We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brad Parkes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brad below.

Brad, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My family and I have been in the beer and wine distribution business since the 1970s. My wife and I enjoy entertaining friends and going out to have drinks. We’d often get tired of the bloating of beer. We occasionally drank wine, but the sugar led to headaches. Liquor is heavy and often an acquired tasted. It was about this time that hard seltzers were becoming huge – however, we didn’t like the lack of flavor and artificial sweeteners. After not being able to find an option we were totally satisfied with, we decided to start experimenting in our kitchen.

Also, we began to realize some of the adverse effects with alcohol, were caused by the alcohol at all, rather the other ingredients, excess carbs, sugars, empty calories, preservatives, etc.

We wanted something that not only tasted great, was full of flavor and easy to drink – but was also made using quality ingredients.

After dozens of trials, we landed on Yerba Mate as a base. As an herbal tea, it is very mild and provides a ton of health benefits on its own. We used Blue Agave Nectar as the sweetener and Chamomile and Passion Flower to provide a clean aftertaste.

There are a ton of alcohol products on the shelf that are ‘less bad’ but nothing that uses the organic, functional ingredients that Masq provides. The taste was unlike anything we’ve had before. Masq is not a traditional hard tea that is oftentimes overly sweetened and thick, but more of a mix of a kombucha and seltzer.

As the Hard Tea brand grew, we did hundreds and hundreds of tastings. The consumers overwhelmingly loved the taste and the majority of them appreciated the ingredients. However, there were a smaller group that didn’t care about the ingredients – just the carbs and sugar. So about 4 months ago we launched Masq Hard Coconut Water in select markets. It is made with 3 simple ingredients – Rum, Coconut Water and fruit flavor – its 90 calories, 1 carb, <1g sugar. Its incredibly easy to drink – hits on all metrics that consumers are looking for and allows us to play in the spirit based cocktail segment as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Brad’s family has been in the beer and wine industry since the 1970s. We currently own and operate 3 beer and wine distributorships – so we’ve been in and around the industry for a while.

Our goal with Masq is to provide the most health forward alcohol products available, while still tasting great. We realize consumers are more aware of ingredients and nutrition panels than every before – but taste cannot be sacrificed.

We are proud of the Masq brand because its totally unique from other products on the shelf. It is not just another hard tea or seltzer – it is something unlike anything most consumers have tasted.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Each day brings a new challenge. It is truly a rollercoaster. It often seems that one negative call, email or comment can totally derail the rest of the day. On the flip side, 1 positive interaction often makes an entire week. We try to remember that we have large scale goals for the brand and small things are really nothing in the grand scheme of things.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

One of our most effective marketing tools is in person tastings and demos. It lets consumers sample the product when they may have not bought it otherwise.
Since Masq is so unique, the vast majority of consumers are pleasantly surprised when they taste it.
More importantly, it allows us to interact with consumers face to face. We find out what flavors they like, what they like about them and explain the differences between Masq and almost everything else in the market place.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drinkmasq.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masq_hard_tea/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinkmasq/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-parkes-26972386