Episode Description
What does it take to build a 35-year-old spirits brand from scratch when nobody believes in your product, you have no industry experience, and a liquor license costs seven figures in your market? Ask Gino Santos.
Premium Blend Cocktails for one of the most wide-ranging, personal, and genuinely fascinating guest conversations in TB5MWP history.
The Business Concept Premium Blend produces wine-based spirits that are legally classified as wine — meaning any venue holding a basic beer and wine license (as low as $400 in Florida) can serve them. No six-figure liquor license required. The products are formulated to taste like the spirits they replicate: tequila, rum, vodka, mezcal, and more — and when mixed into cocktails, they're virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.
The Product Line The flagship Agave Wine Collection is made from 100% blue agave sourced in Jalisco, Mexico — the same region as the world's finest tequilas — and includes Tequesta, Ginete (blanco-style), Guitarron, Guitarron Classico (reposado-style), Zapotec (mezcal-style), and El Guitarron Cristalino. At 48 proof, the line has evolved from a cocktail mixer into a sipping spirit in its own right. Additional products include Rumbero (rum-style), Clear Red (vodka-style), Santos Sangria (100% Spanish origin, grandmother's family recipe), Failing Irish Cream (produced in Ireland), and Cafe Luna coffee liqueur. A new Aguardiente (Colombian-style spirit) is also in the pipeline.
The Origin Story Gino and his brother Henry were born in Cuba. Their father Orestes — a celebrated Cuban singer-songwriter — was anti-Castro, thrown in jail, and eventually escaped with his family on a shrimp boat stolen by an uncle. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued them mid-ocean as the boat was sinking, bringing them ashore in Key West to sandwiches and cold milk. From Newark to Miami, through Stetson University and an MBA from the University of Miami, Gino ended up on the road selling Oscar Mayer products when he spotted a wine-based spirit that no one was marketing correctly. He and Henry saw the gap and built Premium Blend to fill it.
The Pitch and the Hustle The early years meant self-distribution across Florida in plastic bottles (glass breaks; plastic doesn't), cold-calling venues with no distributor support, and doing trade show samplings to get skeptical buyers to try the product. The sales pitch Gino still stands behind: Premium Blend increases your margins, improves customer retention, and makes your wait staff more money — all without a liquor license. Blind taste tests against actual rum and tequila have been closing deals ever since.
The Legacy Gino closes the series reflecting on his late father Orestes, who told his sons when they arrived in America: "We didn't come here to take, we came here to give." Premium Blend now employs a team, operates in multiple states, and has helped countless small restaurants stay in business on the strength of their cocktail margins alone.
📞 Premium Blend toll-free: 800-899-0331 🌐 premiumblend.com
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