Facebook, Twitter and instagram @The GoSocial. Or you can visit our website@goforth be social.com. we're joined today with Alex Supak, ah, co founder of Broda Beverages. And uh, he co founded this brand with his brother. And we're super excited to hear all about, you know, what's working for you. It's definitely a hot space. Space. The whole RTD world. So, um, I'm really excited to have you on.

Alex Supak: Yeah, thank you so much. Um, yeah, just I guess a little bit about what Broda is. Broda. A lot of people think it means from brothers. We are brothers. But Broda actually means beard in Polish, so is my uncle's nickname. The guy on the label, um, his wife and kids never saw him without a beard, so everyone just kind of called him that. M also easiest Polish word to say in English. It's a traditional, like Polish alcohol. So, um, but yeah, one thing that kind of we really, uh, like to touch base on is that, um, we use all real ingredients and we're one of the only liquor brands with a full ingredient list on the back. Um, we still do everything the same way that he kind of did in his kitchen. So zesting the citrus first, infusing into the vodka. We peel all the ginger by hand, and then we juice everything ourselves too. So, um, there's no preservatives, nothing fake. And I think that's, um, you know, one thing that really kind of, uh, sets us out from the rest 30%. A lot of people drink as a shot or like a, you know, quick, um, cocktail bro to soda, bro to spritz, that kind of stuff.

Courtney Sandora: That's great. Well, tell us. Just backing up just a little. I mean, it. Look, I went on LinkedIn. It looks like this is kind of your first venture into business. So it's awesome that you, you know, you are a founder, especially at this stage in the game. So tell us, like, how did you get get into the beverage world?

Alex Supak: Yeah, um, it was right out of college. Um, but it started a bit before then. I always wanted to do something entrepreneurial. Studied m finance Advert in advertising and entrepreneurship. Um, but one of my older brothers taught me how to make this stuff. He learned it from our uncle and he was actually had a background from Molson Coors in Pepsi. Um, and so he kind of pushed me to start it. I was doing some incubators in college, did a couple pitch competitions, won some money. You know, kind of proved the concept, tasted it out a lot to a lot of people, and, um, decided to go for it. You know, if, if this is, if there's a right time to try something, it's. It's, uh, you know, it's now.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah, that's great. Um, well, just, you know, we see so many articles about Gen Z pulling back on drinking and obviously you have a great perspective. You're in it. So, like, how. What are your thoughts around that? Those headlines?

Alex Supak: Yeah, I've seen a lot of, um, interesting headlines about it. I think that, sure, people are trying to be healthier and maybe they're drinking less, but I don't. I think it's also just relative to Covid drinking, it's down. Um, but people are still definitely trying to find things to do on the weekends. I see it among my friends, I see it amongst my friends, younger siblings in college. Um, so I think it's kind of like a, you know, a scare tactic. I thc definitely takes away some market share, I'm sure. Um, but what we've seen is people actually do really resonate with like the real ingredient side of things. And, um, I think that even though, you know, it is still alcohol, it is a better for you option. And people care to know what they're putting in their mouths. Um, that's why I also think people are trading up for maybe the higher ABV RTDs as well. Um, you know, it's. The calories still come from the alcohol, but I don't think people really realize that. Um, but yeah, I don't know. That's. That's kind of, that's kind of my opinion on it. I'm. I'm still, still, uh, bullish on it.

Courtney Sandora: Nice. So you mentioned, you know, the All Natural and the label. And I definitely have been seeing transparency as like a really key thing that pops up that consumers are wanting. So that's great you're doing that. Um, I saw on your website that this mention of sweetened tinctures. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Alex Supak: Yeah. So, um, this is technically like in Polish, it's called a Nalefka, which is like a tincture. Um, so this is the oldest, like flavored alcohol, um, other than like, uh, flavored, like vodka based alcohol in, uh, in the world. Um, the, the first written book about it was like from the 1600s and in Pol. Like old Polish. I. I bought a copy and couldn't read it. Read, read it either. Um, which is very different. But. Yeah. So one of the main differences is that like, you know, you, you infuse sometimes you um, macerate different fruits, but then you also age it before bottling. Um, and that's kind of what locks in that flavor. And that's what we learned from our uncle. Um, and funny enough, that's what helps us with our shelf life stability. So, um, we've kind of taken, you know, from the old world a lot of that information. And um, yeah, it's been working for a couple centuries, so why not now as well?

Courtney Sandora: That's awesome. I know we were talking earlier and you mentioned that you lived in Texas and I had, um, actually toured Deep Eddie Vodka. And they used some natural ingredients and they were talking about how initially they had some issues with it being in the sunlight or some of the natural stuff. Does this tincture help solve that problem?

Alex Supak: Um, um, so the main thing that it helps solve is that. And I don't know the Deep Eddie formulation, but I'm. I'm assuming it's not, you know, fully clean just based off flavor. No, no shade. Just saying. Um, but, um, the, the aging. What, what, what. The reason, like we found that it really helps is that the oxidation kind of plateaus and that's when we bottle it. So the flavors blend together. Um, and then after that point it's. It's much, um, the flavor kind like it. It's a. There's less room m. For it to change because the oxidation is that main, main issue there.

Courtney Sandora: Okay. And you have a couple of cool flavors. Can you kind of. Did you roll them both out? Can you talk about them?

Alex Supak: Yeah. So this one is the original, the lemon, honey, ginger. Um, so this we launched May 2024. Um, and then the second one is, we like to call it our Chicago river water. Uh, but it's lime, agave, mint. So a lot of real mint leaves, as you can tell, um, in here. But that one came out May 2025. Um, so just about a year ago. Um, and yeah, they actually both sell like pretty 50, 50. This one, I would say in the summer does a little bit better because it has like a mojito vibe to it. Um, and what's really cool about it that we didn't Realize from the beginning. But, um, it on premise locations. So bars and restaurants, a lot of them don't stock mint leaves, so now they can make Hugo spritzes, um, Mojitos, Moscow Mules with still that real mint flavor.

Courtney Sandora: Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that, that's actually my next question was, you know, you're split between, like, on premise, off premise, how you see people enjoying it the most.

Alex Supak: Yeah, um, we are mainly an on premise. Um, we. We mainly focus on on premise and then we just kind of get off, off premise locations surrounding it. Um, couple reasons why. One, it solves a lot of issues. Behind the bar, you already have your sweetener, your, Your acidity, everything in there. Um, and then it also upgrades the cocktail. So, like, kind of, why not two birds with one stone? Um, but at retail, I've found that a lot of people aren't just walking down the flavored liquor aisle looking for a new, you know, bottled vodka. Um, and also they don't know what it is. They're unfamiliar with the label. They. They don't know that it's real ingredients. Plus, um, when we're sitting on the shelf, we get separation in the bottle too. So sometimes we'll put like, neck tags on there. But it's funny, when people see separation in alcohol bottle, they think, oh, it went bad. But they'll buy, you know, an orange juice with separation and say, like, that's the highest quality one. So there's just like a little disconnect with consumers there. Um, but once people have discovered our brand, that's kind of when our retail really, really took off for us. Uh, and then we're also working on our Broda sodas in cans to kind of help that consumer discover. Yeah. Cool.

Courtney Sandora: And it looks like that bottle's chilled. Do you recommend it, like, from the freezer or how are you serving it?

Alex Supak: Yeah, I recommend it cold, chilled. Um, I just, I have a tasting in a. In an hour, so I can make sure they're nice and cold. But yeah, they don't. They don't have to be. They can sit on the bar cart. There's plenty of bars that just kind of keep it in the well or on the. Um, always, always better cold. Yeah.

Courtney Sandora: Um, so tell us about social media. Um, obviously you. You probably grew up in the social media era and, and are just like, probably naturally savvy. Um, you know, how. Have you seen it work for Broda?

Alex Supak: Yeah, the. The main thing, um, we. We at first started, we wanted to do. Because, like, with the Broda guy, we purposely did it where you can kind of picture anyone on there. Like, it cut off the eyes. So if you have a bearded friend, whatever it can, it can always replace it. So at first we started doing content that we were trying to do, like, you know, high quality only, like, showing no face, all that kind of stuff, and it didn't really work. Um, we pretty quickly realized, like, you need to show your face, you need to have talking head stuff, and people resonate more with that. Um, and so that was like, the uncomfortable switch because I, I didn't want to be on camera. Um, but, uh, yeah, it's. It's proven to be very helpful. Um, and I think those kind of videos probably do the best.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah, I was gonna ask you, like, what do you think in terms of the founder helping to tell the story? How important is that for a brand?

Alex Supak: I. I think it's very important. I mean, I see it at tastings that, you know, I, I will do much better than someone else if we, you know, hire some help. And, um, it's same thing with socials. Um, yeah, I mean, the founder story, like, either it's talking head or even just voiceover of, like, you know, quick clips, um, because everyone's got the short attention span, um, but just, you know, telling the story, telling. I. I also think, like, the more personal you get, um, it's, you know, it's. I'm. I'm repeating what other people have said, but really, the more personal you get, the more, um, the more engagement you get too. So, uh, opening up is. Is also pretty important.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah. I just got back from Bar Convent, Brooklyn, and I can tell you, like, the booths that had the founders there. Just such a different experience then.

Alex Supak: Okay, where was it? In Brooklyn.

Courtney Sandora: In Brooklyn, yeah.

Alex Supak: Yeah.

Courtney Sandora: Pretty, pretty cool cocktail event. Um, so do you feel like Instagram versus TikTok, do you know, like kind of the consumer buying? I know it's mostly on promise, which probably makes things harder to pin down, but do you know who's buying your. Your product?

Alex Supak: Yeah.

Courtney Sandora: Cool.

Alex Supak: Um, just based off of, like, when people repost or whatever. But also, uh, we do sell online to 44 states and, um, by far it's like 21 to 35. Health and wellness focus. A lot of times they. Like my girlfriend, for example, she posted a review of, like, drinking Broda and just showed the ingredient list, like, very, very easy, quick video. And she sold like 100, 150 bottles from that video. Then she did it again and did the same thing. And it's just like. So that's where like we saw TikTok really, really helped out. Um, our personal social has done better on um, Instagram. Um, but uh, yeah, even with like, you know, 50k views, like we see stores uh, sell out, like they'll, they'll, all the independents will just kind of give me a call, say we need, we need to re up. And it's, and it's interesting to see how social media really does have a big impact. I wasn't a believer until I saw it firsthand.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah. And it's always a challenge with a three tier system. Um, you know, outside of E commerce sales to say that post did that sale. But it's cool to hear that you got that feedback.

Alex Supak: Yeah, I, I think we're still small enough to see and also like we do our own deliveries in Chicago, um, to where like we're able to pinpoint it, like, oh, this 100,000 view post and you know, two weeks over the next two weeks, like we keep selling out. It's pretty, you know, cause and effect there.

Courtney Sandora: What about for just content creation? Are you guys. It looks like you're filming pretty much on your own, but have you tested AI in the social content world?

Alex Supak: Um, I played around with it. I've never posted with AI. I, um, just think people are too savvy and know when it's AI, um, and they just immediately scroll. We sometimes obviously use it to like generate ideas or like it'll, you know, pop up a couple script ideas and then we take it from there because it doesn't really know us well enough, I would say yet. Um, but it's a, it's a nice tool to bounce ideas off.

Courtney Sandora: So outside of what we talked about, are there any other kind of like marketing strategies that you feel like have really helped the brand?

Alex Supak: The. What drives our growth the most, the most efficiently is definitely just social media. Um, we're trying to put more attention to that. Um, like you mentioned pr. We have some, but we haven't really, um, done much. The tastings are also one of the best ways to do it and word of mouth has helped a bunch.

Courtney Sandora: So what is next? You mentioned you kind of teased the can thing coming and I know that's a huge. So tell us a little bit like what's next for the company?

Alex Supak: Yeah, so we're hoping to launch that within the next couple months. Um, but they would be called Broda Sodas, which kind of fits the name because it rhymes. But yeah, it'll be two or four flavors. So we'll have the original two with soda Water. A lot of people will buy this and just drink it at home with soda, so might as well kind of, you know, um, make it easier for them. And then there's going to be a lemon honey passion fruit, and then a lime agave, pineapple, um, which are, again, all. All real fruits, all real stuff. Uh, no preservatives or anything weird. So very excited for that. Um, and the idea behind it is it'll open up more retail doors. Um, now we'll be able to push for bigger chains like Whole Foods and Fresh Thyme and Fresh Market and all those. And, yeah, I'm just really excited to be able to hold a Broda can as well.

Courtney Sandora: That's awesome. And the name just is perfect. I have one tip for you. I feel like you need to grow a beard.

Alex Supak: I know. I'm working on it. I'm working on. Actually, uh, my girlfriend's Turkish, so I thought maybe I'll just fly over to Turkey and get, you know, get a. A fake one implanted. Um, but, yeah, no, we're working on it.

Courtney Sandora: Awesome. Well, I think the product sounds really, really cool, and your flavors are really interesting. So super excited to see how the. The can does as well. Um, I think that's going to be a big hit. Anything else? So do you want to tell people where they can find you?

Alex Supak: Yeah, M. So we are available online, um, 44states@drinkbroda.com. uh, we do free shipping at three bottles. So if you want to stock up, um, but then the states we're in, uh, we're in Illinois, Texas, California, Indiana, uh, and Wisconsin. So if you want to check out our store locator, maybe you're next door to one of them.

Courtney Sandora: Awesome. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time today to talk with us.

Alex Supak: Thank you so much. Yeah, this is fun.

Courtney Sandora: All right, everybody, that wraps up today's episode of Eat Drink Social. Thanks for listening. If you have a story to share or know somebody that does, feel free to reach out to us.

Alex Supak: Sa.