We were lucky to catch up with TREA FEIST recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi TREA, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Dank originally to me was a word I used for top shelf cannabis back in my younger years and as I got older the terminology became more versatile to use in every day situations. Back in the day I would call good cannabis “The Dank” and as time has evolved I started to use “Dank” for every day events almost like we use “cool” & “sweet” as slang today.
Needless to say, Dank has always been a word I use for premium products, fun times or something I thought was really cool.
I had come up with the name Dank, as bar manager in Dallas, where I was introduced to Ghost Tequila, a Ghost Pepper infused Tequila, and as I took the sample shot I slammed the glass down and simply said “Oh wow, now that’s Dank!!”. In my head I instantly knew I wanted to start a professional brand called Dank and continue spreading my slang into a new found passion.
But what gave me the extra idea for calling it Dank was a show called Bong Appetite on ViceLand TV, as I watched I saw that they cooked and made different tinctures with Terpenes for food flavoring, mood balancing buz’s and heavy medicinal additives. So, I did some market research and found NO ONE had ever taken Terps and infused them into liquor yet and I wanted to, and so I did.
TREA, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a Texan born and raised on southern hospitality of yes and no ma’am, honesty and loyalty.
After High School I ventured to the Active Army for the better half of 2 years but unfortunately I never saw a deployment.
Shortly after the Military I ventured into the service industry in Dallas at Katy Trail Icehouse where I started off as a drink runner for Texas’ Highest Volume Bar. I worked my way up the ladder over the next year to become a drink expo, bar back and then a short time as a part time bartender picking up shifts.
From Katy Trail I went on to bartend at other prestigious locations in Dallas working my way up to a bar manager positions, operations and finally started to do consulting for local bars and staff training for new bars opening.
What I learned from my folks and my time in the Military followed with my in my managing and operating skills as I had a great work ethic, was knowledgeable on being a leader, doing what is right, being honest and holding my staff accountable for their work ethics.
When I started my first brand I failed horribly and never made one sale, so I said with Dank Vodka we will learn from our failures and make this brand succeed!
What I offer to the public is The World’s First Terpene Liquor Brand, made with Lemon Haze Terpenes.
Terpenes are just that oil zest in a lemon or that sweet smell in many plants, they are aromatic, flavorful, naturally sweet like stevia and extremely medicinal. Since I use Terpenes, I have ZERO aded sugars, “naturla flavors” or oil byproducts; since Terpenes are that oil zest, aromatic & naturally sweet.
We present to you the CLEANEST Vodka on Planet Earth as, not only do we not use citric acids or other byproducts, Dank Vodka is Carbon Filtered for 72hrs, Distilled 6x THEN we run our still over and over again for up to 4 hours. NO ONE else does this as it costs more and every other liquor brand is cutting costs to giving consumers cheap products but claiming to be “Premium” where as Dank Vodka is a True Premium Sipping Vodka.
Our filtration and distillation process pulls out grainy impurities that other brands leave for you to drink, causing grainy smells, tastes and harsh burns on your throat. Dank has ZERO grainy smell, taste or burn but we have a modern and refreshing hint of Zesty Terpenes.
The from start to finish processes that we use have earned Dank Vodka a Gold Medal at the 2020 USA Spirit Ratings and has been said countless times “This is the best Vodka I have ever had”.
Most of our consumers drink Dank Vodka “Neat” or “On The Rocks” with no lemon or limes because our Vodka is the CLEANEST and SMOOTHEST Vodka ever made, and we let our consumers be the judge.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I started Dank Vodka in August of 2019 with $156,000 and was not taken serious by anyone as most liquor brands start with millions plus some. But I saw Tito’s did it for $98,000 and knew if he could do it and make a lasting sought after brand, so can I!!
I had planned to launch everything in April 2020, unfortunately that did not happen and I was stuck contemplating my future and the future of my brand.
I was not able to launch my brand until the end of May and this was detrimental for me, as stated before I had the thinest shoe string budget ever created for a liquor brand. I had HUGE hopes for Dank whenever the market was fully open and fully marketable. Now my market was reduced to almost nothing as a new brand that had zero sales before COVID, there wasn’t one liquor store or bar owner that wanted me in their establishment taking up space. This was just the first of many hurdles I had to jump being the smallest fish in the barrel. But through resilience, desperation and determination I found a way to plug Dank into bar after bar after bar, I planted the Dank and watched it grow!
On top of that once COVID hit, my previous investors backed out of our deal and were unable to provide anymore funds, this was a huge problem for me as I had the WORST contract in business history. These previous investors were days away from sweeping my company out from beneath my feet unless I paid them back within 30 days, but I dug deep and prayed heavily for GOD to take the wheel and help continue my dream!
GOD sent me angels to help lift me up and put me back on my feet, these angles came in and bought out the old investors and their horrible contract, they came in and taught me business & corporate structure, budgets, finances, taxes… This group of what I call “Angels” are not angel investors, just simply Angels sent to guide my way!
Now, WE have Dank in over 200 Bar & Restaurant locations and over 150 Retail locations stretching from Oklahoma to South Padre Island!
All I needed was to Let Go & Let God take control and since then my success is continually climbing, I owe every bit of success to my Father Above!
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
These Angel’s that I spoke of are now life long friends, forever, as we have a bond that cannot be broken!
One of these Angels is Paul, I met Paul Doucette when I was bar managing a place in Frisco called, The Roots, when Paul came up and tried to critique me on my skills of making an Old Fashioned. I simply stated “Sir, if its not the best you have ever had, I’ll let you teach me!” Paul laughed with a smirk and said “ok, we shall see”…
As I made my OF I smoked the glass, burned the bitters and did a flamed orange zest, I could see Paul staring at me from outside on the patio as he smoked his cigar shaking his head in disbelief (he had never seen someone make a OF this way).
As I brought him his glass he said, “you know, I have never seen an Old Fashioned made like that, IT BETTER BE GOOD”
I laughed as I handed him his drink and watched as he took his first sip…
His eyes and eyebrows lit up like a Christmas Tree and he said “Hot Damn, this is BY FAR the best Old Fashioned I have ever had”
From there we started talking about Dank and he informed me he would like to be the original investor… as a year went by I had forgotten Paul and teamed up with my horrible previous investors, then before it was too late, I found his contact again, called him and within a few short days he helped save my company, along with my good friend Gary Fahs who is a lifelong friend of my family.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DankSpirits.com
- Instagram: @DankVodka
- Facebook: @DankSpirits
Image Credits
Samantha Salmon Photography Zack William ROI Marketing Firm