January 17, 2024 • 18 mins
Transparency is key in what we drink and eat. People want products made with all natural ingredients and no additives that taste great, says KLYR Rum Distiller Lexi Close. Hand-crafted in Pennsylvania, KLYR is the vision of three friends who wanted a clean tasting rum with zero grams of sugar, zero grams of carbohydrates and fewer calories. KLYR rum is distilled 12 times and filtered 18 times with pure reverse osmosis water. Close discusses KLYR Rum and its RTD canned cocktails. www.klyrrum.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs oniHeartRadio. We are your insatiably curious culinary
couple Melanie Young and David Ransom.We bring you the dynamic people who are
front and center and behind the scenesin food, wine, spirits and hospitality.
Ours is a delicious life and wewant to share it with you.
(00:27):
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs.We're your hosts, Melanie Young and David
Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We so love bringing you the amazing
people who work in the wine,food spirits and hospitality industry and talk about
what they're doing, and we loveto talk about cool products we discover as
well on our sip shows. We'rereally excited about our guest today because she
(00:50):
is on the top of a majorIt's not a trend, it's a movement.
If you read any of the trendMasters for twenty twenty three and twenty
twenty four, know that one ofthe biggest categories in the drink's business is
can non alcoholic wine, spritzers,saltzers, low alcohol, no alcohol,
reduced alcohol, you name it.Clean is a word that is appearing on
(01:12):
a lot of products, but mostimportantly it's about transparency. Today's consumer wants
transparency in what they're drinking. Theywant to know what the ingredients are,
they want to enjoy them, andoften it's sessionable because they don't want to
over imbibe. They want to havetheir heads on and enjoy responsibly, and
we support that. So we're reallyexcited because we're talking today with Lexi Clothes,
(01:36):
the master distiller of Clear Rum.Clear Rum is a fresh take on
a classic spirit with zero grams ofsugar, zero grams of carbohydrates, and
fewer calories. We're looking at abottle now it says right on here,
clear clean American Rum. We're gonnahave to ask Lexi what that means.
It's a very smooth taste. There'salso some RTD ready to drink drinks here.
(01:57):
We've got Las Crush, Mash Punch, and then a box called water.
Can't wait to learn more about thatbecause we know water is so important
when making a spirit. So LexiClose is a head distiller for Claire Rum.
She's a native of central Pennsylvania andthis is a distillery in Pennsylvania.
It's I believe in the Pennsylvania DutchCountry. Really beautiful area, right so
(02:21):
we can't wait to learn more aboutthe founders and why we are here in
Pennsylvania. So let's welcome Lexi closeto the connected table. Hello, Hello,
thank you for having me. Oh, we are so excited to have
you with us on the show today. So Lexi, let's start with you.
Tell us about you. We knowyou live in Pennsylvania. Were you
(02:45):
born and raised there? And wheredid you train to become a master distiller?
Yeah? So I was born inYork, PA, so not very
far from where we actually distill,which is in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, currently
located in Chester. Again, alsonot that far away. But yeah,
I started distilling because my family starteda distillery and I wanted to be a
(03:07):
part of it and I love tolearn, and what a great way to
learn about something new then to getinto distilling. You know, we love
Pennsylvania, Melanie. We've been throughthere many many times. Yeah, we're
taking the Pennsylvania Dutch area. That'sa lot of history, a lot of
fun things going on there now too, because it's regenerated itself. So Lexie,
tell us about the family distillery andstarting clear rum. I was originally
(03:28):
distilling for my family. We madea whole host of products, and I
was approached by a couple of wonderfulgentlemen who wanted to start a rum brand,
and they really enjoyed quality spirits andwere looking to create something that was
good to sip on and was differentfrom the RUMs that they had had in
(03:49):
the past. It was a silverrum that they could drink meat and enjoy
as it was or in a cocktail. I love a challenge, so when
they reached out and said what theywere looking to do, I took that
as a gauntlet being thrown and wantedto create a product that met what they
were looking for. So that's howI got involved. I created a couple
(04:13):
of batches before we really got solidifiedin working together and partnered up just to
show that I could do it,because, like I said, I like
the challenge and I like being ableto make what people want, and they
liked. It wasn't quite what theywanted, but we ended up workshopping and
working on the formulation and coming upwith a product that you have before you
as clear LEXI. First of all, we want our listeners to know that
(04:36):
Clear is spelled k l y RLEXI. How would you describe clear rum
to customers because there are a lotof RUMs, it's a white rum.
More importantly, you said you dida fairly significant process to develop the recipe,
so explain that as well. SoClear is a silver or crystal rum.
(05:00):
We were looking for something that wasdifferent than consumers were used to experiencing
with crystal or silver RUMs. Wewanted something that was very premium and quality,
and that was smooth and clean moreimportantly than anything else. So in
developing Clear, we wanted to kindof take what we know of clean spirits
like vodkas and moreph those processes thatmake that product so pure, with the
(05:27):
process for rum already. So wetook the base, which rum is made
from sugar or sugar derivative, sowe chose sugar brown sugar. And then
most importantly are our oh water.So we use reverse osmosis water for making
Clear, which is what helps makeit consistent and clean. So in making
that, we started with a coupledifferent combinations of sugars in yeast and tried
(05:54):
to find the right mixture of things. Took quite a few batches and going
back and forth with one of thepartners who helped really develop the recipe with
me and went back and forth andgave feedback to each other as we tried
various different combinations until we landed onwhat we have today, which is,
(06:15):
as I said, cane sugar,brown sugar, specific yeast, and then
are reverse asthmosis water. It's verysimple, not a whole lot to it,
because we didn't want to overcomplicate it. It sounds like a very involved
but interesting process, doesn't it,Melanie. It does. And you know,
clean is a very widely used word. Now, how do you define
(06:38):
clean? Clean? For us issomething that we wanted it to taste clean
in the sense that you can drinkit by itself and enjoy it. As
pure as it is, it doesn'thave a really harsh bite. It's enjoyable
meat or on the rocks. Youdon't need to add anything else to it.
If it's clean and pure, it'snot going to bite you the way
(07:00):
that some white RUMs can. Wewanted something that when you tasted it,
you could taste that it was clean. And a big contribution to that is
our distillation process, the reverse osmosiswater, and then our filtration process.
Great explanation, Lexi, And wehave some we're tasting right now and there
is no bite. This is definitelya rum you could drink nate because we're
(07:23):
drinking it nate. We're sipping itand it's softer tasting, which we like,
particularly when we are drinking nate,which is the way I like to
drink my spirits. So tell usabout the three founders, their names and
who they are and what their backstoryis. So clear. Rum was founded
by Amiche Patel, Adam Larupt,and Neil Kareem. All of them come
(07:43):
from very very different backgrounds. Amishe'sactually comes from a dentistreet background, Adam
comes from children's literature, and Neilactually comes from banking. Amish and Neil
actually went to school together at theHill School in Pennsylvania, and Adam factors
in because he used to play hockeywith Amish. So they know each other
from their various backgrounds and got tobe really good friends, bonding over their
(08:09):
enjoyment of spirits. Another interesting story. I love how people come together and
find a vision for each other.Yeah, Lenny, Yeah, how did
they find you? That's always afun story. They actually reached out Neil
specifically was looking for a distiller fortheir Rum projects. They had gotten together
and kind of dreamed up wanting thispure rum, and we're looking for distillers
(08:31):
in Pennsylvania that had been making rumalready and had that experience. And so
they found me and reached out,and I wasn't looking for a new project
at the time, but was intriguedby what they were looking to do.
And we set up a meeting andmet and I thought they were a wonderful
(08:52):
group of guys, loved their personalitiesand thought it would be a lot of
fun to work with them, andmore importantly, I loved the rum concept
that they were looking to create,And like I said, I saw it
as a challenge and wanted to createwhat they were looking for and was confident
in my ability to be able todo that. And so I kind of
just took their feedback on what theywere looking for, went back to the
(09:16):
distillery with my wheels turning, andput together the first batch of our trial
run of clear and they came outabout a month later and tried it,
and they said that it was reallyclose to what they wanted, but not
quite what they were looking for,but that they were confident after that that
we would be able to work togetherand create what they were looking for,
(09:37):
so Adam and I went back andforth, and after quite a few batches
of trying different things, we hadClear on the website. The philosophy says
that it's the body of an agedrum and the smoothness and easy drinkability of
a vodka, which I really findas we're drinking that right now, Melanie,
it's just delicious. It doesn't havethe cloying sweetness that a lot of
RUMs have, which I find reallyappealing. Lexi, what are some of
(09:58):
the u aspects of clear that wouldappeal to health conscious consumers because that's a
big thing right now. So Clearis great because a lot of RUMs out
on the market today have added sugaron the back end just to give it
that sweetness that you were talking about. Some people really like sweet RUMs.
Personally, I like a rum thathas the character and body of the sugar
(10:22):
base, but doesn't have that extrasweetness or heaviness to it. So we
created a rum that starts with sugar, but at the end of the process
there's no sugar in it, sowe don't add any more sugar in Therefore,
there's zerograms of sugar and every bottleof rum and it says on your
website, which is clear Rum kl y rrum dot com twelve times,
(10:45):
distilled and filtered eighteen times. That'sa rigorous process that actually kind of mirrors
the process that you see with alot of vodkas. So, since we
were going for that not fully neutral, but close to neutral in the sense
that it's has that rum body andcharacteristics, but it has the versatility that
vodka does. So in trying toget a rum that had that versatility but
(11:09):
still those characters, we chose toblend the process between creating rum and creating
vodka to create what we have withClear. So it also says gluten free,
zero grams of sugar and zero gramsof carbohydrates, speaking of health,
although there is sugar in the distillate, and you said there's no added sugar.
So let's talk about the RTDs.There's two lines of RTDs are ready
(11:31):
to drink cocktails and beverages that comein cans along with Clear. Let's talk
about some of those. Let's firsttalk about the canned cocktails called blast,
Crush, Mash, and punch.Yeah, so we have what we call
our cocktail line and then our waterline. So the cocktail line is the
one you just listed off. OurBlast, Smash, Crush, and Punch,
(11:52):
so we wanted very in your facenames. That's why we went with
those, and they kind of encompassthe flavors that we were going for.
Those are six point five percent twelveounce cans. The only ingredients in them
are going to be sugar, naturalflavoring, the rum itself, and water,
and then we use citric acid tohelp with stabilization. But other than
(12:13):
that, there's no hidden ingredients.There's nothing in there that's gonna scary or
anything. We don't add any color, so when you pour them out into
a glass, they're gonna be clear, which goes with our name. But
they're very nice. They have alittle bit more sugar and sweetness to them
than our other line, so theytaste more like a cocktail that you would
get if you were going out toa bar. They do not have any
(12:35):
carbonation though, so though they arein a can, there's no carbonation,
which is really nice because you don'tget those bubbles. You don't feel as
full. I really love taking themout to like the beach, are going
out on a picnic. You canreally enjoy it. And sip it in
any occasion. Yeah, totally chillingserve. And so this particular line of
RTD is six point five percent ABVroughly one hundred and ninety counsries and we're
(13:01):
looking at flavors like berry, lemonade, orange, pineapple, and tropical fruit.
Now the next line is called water, and this one is even lower
abb four point five percent, ninetynine calories and very low carbs three point
five. Talk to us about waterand how it's different from the blast,
crush, smash and punchline. Thewaters we created to kind of target more
(13:24):
of those health conscious people. Sosomebody who wants something that has less calories,
less alcohol content, they don't wantto feel it quite so much,
but they still want to enjoy anice beverage. It's also for those people
who really like the seltzers but don'tlike the bubbles. So our water line
is more of light flavoring with therum and water. There is a little
(13:46):
bit of sugar in there, butobviously much less hence that lower calorie content.
Yeah, so we wanted something thatwas delicious but very light and airy.
Kind of like if you were totake a flavored water that you would
get from the door and then justit has booze in it, but you
can't really tell. Where can youbuy these products? Lexi. All of
(14:07):
these products are available on our websitewhich is clear Rum spelled klyrrum dot com.
And then we also have them availableand select fine wine and spirit stores
and various bars and restaurants across Pennsylvania. You can find all of that information
on our website as well as purchasingdirect to delivery in your house in Pennsylvania.
(14:31):
Can you ship outside of Pennsylvania?We cannot currently ship outside of Pennsylvania.
However, you can find us instores in New Jersey and Delaware,
but for right now in Pennsylvania,you can find us in liquor stores or
we can ship directly to your house. So I have to say, other
than giving the world a wonderful rum, you also give back. So you
(14:52):
have a program called clear Cares aspart of your company. Why don't you
tell us about Clearcares in its mission, Clearcares is kind of our company's way
of being able to connect with ourlocal community and give back to the local
community. We focus both on eitherraising money for local organizations or local individuals
(15:13):
might need a little lectra help orby donating our time. I think that's
so important these days with companies thatare younger, like yours is a fairly
new company and your owners are young. This is a company that is American
made. It's important to underserve madein Pennsylvania. The founders are young,
they're friends, you're young. Thisappeals to an audience of all ages,
(15:35):
but obviously a health conscious and purposebased audience. And I think it's important
nowadays for all companies for profit tohave a philanthropic aspect. It resonates with
consumers. So we're curious, lexsay, give us an example of a
cocktail that you would enjoy using clear, clean American rum. So my favorite
(15:56):
cocktail across the board in general isalways going to be a dirty martini.
But I love making a dirty cleartenie. It's honestly my favorite way to
enjoy clear. It's so tasty andit really shows the quality and character of
the spirit. So to make that, it's two and a half ounces of
clear rum, a half ounce ofdry removed, a half ounce of olive
(16:18):
brine juice, and then you justlet that sit in some ice, maybe
give it a little swirl, andthen serve it straight up in a chilled
martini glass with some clips. Ilove dirty martini's. They're so good,
they really are. And the moreolive juice or pickle juice the better.
Yeah, you know, I'm realto actually try this product, mellyew about
you. I am too. Sofar, we've tasted some of the RTDs
(16:42):
and of course we were sipping theclear neat Now we're going to try them
in cocktails. This is a terrificoption for people who want something that they
want that clean taste with the RTDthe lower calorie, less sugar, it's
really great for the beach, forthe pool year round. So I think
you're going to be a big success, and I'm sure that you Lexi Clothes
(17:03):
are contributing to it because of yourvaluable experience working with your family and the
distilling and now it's clear. Yes, it's been a wonderful journey. I've
loved every step of it and allof these great products that we get to
create and get to put in thehands of consumers that so far, the
feedback has been great and we lovethat people love it, and we want
to keep making products that people love. Well. We hope you have a
(17:26):
clear and strong future ahead at ClearRealm, and we really want to thank
you for joining us today on theConnected Table. Yes, thank you for
having me. This has been somuch fun and for all our listeners.
Again, the website is Clear Realm. That's k l yr Clear, just
to make sure you've got the rightvision of it. And we hope everyone
drinks responsibly and enjoys tasting and discoveringproducts as much as we do. Thank
(17:51):
you very much. We're Melanie Youngand David Ransom and the Connected Table and
our message is always stay insatiably curious. You've been listening to The Connected Table
SIPs with Melanie Youung and David Ransom. To listen to more in depth features
with the movers and shakers who shapethe wine, food spirits and hospitality industry,
(18:15):
tune into our companion show, TheConnected Table Live. You can tune
into the live broadcast on Wednesdays attwo pm Eastern Time on W four CY
Radio, easy to find at wwdot W fourcy dot com, or listen
to all our shows anytime at iHeartdot com and on the iheartapp. Connect
(18:37):
with us on Twitter at Connected Table, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Under the connected table, And rememberalways stay insatiably curious.
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs oniHeartRadio. We are your insatiably curious culinary
couple Melanie Young and David Ransom.We bring you the dynamic people who are
front and center and behind the scenesin food, wine, spirits and hospitality.
Ours is a delicious life and wewant to share it with you.
(00:27):
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs.We're your hosts, Melanie Young and David
Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We so love bringing you the amazing
people who work in the wine,food spirits and hospitality industry and talk about
what they're doing, and we loveto talk about cool products we discover as
well on our sip shows. We'rereally excited about our guest today because she
(00:50):
is on the top of a majorIt's not a trend, it's a movement.
If you read any of the trendMasters for twenty twenty three and twenty
twenty four, know that one ofthe biggest categories in the drink's business is
can non alcoholic wine, spritzers,saltzers, low alcohol, no alcohol,
reduced alcohol, you name it.Clean is a word that is appearing on
(01:12):
a lot of products, but mostimportantly it's about transparency. Today's consumer wants
transparency in what they're drinking. Theywant to know what the ingredients are,
they want to enjoy them, andoften it's sessionable because they don't want to
over imbibe. They want to havetheir heads on and enjoy responsibly, and
we support that. So we're reallyexcited because we're talking today with Lexi Clothes,
(01:36):
the master distiller of Clear Rum.Clear Rum is a fresh take on
a classic spirit with zero grams ofsugar, zero grams of carbohydrates, and
fewer calories. We're looking at abottle now it says right on here,
clear clean American Rum. We're gonnahave to ask Lexi what that means.
It's a very smooth taste. There'salso some RTD ready to drink drinks here.
(01:57):
We've got Las Crush, Mash Punch, and then a box called water.
Can't wait to learn more about thatbecause we know water is so important
when making a spirit. So LexiClose is a head distiller for Claire Rum.
She's a native of central Pennsylvania andthis is a distillery in Pennsylvania.
It's I believe in the Pennsylvania DutchCountry. Really beautiful area, right so
(02:21):
we can't wait to learn more aboutthe founders and why we are here in
Pennsylvania. So let's welcome Lexi closeto the connected table. Hello, Hello,
thank you for having me. Oh, we are so excited to have
you with us on the show today. So Lexi, let's start with you.
Tell us about you. We knowyou live in Pennsylvania. Were you
(02:45):
born and raised there? And wheredid you train to become a master distiller?
Yeah? So I was born inYork, PA, so not very
far from where we actually distill,which is in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, currently
located in Chester. Again, alsonot that far away. But yeah,
I started distilling because my family starteda distillery and I wanted to be a
(03:07):
part of it and I love tolearn, and what a great way to
learn about something new then to getinto distilling. You know, we love
Pennsylvania, Melanie. We've been throughthere many many times. Yeah, we're
taking the Pennsylvania Dutch area. That'sa lot of history, a lot of
fun things going on there now too, because it's regenerated itself. So Lexie,
tell us about the family distillery andstarting clear rum. I was originally
(03:28):
distilling for my family. We madea whole host of products, and I
was approached by a couple of wonderfulgentlemen who wanted to start a rum brand,
and they really enjoyed quality spirits andwere looking to create something that was
good to sip on and was differentfrom the RUMs that they had had in
(03:49):
the past. It was a silverrum that they could drink meat and enjoy
as it was or in a cocktail. I love a challenge, so when
they reached out and said what theywere looking to do, I took that
as a gauntlet being thrown and wantedto create a product that met what they
were looking for. So that's howI got involved. I created a couple
(04:13):
of batches before we really got solidifiedin working together and partnered up just to
show that I could do it,because, like I said, I like
the challenge and I like being ableto make what people want, and they
liked. It wasn't quite what theywanted, but we ended up workshopping and
working on the formulation and coming upwith a product that you have before you
as clear LEXI. First of all, we want our listeners to know that
(04:36):
Clear is spelled k l y RLEXI. How would you describe clear rum
to customers because there are a lotof RUMs, it's a white rum.
More importantly, you said you dida fairly significant process to develop the recipe,
so explain that as well. SoClear is a silver or crystal rum.
(05:00):
We were looking for something that wasdifferent than consumers were used to experiencing
with crystal or silver RUMs. Wewanted something that was very premium and quality,
and that was smooth and clean moreimportantly than anything else. So in
developing Clear, we wanted to kindof take what we know of clean spirits
like vodkas and moreph those processes thatmake that product so pure, with the
(05:27):
process for rum already. So wetook the base, which rum is made
from sugar or sugar derivative, sowe chose sugar brown sugar. And then
most importantly are our oh water.So we use reverse osmosis water for making
Clear, which is what helps makeit consistent and clean. So in making
that, we started with a coupledifferent combinations of sugars in yeast and tried
(05:54):
to find the right mixture of things. Took quite a few batches and going
back and forth with one of thepartners who helped really develop the recipe with
me and went back and forth andgave feedback to each other as we tried
various different combinations until we landed onwhat we have today, which is,
(06:15):
as I said, cane sugar,brown sugar, specific yeast, and then
are reverse asthmosis water. It's verysimple, not a whole lot to it,
because we didn't want to overcomplicate it. It sounds like a very involved
but interesting process, doesn't it,Melanie. It does. And you know,
clean is a very widely used word. Now, how do you define
(06:38):
clean? Clean? For us issomething that we wanted it to taste clean
in the sense that you can drinkit by itself and enjoy it. As
pure as it is, it doesn'thave a really harsh bite. It's enjoyable
meat or on the rocks. Youdon't need to add anything else to it.
If it's clean and pure, it'snot going to bite you the way
(07:00):
that some white RUMs can. Wewanted something that when you tasted it,
you could taste that it was clean. And a big contribution to that is
our distillation process, the reverse osmosiswater, and then our filtration process.
Great explanation, Lexi, And wehave some we're tasting right now and there
is no bite. This is definitelya rum you could drink nate because we're
(07:23):
drinking it nate. We're sipping itand it's softer tasting, which we like,
particularly when we are drinking nate,which is the way I like to
drink my spirits. So tell usabout the three founders, their names and
who they are and what their backstoryis. So clear. Rum was founded
by Amiche Patel, Adam Larupt,and Neil Kareem. All of them come
(07:43):
from very very different backgrounds. Amishe'sactually comes from a dentistreet background, Adam
comes from children's literature, and Neilactually comes from banking. Amish and Neil
actually went to school together at theHill School in Pennsylvania, and Adam factors
in because he used to play hockeywith Amish. So they know each other
from their various backgrounds and got tobe really good friends, bonding over their
(08:09):
enjoyment of spirits. Another interesting story. I love how people come together and
find a vision for each other.Yeah, Lenny, Yeah, how did
they find you? That's always afun story. They actually reached out Neil
specifically was looking for a distiller fortheir Rum projects. They had gotten together
and kind of dreamed up wanting thispure rum, and we're looking for distillers
(08:31):
in Pennsylvania that had been making rumalready and had that experience. And so
they found me and reached out,and I wasn't looking for a new project
at the time, but was intriguedby what they were looking to do.
And we set up a meeting andmet and I thought they were a wonderful
(08:52):
group of guys, loved their personalitiesand thought it would be a lot of
fun to work with them, andmore importantly, I loved the rum concept
that they were looking to create,And like I said, I saw it
as a challenge and wanted to createwhat they were looking for and was confident
in my ability to be able todo that. And so I kind of
just took their feedback on what theywere looking for, went back to the
(09:16):
distillery with my wheels turning, andput together the first batch of our trial
run of clear and they came outabout a month later and tried it,
and they said that it was reallyclose to what they wanted, but not
quite what they were looking for,but that they were confident after that that
we would be able to work togetherand create what they were looking for,
(09:37):
so Adam and I went back andforth, and after quite a few batches
of trying different things, we hadClear on the website. The philosophy says
that it's the body of an agedrum and the smoothness and easy drinkability of
a vodka, which I really findas we're drinking that right now, Melanie,
it's just delicious. It doesn't havethe cloying sweetness that a lot of
RUMs have, which I find reallyappealing. Lexi, what are some of
(09:58):
the u aspects of clear that wouldappeal to health conscious consumers because that's a
big thing right now. So Clearis great because a lot of RUMs out
on the market today have added sugaron the back end just to give it
that sweetness that you were talking about. Some people really like sweet RUMs.
Personally, I like a rum thathas the character and body of the sugar
(10:22):
base, but doesn't have that extrasweetness or heaviness to it. So we
created a rum that starts with sugar, but at the end of the process
there's no sugar in it, sowe don't add any more sugar in Therefore,
there's zerograms of sugar and every bottleof rum and it says on your
website, which is clear Rum kl y rrum dot com twelve times,
(10:45):
distilled and filtered eighteen times. That'sa rigorous process that actually kind of mirrors
the process that you see with alot of vodkas. So, since we
were going for that not fully neutral, but close to neutral in the sense
that it's has that rum body andcharacteristics, but it has the versatility that
vodka does. So in trying toget a rum that had that versatility but
(11:09):
still those characters, we chose toblend the process between creating rum and creating
vodka to create what we have withClear. So it also says gluten free,
zero grams of sugar and zero gramsof carbohydrates, speaking of health,
although there is sugar in the distillate, and you said there's no added sugar.
So let's talk about the RTDs.There's two lines of RTDs are ready
(11:31):
to drink cocktails and beverages that comein cans along with Clear. Let's talk
about some of those. Let's firsttalk about the canned cocktails called blast,
Crush, Mash, and punch.Yeah, so we have what we call
our cocktail line and then our waterline. So the cocktail line is the
one you just listed off. OurBlast, Smash, Crush, and Punch,
(11:52):
so we wanted very in your facenames. That's why we went with
those, and they kind of encompassthe flavors that we were going for.
Those are six point five percent twelveounce cans. The only ingredients in them
are going to be sugar, naturalflavoring, the rum itself, and water,
and then we use citric acid tohelp with stabilization. But other than
(12:13):
that, there's no hidden ingredients.There's nothing in there that's gonna scary or
anything. We don't add any color, so when you pour them out into
a glass, they're gonna be clear, which goes with our name. But
they're very nice. They have alittle bit more sugar and sweetness to them
than our other line, so theytaste more like a cocktail that you would
get if you were going out toa bar. They do not have any
(12:35):
carbonation though, so though they arein a can, there's no carbonation,
which is really nice because you don'tget those bubbles. You don't feel as
full. I really love taking themout to like the beach, are going
out on a picnic. You canreally enjoy it. And sip it in
any occasion. Yeah, totally chillingserve. And so this particular line of
RTD is six point five percent ABVroughly one hundred and ninety counsries and we're
(13:01):
looking at flavors like berry, lemonade, orange, pineapple, and tropical fruit.
Now the next line is called water, and this one is even lower
abb four point five percent, ninetynine calories and very low carbs three point
five. Talk to us about waterand how it's different from the blast,
crush, smash and punchline. Thewaters we created to kind of target more
(13:24):
of those health conscious people. Sosomebody who wants something that has less calories,
less alcohol content, they don't wantto feel it quite so much,
but they still want to enjoy anice beverage. It's also for those people
who really like the seltzers but don'tlike the bubbles. So our water line
is more of light flavoring with therum and water. There is a little
(13:46):
bit of sugar in there, butobviously much less hence that lower calorie content.
Yeah, so we wanted something thatwas delicious but very light and airy.
Kind of like if you were totake a flavored water that you would
get from the door and then justit has booze in it, but you
can't really tell. Where can youbuy these products? Lexi. All of
(14:07):
these products are available on our websitewhich is clear Rum spelled klyrrum dot com.
And then we also have them availableand select fine wine and spirit stores
and various bars and restaurants across Pennsylvania. You can find all of that information
on our website as well as purchasingdirect to delivery in your house in Pennsylvania.
(14:31):
Can you ship outside of Pennsylvania?We cannot currently ship outside of Pennsylvania.
However, you can find us instores in New Jersey and Delaware,
but for right now in Pennsylvania,you can find us in liquor stores or
we can ship directly to your house. So I have to say, other
than giving the world a wonderful rum, you also give back. So you
(14:52):
have a program called clear Cares aspart of your company. Why don't you
tell us about Clearcares in its mission, Clearcares is kind of our company's way
of being able to connect with ourlocal community and give back to the local
community. We focus both on eitherraising money for local organizations or local individuals
(15:13):
might need a little lectra help orby donating our time. I think that's
so important these days with companies thatare younger, like yours is a fairly
new company and your owners are young. This is a company that is American
made. It's important to underserve madein Pennsylvania. The founders are young,
they're friends, you're young. Thisappeals to an audience of all ages,
(15:35):
but obviously a health conscious and purposebased audience. And I think it's important
nowadays for all companies for profit tohave a philanthropic aspect. It resonates with
consumers. So we're curious, lexsay, give us an example of a
cocktail that you would enjoy using clear, clean American rum. So my favorite
(15:56):
cocktail across the board in general isalways going to be a dirty martini.
But I love making a dirty cleartenie. It's honestly my favorite way to
enjoy clear. It's so tasty andit really shows the quality and character of
the spirit. So to make that, it's two and a half ounces of
clear rum, a half ounce ofdry removed, a half ounce of olive
(16:18):
brine juice, and then you justlet that sit in some ice, maybe
give it a little swirl, andthen serve it straight up in a chilled
martini glass with some clips. Ilove dirty martini's. They're so good,
they really are. And the moreolive juice or pickle juice the better.
Yeah, you know, I'm realto actually try this product, mellyew about
you. I am too. Sofar, we've tasted some of the RTDs
(16:42):
and of course we were sipping theclear neat Now we're going to try them
in cocktails. This is a terrificoption for people who want something that they
want that clean taste with the RTDthe lower calorie, less sugar, it's
really great for the beach, forthe pool year round. So I think
you're going to be a big success, and I'm sure that you Lexi Clothes
(17:03):
are contributing to it because of yourvaluable experience working with your family and the
distilling and now it's clear. Yes, it's been a wonderful journey. I've
loved every step of it and allof these great products that we get to
create and get to put in thehands of consumers that so far, the
feedback has been great and we lovethat people love it, and we want
to keep making products that people love. Well. We hope you have a
(17:26):
clear and strong future ahead at ClearRealm, and we really want to thank
you for joining us today on theConnected Table. Yes, thank you for
having me. This has been somuch fun and for all our listeners.
Again, the website is Clear Realm. That's k l yr Clear, just
to make sure you've got the rightvision of it. And we hope everyone
drinks responsibly and enjoys tasting and discoveringproducts as much as we do. Thank
(17:51):
you very much. We're Melanie Youngand David Ransom and the Connected Table and
our message is always stay insatiably curious. You've been listening to The Connected Table
SIPs with Melanie Youung and David Ransom. To listen to more in depth features
with the movers and shakers who shapethe wine, food spirits and hospitality industry,
(18:15):
tune into our companion show, TheConnected Table Live. You can tune
into the live broadcast on Wednesdays attwo pm Eastern Time on W four CY
Radio, easy to find at wwdot W fourcy dot com, or listen
to all our shows anytime at iHeartdot com and on the iheartapp. Connect
(18:37):
with us on Twitter at Connected Table, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Under the connected table, And rememberalways stay insatiably curious.
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