montauk beverage works

October 20, 2009

Your New Long Island Iced Tea

by Christine Gerani

We had the privilege to sit down with CEO Raymond Smyth, 27 of Montauk Beverage Works. This new iced tea is low in calories, delicious and of course Long Island born. With a great logo and product this young entrepreneur is giving some well known companies a run for their money. Raymond sat down with us at the beautiful home of Genevieve McPeak a French American business woman and fan of Montauk Beverage Works. On a cold rainy night Raymond conducted a tasting for her and a few of her friends at a gathering at her home last week.

Christine – Tell us when you started Montauk Beverage Works?

Raymond – It started approximately a year ago in the summer of 2008. I wanted to start my own business. I had a corporate, nine to five job and decided that I wanted to start something. My goal for years was to open my own restaurant and bar, but that was right around the time the economy started dipping a little bit. For me, at my age, I couldn’t imagine putting so many eggs in one basket at this point in my life – to take a step back and go into the risky restaurant business. But for years my passion has been in the food and beverage industry.

Christine – Did you go to college?

Raymond – I went to college. Finally graduated from Providence College in Rhode Island, but it was a finance degree. I worked for years over at Jones Beach, Robert Moses State Park and then after I graduated I stayed with the Food and Retail Industry. My goal was to start a business and for about 4 years I’ve been essentially making my own iced tea and buying the whole leaf tea leaves from tea shops or online and I would always tinker with different types of recipes. I always knew I had something good there, but it wasn’t until last summer when I really had that entrepreneurial itch to do something that I decided; ‘hey maybe look into this tea thing and see if I can start bottling some of my recipes’.

Christine – Is your company a family business?

Raymond – This is my own business but I have a lot of help from my family.

Christine – How do they help you?

Raymond – They’re supportive in the back of the house things. If I do a tasting somewhere they’ll help haul cases of iced tea. They help from a distance but 99% of the work comes from me right now.

Christine – Tell us a little about your upbringing. Did you grow up in Montauk?

Raymond – I did not grow up in Montauk. Actually the brand name has misconceptions, and some people don’t know this but the name comes from the Montauk Highway and my drive down Montauk Highway. The summer I started it, I stayed in Montauk…I was driving up and down Montauk Highway to sell my iced tea.

I was born and raised in Massapequa. Went to college in New Orleans, transferred pretty quickly to Providence College, but I did graduate in the summer of 2004 and after that I came back to New York, kind of fumbled around a little bit, got a job in the food and beverage industry where I worked for 5 years. It was a pretty good job but I was always looking for something else which leads me to this past July.

Christine – Tell us the differences between your tea and any other store bought iced tea. I read something online about your parents diluting your sugary drinks. Can you tell us about that?

Raymond – As a kid my parents would buy cranberry juice or 100% lemonade in half gallons, you don’t really want to drink straight up cranberry juice, I’d look over and they’re pouring lots of water into it thinking they’re getting some cheap extension of bottle life. The older you get you start to realize what exactly is in stuff. When you’re 11, 12 or 13 years old you don’t look at nutritional facts, but the older you get you start to hear more things that make you start to look at it. So the older I got, and being in the food and beverage industry, I really started to dissect these things to see really what it was…and ask where the food and where the drinks came from.

Christine – There has been a lot of issues with Childhood Obesity and the Soft Drink Industry. Do you feel that your drink is a healthy alternative?

Raymond – It is a healthy alternative. Right now I only have one flavor that is sweetened with agave, but there is only 80 calories per bottle and that’s half the amount of a 12 oz can of soda. So it is a healthier alternative.

Christine – How are the retailers reacting to your Iced Tea?

Raymond – The retailers are definitely an interesting experience when you’re dealing with a lot of mom and pop shops. Some are creative with who they will go with and they’ll figure out ways to bring it on since it’s the new project on the block. Then you have some of the old school deli owners or shop owners that are used to the same things and don’t care what it is, they just want to make as much money as they can. They’ll take the cheaper product and they’ll make their money on it and that’s that. On the whole I’d say most of the people that I talk to are welcoming me with open arms.

Christine – I love the logo and design on the bottles! Was there any inspiration for it or did you just get a great designer?

Raymond – That was a tough process to find a designer because there’s been a lot of new iced tea companies popping up over the past couple of years and a lot of them have been going for this real upscale image. I wanted to have something upscale for the bottle, but still have a down to earth label and logo because what I made at home when I was making my own iced tea was a very very good product that blew away what was offered. So I started looking around. I spent many hours looking on line for random designers and found someone whom I’ve been working with since January, which is when I really started the label design. He’s kind of a one stop shop, a younger guy like me and he’ll help me out with the marketing aspect and everything else. So we’ll bounce ideas off each and it’s been a great relationship ever since.

Christine – Will you be introducing more teas down the road?

Raymond – Soon! The goal is to get more stores and get more distribution going and then finding some third party distributors. My goal is about 5 flavors. I want to do two that are lightly sweetened and three that are unsweetened. The tastings are the best because you really get to talk to people and use them as your focus group to see what people want. There are some people that want sugary drinks but hey…there are already options for them. I don’t want to go there because there are fewer options as you get down the line. I’m going to offer one flavor right now; this is the black tea with lemon grass that’s going to be lightly sweetened, then a decaffeinated that will be lightly sweetened. Then the next 3 will be unsweetened flavors that will be mixed up and get a little interesting. I’m working with some seasonal ideas, like a Chai tea which may not sell well in the summer but it may sell well in the winter. I’m looking at ideas like that. By next March it should be interesting.

Christine – What do you when you’re not making iced tea?

Raymond – I try to make time for my girlfriend. It’s been busy. Over the winter I bought a kayak and I figured I’m going to use it all the time, but the same Kayak is still in my garage. I’m making a commitment that next summer I definitely will use it! The good thing with my business is the delis are closed at night so I can wind down a little bit while still making time for my girlfriend.

Christine – And she’ll like that answer. Thanks Raymond!

For more information about where you can purchase Montauk Beverage Works please visit his website at Montauk Beverage Works.

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