As you know, we’re big supporters of other companies doing great things in our community!
So, it’s our pleasure to introduce you to blo Liquor! Given they have a fun background story and how we were introduced to them, we wanted to share it, and, of course, where you can pick up a bottle locally.
One of the owners is Mike Burk, and he’s a regional manager at Edwards Building Center. We, at PCW, buy a lot of materials from these guys throughout the year. It seemed natural that working with such a great company, Todd and Mike would become friends after doing business together for years.
We asked Steve Hoppin – one of the three founders at blo – to share the story, and here’s what he had to say…
The initial idea for this innovative blend came from one of our founders blending martini’s for his wife’s friends when they would come over. These became quite popular in the neighborhood, which eventually led to the idea of creating a blended liqueur.
We had grown tired of drinking Fireball, mainly because we felt that we could do a blended liqueur with much less sugar content and the highest quality vodka and natural ingredients.
The name “blo” was thrown out by one, and another added the thought of spelling blo with a line above the “O”. At this point, we all kind of looked at each other and thought; “Why not?…and why not us?”.
We found Wyn and Chase of Mile High Spirits by calling distilleries listed in Colorado, as we wanted to keep it local. After a phone discussion and a visit down to Denver, they agreed they would produce it for us! After a few months of tweaking blends and labels for the bottles, we decided on the current product.
We officially shipped our first case to Mac’s Liquor on December 18, 2015. (Side note: Mac’s Liquor is a wonderful gem located in Gypsum. If you’re in the area, stop by. They have a fantastic selection of liquor, wine and beer, including some of the best local microbrews. They’re also dog friendly!).
After a few months in the marketplace, we realized that not having the flavors listed on the label was a mistake, as there are people allergic to coconut etc., so we re-submitted to the TTB with the flavors listed, and “serve chilled” below.
This time we received a response back asking us “the relevance of the name and how it pertains to the market”. This made us quite nervous, until Chan suggested that blo is just an acronym for “Blended Liquor our Way”. One month later we were approved again (thank you Chan!).
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Thank you Steve for sharing this great story! If you’re in the mood for a new drink, check out blo at Mac’s Liquor. For more information about blo, check out their Facebook page.