Founder Jack Espy created Spirited Hive — a new line of ready-to-drink craft cocktails — while at grad school during the pandemic, after many late nights spent making cocktails for friends (his hive).
One of his favorite ingredients to use was honey, and the three cans (bourbon, vodka, tequila) all feature organic wildflower honey sourced from Lancaster, PA. They are currently available in select retailers in New York City and Nashville, and can be shipped throughout the US.
We caught up with Espy to learn more.
Talk a little about your background and what brought you to this point.
I never thought that I would be the founder of a company, let alone a beverage company. My background is in real estate finance and I was about to work at a commercial real estate firm in Los Angeles right after I graduated from USC. However, COVID hit and that firm had to lay off half of their team resulting in me not getting the job. What brought me to this point was honestly all by accident. I wasn’t trying to start a company or trying to invent a new beverage, I was just making cocktails for some friends one night during the pandemic when a light bulb went on.
Tell us the story about how you started Spirited Hive. How did you come up with the idea?
I came up with Spirited Hive while making some cocktails for friends during the pandemic. It happened very organically and it’s actually a funny story. My favorite cocktail is a Moscow Mule and I was making it for my friends one night. They all love the drink and liked it better than most Moscow Mules so they suggested that I can my beverage. We were thinking about names for this new company, and I came up with the name “Mint Bee.” They said, “Why Mint Bee?” and I said “You know, because there’s mint in a Moscow Mule and there is honey in a Moscow Mule.” They all looked at me very confused and said “Jack, you’re an idiot. There’s no honey in a Moscow Mule.” That is when the lightbulb went off in my head. I initially just wanted to can the drink to bring to parties and events. I never thought it would become my full time job.
Talk about your pivot from real estate finance to the beverage industry.
The pivot from real estate finance to the beverage industry was actually the best thing that’s ever happened to me, honestly. I love real estate but at that point in my life it wasn’t something that I was fully passionate about. It was something that I studied in college and was all I really knew so that’s what I was going to do. I’m a very creative person and working on Spirited Hive was so new and completely different from real estate finance. Concocting different beverages and creating different marketing ideas and branding for the beverage was something that I became very passionate about. It was so natural it didn’t even feel like I was working. It was just something that I really wanted to do. Obviously, I don’t have any background in the beverage industry other than being a consumer, so this company was created and developed off of what my friends and I liked to drink.
Tell us about the ingredients in your honey-based cocktails and the flavor profiles you’ve chosen for each of the cocktails.
Spirited Hive has three different flavors: tequila, ginger and lime; bourbon, rosemary and lemon; and vodka, cranberry and lime. I spent hours in the kitchen working with different types of honey, different ingredients and different spirit bases to perfect each one of these flavors. They were created with what my friends and I enjoy. I wanted this company to be as natural as possible and use only clean ingredients and the highest quality spirits. We chose to use honey as a sweetener because it’s the world’s first natural sweetener and I still think it’s the best sweetener. Honey is the only sweetener in the drink and also adds dimension and brings a very unique flavor to each one of the drinks.
What’s next for you and Spirited Hive?
This is only the beginning. There’s so much more ahead for both myself and Spirited Hive. I am beyond excited to be at the forefront of this company. We’ve only launched in Nashville right now, so we have many new markets to get involved in and grow. We are really excited that Spirited Hive is going to be the exclusive ready-to-drink partner of Nashville Soccer Club! We have also partnered with the Nashville Sounds, the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. We are going a mile deep and an inch wide in Nashville and really trying to grow Hive as organically as possible. Hive will also be in the Hamptons over the summer so trying to get into multiple on and off premise accounts. We are actually releasing a new flavor and spirit base for the summer which will be perfect to sip on the beach in the Hamptons.
