Tasting Arcadia

Episode 26 - Mario's Hard Espresso

• Karen Mac Nair • Season 2 • Episode 26

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On this episode of Tasting Arcadia with Karen Mac Nair you might think a bottle of hard espresso might not seem revolutionary until you hear the story behind Mario's Hard Espresso. Founder Joe shares how his father Mario, a Sicilian immigrant farmer with powerful hands and an even more powerful sense of community, crafted a special espresso liqueur once a year for six decades simply to bring people together.

For more information and tickets to the Taste of Arcadia visit TasteOfArcadia.com.

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John Villa:

Welcome to Tasting Arcadia, the official podcast of Taste of Arcadia. Taste of Arcadia is an all-inclusive event featuring food and drinks from the San Gabriel Valley restaurants, all for one price Sample food, wine, beer and spirits. Check out our brand new cars, visit our business showcase booths, smile at our photo booth and shake it on the dance floor with me, john Villa from Dance Syndicate DJ Entertainment. Taste of Arcadia is September 13th at Santa Anita Park. The fun goes from 2 to 6 pm, with special VIP entrance at 1 pm. Don't forget this isa 21 and over event. Get your tickets today at tasteofarcadia. com. Now let's hear it for our host, Karen Mac Nair.

Karen Mac Nair:

Well, thank you, john, for that great introduction. I am thrilled to say today, on Tasting of Arcadia, it's an episode where we get to taste some great hard espresso. I know if you're driving out there, if you're walking, if you are watching us on YouTube, this is an exciting episode of a brand that I have not been exposed to before, so this is all going to be new to me. This is all exciting. We just kind of went over a few things. I'm thrilled. So I'm here with Joe, who is the president and founder of Mario's Hard Espresso, trying to show all the cameras.

Joe Grasso:

There it is. That's the little one.

Karen Mac Nair:

This is the little guy who I feel like is my new friend.

Joe Grasso:

We like to say it's perfect for the purse, perfect for the pocket, good for the golf bag. I'm loving that we actually refer to them as dog walkers, because they're just the right amount and they're refillable, so that's important. Oh.

Karen Mac Nair:

So you get the baby dog and the big dog. Exactly Okay, Joe, why don't you start? Let's get everybody else caught up to our conversation. Sure sure. Let's start talking about Mario's Hard Espresso.

Joe Grasso:

Tell me the story Happy to. First of all, thanks so much for having us and we're thrilled to be, a part. We do a lot of events throughout the year and this was a big one for us, so we're very excited. But Mario's Hard Espresso is really pretty simple. Obviously the gentleman there's a pretty buff gentleman right on the front of our bottle.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, yep, totally see that.

Joe Grasso:

Yep, that is actually Mario, and Mario is my dad.

Karen Mac Nair:

Oh, I love that.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, my dad made this in our family. One batch a year around 12 or 15 bottles. One batch a year for friends and family for over 60 years. And I just sort of grew up on it. I was probably about 14 or 15 when I noticed people were kind of like you know, hey, mario, am I going to get a bottle this year? It was a very special thing.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, and he did it to bring people together. I mean, that was just part of who he was. He loved people to share a drink and a laugh and a story, and it was just his way of giving and he encouraged people to gift it and to share it.

Joe Grasso:

So that's kind of our ethos as a brand. But I was fortunate enough to make it with him in the last few years of his life. I learned how to do it and then when he passed away 14 years ago, I was literally I said to my son, aaron, I'm like we have to keep doing this, we have to keep this tradition going to honor him. So we did it, like you know, very much in the kitchen old wine bottles, different photos of him on every bottle.

Karen Mac Nair:

You're like print that, reprint that picture. Yeah, you know it's that kind of thing.

Joe Grasso:

It was really awesome and people loved that. We continued. And then in 2018, honestly, this is how it started I had no experience in the spirit business. In 2018, I was reading a story about a vodka brand, a very big vodka brand, that we all know, but that they don't distill their own vodka, that they use a contract distiller. And I was like you can do that and I started. I was looking at the bottle. I'm like I don't have to make it because you can't make alcohol in your kitchen and right, you need. There's a lot of licensing involved. I said, huh, maybe I can build a brand around this. Tell the story of my dad, find someone to actually make it for us.

Joe Grasso:

So, that was the beginning of the quest, and that was in 2018. And we launched the brand in November of 2021. So almost four years now.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wow, that is amazing. So after hearing the story, I do have a question. Your dad was creating this. Did he get the recipe for any way? Was it his own recipe?

Joe Grasso:

I wish I could tell you I knew but, I, really don't.

Joe Grasso:

It's part of sort of the origin of my family. They were Sicilian immigrants. They had farms in upstate New York. In fact that photo is of my dad on the farm and people look at that photo and they say was he a boxer or was he a weightlifter? Was he a weightlifter? He was a farmer. That's from my dad. He used to say to me you lift crates of onions all day, you'll look like that too. So you know, they did a lot of things right, as immigrants do. Nothing goes to waste Right. And they baked and they were butchers and they were masons and they were farmers. And he did a lot of things beside this too. He made biscotti and pasta and did all kinds of things. So I think this was just an extension of that.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, that totally makes sense. And then the back of the bottle also has a picture.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah.

Karen Mac Nair:

And it looks like it's your dad as a baby. It is Because it does say Mario and pointing.

Joe Grasso:

So I'm not that it's my father Mario Okay, sitting on my grandfather, joseph, my namesake, sitting on his lap. That's actually a much larger photo. The whole family is in it. There was 10 of them and I display that on the table when we do events like Taste of Arcadia so people can see it in context. But we like to joke because my dad's got his hand to his head. We like to say, oh, that's the minute he gets the idea for hard espresso.

Karen Mac Nair:

Oh, that's cute.

Joe Grasso:

I'm not sure that's actually the case, but we're going to say yes, we're going to say I'm going to go with it. Maybe his little teeth hurt or something. He was teething I thought maybe his big onesie is hot.

Karen Mac Nair:

He's all like I got it. I got it Rubbing his gums.

John Villa:

I love it.

Karen Mac Nair:

I love that. It's a family story.

Joe Grasso:

And if anyone out Like, we kind of go over the top a little bit when it comes to decorating, but you'll see old cameras and photos and all kinds of things we bring out because it's literally a brand rooted in the history and the tradition of our family. So that's.

Karen Mac Nair:

So that leads me to my next question Are you local?

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, we're based in Simi Valley. I was actually born here in Southern California. My father, my parents, had moved out from upstate New York, where the farm was in the early 60s, and I shocked everybody. So I'm the native Californian in the family, but we make it in Simi Valley. Subsequent to finding a contract distiller, which is a whole other story, we decided to bring production in-house. So about a year ago I received a distilled spirits permit and we produce it ourselves as a family, again Uh-huh.

Joe Grasso:

And we also distribute throughout California ourselves and we also sell ourselves. So we're very busy.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wow, your son's still involved. Oh yeah, very much so Okay.

Joe Grasso:

He's our operations, yeah. Chief operations officer.

Karen Mac Nair:

And yeah, I feel like that's your dad smiling down, like that. Everyone is still together. I'd like to think so.

Joe Grasso:

It's been really satisfying, really gratifying, these last four years since we did this, because I talk about him every day.

Karen Mac Nair:

I just got chills.

Joe Grasso:

I talk about really the good parts too the things that really motivated him. And it's also been good for us because, quite frankly, if we ever get to a fork in the road, and. I have to make a decision. I think about what honors him.

Karen Mac Nair:

And that's the way we go. You know, know your why that?

Joe Grasso:

keeps it really Exactly.

Karen Mac Nair:

So I feel like we've already talked. He seems to be the inspiration behind the business family.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, very much so. And I'll be honest, I've always been sort of a serial entrepreneur and done a lot of different things. I've always wanted to build something I don't know that had some sort of legacy, you know, some sort of lasting value, um, but this was one of those things that just came out of like sort of that desire, and then that they the also the desire to like, honor him and honor my family and provide my kids and grandchildren. You know something to be proud of yeah, that is.

Karen Mac Nair:

That is so great. I do love that. Thank you, um. I feel like we've also talked about what you're most proud of, like I'm thinking about the different things. It's like your story is like all inclusive. It really has all the points. It's so yeah centric.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, thank, thank you. Yeah, you know I'm very proud of what we've done. You know we're in about 900 locations in almost well, five, almost six states. We're about to get going to North Carolina, primarily California, though. Okay, we're in hundreds of bars and restaurants, people, restaurateurs and bar owners who really care about quality, love Mario's and pour us, and that's been really satisfying.

Joe Grasso:

But I think, even more than that, in our family we loved it and my father's friends loved it, right, and so when I brought it to market, I wasn't looking for an affirmation, I just thought, well, let's see what happens. In fact, the first year, I made 1,500 bottles and put them in a warehouse and just started walking the streets, and I remember saying, if I just give them away, we'll see what happens. I didn't know how it was going to be received, right. But now, three and of four years in, and I see how it's received and I see how people love it and how people basically use it or do with it what my father intended, which is they buy it, they gift it, they bring it, they serve it at weddings, they serve it at, you know, family functions, and they've really embraced it.

Joe Grasso:

So that is by far the most satisfying thing. And then you know it's crazy to walk into. It still gives me goosebumps to walk into a bar or restaurant or a store shelf and see it on the shelf. It's like I can't hardly even believe it. So that's really been satisfying. And a lot of those places like North Beach and San Francisco where we have a really strong presence. My father used to go there all the time and for me to think about what he would think to know that he was in.

Joe Grasso:

Molinari and Tony's Pizza. I mean, it's just, I don't know, super great.

Karen Mac Nair:

So we're going to dive into now what do we do with it?

John Villa:

I have this bottle, you've gifted me this bottle.

Karen Mac Nair:

I receive it, you can have all of it, take it all.

John Villa:

Buy the show.

Joe Grasso:

Give it to friends, it's over.

Karen Mac Nair:

I'm done. We get this bottle, now what do I do with it?

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, so here's the thing In our family we drink it straight.

Karen Mac Nair:

That's how we drank it forever my father would do around the holidays he would do one cocktail, which is actually on this cocktail card which I can talk about.

Joe Grasso:

We have a cocktail card. Yeah, it's called a King Alphonse. Around the holidays he would do that kind of a special after dinner. He would get everybody around, pour some Mario's and then he'd float a little float of cream on top of it and it's super delicious. You see, sip through the cream and you get all the rich flavors of the of Mario's, and so that's kind of how what I was thinking when I, when we brought it to market.

Karen Mac Nair:

people were just going to love it, but then of course you know one of the first things somebody said to me was and I was like, wow a special martini.

Joe Grasso:

So now we are in just it's an insane amount of cocktails, and what I didn't realize when we brought it to market, and what bartenders and mixologists have taught us is how versatile it is. So we put these cocktail cards together to show the versatility. So you asked what do you do with it? Well, the reality is you can do virtually anything with it, so it is delicious on its own. Okay, it is amazing.

Karen Mac Nair:

It's a great starting point.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, some of them are not, so we're very fortunate, right.

John Villa:

It's true.

Joe Grasso:

And I still drink it this way, we still drink it straight, we still pour it on the rocks. A little twist of lemon, amazing. But then At home you can make an espresso martini, very simply a true espresso martini, with whiskey, with rum, with tequila, with mezcal. We have drinks with. We have one, a 213, which is our ode to LA.

Karen Mac Nair:

Like the area code oh yay, yes.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, two parts Mario's, one part tequila, three parts horchata, which is amazing.

Karen Mac Nair:

Ooh, that does sound delicious.

Joe Grasso:

Amazing. We have a bakery in Camarillo that's doing Mario's chocolate truffles and Mario's tiramisu. We have a restaurant in La Jolla that is pouring it over ice cream as an affogato. So I mean I had somebody recently do a half Mario's, half Modelo beer. Oh my gosh, which sounds insane, it does. It was delicious, so there's like, okay, sure, why not? That's literally the way it's been for us.

Karen Mac Nair:

So businesses and bartenders, mixologists, are out there coming to you to give you inspiration of what they're coming up with.

Joe Grasso:

I love that Everything you see on the cocktail cart is being poured in a different bar and restaurant. We didn't come up with them, except there's two on there that we came up with. But yeah, those are cocktails that are being poured. That were revelations for us, because I had no clue that that was going to be the case.

Karen Mac Nair:

I also never thought about, when I order espresso martini, to ask what is being included in it.

Joe Grasso:

You should.

Karen Mac Nair:

Right, that's what you just taught me that.

Joe Grasso:

Because I can tell you a lot of them don't have espresso in them.

Karen Mac Nair:

Joe.

Joe Grasso:

Sorry.

Karen Mac Nair:

I'm going to push you, get out, they lead into cold brew, and it's an entirely different thing.

Joe Grasso:

Oh so espresso is much smoother. It doesn't have the bitterness and the thing about Mario's which, partly, I'll tell you the secret. So there's only four ingredients.

Karen Mac Nair:

OK.

Joe Grasso:

Super, super simple Four natural ingredients, 100% Arabica, dark roast espresso. Okay, that's how we start Organic Madagascar vanilla the real stuff, the expensive stuff, a little bit of cane sugar real again sweetener, and then that's it.

Joe Grasso:

We take those three ingredients and blend them with a neutral grain spirit. That's super high proof, okay, and the best way for me to equate it would be to like Everclear Everyone's heard of that, but that's like kind of rough Right. This it would be to like Everclear Everyone's heard of that, but that's like kind of rough Right. This is triple distilled, super smooth, got a nice silky mouthfeel, but because it's such a high proof, we use way less of it to hit that 28% in the bottle, so it's not diluting the concentration of coffee. Okay.

Joe Grasso:

So, people, on the first sip you should get real strong notes of true espresso and real coffee flavor, and then people taste chocolate and caramel in the mid palate and then a little bit of heat on the back end to let you know you're drinking a spirit but no alcohol flavor. So that's why it blends so well with everything right, and it's also why why you know cold brews can can sometimes be bitter, and then you have to mask the bitterness and you don't have to do that with this I feel like that explains why they mask the bitterness and then they over-sweeten it.

Karen Mac Nair:

So then there's that where you're like okay, it just didn't quite turn out the way you would have to do if it's too bitter. Yes.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, so Mario's has some sweetness to it, so it's not like just drinking a black coffee, but we think it's perfectly balanced. As I said almost like a wine, right, a wine has a beginning, middle and an end. Same kind of thing. Unced, as I said, almost like a wine, right, the wine has a beginning, middle and an end. Same kind of thing. Um, and we were scored 95 points by the tasting panel, which is a pretty prestigious wine magazine, and they specifically called out the, uh, the lack of bitterness. In fact they said no bitter edge.

Joe Grasso:

So we were, we were pretty uh love that.

Karen Mac Nair:

Did you get one of those medals?

Joe Grasso:

we got a bunch of medals.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yay, I'm so proud of you. We were very, very excited about that.

Joe Grasso:

It was very, very, very satisfying, very awesome.

Karen Mac Nair:

Good, okay, we're going to jump into the part of tasting.

Joe Grasso:

Oh, excellent, this is my favorite part. Okay, so what I'm going to do? I have a little taster cup here.

Karen Mac Nair:

It's a small cup, Don't worry folks.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, I'm just gonna start small what was the percentage? 90, 28 oh 28, well, 98 no, no 28, okay, okay, I'll share with you since thank you I can't let you drink alone, so cheers, cheers is there a special way? No, you just sip it. Just I would sip it first, just so you have a little oh, that is good.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, I'm sorry everyone, I paused for a long period of time, but the flavors do take you through. It starts off, you get a little hold on. I'm gonna take another test. You get that coffee flavor, but but then it adds sweetness and then at the end it almost feels creamy with no cream in it. It's got a finishing.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, that's the balance. Yeah, and, like I said, like a good wine, it has a story and it has a journey.

Karen Mac Nair:

Through the whole thing.

Joe Grasso:

A beginning, a middle and an end.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yes, oh, my goodness, I see why you could just drink this myself, and like I said, even that with just a little lemon, peel the citrus on.

Joe Grasso:

Putting a little citrus on it is incredibly delicious.

Karen Mac Nair:

So and I'm I enjoy a cup of coffee yeah so this is yes, yeah, if. If you're out on vacation and you don't have your morning coffee yet, you can just have some of this. So I brought a few different things. If you want to, yeah, let's try what.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, let's make a cocktail If you're out on vacation and you don't have your morning coffee yet, you can just have some of this. So I brought a few different things.

Karen Mac Nair:

If you want to try them differently? Yeah, let's try. Yeah, let's make a cocktail.

Joe Grasso:

So this one is fun. Okay, can I reuse your cup? Yes, this is going to be a small one, yes, so this is one that I was holding my cup, hostage everybody. There's plenty more. We anymore, we don't have to stop. This is one that we came up with, um, because we needed to do a brunch drink and we needed something brunchy. Um, and we couldn't pour another spirit and, uh, I had been hearing about this like viral tiktok thing going on with coffee and orange juice okay oh wow, that's wild coffee and orange juice.

Joe Grasso:

What does that mean?

Karen Mac Nair:

so I'm intrigued. I don't know, I'm not committed yet, but I'm intrigued so we came up with this cocktail. We call it a boozy julius okay um, and it's really really fun I grew up in the mall, so orange julius was always exactly you remember, uh-huh this is really fun.

Joe Grasso:

I tell people it's great. Um, when you're having folks over, it's game day or you're doing a brunch, you don't want to serve everyone a mimosa, put them to sleep with champagne. You want to get the conversation started. They will see you make this and go. What the heck are you doing? And then you say, just hang in there, you just try it.

Karen Mac Nair:

So we added the orange juice and the third. Uh, I really don't want to tell you. Okay, do you want me to?

Joe Grasso:

taste it first, okay, but I will tell you it's white in color folks, you're okay with cream. Yes, I should have asked, just in case no but here you go. So I would just suggest shooting that.

Karen Mac Nair:

It's very mellow, you're gonna be sorry, you invited me I'm sorry, it's really mellow okay, um, but you'll get all the flavors that way it looks like a cappuccino right now is what I'm going to. Okay, so shoot it.

Joe Grasso:

Please Okay.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, an orange sickle.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, like a creamsicle.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yeah.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah.

Karen Mac Nair:

But it still has that. Well, is it just the sweetness that is there?

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, yeah.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wow.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, so we call that a boozy Julius. We have the photo that you see there was actually taken on the cocktail card. It was actually taken at Esther's Kitchen in. Excuse me, I'm going to tidy up a little here in, uh um, las vegas, which is a fabulous restaurant. If anyone's going to las vegas, go to esther's kitchen, but we have a number of places that are serving it. It's really fun for people to do I.

Karen Mac Nair:

I think I'm shocked because, tasting the hard espresso on its own, yeah, that was not the flavor I was expecting what were you expecting? Um more coffee flavor huh but it just smoothed it out where it was richness.

Joe Grasso:

Richness yeah.

Karen Mac Nair:

And not so like coffee.

Joe Grasso:

We have people telling us they taste chocolate, they taste caramel. I can see the chocolate flavor, definitely, but it wasn't in the beginning.

Karen Mac Nair:

It was like just the shot definitely had the coffee flavor to it.

Joe Grasso:

I can pour another one for you, if you'd like.

Karen Mac Nair:

I'm going to get a hot flash. Do we have a different cocktail?

Joe Grasso:

we could try too. Yeah, I'm going to do one that's a little different. It's going to take me a little more to make, but this is a summer cocktail. It's super refreshing, really delicious. Well, I'll let you be the judge of that.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, so we're poolside is what we're hearing. We have brunch and we can have another option Poolside.

Joe Grasso:

Exactly, exactly right. There's tons of options.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay.

Joe Grasso:

This one, just a second.

Karen Mac Nair:

And we have a fresh cup for this one. Wow, I still think it's amazing the great flavors this has.

Joe Grasso:

Thank you.

Karen Mac Nair:

Handcrafted with love. Now I'm reading the label while he is making the drinks. Sorry about that? No, handcrafted with love, in very small batches.

Joe Grasso:

And that is the truth Mario's Hard Espresso I tell people you know as a family, you know we make it, we sell it, we distribute it and we fight over it, as any good Italian family would right. Okay where am I? I'm going to try to do this very slowly, because it has a tendency to.

Karen Mac Nair:

DrinkMarioscom is a place you could go, yeah.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, all of these recipes and more are on our website. You can also put in your zip code and it'll show you all the bars and restaurants and retailers.

Karen Mac Nair:

Oh, I love that.

Joe Grasso:

Where you can buy it in your area.

Karen Mac Nair:

Because that would be one of the questions how can we support Mario's Hard Espresso?

Joe Grasso:

Sure, sure you know this sounds kind of hokey, but having people enjoy it and gift it, and share. It is the is the most satisfying thing for us. It's what my dad did.

John Villa:

Um.

Joe Grasso:

I always thought that you know, our success relied on two things awareness, certainly and availability Right. So, we're trying to get it out there to as many places as possible. We have, uh a very um have a very sort of active online presence in terms of people can come to the website. You can get free shipping on three bottles or more. We're about to start a Mario's Club. We're going to start doing. We actually have in the works a special aged bottle for gifting for this Christmas. We do gift packs.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, great, that's a good idea.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, there's just a lot of ways to.

Karen Mac Nair:

Social media.

Joe Grasso:

Social media Instagram.

Karen Mac Nair:

On stream. Okay, primarily Instagram and Facebook. Okay, yeah, that's good to know, yeah.

Joe Grasso:

Okay, sorry I'm talking and not working.

Karen Mac Nair:

No, no, it's okay, it looks like a Diet Coke right now and a diet coke right now. So we had tonic water so far, yeah, and the mario's hard expresso, and now we're putting in an orange slice. How nice is that? It does look delicious, okay. So this is very different than the last, very different.

Joe Grasso:

Like I said, this is very much our summer sort of cocktail sitting by the pool in the middle of the day okay something refreshing. You give that a shot, see what you think.

Karen Mac Nair:

Cheers okay, that is delicious and refreshing.

Joe Grasso:

I'm shocked again totally different set of flavors, totally different, that's right yeah, totally different right, and then we'll do a third one. Oh dang Eventually, whenever you want, we can do a third one.

Karen Mac Nair:

This though the lightness of it. Yeah, bubbly goodness.

Joe Grasso:

It's really an espresso tonic. Right, you can find different espresso tonics or blending. You know, blending espresso and tonic isn't a new thing. Blending Mario's and tonic is a little different. Certainly, the vanilla changes the character of it, makes it a little more cream soda like, and then the orange and put the citrus on. It makes it super refreshing, so it's just a great.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, thank you for the reminder. The vanilla in there, that is what I'm tasting in the middle of so many things.

Joe Grasso:

Is that vanilla? Yeah, it's madagascar real madagascar vanilla. It's the real stuff and I love vanilla. I'm a vanilla fan, but I couldn't put my finger on what that middle taste was it's the vanilla, it's the vanilla and it's the, and it's the interaction between the vanilla and the coffee that really causes those chocolate and caramel notes that. Well, it's the only thing that causes the chocolate and caramel notes that people taste. You know they get that in there, which is why it plays so well as a tiramisu. Oh.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yeah.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, make a tiramisu, did you just?

Karen Mac Nair:

see the light bulb go on, bing Wow.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, we have a number of places that actually make them. That's smart. Yeah, it's cool, super cool, so cool super cool.

Karen Mac Nair:

So what was the third? Okay, cocktails. Here we go. I'm not for the record, though, I'm not drinking this whole thing. Right, it's okay, all right, I understand.

Joe Grasso:

We're going back to the little cups okay because this will just be a little taster okay, little cups. So this is, um, this is something that's nice for people who, uh, want something a little creamier. Okay, desserty, this is a very nice, kind of nice way to end the evening If you've had your espresso martini in the middle of the day which by the way, I want everyone to know, we'll be doing a Mario's Espresso Martini on Nitro tap at Taste of Arcadia. We'll have a tap out there.

Joe Grasso:

It's amazing. The Nitro adds small little bubbles, almost like pouring a Guinness beer, so that it takes a second. It forms a beautiful head on it. They're delicious, super smooth and creamy, so people will be able to try that.

Karen Mac Nair:

My mouth is hanging open. Yeah, so that's the middle of the day. Okay, yes, middle of the day At the end of the day.

Joe Grasso:

You want something just to sort of end the night. What we'd like to do is put a little float on it. This is actually a mixture of 70 cream and 30 baileys okay and we do that ratio because we find that the baileys on its own kind of takes over. That's all you taste, and the cream on its own is a little flat.

Karen Mac Nair:

So we'll see what you think of this okay, and you already have the mixture in there. Okay, I'm all questioning. Like I've done this before, that's all right. Did you already mix it?

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, it's okay, I'm making a mess over here, it's okay. So that's another version of Mario's.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, and this does have. You can see the creamy chop.

Joe Grasso:

Oh yeah, this is definitely, yeah, most definitely Okay. So cheers again, Cheers again.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wow, that is good.

Joe Grasso:

Yeah, and you can see that's a little more, yeah, end of the night.

Karen Mac Nair:

So we've kind of I've given you, we've got breakfast, uh, midday and end of the night here, all in a very short okay, I see why you brought the big bottle then and not just the little bottle, because you're like you need this at home for all. You kind of do, you kind of do.

Joe Grasso:

I tell people it's like it's kind of shocking how fast it goes, but then that just might be us as a family.

Karen Mac Nair:

No, it's true. So, Joe, is there anything we've missed? Anything else you want to share with the group?

Joe Grasso:

There probably will be, and I'll think about it when I'm driving home. I would just say, you know, we're a California-based band I'm sorry, sorry brand or California based brand, and that means a lot to us. It means a lot to us to be a part of this community, to to be able to share with this community.

John Villa:

You know we all live here.

Joe Grasso:

My kids were all born here. You know this is where we. You know LA and Southern California is home to us and it's been satisfying and humbling to be embraced as we have yeah. And to be able to you know, serve this community and to be a part of it you know yeah. We do a lot of events throughout the year, and we do them because being a part of the community is important to us and, you know, nothing is more satisfying than people embracing us and buying it and then sharing their stories with us.

Karen Mac Nair:

I love that.

Joe Grasso:

Phenomenal. So, yeah, I think that's probably all you know. Just thank you, no, no, that's really how we feel. Thank you, Thanks for making us a part of you know, your lives and your community. We always say thanks for taking us along for the ride. Just on another note, one of the things we talk about a lot in the brand is we believe Mario's is the best coffee liqueur on the market, and a lot of people would probably say the same thing, and so you take that as a given right.

John Villa:

Right.

Joe Grasso:

For us, the honor comes from being a part of the daily lives and the life experiences of people. Like I said, weddings and bar mitzvahs and, you know, birthdays, and people share with us all the time and it's just, as I said, just super humbling. So for us, that's what motivates us and that's why we do it. That's why my dad did it.

Karen Mac Nair:

Joe, I love that because Taste of Arcadia is coming, but it is sponsored by the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce and that is what we love to do. We love bringing people together, we love businesses growing, we love the community that San Gabriel Valley we're in, we love Southern California, so I just love that our brands match in that aspect. So thank you for agreeing to come to Taste of.

John Villa:

Arcadia, of course. Thanks for having us.

Karen Mac Nair:

We're excited to have you, I'm excited for everyone to go on this tasting adventure.

Joe Grasso:

Oh, my goodness, and you have to come try the espresso martini. I will, I will.

Karen Mac Nair:

I'll be walking around, I promise I will and I'll tell everyone there, all the friends and family, but everyone out there listening. Thank you for being with us for another Tasting Arcadia podcast. We're excited. Taste of Arcadia September 13th. Make sure you get your tickets today at tasteofarcadia. com. John, sorry you couldn't be here with us, but so happy you still can do the intro and outro, so take it away.

John Villa:

Thank you, karen, for another great episode. You can hear us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeart Radio. Don't forget, join us on September 13th at Santa Anita Park for Taste of Arcadia. You can get your tickets now at tasteofarcadia. com. Thanks again for joining us for Tasting Arcadia. We'll see you at the Taste.