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

Victor, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I have to say up front that I am not a professionally trained bartender or mixologist. I’ve never even worked in the service industry. I learned how to do what I do the way many people might, which is experimenting, with a lot of trial and error.

At first I started making cocktails for myself, with the basics, mixing/shaking standard ingredients and sadly buying a few pre-made mixes. Then as I got more serious I started to read articles, a few books, and watching many, many instructional videos on how to master other techniques. From there I was making all different kinds of infusions, syrups, perfectly clear ice, you name it.

Understanding what can make a cocktail (or mocktail) work is having a good grasp of the standard templates (like an Old Fashioned, a Highball, a Sour/Daiquiri, Martini, etc), drawing inspiration from past successes and failures, what situation or environment you may be in now, and even other people’s work.

The other piece of what I do is the presentation. My style developed over time, with the limited resources I have. Do everything on an iPhone 11 Pro, from taking the picture to adjusting in Adobe Lightroom. I don’t have a studio or any professional equipment, everything is shot around my house and I try to use natural light in all of my content (which can be very hard in the winter!)

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

By day I am a 37 year old business professional, but more importantly a husband and father of 2 amazing little boys. After playing baseball through college, I now love playing tennis and volleyball each week. I’ve played guitar as a creative outlet for 18 years and recently picked up drumming and bass. I love making sourdough (thanks COVID) and finally last year started gardening, both very therapeutic activities.

It’s kind of funny how I got into what I do. After college, I started getting into the more classic cocktails, different than those you find while attending a big party university. I started to appreciate the art of the cocktail, pairing with foods, fresh ingredients, etc. Making something for myself, then my girlfriend (now wife), then eventually becoming the “Cocktail Guy” to make original and established concoctions for entire dinner parties. I would post my creations on my personal Instagram and friends would always tell me I need to write a book. I was partially inspired by my grandfather, who was known to take a similar role at gatherings. I still use his original bartending set today.

Then came 2020 and COVID. I was drinking more (like many people that year) but I was not able to share with my friends and family my cocktails in person. So I started an Instagram Business page (@InTimeForCocktails) to post my recipes and shots in this new creative outlet. The idea for the name came from what my wife and I would always say to each other when going out for dinner, “Let’s go to the restaurant’s bar early, before our reservation, in time for cocktails”.

If you look on Instagram, you’re going to see a lot of cocktail accounts out there that post content of drinks that are bright and (usually artificially) colorful sugar-bombs with obscene garnishes. They are also poorly shot. My style is to present well put together, visually striking shots of something you see and immediately think “I want that” and share with your friend or bookmark for later.

I continued experimenting with ways to create new ingredients: sous vide infusions, fat-washing, tinctures/extractions, and refining my brand and how I shoot and present the drinks that I come up with. My content caught the eyes of small businesses looking to get their products out there and I was approached to generate content featuring their product. This continues to happen and is still part of something I do today.

There was a period where I was obsessed with growing my page, trying to generate content for the sake of posting enough to keep up with the social media algorithm and it REALLY wore me down. It became less fun. I had to step back, take a break, and realize it didn’t need to be this way. Because this is not a full time role for me, I am able to pick and choose what I accept to do.

Since then I am having more fun and it shows in my work. Now I really need to believe in a product or their mission to collaborate with a brand. Clients of mine so far include companies selling alcoholic, non-alcoholic, and CBD ingredients, glassware, bartending equipment, and garnishes. I am always open to inquiries!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is making something that you love and are satisfied with, but not feeling the pressure or heartbreak if other people do not like it. For a non-creative, that may be hard to grasp, but just being able to make something you believe in is fulfillment enough and keeps you going.

How did you build your audience on social media?

There are two parts of the social media aspect and what I do. There’s growth, but also the maintenance of your existing follower base in order keep people coming back and engaging with your content.

Growth can be tricky because the social media algorithm is very difficult to figure out. Just when you think you figured it out, they change it on you. The one thing that works when I feel like putting the effort in is engagement. Not just engaging with your followers but also engaging with other similar pages. Consistency is also key. You can get great results posting on regular intervals. I have also posted my content and social media links on Reddit in applicable forums and at times have gained dozens of followers in a day.

Maintaining the followers you have is just as important as growth. People saw your content and followed for a reason, so make sure to give them what they followed for. Again, consistency is key, but don’t post something that doesn’t flow with your brand. If you pivot, make sure there is a good reason.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @intimeforcocktails