Chapter 84: The One (2)
TL: Hanguk
The day after the launch, in the small office at Golden Grain Soju House. Two men opened the door and walked in at the exact same moment. One was bald and short, but had sharp eyes and wore thick horn-rimmed glasses; the other was a tall Black man.
From the very moment they laid eyes on each other, they made no effort to hide the wariness in their gazes.
"You don't have a whole lot of experience working with a style of distilled spirit you've never seen before, do you?"
"Experience isn't the important part. If your distribution network isn't broad like ours, you're going to hit a wall pretty fast, aren't you?"
The two men shot sparks at each other with their eyes, but said nothing further and quietly took their seats.
About five minutes later, Jacob came into the office along with one Asian man.
"Oh? You both arrived at the same time? Wasn't one of you scheduled for thirty minutes from now?"
When Jacob asked, the tall Black man spoke up.
"I have a habit of always arriving thirty minutes early to a meeting. Malcolm Lee. Vice President of Unity Spirits. If it's inconvenient..."
"No. It wasn't inconvenient at all."
The moment Jacob shook his hand, the short bald man immediately introduced himself too.
"Harold Burns, CEO of Burns & Company."
"Pleasure to meet you. Please, come this way."
Once the two of them were seated, Jacob glanced briefly at me before sitting down across from them with me beside him. He could handle the brewing on his own, but dealing with people was another matter, and it seemed he was leaning on me a lot for this.
"By coincidence, it seems I'll be talking with both of you together."
It was just something Jacob had muttered out of awkwardness, but Harold pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and replied.
"Good liquor invites competition. Do you happen to have any water? This is going to be a long conversation."
"Of course. Just a moment..."
I went over and brought back a tray with drinks, set them out, then sat down beside Jacob.
In the center of the meeting table sat a bottle of 'The One Premium Rice Vodka'. Harold picked it up firmly and said,
"When the first sample of 'The One' came in and I tasted it, I was genuinely surprised. Clean, but not without character. Perhaps because it was made by a farm that grows its own rice, the aroma of the grain lingers subtly and makes its presence known. We saw real potential in this spirit."
He set the bottle down and got straight to the point.
"This shouldn't be sold as a mass-market product."
Jacob's eyebrow lifted slightly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If it's an Eastern liquor, you have to sell the mystique. Restrained aesthetics, quiet negative space. We call this kind of thing 'Zen Vodka'. Hotel lounges, Michelin-starred restaurants, wine bars... this should be sold quietly, in places like that."
His tone was calm but full of conviction. Jacob furrowed his brow, then asked,
"You mean the Zen Vodka that Phillips Distilling Company started selling?"
"You know it?"
I knew that when it had first come out, it had been quite the talk of the town, but at this point its popularity had cooled to the point where it was hard to find even in California. Naturally, Jacob had been curious about it and had managed to track down a bottle to try.
Beyond that, the Japanese sake-based TY KU Liqueur had launched last year, and this year a Hawaii-based sake brand called Hana Flavored Sake had launched. It was a period when Japanese sake was just starting to flow into the American market.
"I know it. Black bottle, bamboo illustration. Started selling in 2003, but now..."
Harold pulled out a tablet and showed us a mockup with the slogan 'The One, Spirit of Balance' written on it.
"We're thinking of crafting a story. The mystique of the East and the quiet atmosphere itself, that's what we'd brand. Building up the brand image is the key. And on top of that, if you grant us exclusive rights, we'll commit to forward-purchasing 100 cases (1,200 bottles) every three months in the first year of the contract."
At that, Malcolm, who had been listening from the side, gave a snort of derision.
"Lovely artistic pitch. We differ from your approach in a great many respects."
Harold's face twisted instantly, and Jacob, intrigued, asked,
"So Unity Spirits has a different strategy?"
"Of course."
He gestured lightly toward the bottle.
"The One needs to be turned into a 'Trend'. I think it should go into the bars of LA and San Francisco, the fusion restaurants of young chefs, and the after-parties of Fashion Week."
"You want to put an Eastern liquor into a club? Are you saying you want to make it cheap?"
Harold scoffed as if it were absurd. Malcolm smiled gently and spread his palms.
"No. Not cheap, I'm saying it needs to feel familiar to the masses. The younger generation today wants 'cool' and 'exotic sensibility' at the same time. The truth is, the kind of cool that young people talk about is rooted in a sort of superiority, a sense of being different from everyone else. Do you know why the 'Zen Vodka' you mentioned is quietly fading away? Because it isn't drunk in places where you can be seen by others. And when that's the case, people fall back on what's familiar."
He pulled out a poster mockup he had already prepared. Behind a bottle of The One, white grains of rice scattered like rain, and beneath it was written 'Asian Fusion Vodka'.
"We intend to brand The One as the liquor of a new era. Not just some curious drink from the East, but a cool spirit that the younger generation can use to show off their own uniqueness. And on top of that, if you grant us exclusive rights, we'll forward-purchase 500 cases right away. That alone should show you how confident we are in The One's success."
Jacob looked back and forth between the two men. Both strategies seemed valid. One was quiet and refined, the other fast and intense.
"Let me step out and discuss this for a moment."
Hesitating, Jacob immediately pulled me up by the arm and we walked out of the building.
"Which one do you think is better?"
"Wouldn't Unity Spirits be the better choice? They're bringing up Zen Vodka, which is basically dying out right now, but they're not really putting forward a meaningfully different strategy from it."
"Hmm... yeah, that's true, isn't it? And they said they'd forward-purchase 500 cases."
500 cases (6,000 bottles), at a wholesale price of 11 dollars per bottle, came out to 66,000 dollars. Funnily enough, just those 500 cases alone already exceeded this year's rice sales from the farm.
The rice required to make those 500 cases was a mere 5 tons. Considering that the farm had earned 58,000 dollars in profit when it sold 200 tons of rice, it was clear that the revenue from selling raw materials versus selling them after processing was on a completely different scale.
"And even setting that aside, Unity Spirits seems to have a clear vision of their own, while Burns & Company felt like they were just improvising a pitch because a new spirit had come out."
"Okay. Got it."
Jacob went straight back into the office and held out his hand to Harold first.
"Thank you for coming. But I think we'll have to sign with the other side."
Harold seemed to have already braced himself to some degree, and accepted the result with a less-than-pleased expression.
"I see. I sincerely hope you don't come to regret it."
"Thank you for understanding."
Having taken a hit from Malcolm in a head-to-head matchup, Harold left the office with a bitter look. Malcolm, the victor of the contest, wore a triumphant smile and said,
"Choosing us was an outstanding decision. You won't regret it."
"I'd better not. I look forward to working with you."
"There's one thing I was curious about. Vodka is usually 750ml as standard, so why use a 500ml bottle while marketing it as a rice vodka?"
"Ah, that? When I held the tasting, the bar owner who did the very first tasting said something to me. That if it were the same as existing vodka, there'd be no reason for people to buy ours. He said if you push only the difference in ingredients as your selling point, the producer might think it's different, but from the consumer's standpoint, isn't there really no difference?"
"Good perspective."
"So instead of the thick bottles existing vodkas use, we went with a thin, slender bottle to set ourselves apart, and we cut down the volume too. Women might find too large a volume burdensome. Overall, we paid a lot of attention to the aesthetics of the bottle as well."
"Oho, I see. The bottle design was actually a big help in our decision to target the younger generation from the start."
"My friend here runs a winery, and seeing how fruit wines like cherry wine come in slim, beautiful bottles was where I drew inspiration from."
"You can't be serious... Let me ask you one thing. How old are...?"
"My friend and I just turned twenty-one."
His mouth dropped open and he wore an expression of disbelief.
"You're saying you're a distillery owner at just twenty-one?"
"That's right."
"Unbelievable."
Shaking his head in amazement, he then, as if something had occurred to him, looked between me and Jacob and raised his hand.
"Let's not stop here. Why don't we brand the story between a distillery owner and a winery owner, not just the liquor itself?"
"What?"
"Think about it. A distillery owner and a winery owner, both barely twenty-one years old..."
"I'm not really an owner."
When I shook my head, Jacob's eyes widened and he said,
"You make all the wine. He even taught me his entire brewing method. He's also teaching Armando his vinegar method, and Chloe how to grow cherries and pears."
"Is that true?"
When he stared straight at me in surprise, I made a strained, uncomfortable expression.
"Haha, well, one thing led to another..."
"Excellent. I'll set up a proper concept. The concept of young farm owners throwing down the gauntlet at the American liquor market. And The One is their first challenge as a distilled spirit. Are you planning a second product, by any chance?"
"For the second one, I'm thinking of going for the feel of a Korean traditional liquor rather than the clean feel of a vodka. I'm aiming to take it upmarket with a premium concept."
"Something like sake?"
"Something similar."
"Perfect. Wonderful. The two of you... no, including the other friends, that's a total of four people, correct?"
Unlike me, who furrowed my brow at a vaguely ominous feeling, Jacob answered excitedly.
"Yes!"
"Could the four of you make some time together for an interview shoot?"
"An interview with where, exactly?"
Malcolm raised one corner of his mouth, pointed at Jacob, and said in a low voice,
"Blender."
In that instant,
"Oh my god! We're getting an interview with Blender?!"
Blender Magazine was an American music and pop culture magazine published from 2001 to 2009, and figures like Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, Eminem, Beyoncé, and Maroon 5 frequently appeared on its cover. It was a magazine with massive influence over young people. No wonder Jacob's face lit up the moment he heard the name.
"As you may know, Blender carries advertisements for liquor like whiskey and vodka, and our company places ads there too. So it's a magazine we can pitch to with plenty of leverage. They're sure to be interested. After all, it's liquor made by young people."
"Of course. It really is incredible liquor. The wine my friend here makes won two Double Golds at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. From a single winery, two wines submitted, two simultaneous Double Golds. Can you believe it?"
At Jacob's excited explanation, Malcolm once again wore a look of disbelief, then suddenly grabbed my hand.
"What kind of abilities do you possess, exactly? I can't just sit still. If Blender doesn't want to do the interview, I'll get it placed somewhere, MAXIM, Rolling Stone... or even GQ, anywhere."
"Hey, look. I get that you're excited, but please center it on Jacob, not me."
At my words, he gave a curious smile and nodded.
"I see... you're thinking that Blender and premium wine don't quite match in tone? Okay. Understood completely. Don't worry. Ah, and the wine distribution...?"
"I already have a partner."
"Oh dear... that's a shame. But please remember that Unity Spirits is always here to help you."
After saying something that would have made Christopher explode with rage on the spot and turn cartwheels in the air if he'd heard it, Malcolm turned his focus back to Jacob.
"If your friend agrees, I'll notify the magazine accordingly and arrange the interview schedule. The magazine will surely be interested, but more importantly, it'll be a tremendous boost for your friends' businesses. As you know, it is Blender, after all."
"Right. Anyone young who enjoys liquor and clubs reads Blender."
"I'm getting excited already. Picturing young Americans with 'The One' in one hand, listening to music and chatting away. I can already see The One's future."
Listening from beside them, I marveled at Malcolm's almost spellbinding way with words. It probably wasn't entirely a lie, but I couldn't help wondering if he was painting too rosy a picture. Well, time would tell what the result would actually be.
After shaking hands, the two of them signed the contract on the spot. And the next day, a Unity Spirits truck arrived at the front of the distillery and hauled away all 500 cases of The One.
The future was anyone's guess, but one thing was certain. As of right now, 66,000 dollars had landed in Jacob's bank account.
That was the most important thing.
*****
Join our Discord for announcements or to report any mistakes.