Bespoken Spirits Launches Sustainable Maturation Process to Save Industry $20B+ Each Year
Derek Jeter, Miami Marlins CEO and former New York Yankee, joins technology and beverage industry leaders in investing in the spirits innovator
Bespoken Spirits, a modern spirits company, today launched a new sustainable maturation process that enhances a spirit’s aroma, color and taste with precision, control, and speed — enabling almost limitless recipes within days, not years. The company also announced $2.6 million in seed funding from market leaders, including Silicon Valley luminary and owner of Clos de la Tech wine, T.J. Rodgers, and professional baseball icon and businessman Derek Jeter. Bespoken’s patent-pending approach has the potential to save the spirits industry more than $20 billion a year, help address the global environmental crisis, and keep up with consumers’ fast-changing palates.
Bespoken Spirits
“Bespoken Spirits brings a new era of opportunity to the industry, especially as it has been hit hard by COVID-19,” said Stu Aaron, cofounder, former Bloom Energy executive. “Our sustainable approach helps customers go from concept to bottle in just days. We typically work with customers who want to mature a young spirit quickly to generate revenues faster, or who are unhappy with an already matured spirit. We tailor the customer’s spirit to meet their specifications, using materials science and data analytics to save them years of time and as much as 70% of their costs. This is accelerated maturation 2.0.”
In Kentucky alone, there are more than 9.1 million barrels of bourbon and other spirits aging right now — a number that has grown nearly 85% in the last ten years. Each year, nearly 20 million gallons of that product is lost to evaporation due to the wasteful, time-consuming and antiquated barrel aging process. The Bespoken Spirits method is a sustainable answer that keeps products out of wooden barrels in electricity-run rickhouses. Rooted in material and sustainability science, Bespoken’s proprietary ACTivation technology extracts the key elements of the barrel that enhance aroma, color and taste (ACT), managing the critical chemical reactions with precision, control, and speed, and enabling billions of bespoken recipes within days, not years.
“The traditional spirits production process is outdated, imprecise, unpredictable, unsustainable and inefficient,” said Martin Janousek, Bespoken Spirits cofounder, material scientist and former Bloom Energy executive. “The barrel aging process costs billions of dollars in lost product and limits ability to pivot along with consumer tastes and demands. We’ve reimagined the process with modern science and sustainable technology, using the same all natural elements of wood, toast, and char. This approach helps distillers, rectifiers, breweries, and retailers design and produce premium quality products quickly.”
Bespoken has already seen market traction with its approach — turning excess beer into a premium whiskey for several breweries, producing spirits to meet consumer demand for Japanese-style whiskey without imports, and creating private-label whiskeys for grocery chains and other retailers to meet the changing demand for spirits during COVID-19.
The company also partners with entrepreneurs to create spirits sustainably. “I’m committed to partnering with innovative companies that disrupt the status quo in a positive way,” said Derek Jeter, investor, founder of The Players’ Tribune, Miami Marlins CEO and former captain of the New York Yankees. “With sustainability at its core, Bespoken levels the playing field for craft breweries and distilleries, retailers and sports and entertainment entrepreneurs to create premium spirits brands quickly and ecologically.”
Bespoken Spirits’ $2.6 million in seed funding will help accelerate the market momentum. “Bespoken Spirits understands the science that lets them deliver premium spirits tailored for the evolving demands of today’s tech savvy, environmentally conscious, value seeking consumer,” said T.J. Rodgers. “The company’s ability to deliver both quality and variety is what really caught my attention and made me want to invest. In a short period of time, they’ve already produced an incredible range of top-notch spirits from whiskeys to rum, brandy and tequila--all independently validated time and again in blind tastings and prestigious competitions.”
As the recipient of awards including gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and New York World Wine and Spirits Competition, Bespoken Spirits saves companies supplies, time and money without compromising great taste. The company’s own spirits are available in California, Wisconsin, and New York.
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