Legacy Poured into Every Glass - Michael Martinez

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Michael Martinez is the Founder of Fincasa Whiskey.  Fincasa is a heritage blend of Rye Whiskey finished in Origin Rum Barrels to share the stories of our ancestors. Rooted in tradition and inspired by his family’s history in Puerto Rican Agriculture, Fincasa's Rum Barrel Finished Rye Whiskey highlights the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Summary:

When Michael Martinez took the brave step from military service to whiskey entrepreneurship, he poured his Puerto Rican heritage into every bottle of Fincasa Whiskey. Our latest episode takes you through the riveting narrative of this trailblazer, whose second-generation roots and family's agricultural legacy in Puerto Rico weave a rich tapestry behind the brand's rum barrel-finished rye whiskey. Michael's story is brimming with the essence of Latin American and Caribbean tradition, and his passion for celebrating culture through spirits is both infectious and inspiring.

As Michael recounts his collegiate days and brotherhood in a fraternity, you'll feel the warm embrace of the Latino community that shaped his identity and fueled his aspirations. The camaraderie and mentorship he found among his peers provided a springboard for ambition, teaching him valuable lessons in resilience and the significance of 'your people.' Michael also opens up about the challenges he faced in funding his education, revealing how military service offered unexpected pathways and a drill sergeant's advice that would change the course of his life.

Wrapping up the conversation, we explore the craft behind Fincasa Whiskey and how Michael's entrepreneurial journey is marred with obstacles, from navigating the legalities of starting a whiskey company to partnering with distilleries for his signature rum barrel finish. Yet, through perseverance and strategic collaborations, Michael's vision came to life, capturing the essence of his ancestry with every sip. Join us as we toast to Michael Martinez's tale of culture, identity, and the relentless pursuit of a dream that honors a rich past while crafting a distinctly flavorful future.

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Intro Song: Regaeton Pop - Denbow Ambiance

Episode Transcript

Raul Lopez (00:04):
This is Raul Lopez and you're listening to how Do
you Save Success in Spanglish.
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in Spanglish what'sgood, mi gente.

(00:30):
Welcome back to how Do you SaySuccess in Spanglish.
It's your boy, raul.
Thanks for joining me today.
Our guest is Michael Martinez.
How's it going, michael?
What's going on, brother?
How you doing Good man?
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Just to kind of give everybodya little background on Michael.
Michael Martinez is the founderof Fincasa Whiskey.
Fincasa is a heritage blend ofrye whiskey finished in origin

(00:53):
rum barrels to share the storiesof our ancestors, Rooted in
tradition and inspired by hisfamily's history in Puerto Rican
agriculture.
Fincasa's rum barrel finishedrye whiskey highlights the rich
cultures of Latin America andthe Caribbean.
Pincasso's Rum Barrel FinnishRye Whiskey highlights the rich
cultures of Latin America andthe Caribbean.

Michael Martinez (01:09):
How's it going , michael?
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Man, yeah, thank you for havingme.
I know we were just kind oftalking a little bit earlier
that this has been months in themaking.
I know when you first startedthis whole journey, I reached
out to you and tried to connectand, as life is, we just got
really busy.
I got super busy with thebusiness, you got super busy
with the podcast, which has beengoing great.

(01:33):
So I'm glad we're finally ableto do this and we're here
knocking it out.

Raul Lopez (01:39):
Yeah, exactly, man, it's been.
I think you're one of the firstpeople to hit me up the moment
I posted up like my first fewepisodes and I was like, oh,
this is going to be awesome, andthen we just never got there.
So I mean that's life right,it's always like that, but I do
appreciate it, man.
So I guess, to start off, letthe world know you who is
Michael Martinez.

Michael Martinez (01:58):
Yeah, so I am a I would guess second
generation Puerto Rican fromLong Island, new York.
My family, my father, was bornin Puerto Rico.
I was born in Puerto Rico andthen quickly moved back to New
York.
My mother's from New York, butshe's Puerto Rican and she

(02:19):
couldn't deal with just livingin El Campo of Puerto Rico, so
we had to move back to New Yorkright.
I grew up in Long Island, newYork, Went to school there,
hofstra University alumni,joined the Army, you know still
serving in the military, theArmy Reserves, work as a
civilian in the Army andcurrently today, you know,

(02:42):
started a passion project ofmine of a whiskey business which
is fincasa um, and that's kindof like, I would say, the spark
notes of my life.
If I, if I, if I wentindividually, each year by year,
we'd be here forever so, yeah,I got you.

Raul Lopez (02:56):
No, no, but I appreciate it, man, and and like
you said, you were born inpuerto rico and then you came
out here, but you said you, yourmom, didn't like living in El
Campo.
You know?
Can you explain what El Campois?

Michael Martinez (03:08):
Yeah.
So for those that know, elCampo is just like, kind of like
, it's like the stick.
So for us in America it'sanything where there's almost
nothing there, where maybe nineout of 10 times your bathroom is
an outhouse, um, you don't havehot water, um, and you're
cooking maybe, you know, ifyou're lucky you have an

(03:29):
electric stove, or if not,you're cooking with just fire,
um, so in Puerto Rico there'splenty of regions that, um, we
would consider El Campo or, youknow, in different parts of
Latin America, where it's just,um, it's just kind of like the,
the woods, it's, the farmland,it's.
It's just kind of like thewoods, the farmland, it's it's.
You know, you're, you're notnear, you're not near a city at
all.
Your closest neighbor could be,you know, maybe five minutes

(03:51):
away, maybe 30 minutes away, andsometimes it takes a long windy
road to get to where you'regoing.
And my mother, you know, growingup in New York, that was quite
the adjustment, going fromsuburbs to to kind of the
mountain life of Puerto Rico,and it just was not her flavor.

(04:11):
And so after I was born, youknow, they moved back to to to
New York and that's where I grewup in Long Island.

Raul Lopez (04:19):
Nice, yeah.
As someone who married a NewYorkian and moved into suburban
wooded area of Houston, texasfor a few years, I totally know
that shocker.
You know when she'd look in thebackyard and it's just dark in
this woods.
Who did you send me to and whyare there so many bugs?
It's like, yeah, but you talkabout living in a campo, and I

(04:40):
think one of the things youmentioned on your website too as
well is that your family has ahistory of Puerto Rican
agriculture.
Is that why they were living inthat?

Michael Martinez (04:47):
compound.
Yeah, it's kind of you know nowthe land or where the area where
the farm was, it's just a wholebunch of houses where it's just
different.
You know family members, youknow it's kind of like one of
those evolutionary things whereit's like okay, after a while

(05:10):
you go from farmland tosectioning off pieces of the
land to give to family membersso they could build houses.
And the family farms you knowwere mainly in the mountain
areas of Guayama and Patias inPuerto Rico, so that's like the
southeast portion of Puerto Rico, just on the other side of the
mountain from San Juan.
And you know they had thosefarms from the early 1900s.

(05:38):
You know we could I could dateit back as late or as early as
like the late 1800s.
Before that it's just, you know, census stuff wasn't really
popular, but we were able toidentify exactly what the farms
were, what they had, what theywere producing, how many acres
was it.
So it's really cool to knowthat our family's history was

(05:58):
rooted in that agriculture andsupporting Puerto Rico and
slowly has evolved to wherewe're able to live on the land
that that kind of gave back tous.

Raul Lopez (06:07):
Right, so, and how long did you live in Puerto Rico
?

Michael Martinez (06:12):
Oh man, I must've been, I must've been a
baby barely yeah, barely barelya year.
You know a true New Yoricanhere.
But but you know, I, I go backfrequently, frequently.
I go back more often now um,especially with the business,
because you know, it's just niceto visit um, and it should be.

(06:33):
It's a beautiful place to be,especially outside the san juan
area, um, it's, it's really coolto check out the mountain areas
and, you know, find a hibato,or you know, go out in the campo
and just see what life is likeout there yeah, it's um, I think
for a lot of latinos, we it's abig part of our lives when we
go back to our home countrysometimes, or we go visit family

(06:54):
, like I had my uncles too, whoowned a chocolate a little, a
little farm in.

Raul Lopez (06:58):
You know acres of mango trees and all these other
farming and stuff like that we'dspend the day and it's just
like an outhouse with a hole andthey're cooking everything with
wood fire and you're justspending the day no electricity,
no internet, no nothing, andit's just a whole different
world.
So I think it impacts a lot ofus and so obviously maybe not
not much of a big impact fromyou moving to New York from that

(07:20):
point you know when you.

Michael Martinez (07:26):
But what was, was?
What was life in new york foryou guys?
Yeah, we just kind of grew up,um, really in the suburbs, um,
which if you're familiar withlong island, it's probably um by
train, maybe about anywherebetween 30 minutes, you know, as
far out east, up to an hour anda half east of of the city.
Um know, depending on traffic,it could be anywhere from an

(07:47):
hour to two hours to get to thecity.
So it's a lot more.
It's not as city-like wherethere's just like, apartment
buildings and a whole bunch oftrain systems.
It's very suburban, you know.
There's a whole bunch ofstreets, houses, neighbors,
right next to you.
So it was really cool to, Iguess, experience that part of

(08:11):
Long Island and that part of NewYork.
And I think it was alsointeresting is because, like,
the town I grew up in was fairlydiverse in terms of minorities
between white, black and Latino,and as I grew older, that
Latino influence just continuedto come in to the school and

(08:34):
throughout my childhood.
So as I got older, it almostfelt like I was exposed to more
Latino ethnicities andnationalities and got to
understand.
You know, there's there's aculture outside of just being
Puerto Rican Because, you know,you know, my frame of reference

(08:56):
growing up was, as you know, afive year old was hey, the only
thing that exists is a PuertoRican Right.
And it wasn't until I got olderthat, you know, I would learn
that there's other nationalitiesacross Latin America and
Caribbean.

Raul Lopez (09:10):
Yeah, I mean I'm not one to shy away from it, but I
grew up very not liking beingLatino for a long time and I was
very into black culture morethan anything growing up and it
wasn't, I think, until I got tocollege and actually joining
once again for think, until Igot to college and actually
joining once again fortransparency, or one of my
fraternity brothers, you know,joining our frat where I ended
up kind of getting more involvedin learning about my culture

(09:33):
and really embracing it orwhatever.
So you know you talk aboutembracing the different culture.
How has that impacted your lifeand how has that changed you?

Michael Martinez (09:42):
Yeah, I think, I think it's just kind of, you
know, being a Latino, like it.
It it's different, right, it'sI.
I don't want to, like you know,sit here and, and you know,
compare um, but it is adifferent culture, um, but it's
it, it's, it's.
It's a lot of fun, it'ssomething I, like, I grew up
with, right, I grew up listeningto um merengengue at the house,

(10:04):
or bachata, or salsa, you know,going to different part, like
family parties, and justexperiencing that.
So it was a big part of mychildhood.
And then, growing up, and, youknow, being surrounded by other
Latinos, it just felt veryfamiliar to me and like, I said,

(10:24):
like, like, probably in myelementary school it was
probably me and like one otherkid that was that ended up being
Dominican.
I thought he was Puerto Ricanalso, but he's Dominican, right,
you know, it was just us.
And then it was, you know, blackpeople and white people and you
know I fell into the crowd ofblack people and then, growing

(10:45):
up, I was like, oh, there's likea.
And you know, I fell into thecrowd of black people and then,
growing up, I was like, oh,there's like a whole entire, you
know, world of Latino peopleout there and it was, you know,
I embraced it, you know, middleschool and, into high school,
joined, you know the differentSpanish clubs that we had, and
then it eventually evolved into,like going to college and

(11:06):
joined the fraternity.
So it was something that, youknow, I felt very familiar with
and I would guess I kind of useit as almost like oh hey, these
are my people, right, like if,no matter where I go, I know I
could always navigate to thesegroup of Latinos and there's
always, like these inside jokes,that that you would have and
that you just understood being aLatino, versus, like you know,

(11:28):
if you were hanging out withyour, uh, your white friends or
your African-American friends.
It's just like there's certainnuances that they didn't
understand of my family styleand I didn't understand of
theirs, um, but but working orbeing with Latinos, like you
just got, you just understood it, you got it.

Raul Lopez (11:46):
Yeah, it's like there's so many different
cultures, countries andbackgrounds and from everywhere,
but there's still a very commonthread amongst all of us that
you know you go.
You go to one bird, you go toone quinceanera, you go to one
party.
You know it might be slightdifferences, but you still get
the same vibe, you still get thesame love.
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
And so you talked about, uh,college.
I'm talking a little about um,what is it hoffman?

Michael Martinez (12:08):
yeah, hoffstra university.
So, um, I went to hoffstrauniversity, uh, as my undergrad
was in political science, um, Iwas pursuing uh minors in
history and uh, economics and Ithink I was like a credit short
and I was just like, yeah, I'mnot going to worry about that.
So I never I never graduatedwith a minor, but I got my

(12:30):
degree.
That's all that matters.
And while I was in at HofstraUniversity, I pledged a Zeta
chapter, filed off of afraternity, and it was a really
cool experience and I reallyenjoyed being a part of a
brotherhood of, you know, of menthat we had goals for ourselves

(12:53):
, right, it wasn't just likewe're here to party, here to be
being a common goals, and we allhad different goals and it was
almost like we would push eachother to make sure that we've
made our goals and we, we heldeach other accountable.

(13:15):
So growing up or experiencingthat in college really allowed
me to kind of, you know, becomean adult and have expectations
for myself and kind of holdmyself accountable.
And it also exposed me to, youknow, when you're in a frat, you
have to do events, you have todo certain things to kind of

(13:35):
maintain the status of activity.
So it required us, it requiredme to like kind of branch out
and figure out things like allright, well, we're running a
banquet this year.
What do we have to do?
Um, you know, event management,um, organizational structure,
uh, understanding, okay, hey, wegotta gotta identify new
interests, we gotta recruit.
You know, there's all thesenuances that that you don't

(13:57):
really realize until until youlook at it years later.
Like the joining the fraternityand the brotherhood allowed you
to kind of have a stepping stonein in in business culture and
setting expectations foryourself.
Um, so I think it reallyprepared me for for life after
college, um, but then alsoallowed me to have this network

(14:20):
of those, those, um, latino menthat you know I still talk to
today and you know, we, we talkall the time about, like hey,
what are we, what are our goalsfor this year, what are our
expectations?
And if one of us is not meetingthat kind of standard or
expectations that we have ofourselves, like we hold each
other accountable, like, hey,dude, like last year was not

(14:42):
your year, let's, let's figureit out.
Like what do you like?
What do we have to do to tokind of get you going again Like
what's what's going on, Iseverything okay and it's a
support system right.
It's a wonderful support system.
I still, you know, we inviteeach other to to our kids'
birthday parties, baby showers,weddings we have all these
events.
We do retreats every you know,every few years that we have the

(15:04):
opportunity to.
So it's been a greatopportunity to experience that
within the Brotherhood, butoutside of just the Brotherhood.
For college I was in ROTC.
I had joined the Army aftercollege and primarily in the
Army Reserves.

(15:25):
Hoss University is kind of likejust a school in Long Island,
nothing crazy.
So yeah, that's kind of mycollege life, I guess.

Raul Lopez (15:36):
Well, I mean, you bring up a good point and it's
very interesting.
I mean, not that this is arecruitment video, but just
being involved with like-mindedindividuals.
And it's kind of why I wantedto create this podcast too,
where it's like I want to getour voices and have people
realize that there are otherpeople with like-minded stuff
that go through stuff and getsuccess and, you know, put it in

(15:57):
motivated, hopefully, encourageeach other.
You know your story, my story,anybody's story, can help
encourage us to move forward andI story my story, anybody's
story can help encourage us tomove forward.
And I think it's reallyimportant for us because you go,
you do go into college feelinglike a small brown face in a
white, in a white wave and, uh,you're alone, you don't feel

(16:17):
like other people can relate.
And when you do meet that groupof people whether it's through
a fraternity, a sorority or astudent group or something like
that, that puts you around withother people like yourself that
are motivated, that are lookingto do stuff and then graduate,
and they continue to staymotivated and continue to help
each other out.
You know it's what they callall ship rise with the tide kind
of deal.

Michael Martinez (16:37):
Yeah, yep, yep , all the all ships rise with
the tide and you know I've heardthat phrase plenty of times in
different aspects of my life.
But it really is like I view mycollege experience as being
very fortunate.
I understand, you know, andrecognize that my experience is
probably not the same aseveryone else's and I think I'm

(17:00):
very fortunate to have been ableto be surrounded by
professional organization wherewe have goals and we have
expectations of ourselves andand I think the bonus is that
you know, we're predominantlyLatino and and we could, we, we
see each other in our own faces,right.
So it's really cool to be ableto experience that and as part

(17:23):
of you know, as, just like thispodcast, like, how do you say
success in Spanglish?
It's that that's part of it,right Surrounding yourselves
with a group of Latino, latina,you know, men and women that
where we all have a goal ofbeing successful.

Raul Lopez (17:39):
Exactly, and so you talk about during the army.
Did you know you were going tojoin the army while you were in
college, or was it kind of likemaybe?

Michael Martinez (17:47):
Yeah, so this is a.
This is a funny story, you know.
Well I think it's comical to me, but so so I had joined the
army after my my sophomore yearof college because I just I
couldn't pay for school.
Sophomore year of college,because I just I couldn't pay
for school, you know, it got tothe point of where my loans were

(18:09):
, were getting denied and I didnot have an opportunity Like I
didn't have it elsewhere to go.
You know, my first two years Itook out the whatever loans they
were going to give me, betweenfederal loans and and private
loans, which, you know, thoseprivate loans sucked.
They still suck.

Raul Lopez (18:25):
by the way, 20 years later, they still suck.

Michael Martinez (18:30):
So I was kind of like at a crossroads of like,
well, what am I going to do?
Because completing college wasimportant, right, it was a thing
that I had to.
That was kind of like anexpectation of me and I was like
, all right, well, I got tofinish it.
I'm already two years in deep.
I'm already in this much debt.

(18:51):
Like, if I don't seek to finishthis, I I've almost like did
this for nothing.
Um, so I've always saw thosecommercials like, hey, join the
army, we'll pay for school.
And I was that guy.
I was like, well, you know whatI'm going to do, it, let's go
ahead.
I had zero issues with themilitary or during the military.

(19:11):
I never considered it and I waslike, yeah, maybe this would be
a cool opportunity for me tohave my school get paid for,
while also maybe haveopportunities to travel.
That'll be really cool to like,you know, just kind of travel
and see the world.
Um, so I had enlisted firstinto the army, um and to, to.

(19:33):
For those that are unfamiliarwith how the army works, it's
almost like there's a separationbetween enlisted soldiers and
then officers.
Um, and pretty much the way Iexplain it, enlisted soldiers
are like the workers right, theyare out there, they're the

(19:54):
worker bees, they're doingeverything to make sure
everything runs.
The officers they're like thesupervisors and managers and
planners right, they're creatingplans and supervising the
worker bees.
So you know, both sides havetheir purpose.
Most people that join themilitary are enlisted.

(20:17):
You don't need a college degreeto enlist, but there is a
secondary route where you can goto school, earn your degree and
then become an officer, or youcan, if you already have your
degree, you, go into themilitary as an officer.
That route exists.
And how I could get, you knowthe school paid for I just

(20:46):
immediately walked intorecruiter's office and I said,
hey, you know, I got to pay forschool.
What do I have to do?
And he's like all right, we'lltake this test and sign here,
and that's.
That's essentially like what Idid, right, I just signed my.
I was like all right, cool,like like, let's do it.
So I had enlisted.

(21:06):
And then when I was in boot camp, um, you know, I was talking to
one of my drill sergeants andhe kind of just pulled me over
his side.
He's like hey, hey, listen, man, I, I know you went to, you're
going to college and and youended up here.
He's like why, why the hell areyou here?
Why didn't you do like rltc orsomething?
I was like what's rltc?
I was like he's like like right, dear, dear, uh, deer, in the
headlights moment, I'm just likewhat are you talking about, man
?
And then he explained to mehe's like all right, this is
where RLTC is.

(21:27):
Um, this is how it works.
They pay for you to go toschool, they pay for your school
, they give you a stipend, um,for your books.
And he just broke everythingdown to me.
So I was like all right, so soI need to figure out how do I,
after I leave here, go to dothat?
Right?
So I put all my effort intoresearching it after I finished

(21:50):
boot camp, because I went to asecondary school, which is
advanced individual training,which is like where you kind of
train for your job.
So I get there, I do myresearch, I contact so my school
that I was going to, hofstraUniversity, has an ROTC
department.
I reached out to them.
I said, hey, this is mysituation.
They said, all right, onceyou're done, come, come here and

(22:13):
we'll figure out what we can dofor you.
Literally the day I get back toNew York.
Like, I get off the plane, Isee my family.
The very next morning I gostraight to the ROTC department
with like, like, and in themilitary they hand you, like,
these thick folders with all ofyour admin data, like everything
every paperwork that they havefor you is in this thick folder.

(22:35):
So I take that thick folder, Ibring it to the ROTC department,
I put it on their desk.
I'm like, what can you guys dofor me?
And luckily, like you know, Iwas able to.
I was, I was given theopportunity to, you know, um,
they gave me a scholarship, um,for the rest of my school, and
including that scholarship werestipends, and then at the end of

(22:57):
it I would, you know,commission into the Army
Reserves.
And then, you know, that wasthat day where I had joined and
went to boot camp was 14 yearsago.
So so it's, you know, I I kindof viewed it again.
I was very fortunate in, in that, someone that was kind of
looking out for me and was like,hey, here's a route that you

(23:20):
could take, here's theopportunity.
And I took advantage of thatopportunity.
I was able to pay for half ofmy school through the army
scholarship and it worked outreally great.
But for those people that youknow, if you're listening to
this video and you're looking toenlist, do your research,
because it's not an automatic.
We'll pay for your school.

(23:40):
There's very specific schoolsthat they pay for and specific
routes that you have to gothrough to have school paid for.
So my again, my ignorance kindof led me into this weird, you
know, windy path to get schoolpaid for, and that's ultimately
why I joined joined the army.

(24:00):
But you know I don't I don'tregret it.
It led me into a career withinthe army and I'm very, very
grateful and thankful for forhaving going through that the
the long way around.

Raul Lopez (24:14):
Yeah, I mean's um, you don't know what, you don't
know kind of deal.
Yeah, um, for a lot of us, youknow, I think we'd end up in a
situation where it's like, ohshit, I gotta pay for this.
You know, either before or evenlike after I mean, when I, when
I graduated too, I was like,yeah, I'm gonna have to lose
some weight because I might haveto try to join the military to

(24:35):
help pay for my school.
Getting a job, even a decentpaying job in the early 2000s,
was hard with the recession andeverything, I think we've all
kind of been there like, oh shit, how am I going to pay for this
?
This is a lot more expensivethan I thought it was going to
be.
I'm glad it worked out for you.
You did mention that you hadkind of a career in the military

(24:57):
.
Is that what you started doingonce you graduated?

Michael Martinez (25:00):
Yeah, so after I had graduated, I ended up
getting connected with someonethat their mother was a vice
president of a governmentcontracting company, and so
after our military school that'show I met this person they're
like hey, if you want to workfor the company you know, you

(25:24):
give my mother your resumes, andthat's one of those, again, one
of those lessons about it'sabout who you know not what you
know.
sometimes so again I was verythankful that I was able to be
connected with someone thatagain was looking out for me and
was like hey, here's anopportunity.
You know I take thatopportunity and I kind of just

(25:45):
run with it, so that kind of gotmy foot into into the
government.
And then you know all the wayin today that that was almost 10
years ago and up until todayI'm a civilian for the
Department of the Army justdoing admin stuff.
So you know it was grateful tohave that opportunity, but to

(26:05):
also like seize that opportunityand kind of make sure, hey,
like I want to stick around thisbecause it lent out to a really
good career it led out to to areally good career, nice.

Raul Lopez (26:19):
And so I think we've all kind of been in a situation
where we're sitting with ourbuddies having a beer, having a
drink, and we're like, oh shit,we should open a bar, we should,
we should start a brewery, soso.
So when did that all startturning for you?
When did these conversationsstart happening for you?

Michael Martinez (26:30):
Yeah, so the whole whiskey thing, um, I kind
of tell people it's my quarterlife crisis, right, where I, you
know, at the point of which Ikind of had the idea I was like
about eight years into my careeras a civilian and, and you know
, sometimes it just feelsstagnant.

(26:50):
It's like all right, well, youknow what's what's really next.
I'm coming to the office everysingle day and do what I have to
do.
Come home, I'm not notcomplaining that, you know it's,
it's a bad lifestyle, butsometimes I think the
expectation or expectations Ihave for myself is like all
right, well, I gotta I have togo do something and and do it to

(27:13):
the fullest, and and where ismy reward at the end of it?
Right, where, what is?
You know?
Um, how do I find personal joyor personal ambition in what I'm
doing?
And you know not saying that,um, my job supporting the army
does not give me personal joy,but sometimes there's, there's
no ambition in it.

(27:33):
Um, it's a, it's an office job,um, and and the moment that I
really had the idea of like awhiskey um is when I heard one
of my co-workers kind of like,oh hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go
retire in puerto rico and he'sjust like some random dude.
He, his wife, is puerto rican,but he's not puerto rican.

(27:54):
And then, just for me, I wasjust like what do you mean?
You're just gonna?
You have zero ties to PuertoRico, right, like you're just
gonna go there, like that.
That makes no like to me.
At that time, it made no sense.
I was like you're, you're crazy.
Um, and then that's when itkind of like clicked in my head
like you know well, what am Idoing to to, to get back to

(28:15):
Puerto Rico, or to give back toto Puerto Rico and our culture?
You know, I'm just sitting herein this mundane job and and
it's like, well, what, what am I?
What are you doing?
You know, looking at myself inthe mirror, like what are you
doing?
So then, so then I startedthinking like, well, what, what
could I do?
And then that's where I juststart having like these random
ideas, crazy ideas.

(28:36):
And at that time I had justbuilt a bar in my basement.
Um, so, so, like, literally,I'm just like staring at the
wall.
I'm like, well, what if youjust do whiskey, right, like, is
that, even if?
Like, is that?
Like, is that even a thing is?
Is there?
Does puerto rican whiskey exist?
Does, does?
Does a Puerto Rican whiskeybrand even exist?

(28:57):
Right?
I started asking myself thesequestions and I'm just like all
right, well, you know, if itdoesn't exist, how do I, how do
I make it happen?
So, so then I just kind ofspiraled in into this, like like
thought of, or question tomyself of, like all right, well,
how, how does puerto ricanwhiskey, or why doesn't exist?

(29:18):
Right, because we know aboutrum, plenty of puerto rican rums
.
So it was just like all right,well, why isn't there a whiskey
company?
All right, and just asked,learning that you know, it's
probably five times as much toto make whiskey in puerto rico
than it is rum and, by the way,rum gets certain tax incentives
because it's, it's anagricultural product of puerto
rico.
So, like there's, there's adisadvantage already.

(29:41):
And, and you know, um, drinking, drinking or making whiskey in
puerto rico, uh, at a businessperspective, does not really
make sense.
Um, and then again with thequestion of of, I was just like
all right, and I kept focusingon whiskey, because I'm like we,
as Latinos, we're whiskeydrinkers, right, we drink our

(30:05):
Johnny Walker, we drink ourBuchanans, right, we drink
Dewar's.
Right, it's everywhere.
But again, I kept coming.
Some of these questions I keptcoming back on is like, well,
what are we doing for ourselves?
Like, why isn't there a whiskeycompany that represents us and
represents our culture, ourheritage?
There's these whiskey brandsthat are selling to our people,

(30:29):
advertising to, you know, latinAmerica and the Caribbean, but
they're not really telling ourstories, they're not reflective
of our lifestyle, other thanthat we drink whiskey and they
provide it to us, right?
So then I kind of was like allright, well, if I'm going to do
this whiskey thing, I have toreally understand and learn

(30:52):
about whiskey.
So then I went on this wholeentire rabbit hole for like an
entire year and thankfully, thatyear that I went to, this
rabbit hole of learning aboutwhiskey was the pandemic, so
it's a good time to startlearning.
So so I literally was justbuying like different types of
whiskey bottles and justlearning everything about the
process, from from the verybeginning of of selecting your

(31:14):
grain that you can use forwhiskey, all the way up to
distilling, to the barrel aging,to maturation, barrel finishing
, like every aspect that youcould possibly learn.
I just put myself to you know,to learn about it and to really
understand it and, at the sametime, you know, going back to

(31:35):
that question of like, well,what are you doing about?
You know, for Puerto Rico, it'slike, all right, well, how can I
tie this to our culture, howcan I tie this to our heritage
and family history?
What could it be?
What, what, what am I, what ismy end state?
What is my goal for thiswhiskey brand?

(31:58):
Not just to be, haverepresentation, but, you know,
to tell, tell the stories of ourculture and our heritage
through the bottle.
You know, have it berepresentative of someone where
you could pick up the bottle andsay, hey, yeah, I could see
myself in this bottle or I couldsee myself in the pictures or
the cocktails that we make.
Right, there's some sort ofrepresentation there.

(32:25):
So, you know, had the questionstarted drilling down, learning
about everything, and then justkind of took that deep dive into
it and just, you know, said allright, well, we're going to
throw the dart at the wall andhopefully it sticks.
And you know, I'm very thankfulthat.
You know we.
We started first startingbottling in October.
Our first batch and our firstbatch netted us around 800
bottles.
We have we have less than 300bottles left available.

(32:48):
So it's been a very great, youknow, first few months and now
we're starting to look atbottling our next few batches
and it's just kind of this wholerepetitive process of buying
more whiskey, putting them inrum barrels and then and then
waiting for them to to finishfor about six months to a year,
and then bottling and then kindof repeating that process over

(33:09):
and over again right, yeah, andit's funny you mentioned that
because I was actually one of myquestions.

Raul Lopez (33:13):
Like you know, growing up you'd go to the
parties and you know the the oldmen come out and that johnny
walker red comes out and youknow they open it and they get.
You just walk in and all themen are holding their little
johnny walker.
And is whiskey such a big partof the like latino culture?
Uh, and we don't get involved.
I mean, granted, you knowhistory of whiskey, you know

(33:33):
it's very dominated up there ineurope, but you know, yeah, why
not?
You know, and I think that's avery important question.
I'm glad you know um it.
It was a question.
You're asking something that'smotivated you because you know,
I, I agree, I think there isopportunity there for for us, um
, to kind of get involved.
So, um, and so can I explainwhat does Fincaza mean?

Michael Martinez (33:55):
Yeah, so Fincaza.
We just took two words, smashedit together Finca meaning farm
and casa meaning house.
Right, it's our farmhouse, oryou know where a home is.
You know home is where theheart is, but it's also like
where our farmland is andagriculture.
And the name Fincasa reallycame about when I started this

(34:20):
whole process of understandingabout whiskey and what I want to
give back.
There's also like a moment ofself-reflection of like who am I
?
Right, I know I'm Puerto Rican,but I know my parents, I know
my grandparents.
But like, like, what else?
Right, and I feel like.
I feel like us, as Latinos, wedo a really bad job of passing

(34:43):
on the stories of our, of ourprior generations, right, like,
sometimes, like our familymembers just don't even want to
talk about it, right, it's justlike, oh, like I came here for
my country, I woke, I worked sohard for you and this is where
we are today.
Be thankful, right, but wedon't talk about what happened

(35:03):
in between, right?
So I kind of wanted to do thatfor myself.
I was like all right, well, letme understand my culture or my
heritage a little better.
I did the whole DNA ancestrything and what was cool about
ancestry was you're able tobuild a little better.
I did the whole DNA ancestrything and what was cool about
ancestry was, like you're ableto like build a family tree and
because Puerto Rico is aCommonwealth of the United

(35:26):
States, there's a lot ofdocuments up until like around
like 1880 is like that timeframe of reference where we
still have a lot of documentsand censuses that we could just
find online and it'spre-translated.
So I was able to like reallybuild out my family tree.

(35:46):
On certain aspects, like goingall the way back to Spain and
then other aspects, just kind ofjust seeing this, this mixture,
just like, of indigenous peopleand Spanish people and just
like kind of like just thejibaros in Puerto Rico, just
like starting these families andhaving these farmlands and so

(36:07):
like that's where I kind ofreally understood like oh, like
my family came from farming inPuerto Rico, like we have all
these documents and this, this,that that say, hey, this is the
farmland, this is the exact areain Guayama or Patias, right,
and this is exactly what theyhad.
They had corn, they had sugarcane coffee, you know, they had

(36:28):
cows, they had mango trees, likeall of these different aspects
of like when you go back to likewhen I go back to Puerto Rico,
or when you go back to like,when I go back to Puerto Rico,
or when you go back to yourcountry, you know, you
experience that, you experiencethe fresh coffee, you experience
you know fresh mangoes, youexperience all these things.
So for me, it was like I that'swhen I started really feeling
connected and saying, oh, okay,this is what my family's about,

(36:50):
this is what that heritage andhistory is about.
So in creating a whiskey brand,you know, I wanted to make sure
that not only did it representme, but it represented all other
Latinos in the Caribbean, latinAmerica, and I felt like

(37:11):
agriculture and farming is acornerstone of what we do, and
whether it's back in your homecountry, where you know your
family owns farms, or you come,you're coming over into America
to work on farms, right, we?
This is kind of like acornerstone pillar of our
identity and taking those freshingredients from the farm and

(37:36):
putting it and cooking it with,you know, in our foods.
So I wanted to make sure thatthat, that story and and that
branding, is what representedour, our, our company of Fincasa
again, finca and house and so.
So that's kind of where Fincasacame from and a lot of the
design elements on the bottleitself is that story of my

(38:00):
family having farms in PuertoRico.
The back part of the label is areplica of the agricultural
census that we were able to findand we were able to put all the
information about the whiskeyson there and we're able to put
you know all the informationabout the whiskeys on there and
we're also able to kind of payhomage to my great-grandfather's

(38:21):
farm and put his farm numberthat he had on the census, so
that number's back on the backlabel.
Then on the front side of thelabel we have like just like
this picture of a drawn well, ofa drawing of mountains and like
a farmland and a house.
Because for me, like I know mostpeople, when they talk about

(38:42):
Puerto Rico they think about thebeaches and and like, like all
the fun, but like there's thiswhole amazing culture in the
mountains of Puerto Rico.
That if, if you know, wheneveryou go, I always, I always
emphasize to people that,talking about visiting Puerto
Rico, I'm like, oh, you have togo to, you know, guavate to get
Lechon, you have to go to CasaVieja in the mountains, and and

(39:03):
just look over the, the throughthe window and just see the
Valley of the mountain range,like there's such a rich culture
that exists in the mountains.
And that's part of the story Iwanted to tell and emphasize is
like like hey, there's stillpeople today in puerto rico

(39:26):
farming and, you know, givingcoffee, making coffee, coffee
companies there.
That still exists and um, Iwant to emphasize that on the
bottle.
And then we also have umelements of like cigars and
tobacco.
Uh, so on the front label wehave a replica of like a cigar
box label.
That's on the front.
And then on the top of the corkthere's a cigar ring right.

(39:47):
And my grandmother, when she wasa little girl, she grew up on
her father's cigar or, I guess,tobacco farm, so it would be my
great grandfather's farm, andshe used to sell the tobacco
leaves into the warehouse whenshe was a little girl to dry.
So the tobacco leaves would dryand then her father would would

(40:08):
either roll cigars or sell thetobacco leaves to other farmers.
And my, my great grandfather,he smokes a cigar every day of
his life until he was 92 yearsold.
And I remember, yeah, and Iremember, you know, and and if
you talk to puerto ricans likethey, they can have, they have
the same sentiment of this typeof like.
This story is that like.

(40:28):
I remember being a little boyand walking into his house and
then you just all you smellcigar smoke.
You just smell it and um, andyou know, when I went to Puerto
Rico last October, um, I justwent around with the bottle and
just was talking to people andyou could see in their faces
like that they felt connected tothe bottle.

(40:50):
And when I talked to Latinos,it's like they feel they, they
feel that sentiment and they'relike, yeah, you know, I remember
my family that had a farm in mycountry and and or, you know,
oh yeah, I remember when mygrand, my grandfather, he used
to smoke cigars and I rememberthat smell and and it just, it's
just like, it's just thatnostalgia feeling of like old

(41:11):
school.
You know, there's, there's,we're just hanging out having a
drink and that's why, like we,that's why it's fincasa and it's
representing our culture andheritage and that's why we
always emphasize culture,heritage and family right, it
represents that for for LatinAmerica and the Caribbean.

Raul Lopez (41:34):
And it's funny because my wife, my wife's also
Puerto Rican and when she talksabout she's from Juncos.
When she talks about PuertoRico, she doesn't talk about the
beach, she talks about themountains and the farming and
the agriculture.
She gets pissed off at how muchit's changed.
She's like they used to be allfarm.
They have all these buildingsand all these stores.
She misses it.

(41:54):
I think agriculture has a bigpart in, especially in puerto
rico.
Um, and I've been to.
We went to puerto rico, um, innovember too.
So my first time going there,we went to the mountains.
We in the mountains, we went tothe rainforest.
It's such a beautiful place,man, so I'm glad you, you know
you're putting that, puttingthat love in in in your business

(42:15):
.
So, um, but obviously startinga whiskey company isn't easy, um
, starting any company isn'teasy.
What?
were some of the challenges instarting a whiskey company yeah,
um, I I think to to so there.

Michael Martinez (42:29):
So there's a few, I would say, chapters of
challenges right um so.
So one chapter of challengesthat I experienced was just
getting my foot into the door.
Right it's.
Where do you even start?
Right, a lot of whiskey brandsor whiskey companies are

(42:52):
developed through prior peoplethat have like prior members.
Like it's, it's a thing that'syeah, it's a thing that's passed
down.
It's like, oh, okay, I learnedhow to distill from my great, my
grandfather and and my fatherand and we used to do moonshine,
and that's why I'm making awhiskey today.
Right, it's, it's usuallypassed down.
Or you just pay someone a lotof money to consult for you.

(43:17):
They find a distillery, you havea whiskey right, which I had.
Neither I did not have anyoneto teach me how to make whiskey
or I didn't have enough money topay someone to be a consultant
for me.
And, um, no one's out heregiving free chicken away.

(43:41):
Right, it's everything.
Everything has a cost, um, so Ireally had to figure out a lot
of things by myself.
Um, I had enrolled into adistilled spirits business
certificate through theUniversity of Louisville and a
lot of that kind of taught mesome of the business aspects of

(44:03):
what I would have to deal within terms of the legal side of
whiskey, because it's a wholedifferent world.

Raul Lopez (44:10):
It's not just like you can't, classes you could
take to learn how to get into it.
That's awesome.

Michael Martinez (44:15):
Absolutely.
Classes you could take to learnhow to get into that, that's
awesome, absolutely.
Yeah, there's a few classes andand there's a few um
universities as well ascompanies that that you pay and
they kind of teach you um.
So so I I self-enrolled in someof those opportunities in those
classes, uh, just to learn.
And and you know, there's onething about starting a business
right, like any, you can start abusiness.

(44:37):
There's certain rules.
It's a whole nother world inwhiskey, like because it's a
controlled substance, like, notnot controlled substance, but
like because, like, you have tobe, you know, 21 or older to buy
it.
You can't just sell it fromyour house.
Like, there's all of thesedifferent nuances and laws.
And then, oh, by the way, eachstate that you deal with has a

(44:58):
different way of how theyoperate.
Right, some states have control.
You know where the state ownsthe liquor store, other states
it's kind of a free market.
So you're always kind of havingto navigate yourself through
all of these legal differencesamongst the different states.
So I self-enrolled, I gotconnected.

(45:20):
I also got connected with afriend of mine that owns an
importing company where heimported mezcal and soto from
Mexico.
So I kind of helped him doingsome operational stuff and you
know I'm very thankful for himallowing me to kind of like

(45:42):
almost like a paid internshipkind of thing and because it
gave me the opportunity toreally learn about those legal
nuances, about, you know, how doyou import, how do you
warehouse, where do youwarehouse, the type of how to
submit for certain applications,how to process a purchase order
through distributor, how tofind a distributor right,
there's all these like littletiny steps.
Most people just walk into theliquor store and pick up a

(46:03):
bottle.
But you don't, you don't like,you don't really understand how
much work or paperwork requiresfor you to just walk into that
one store just to pick up thebottle.
You had to apply for licenses.
You had to.
You know your each label has togo through through a review
process where the government hasto approve your label before

(46:25):
you could sell it.
You know, and that's not evenspeaking on the portions of um,
getting my whiskey to miami,florida, where we do our barrel,
finishing, getting the rumbarrels and doing all that like
that's a whole nother piece ofcoordination that I have to take
responsibility of before iteven gets to your hands or in

(46:47):
the door.
So that first challenge orchapter of challenges is really
the legal and the nuances andthe compliance part of starting
a whiskey brand or whiskeycompany.
The second chapter that I wouldlike I want to highlight is

(47:11):
Puerto Rico government, puertoRican government.
Is Puerto Rico government,puerto Rican government?
Again, my ignorance kind ofleaves me to these windy roads
where I've taken the long roadinstead of the short road and
kind of going back to thatquestion where I had like, what
am I doing for Puerto Rico?
I was like, all right, well, myfirst idea and concept is to

(47:33):
have a whiskey brand in PuertoRico.
I'm going to bottle in PuertoRico.
I'm going to send barrels downthere.
I'm going to send barrels downthere.
I'm going to do it all inPuerto Rico and I I I opened up.
You know, I got a businesslicense in Puerto Rico, I got my
my business bank account inPuerto Rico and then I started
the process and it was just it.

(47:55):
It was it's not impossible,it's just the way that the
Puerto Rican government works.
It's very different thangovernments in the US, where you
almost have to be there fulltime in Puerto Rico to actually
make it happen, because you haveto go in person to La Hacienda

(48:19):
and talk to the taxrepresentative.
You have to go to your localpueblo's government to get this
certificate of business.
They have to do an inspectionof the location of the business,
which was my late grandmother'shouse, right, it's just like.
I'm like like I'm just puttingan address on onto the
application.

(48:40):
You're like okay, well, what,when can we visit the site?
And do you have parking spaces?
I'm like parking spaces, whatdo you mean?
I need to have parking space,right?
So it's all these like layersof of bureaucracy that I was
just unfamiliar with and and itwas time consuming.
Um, I didn't have.
You know, I don't have theluxury of just going to Puerto

(49:00):
Rico and staying there for a fewmonths to figure it out.
Um, so I had to.
I knew at that moment, like youknow, after this is like my
third or fourth time within ayear going to Puerto Rico trying
to just trying to get theselike small steps moving forward,
um, you know, I take one, Itake one step forward, and then
it felt like I was taking threesteps back, um, and, and a lot

(49:22):
of it is just, that's just howthey do business there, right,
it's a different.
So my expectations werecompletely different and I had
to really make that decision oflike, well, at this moment I
cannot, cannot open a barrelhouse or distillery in Puerto
Rico.
That's going to have to wait,but I need to make the moves now

(49:44):
to make sure that I could stilllaunch a whiskey brand.
So then I had pivoted tofinding a what we call a
co-packer in the US, and aco-packer is someone that kind
of handles everything for you.
Where you send them the barrels, they'll do the aging.
It's usually like you'repartnering with a distillery, so
they'll take care of everything.

(50:05):
You put your label on it andthen, once it leaves the
distillery, you're responsiblefor making sure the sales happen
, making sure it goes to awarehouse that has the proper
licensing to house the alcohol.
So you're responsible for that.
So I was fortunate enough thata distillery in Miami, florida,

(50:28):
big Cypress Distillery, which isalso a Latino-owned distillery
they make rum, they do somebarrel blends for whiskey.
They have an amazing gin he wasvery willing to help me make my
goal of, like all right, havingthis.
You know he heard my story.
He's like, hey, you have areally unique product idea.

(50:48):
Like I'm willing to help youout.
Like let's figure out, like youknow what we have to do, just
tell me when you want to sendbarrels here and what rum
barrels you want to take care of.
And you know, you know, and thetransaction is that I pay him
for for housing, I pay him forbottling, so each bottle there's

(51:09):
a cost for him to bottle, perbottle and any labor that he's
taking care of.
He's taking care of it and I'mpaying him for it.
And it really helped me outbecause now I didn't have to go
out and find my own warehouse orget my own equipment or do all
these other licensing thingswhere it would have been more

(51:31):
difficult for me because Ididn't have that capital to do
that.
So I was very fortunate of BigCypress Distillery for helping
me out with that and that'swhere we bottle and we do our
barrel aging for the rum barrelfinish.

Raul Lopez (51:47):
Nice.
Yeah, I think it was Decemberand I met someone who gets their
their their beer canned in asimilar fashion where you know
they came up with the recipe orthey came with the thing and
then they reached out to anactual brewery that brews it and
cans it for them and you know,like that.
So I was like that's prettyawesome and I think it gives an

(52:10):
opportunity for the small guy to, you know, get their foot in
the door before you know thatbearish entry can be really
difficult, especially with theamount of whiskeys and liquors
that are out there.
So, yeah, I'm glad that'ssomething that you were able to
find.
It's unfortunate you had tofind it the hard way, as usual.

Michael Martinez (52:29):
I like to take these long windy roads to just
to get from one point to another.

Raul Lopez (52:34):
No, yeah, yeah.
So is that a Puerto Rican thing?
I don't know, I think it is no,but that's awesome, man.
Well, you know what's it called?
One of the other questions Ihad, too, because you were
talking about it, was veryinteresting to me because it was
kind of one of the reasons Istarted this podcast was I?
I got into this book, um, shoedogs and um, it's about the guy

(52:57):
who started, uh nike, you knowand um one of the big parts that
really it's supposed to be.
It's really influential.
It's really good.
Uh, underdog story about acompany, um, but the early
stages of it is a guy and umwhen he when he finally decides
he's ready to do something andhe decides to do a shoe, a shoe
company.

(53:17):
You know, it's his father, whowas had connections with someone
who had connections in Japan,who had connections with a shoe
factory.
That was able to get him thatstarting conversation.
So you know, imagine, imaginetomorrow you want to start a
shoe company and you alreadyhave someone who knows someone,
that gets you in that door andI'm like that's not us, that's

(53:40):
not me.
My dad's a truck driver, we'reundocumented immigrants.
You know what I mean?
Like I can't go to my dad andsay I want to start this company
and he's like, yeah, I got aconnection in Europe to do that.
So sometimes we have to do itat the Harvard, we have to be
the trailblazers, and sopresenting your story hopefully
can help someone else.
Know, take some time andresearch Puerto Rico before you

(54:03):
start deciding to start acompany out there or something
like that.
And so is there for coming upwith your recipes and coming to
think is it you having to do alot of experimenting on which
barrels to use whiskey or how itgets distilled?

Michael Martinez (54:12):
which barrel to use with whiskey or how it
gets distilled.
Yeah, so when thinking aboutthis idea or concept, I
understood there are certainlimitations that I would never
be able to overcome, one beingdistilling fresh what we call
new make right, unaged whiskey,barreling it and waiting four or

(54:34):
five years before I couldactually use it in a product.
Right, that's that, you know.
One, I don't have the time andresources to do that.
And and two, um, that's aninvestment of you spending a lot
of money that you're not goingto see a return on for another
five or six years.
And, by the way, you can't justdo it that one year because you

(54:54):
have to have continuous product.
You have to do it every yearafter that and you have to
always be able to, like you'reforward, projecting your future
potential business sales off ofnothing.
Right, there's nothing to say,okay, hey, well, this year I'm
going to lay down 100 barrels.
Next year I'm going to do 200,because I know my whiskey will

(55:17):
be great and I'm going to sellthat much volume, and the next
year.
There's a real risk withwhiskey that once you hit that
mark, it tastes like shit, andit's a realization where you
have to be willing to take thatrisk.
So so I think a lot of peoplein the whiskey industry there's

(55:40):
there's certain risks that somepeople aren't willing to take,
like myself I'm I'm just likenot going to sit here and, and
you know, pretend that like I'mgoing to be able to, on my first
time around, make the world'sgreatest whiskey and do all this
cool stuff.
So, knowing that limitation, Iwanted to take a specific route

(56:02):
in how I was going to enter themarket, and the route I wanted
to take was buying what we callsourced whiskey.
So there's a few companies outthere that they produce hundreds
, if not hundreds of thousands,of gallons of whiskey and they
age it per year.
And there's a whole businessmodel behind doing this.

(56:25):
And then, once it's around,once it's aged, you sell it to
people like myself that want tobuy it.
So there's plenty of whiskeybrands out there on the shelves
that that like myself, where wedo not own a distillery Um, I
personally have zero plans toever own a distillery Um I want
to take high quality uh whiskeyproduct and then put my own spin

(56:49):
on it, which is doing the rumbarrel finish.
So I purchase, you know, thequality rye whiskey.
So when we're talking aboutwhiskey, there's a whole bunch
of different categories thatexist, right, there's single
malt, there's bourbon, there'srye whiskey, and those
categories are the type of grainor the predominant grain that

(57:13):
is used to make that whiskey.
So a lot of single malts youuse malted barley, bourbon is
predominantly corn and then ryewhiskey is predominantly using
the rye grain.
So what rye does?
It lends a, has more green andearthy notes, but it also has

(57:35):
this unique spice.
So if you ever have like ryebread, like there's this kind of
like, there's like subtle hintsof spice inside of that, that
rye bread that you have, andit's the same with the rye
whiskey.
So the rye whiskey has thisunique spice to it and but but
you know, it just doesn't stopthere.
It's like all right, well, howdo I take this, this rye whiskey

(57:58):
, and put my own spin on it,while also paying homage to my
culture in Puerto Rico and theheritage right, always going
back to that cornerstone?
We have a rich rum history inPuerto Rico.

(58:19):
So the concept was okay, we'regoing to take rye whiskey and
then we're going to take rumbarrels.
We're going to take the whiskeyliquid, put them in old rum
barrels and it's going to impartthe sweetness from the rum, but
not to a point where it'soverpowering right?
You're not mixing rum intowhiskey, you're getting these

(58:41):
subtle nuances of the ruminfused into the rye whiskey and
so that's where it's kind oflike okay, this is what we're
going to do, this is going to beour process.
So we take that we buyhigh-quality rye whiskey, we
send it down to Miami, florida,we work with different barrel

(59:01):
brokers to give us the differentrum barrels that are available
on the market and we're beingvery selective on which barrels
we're purchasing and then we'resending them down to Miami so
the rye whiskey could finish.
And there's a few things I wantto highlight about this One we

(59:22):
do this in Miami because theclimate in Miami is the closest
to the Caribbean that you canget to, where it's high heat,
high humidity, that you can getto where it's high heat, high
humidity, and that affects, thathas an effect on the barrel and
the whiskey that's aging in therum barrels.
And we wanted to make sure wehad that effect of high heat,

(59:42):
high humidity when we're doingour aging process, when we
select our rum barrels.
So we are considered a smallbatch whiskey, we only barrel.
We only bottle four barrels ata time and with those four
barrels I know earlier we hadtalked about origin rum barrels,

(01:00:02):
so so origin rum barrels iskind of like a term that that
we're, that our company, or mycompany has coined as being um
us using rum barrels from onespecific country.
So each batch is going tohighlight a rum from only one
country.
The first batch, we highlightedBarbados rum barrels.

(01:00:24):
Later this year we're going tohave a Puerto Rican rum barrel
batch, another Barbados rumbarrel batch and then a local
Miami rum barrel batch, and theidea and concept is that each of
our countries, from Puerto Ricoto Barbados, jamaica, el

(01:00:45):
Salvador, venezuela, like all ofour countries that have these
rum producers, they do itdifferently.
We have a different climate,right.
Jamaican rum is very funky.
Puerto Rican rum is very sweet,right?
So how can we represent thosecountries?
Through our whiskey and our rumbarrel finish process and by

(01:01:07):
highlighting only one country'srum barrels per batch, our
consumers are able to see andrecognize the differences
between the rums, because whenyou taste it in our Risky,
you're going to see oh okay, hey, this one is a little more
funky or this one's a littlemore.
You know, I get a lot morebanana notes from this rum

(01:01:29):
distillery, right, and it's avery unique process to have and
it's a really cool thing to dois like, once you start
collecting these bottles, right,you have your Barbados batch,
puerto Rican batch, and thenhopefully we could collaborate
with more countries You'll haveall of these different batches

(01:01:52):
and then you could kind of sipon it and say, oh, okay, I could
tell this one is completelydifferent than that one.
Like it's just like wine, right, you're comparing the different
, the different grapes, graperegions.
We're comparing the differentrum regions through our rye
whiskey and we just kind of wantto tell those like that's the
story we want to tell with our.
Like, when you're sipping ourwhiskey, it's like, okay, hey,

(01:02:13):
what is the barbados?
You know, rum barrel finishtastes like what does the puerto
rican one taste like?

Raul Lopez (01:02:19):
um, so it's always highlighting our origin rum
barrels, um, through thatprocess nice and and um, if
you're the puerto rican, onedoes not have a little do-rag on
the top is it even.

Michael Martinez (01:02:33):
Yeah, we're gonna.
I've been, I've been playingaround with the idea of, like,
what, what, what are we gonna do?
Well, one of the one of one ofthe things we're definitely
gonna do is, um, so, on the uh,um, the bottle itself and I have
a bottle here, I probably can'tsee it that well um is, there's
a stamp here.
This stamp always changes perbatch, so if it's a Barbados

(01:02:55):
barrel, if it's a Puerto Ricanbarrel, it that's the Barbados
one.
That's my fate, right, right.
So it gives you the opportunityto kind of see the a long,
enduring.
You know, this is a passionproject.
It's this long, enduring goalof, like, working with these

(01:03:39):
different Caribbean and LatinAmerican countries and
highlighting their rum.
Right, I explain to people thatyou know I'm not a whiskey
maker, I'm more of a curator.
I'm getting high quality ryewhiskey and high quality rum and
I'm doing this unique finishingprocess and presenting it to

(01:04:02):
you as the consumer.

Raul Lopez (01:04:04):
That's awesome man, and for people who are listening
on the podcast, you're going tohave to go on to YouTube to see
what he was talking about orcheck out our, our, our
Instagram or Facebook, whatever.

Michael Martinez (01:04:17):
I'm not yet on TikTok because I think I've I'm
past the age group that usesTikTok.

Raul Lopez (01:04:24):
Don't sell yourself short, bro.
Don't sell yourself short.
Well, I mean, that's awesomeman, and so you know.
One of the things I do like toask you know, when we get to
near the end of our interviews,is you know if you could go back
and give yourself some piece ofadvice to the younger version
of yourself?
What's something you'd tellyourself?

Michael Martinez (01:04:39):
Yeah, I think the one piece of advice I would
give myself is success looksdifferent for each person.
Um, you know, I, I think forthe longest, you know, growing

(01:05:17):
up, I I've had this concept of,of, of to be successful is to be
rich.
You know, especially in today'sworld where you kind of can't
always believe what's on theinternet, but there's a lot of
things happening on the internetyou fall into this weird hole
of like man, I'm not evensuccessful yet compared to these
, like 19 year old kids thathave Lamborghini, that have
Lamborghinis, right, it's likewhat, like how are, like, it's

(01:05:37):
just like you're, you're justperplexed, but like, but I think
.
I think really emphasizing thatsuccess comes in in different,
you know, ways.
It doesn't you don't have tohave the nice car house, you
know, be a multimillionaire tobe successful in your own right.
You, you can be a small craft,producer of, or a painter, or

(01:06:02):
you know, whatever it is thatthat you found purpose in is is
success in its own right, butthat people, people search
decades to find right and it'snot a race.
It's not a race to besuccessful because, again, like
it, you know, it can take yearsfor you to find that success.

(01:06:25):
So that's that wisdom that Iwould impart on the younger
version of myself is thatsuccess is different for every
person and it's not a race.

Raul Lopez (01:06:35):
Yeah, and that's the highlight of my show.
You know it's, everybody'ssuccess is different, and so I
guess, to kind of finish up,like, how do you say success and
failure?
What does success mean to you?

Michael Martinez (01:06:47):
Yeah, so.
So success for me is is havingthe opportunity to give back to
the culture that really createdme and molded me to who I am
today and making sure that, youknow, our future generations

(01:07:07):
remember and understand and knowthat our culture and heritage
is everything and know that ourculture and heritage is
everything and I'm hoping to dothat with Fincasa is sharing
those stories and making surethat our younger generations
don't forget that.
You know we used to live in ElCampo and we used to.
You know we used to cook withwood and you know there's beauty

(01:07:28):
and nostalgia.
You know there there's there'sbeauty and nostalgia.
So so, really, you know, eventoday, you know, with the little
that I'm doing and and have theopportunity to share with
Fincasa, I feel like I'vesucceeded to to, even if I
change one person's life, to say, hey, like you know, I've

(01:07:50):
recognized my own culturebecause I found this bottle and
and I heard your story and andit allowed me to to recognize my
own story.
Um, that that's, that's how Iwould, you know, say success in
Spanglish.

Raul Lopez (01:08:03):
Nice man, awesome man.
Well, uh, I really appreciateyou uh coming on the show today,
and so tell me uh, how canpeople learn more about you and
Fincasa?

Michael Martinez (01:08:12):
Yeah, so feel free to reach out to us on
Instagram and Facebook.
Just look up Fincasa Whiskey.
You can visit our website atwwwfincasawiskeycom.
Check our Instagram if you'relooking for purchasing bottles
online.
We ship to over 40 states.
I'll be pushing out couponcodes here and there, so

(01:08:36):
continue to follow us.
If you're in Puerto Rico, wejust landed a big distributor
out there, so we're gonna be ina lot of the liquor stores out
there.
We have a pretty good presencein Washington DC area.
Just continue to follow us,stay up to date and you'll find
your Fincasa bottle soon.
Nice.

Raul Lopez (01:08:55):
Awesome man.
Well, I really appreciate itand I wish you all the best.
To us, man and I'm hoping toget to see some of that creeping
up in different stores aroundhere.
I don't go to liquor storesanymore, but you know I'll make
sure to let people know to lookout.

Michael Martinez (01:09:07):
So thank you, brother, I appreciate it and I'm
glad after a few months we wereable to do this?

Raul Lopez (01:09:12):
Yeah, I know Right.
So yeah, let's not wait toolong to do it again.
So thanks.

Michael Martinez (01:09:16):
All right, brother, I appreciate it.

Raul Lopez (01:09:17):
Yeah, take care.
All right and so well ifeveryone else.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
I really appreciate you, asalways, and I hope you'll join
me again next time as wecontinue to learn how to say
success in Spanglish EssenceBangles.