Husband and Wife Duo Make Vodka Sensations
The old saying that love makes you do the craziest things is absolutely true. But in the case of Melkon Khosrovian, love drove him to make vodka for the woman he loves. You see Melkon, who is of Armenian descent has traditionally enjoyed eating meals with his family, sipping vodka along with spicy grilled meats and Mediterranean salads. However, his wife Litty, who is of Indian (South Asian) descent, is a wine lover with a classical French cooking background. Unfortunately, she despised the taste and burn of straight liquor. So the enterprising Melkon concocted a few complex infused vodkas which contained flavors of fruits, spices and tea. Not only did Litty drink this love potion created with affection, she absolutely enjoyed it, and so did their friends. Thus everyone’s mutual enjoyment sparked a business idea that created the Los Angeles based company, Modern Spirits Vodka. Over the past two years, their company has been written up in several dozen major publications touting its seven unique spirit flavors ranging from chocolate orange, celery peppercorn to candied ginger. Originally stocked in some of LA’s finest restaurants, Modern Spirits is now filling up retail outlets in 9 states and growing. How It All Began: Boy Meets Girl And The Rest Is History Picture it, graduate school. The field of study is journalism. Melkon bumps into Litty and they become friends. Eventually they become more than just friends. Before too long the two are inseparable. Melkon proposes and now Litty is part of the family. But there’s one small problem. “My side [of the family] is from Armenia. In Armenia like some parts of Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, we drink spirits with meals unlike wine. And Litty hated the taste and burn of straight vodka which is what all of my relatives would serve her every time we go over to their meals and they would also use the vodka to toast her,” Melkon explains. So what’s a husband to do? Pretty soon Melkon started tinkering in the kitchen to create a kindler, gentler vodka for Litty’s palate. But neither one of them could comprehend one day quitting their jobs to totally devote their lives to the process of vodka making. It started as a slow evolution by creating only a couple of flavors and sharing them with cousins and friends. But then the requests for more continued to come in. Pretty soon Melkon and Litty had a serious kitchen table discussion on whether or not to make this hobby into a money making venture. Their Very Next Step After much soul searching and discussion, Melkon and Litty decided to become entrepreneurs and thus Modern Spirits Vodka was born. But before they could celebrate, they first had to do intense research, homework, and analysis before they could officially open up for business. “We studied as much as we could about the industry and talked to the regulators that controlled who goes in and who could exist as a spirits manufacturer,” Melkon adds. However, Melkon and Litty’s skills were complementary so their first step of building a business together was simply a matter of marrying their skills just as they had married each other. Litty, attended cooking school in Paris but studied marketing and journalism in graduate school. So she was charged with strategizing and keeping the business lock and step with the evolving spirits industry. She also adds that the inspiration for creating new vodka flavors comes from different sources. “We take a lot of inspiration from so many sources. Chefs are big inspiration because they’re willing to experiment and try new things, try new ingredients. But it’s also a little bit of what’s available. We work with agricultural researchers sometimes for our testing new varieties of citrus, fruits and vegetables and see what their doing and what’s coming down the line in the next few years. So we’re always thinking ahead to see what our new ingredients are,” Litty explains. But it isn’t all work and no play throughout their continual marketing analysis, research and development. Litty adds that another source of inspiration for their vodka making is their mutual travel. “We’re also inspired by the journeys we take by travel and finding new ingredients in perhaps in a different place and thinking this has a place in what we’re doing and what we’re making and so we draw from that as well. It’s from a lot of different inspirations,” she explains. Meanwhile Melkon’s in the laboratory creating the right balance and mouth weight for their different vodkas. He’s the technical guru of the two. He explains in very clear terms what exactly he goes through in developing vodka that can be paired with food as is the case with wine. In fact this has been his biggest challenge, changing the mindset of people who cannot comprehend drinking vodka so good that it can be used with a meal. “It’s something that is very foreign to most people, at least in the US. Until someone tastes our vodka it’s really difficult for most people to imagine just how good they taste. If you talk to the average vodka drinker, flavored vodka to them doesn’t evoke something that they would want to have with a meal because it’s mostly made with artificial ingredients or extracts and has as a very one dimensional quality to it. Whereas what we make is sort of like wine. It’s got delicacy, it’s got structure that complements a variety of foods and it has a balance among all the flavors in it,” he meticulously explains. Litty chimes in adding that “The trick is to find a combination that’s going to work really well in the glass. That’s really the test. You can put crazy ingredients together but if it’s not going to be tasty when you’re having something to eat or drink with it, if it’s not going to be a great pairing item then that’s going to be something that we’re not going to use and then try something else.” But The Work Doesn’t Stop There Being studied, researched, and inspired in order to find he right flavors that pair with certain foods is only part of the process. Vodka is neutral and colorless but there are two main ingredients that are used in its manufacturing - wheat and potato. Melkon explains that “Wheat has the ability to dissipate very quickly in your month and evokes lightness” while potato “has higher starch content, doesn’t dissipate as quickly so you swallow more of it and it feels heavier more lingering.” Hence Melkon has to carefully calibrate the proper mouth blend and mouth weight as both ingredients are used in their vodka flavors. “We then infuse real ingredients into our alcohol mixture, layering various ingredients over time. Our vodkas are then minimally processed to retain full flavors and jewel-like coloring – something good enough to sip,” Melkon adds. Where They Stand Today Less than a year ago, probably one of Melkon’s and Litty’s biggest accomplishments was that their vodka was being stocked by the Ritz Carlton in Los Angeles. Today Modern Spirits Vodka is sold in 9 American states and rapidly growing. So what do they attribute to their expanding success? Well Litty explains that throwing in the towel is not an option. “We burned all the towels! We’re committed to Modern Spirits for the long term and to change the landscape of vodka by bringing it to the dining table. Nothing works like putting our vodkas to the test. To demonstrate how well they complement food, we organize vodka pairing dinners around the country.” So word of mouth has carried them marching with vodka bottles in hand across the country from Los Angeles to New York City and Washington DC. Litty adds that the idea took about two years to go from occasional hobby to something they thought could become a viable business. “Once we decided to give it a go, it took us a year to find a suitable factory space and get all five thousand licenses and permits. Modern Spirits is now almost two years old,” she adds. Working from sun up to sun down on a new business venture is challenging but maintaining a marriage is even more challenging. Now combine the two together and there’s much time spent between Melkon and Litty. So how do they make it work? “We’re strangely compatible. We say it’s like being married in dog years since we work/live together 24 hours a day” Melkon jokes, adding that “We’ve been friends for a very long time and that probably contributes to our general harmony.” Litty agrees, adding that there is also a mutual thrill of “working on something entrepreneurial, you get to create something together.” “Together” is obviously the key behind Melkon and Litty’s success. Whether they decide to push or pull their little red wagon called Modern Spirits Vodka, their company is here to stay. To learn more about their company, access their website at www.modernspiritsvodka.com. To hear a radio interview with Melkon and Litty, go to www.gayradio.com/herndondavis/HDR_071806_GayArabs_35.mp3 Herndon Davis is an author, lecturer, and TV/Radio Host. He can be reached directly at www.herndondavis.com |
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