Honus: Now the Official Taster

Hello.  Honus here again, and, boy am I psyched.  Eric Skae, New Leaf’s Founder and CEO, liked my blog so much last week, that he asked me to start writing them on a rolling basis.  Now, they won’t be from me EVERY week, because sometimes they will be from him, but you will definitely be seeing my name more often.

I was just recently promoted from OFFICIAL Official of The Official Beverage of Taste™ to the Official Taster, and wow, I feel like a quarterback thrown in to the Super Bowl in his rookie year: there is a ton of pressure with the position, but I am excited about the opportunity.  

Because we are The Official Beverage of Taste™, we guarantee that our products are the best-tasting on the market, and now, that responsibility falls on my shoulders. To be clear, NOTHING gets approved without Eric’s final say, but I am now the final gatekeeper before HE tastes the samples.  If he doesn’t like the samples I have okayed, he’s going to lose faith in my abilities as the Official Taster, and I sure don’t want to let him down.

So, you ask, what makes me so qualified?  I got my start refereeing for my son’s peewee league in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I quickly became renowned for my integrity, my impartial, fair temperament and my great taste off the field, and these attributes allowed me to move up the ranks from peewee to high school to college (Big 10!) and finally, to professional sports. 

Then, in early 2010, after a long period of service as a celebrated sports referee and international food and beverage critic, I discovered New Leaf, and I just had to join the team. For much of my career I'd been searching in vain for a great tasting beverage that was good for me, too. I was tired of all the bland-tasting “natural” beverages AND the overly sweetened high fructose corn syrup-containing beverages that left a tangy aftertaste in my mouth. Tasting New Leaf for the first time was like an awakening for my taste buds. 

After that, there was no turning back. I promptly called Eric directly and told him that I just had to be part of the New Leaf family.  After some long conversations, we realized that we were much aligned on most of our business practices and our personal goals, plus, we just got along well, so I joined the team, and the rest is history. 

I have been proud to endorse New Leaf – I have been prominently featured on their POS AND their websites – and truly believe that this budding brand will quickly flourish into a global phenomenon the likes of which haven’t been seen since Evian re-invented bottled water.

Eric Skae has even gone on record, saying, “Honus has been such a positive addition to the New Leaf family.  Not only does he personify the New Leaf ideal of being The Official Beverage of Taste™, but he’s also very accessible and consumers are really able to identify with him.  They love Honus.”

High words of praise, which I humbly accept as a challenge to live up to in my new role as Official Taster.

A Honus Tasteful Topic: Good News Grows at New Leaf

Honus here.  I was just talking to Eric (and by Eric, I mean New Leaf founder and CEO, Eric Skae) the other day about the State of the Company, and there are a ton of exciting thing happening with the Company! (I'm telling ya, there's a lot, so go a grab a cold New LEaf from the fridge and settle in.  It's ok, I'll wait 'til ya get back........................................ok, good, now we're ready!)

Our recently launched line of lemonades is selling through the roof. In fact, they have completely sold out twice and are quickly becoming our most popular flavors, even outselling our teas!  They are so popular, in fact, that we've doubled production of our currently available flavors - The Tiger, Homemade Lemonade,Strawberry Lemonade and Black Cherry Lemonade - and we're thinking about coming out with even more lemonade flavors soon.  Oops, I probably wasn't supposed to ruin the surprise, but there it is any way: something for your taste buds to look forward to.

In more good news, New Leaf was just picked up by 17 distributors in California.  Talk about a home run!! Do you know what that means?? New Leaf products are now available state-wide in California, which is the third biggest state in the Union! Plus, it means we are now available in the state of Nevada as well. Lots of thirsty people in the desert over there will now be able to cool off by enjoying a nice, refreshing New Leaf.

But not just there: New Leaf products are now available in Utah, Santa Fe and even the Philippines.

On top of that, New Leaf has increased distribution at Whole Foods with the addition of 42 stores in their Southern Pacific division, which includes  Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.  Aloha! Add this to the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Rocky Mountain Whole Foods division store we were already in, and New Leaf has the nation almost covered. With regard to Whole Foods that is.

And, if that wasn't enough, New Leaf was also recently approved for all 180 of the Giant Food stores.  Giant Food LLC operates 180 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

I know.  That's a lot going on, and it's hard to keep track of sometimes.  So, to help me keep it straight, I like to think of the beverage industry as a football game. You know, from time to time, you get an exciting kick-off return, run back for a touch down. And that's fun and exciting, for sure, but you can't rely on that to be your game plan.

No. The teams that are successful take their time, working the field 3 yards a play and wind up with the same result - 7 points! - but having learned so much more along the way. This team now has the ability to look back and see what worked and why; what didn't and how to improve it. This team has the tenacity and stamina that makes them ultimately successful.

This team is New Leaf. Building distribution brick by brick, account by account and consumer by consumer (yes, You!), creating the best-tasting beverage available.  Oh yeah, and they happen to be all-natural.  

And the tenacity and stamina that we generate along the way are the characteristics that will ultimately turn the Official Beverage of Taste (TM) into a global brand.

Eric said something to me as the meeting drew to a close that really underscored this for me.  He said,"This is a game of stamina. You can't just sprint out the gate and never look back. In fact, it's just the opposite. You need to take your time, making adjustments as necessary. Sure, you might stuble a little, but that's how you learn and improve."

In other words, slow and steady wins the race.