Reinventing Mixers: How Fresh Victor Elevates Every Glass

A love story sparked a rethink of an entire category. When Ken MacKenzie  followed a friend to Guadalajara, he discovered tequila as a culinary spirit, nuanced, complex, and nothing like the neon shots many of us remember. That revelation set him on a path through brand building and, ultimately, to Fresh Victor, a cold-pressed mixer company designed to make great drinks fast without sacrificing craft.

We dig into why the mix, two-thirds of the glass-deserves the same respect as the spirit. Ken explains how cold-pressing preserves brightness, aromatics, and texture, and why refrigeration is worth the logistics to deliver consistent, bar-quality results at home or in busy service. From jalapeño lime to cactus pear with pomegranate, and pineapple ginger to the foundational Mexican lime with agave, he shares how each flavor becomes a platform: add tequila, rum, mezcal, gin, bubbles, or simply top with sparkling water for an elevated zero-proof serve. We even talk kitchen crossovers, using these blends as marinades and dressings that bring citrus and spice to weekday cooking.

Along the way, we explore the lasting shift toward low-ABV and spirit-free options, not as a fad but as an expansion of choice that lets everyone feel included. Ken opens up about entrepreneurship in CPG: why perseverance beats glamour, how to define two or three real points of difference, and what it takes to stay “all in” when the highs and lows hit hard. If you care about better flavor, smarter hosting, and drinks that match the quality of your food, this conversation will change how you stock your fridge and plan your next gathering.

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Transcript

Meet Ken And The Origin Story

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey y'all. Hey, it's your girl Paul, and we are back with another exciting episode. But before we get started, you know how we do it. Let's shout out the coffee of the week, Lavender Vanilla. So our guest is Ken McKenzie. He is the founder and CEO of Fresh Victor, a premium line of all natural cold pressed mixers crafted for effortless cocktails and spirit-free drinks. With more than 20 years in the spirits industry, Ken is a seasoned entrepreneur who has launched and led standout brands like Republic Tequila and I made 100% Agave Tequila. His work has earned top industry accolades while helping shape and elevate the premium beverage space. Welcome, welcome to Conference Chat, Ken.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Oh, thank you so much for having me on, Paula. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Thank you for taking time about your busy schedule. And we know you've been in the spirits world for over 20 years. What first pulled you into tequila back in the 90s?

Discovering Real Tequila In Mexico

SPEAKER_01 1:00

You know, I completely fell backwards into it. I had no intelligent design around this whatsoever. Um, I ended up falling in love with a girl from Guadalajara, Mexico, up here in the San Francisco Bay Area when she was studying. I knew she was leaving and going back home to Mexico. And so I had no designs on dating, on having a long-term relationship, on anything else. We were just inseparable friends. And when she left, there was such a void in my life that I followed her down there. And I was just looking for reasons to stay or to spend time with her. And one of the things about the mid-90s was uh tequila was still very misunderstood. And so growing up here in the San Francisco Bay Area, for me, it was really relegated to you know shots of gold tequila and that kind of hangover nightmare the next day. And as I was down there learning from her family and the people that her family knew in the tequila industry, it was really apparent that tequila was so much more. It was an Epicurean spirit. It was very complex and it was really a national treasure of Mexico. I mean, it's a very uh coveted beverage. And so as I started to learn more and more, um kind of realized that there was a real disconnect between what I was seeing in the United States and what was occurring in Mexico. The US was really just kind of shots and margaritas, and Mexico was everything in between. And so I learned as much as I could about tequila and started consulting from there.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

That is awesome. But you know, when you go and visit Mexico, I don't know, like my experience, like the food, the salsa, the chips, all that stuff is totally different than what you were actually tasting here, you know, in the States. So I get that.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, people often compare it uh to being in California and then going and having pizza in New York. You know, the water is different, the dough is different. The ingredients are definitely different, so I know exactly what you're saying. The food is totally different.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, I can tell the difference. So you're built in lunch, multiple brands. What made Fresh Victor different for you?

Why Mixers Deserve Center Stage

SPEAKER_01 3:21

You know, it's something that I always wanted to do as far as having real points of difference. I think it's so important to do something that isn't easy, but is very desirable. And for me, being in the spirits business, what I was hearing over and over and over again is how do you do high-quality drinks, but very quickly and conveniently? And I didn't know how to bridge those, you know, how to get those two things together. And so the challenge for us was how do you do something like that? And for us, it was creating something that was cold-pressed, refrigerated, fresh, that you could be truly proud to serve. And that was what was important to me is that statement of quality.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I love it. And right into the next question: you why would you choose cold-pressed and refrigerated mixers?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, so uh being here in Northern California, you know, growing up in the 80s and 90s, something that was so apparent is mixers were really kind of seen as an afterthought. They didn't have that level of importance. It was you were looking at your spirit choice of spirit or sparkling wine, or you know, the alcohol component was you know, front and center. And then the mixer was kind of neon green, cloudy, high fructose corn syrup, huge, like liter and a half, you know. And so there weren't a lot of choices, it was kind of just something by default that you said, oh, I'll grab that and mix with that. For us, what we really wanted to do was elevate the mixer because what we realized was the mixer is two-thirds of the glass, it's such an important ingredient in a cocktail or a mocktail or anything you're drinking. It really is the star of the show. So we wanted to lend that level of quality and desirability to the mixer side so it could kind of have an equal playing field to the spirit.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Awesome. Because you know, I never thought of like uh the mixers until um your representative reached out to us, and I said, Because I don't really like alcohol like that, but to do a mocktail and mix it with some of those flavors, I'm sure it's gonna be pretty cool.

Building Fresh Victor’s Cold-Pressed Approach

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, there was just so much space to grow, right? And and people really weren't doing it, and so you know, we we've come to find out there's a myriad of different reasons why people aren't doing it. I mean, it's not easy to do, but there the rewarding side is it creates something that really lends itself to versatility with nine flavors, there's something for everyone. And creating fresh victor for me was something very expressive, where no matter what you like to drink, it could be tequila, mascal, rum, vodka, gin, pisco, bubbles for mimosas, beer for shandies, you know, non-alk options, it could be aguafa, but you could use our little universe to create so many different drinks.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

So many different drinks. That's awesome. And that was my next question. Uh, what gap were you seeing in the market? There was not a lot of mixers.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, what I what I was really hearing over and over again, both from industry and consumer, and and I was experiencing this actually, Paul, at home. I wasn't really sitting down at my own dinner parties. If I had people over for dinner, I was behind the bar all night because I was squeezing limes, I was blending agave nectar and water and building the cocktails one by one, which is very cool. There's theater behind that. I love shaking the cocktails, I love you know, making a really good drink and then garnishing it. But it took time, you know, it took minutes per drink. And so, what I was really hearing from a lot of people is how do you do that quickly? Like if you're in the industry, you you don't have three to four minutes to make each drink. You really need you know, to do that in 20 seconds or so. Um, what do you do? And that was really kind of a challenge of, yeah, what do you do? How do you do it quickly? And the answer in our minds was you blend, you cold press the ingredients all together so it's ready to go, and then you have a platform to work off of, and you can it's as simple as adding the spirit or adding the sparkling wine, or or you can add three or four more ingredients to it and make it as complex as you want.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Love that so make it easy for hosts. Yeah, that's awesome. It's like you said, people don't really want to spend all that time away from their guests, they'd rather be, you know, chit chit-chatting up with them.

Solving Speed And Quality For Hosts

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, it's it's really created for celebrating, for gathering, for you know, coming together. I really am a firm believer through family, you know, breaking bread with people, enjoying each other's company, but you do that through really good food and drink. And I was always raised in, you know, on both sides of my family, where you took just as much care in making the drinks as you did the the the food, the culinary side.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Okay, so we're seeing more. I know like TikTok videos, Instagram, low alcohol, and spirit-free options. Is that a trend or a real shift in how people are drinking? What are you seeing?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

You know, I I think that there's uh uh somewhat of a permanence to it. I don't think drinking is not going anywhere. You know, the spirit space is not going anywhere by any stretch of the imagination. I think that a lot of these things that we experience, you know, year over year, decade over decade is cyclical. You'll you'll see kind of this these trends occur. I think that there was certainly a lot of room that we've experienced as of late in the non-drinking movement where people are experimenting much more with can I drink a bit less? Can I be healthy through creating um actually drinks with good ingredients that are interesting? You know, you you don't just want that bottle of water or a can of soft drink, you want to feel like you're doing exactly what everybody else in the room is doing through cocktail innovation or mocktail innovation in this sense. So I think with younger people, we will see that some will stick to, hey, I'm gonna do mocktails, but all in all, there's plenty of room for both.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Okay, got it, got it. So let's talk accolades. You've won a lot of accolades, but what moment in your career meant the most personally?

The Rise Of Mocktails And Low-ABV

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Ooh, that's a great question. Um, you know, I would say family and friends mean so much to me that seeing their reaction to what's been created, you know, I put a high level of importance on wanting to make people feel happy and comfortable. And when I see them light up and want to share something with other people, that's an indicator to me that we're really on to something. It's not just something that's a flash in the pan or anything else, it's something that actually has merit. Um, and so when I see, you know, over the years, my parents, my in-laws, you know, uh family, close friends say, Wow, this is really good. Uh, I know that they're gonna be brutally honest with me. And if they didn't like it, they would tell me just as quickly. So that was really kind of a compass for me of I think we're really on to something here. This is something not only sustainable, but I think it's the future of drinking in the sense that our mission statement is we really want the country to drink better. It should be a lot more simple and it should be clean label, non-GMO, kosher, gluten-free, you know, all the bells and whistles. But really, at the end of the day, it comes down to flavor and what you like and what you want to be drinking and using.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Okay, I love that. Love it. What fresh Victor flavor are you most proud of?

Accolades, Mission, And Clean Label

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, it's like your children, right? Like when you have yeah. Um, you know, for me, I I like simple a lot, I like straightforward. Um, the the flavor profiles are really predicated on things that people love to drink, but maybe are a little bit more difficult to use behind the bar. For instance, jalapeno lime or cactus pear and pomegranate or pineapple ginger. We're creating components that aren't simple to do behind the bar, but yet are very desirable for drink profiles. I'm especially proud of those in the sense that I really enjoy people saying, Oh my god, I found something, you know, the spicy margarita is so good. I finally found something that I'm comfortable using. For me, the I'll come go back to the simplicity. I really enjoy the Mexican lime in agave because it was the first one. And coming from the tequila space, it makes a great margarita. It also makes like a wonderful daiquiri. Um, it's really easy to use with you know uh different flavors of sparkling water or teas or you know, anything else. And so it's just so versatile that I I get you know hooked into that and I'm happy there.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

So the Mickey and I'm in a gaving. What caught my attention was the pineapple and ginger roots. I was like, oh, that's interesting.

Signature Flavors And Versatility

SPEAKER_01 13:50

I love that one. That one we do everything, Paula, from making Moscow mules to mimosa's to uh marinating uh grilled chicken with it, um, salad dressings. I mean, it's just it's such a fun product to use.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Oh, cool. Marinade. I never thought about that. That's so awesome. Okay, okay, gorgeous, good. We're gonna have to try all of that. So salted rim or no salted rim.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

That is such a personal preference thing. For me, it's it's not salted for me. I I love again going back to simplicity, I just really, really enjoy the uh the simple ingredients mixed with the spirit itself. Um, because the tequila comes through, I'm really able to taste the profile on that. However, um on occasion, you know, for me, if you have really good salt, uh rock salt, it it can add something to the drink. It it adds another additional layer, and so I'm all for I endorse going both ways with that. I have no issue whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Whatever whatever they prefer, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, drink what you like, you know what you like.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Okay, so one word that describes your entrepreneurial journey, perseverance.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Oh perseverance, perseverance, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Yeah, everybody, you know, so many people want to be an entrepreneur, but I don't uh think they realize the perseverance that you have to just, you know, you have to be consistent, you have to be, you know, because you're that one man show now.

Salted Rim Philosophy

Entrepreneurship And Perseverance

SPEAKER_01 15:44

It it is something where as you're building your team around you, nothing in life that's worth this much comes easily, it just doesn't. And I think that we can fool ourselves into thinking like, hey, that this will get very easy at times, or you know, once we hit a certain benchmark or plateau, things will be downhill from there, and you know, it's a very complex process being an entrepreneur and building a CPG brand. It it uh you have extreme highs and extreme lows, and you just need to be prepared for that, and there's no way for me to tell you in words, you know, intellectually you'll understand me. The emotional intelligence won't kick in in the same way because you actually have to experience those lows in order to understand that um you just can't give up. If you really are passionate and believe in your brand and believe in what you're doing, you have to figure out how to navigate, how to weather storms, how to overcome real issues and problems with the business in order to continue climbing up. And it's not easy.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Oh, I can imagine because so many people get into it and they I just I thought it was gonna be a little easier than what it was. And I just I was like, you have to keep going, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah, it's a marathon, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint, you know, it nothing's handed to you. Um, you really have to you have to battle for it. And that if you love what you do, again, it comes back to passion. If if you love it so much that even the battles are okay, that you you you can really figure out how to get on to the next step, next step, next step, you're gonna be in a place where you can overcome that, but it's rare, you know, it's really easy to give up along the way, it's a lot easier than enduring. And so that's what I really try to impress upon people when they ask, you know, should I start a tequila brand? Should I start a CPG brand? Yes, if you're passionate about it, but there's a whole series of things that you should consider and really take to heart before you go all in. And the last thing I'll say about, you know, the entrepreneurship is in my mind, it's very difficult to do it as a hobby or an afterthought. You really need to be all in, all in that's my word for 2026.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

All in. All in. Okay, I love it. And for someone who's listening and maybe want to break into the Band Retro Spirits industry industry, what advice would you give them? We kind of touched on it a little bit.

Advice For Breaking Into Beverages

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yeah, I you know, I I would say just that. I would say for me, some of the most important things that I learned along the way from my mentors were if you have an idea, you have a concept that you really believe in, trust your heart, trust, trust your mind. If you if you're really passionate about it, that's the first big step. And then really try to have two or three distinct points of difference. What makes your product or your idea special, not just to you, but to others, where they can see it right away. They can they can wrap their arms around your vision. Um, that way you have kind of an in or a starting dialogue where you can talk about why you're doing what you're doing and why you deem it to be so important and you're passionate about it. Those are the first things to kind of tackle. And then the the perseverance piece, you know, along the way, there's going to be a series of obstacles, and you should realize that there'll be times where you'll be at an impasse or at a fork in the road where nine people out of 10 would give up. And you have to make sure you're that 10th person because if you're not, you you probably shouldn't start out of the starting blocks.

Discount Offer And Closing

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Got it, got it. Well, Ken, we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us this morning. And uh, I know my chit chatters are gonna be excited and want to know how they can uh purchase some of these nice mixers, fresh mixers. So, chit chatters, you can get a 20% discount on your order with code and I love it, Chit Chat 20. And the website is www.freshficture.com. We're gonna put this in the notes of the podcast and on our website as well. So um make sure you uh get out there, go to that website to get your 20% discount, Chit Chat 20. Our quote for the week is step into this week bold, refreshed and ready for what's next. Tune in next week for another exciting episode.