Courtesy Saratoga Business Journal
By Susan Elise Campbell
Sometimes a group of businesspeople gets together and comes up with a novel idea for a product they can have fun developing and bring to market successfully.
In the case of Sidecap, the brainstormers were three neighbors and dads whose kids play together. Their think tank was a swimming pool. And the idea was a coffee cocktail that comes in a can.
The first round of product is being sold at Purdy’s liquor stores in Saratoga. The flagship Sidecap Hard Cold Brew is a 250ml can of a coffee and vodka blend with 6.9 percent alcohol.
“Three years ago we were throwing out crazy ideas for drinks and many of the ideas died out,” said Adam Feldman, one of the three and a consultant to local small businesses. “But this one had staying power.”
It took a while from that summer afternoon for Feldman, Dave Dolinsky, and Case Fell to do research and development and produce their first cases. R&D entailed mixing different blends of Kru brand cold brew, store bought vodka, and a dash of sugar into a flavor profile they could settle on.
Feldman said he is good friends with the owners of Kru, a coffee shop at The Fresh Market plaza featuring fair trade beans and teas.
“It’s my office away from home,” he said. “The baristas kid me that I spend more time there than they do.”
Kru was “a natural fit in the world of coffee,” so Feldman asked if they wanted to develop the research together, he said.
Most coffee drinks on the market are coffee flavored beer or liquor infused with coffee. But according to Feldman, Sidecap is a new concept in alcoholic beverages.
“We wanted it the other way around,” he said. “We wanted a coffee drink with an alcohol kick so that customers can drink it at any time.”
“Our market is anyone who wants a pick-me-up, such as around 4:00 before they go out for the night,” he said. “Sidecap is also for the day drinker, such as people out on a boat or the golf course.”
Research showed consumers wanted less of a stimulant, so the coffee ingredient is half-caffeinated.
“This drink is not a nightcap or a daycap. It’s a Sidecap,” said Feldman.
The team navigated all the federal and state requirements and approvals for the formula, label, can size, and much more. They also needed to figure out beverage stability and the appropriate pH in order to have a shelf life, which, Feldman said, can change the flavor.
Cases are not shipped or stored in coolers, which is why shelf life is important, and regulated. He said they had to navigate distribution in New York,as well.
“They keep an eye on literally everything,” he said.
Feldman said New York encourages businesses to make IPAs and has easy distribution rules for them, but the regulatory process is significantly more challenging for liquor. That may be why there are so many local IPA beers.
Feldman has Kru coffee and ingredients to distill vodka delivered to Ninth Planet Beverage Solutions in Saratoga where, at their full service facility, ingredients are blended according to the partners’ approved formula. Sidecap is canned, labeled, boxed, and shipped to a distributor in New Jersey, which has to ship it back to Saratoga for delivery to retail stores.
“Our challenge is, we cannot work with a distributor locally because we’re too small,” said Feldman. “Local stores say, put me down for four cases and then find out they are not in the distributor’s network.”
“The next step is to show we’re not too small for a local distributor,” he said. “Yes, we are small, but look how committed we are.”
“Shipping to New Jersey and back to Saratoga hurts our local love, not to mention the environmental impact of driving back and forth,” he said.
The business has built up an inventory and is slated to produce another 1,000 cases in the fall.
Feldman said that of the three, he is the entrepreneur in the group and that his “whole life and career evolves around a commitment to working local.”
“My immediate business goal is to be a Saratoga-centric brand in local restaurants and with local community partners who help each other, not simply be business partners,” he said.
Once a local distributor picks up Sidecap, Feldman can approach local golf courses and restaurants about carrying the beverage. The partners can also discuss producing other flavor skews. If they can eventually distill their own vodka and, with an additional financial investment, become a self-distributor, the venture with be truly local, Feldman said.
“We are getting positive feedback about our canned coffee cocktail that has been three years in the making,” said Feldman. “Local people like us, they like the logo, and they like Sidecap.”
All three partners have full-time jobs and started Sidecap “as a fun hobby,” Feldman said. “But it evolved into a real life product we can be proud of.”
Visit sidecapbrew.com and Instagram for more information.