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“Do you fancy a nice Firefly Martini?”…”Yes I’d love a Firefly, but stop calling me Martini!” |
INTRODUCTION: Actor, comedian, screenwriter, singer, and now vodka producer. Step forward the inimitable Dan Aykroyd, originator of The Blues Brothers and co-creator, co-writer and co-star of the classic Ghostbusters film comedy.
Aykroyd, 62, is a man of many talents, including an outstanding movie career notable among many things for an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the gently poignant Driving Miss Daisy.
Until the age of 17, he intended to become a priest. Perhaps fortunately, he didn’t. What the church, or any congregation, would have made of him is probably best left to the imagination. He later studied criminology and sociology; became a reserve commander for the police department in Louisiana; worked as a comedian in Canadian bars; and cultivated a fascination with parapsychology.
From early on he also displayed a keen interest in another type of spirit, alcohol, a passion that was to become a profession, culminating in him becoming co-founder of Crystal Head vodka. The brand takes its name from its crystal skull-shaped bottle, inspired by the legendary crystal skulls that are said to have come from the Aztec era and are believed to hold mystical powers.
Created using grain and water from Newfoundland, Canada, Crystal Head is quadruple-distilled and filtered seven times through semi-precious crystals known as Herkimer diamonds, raw stones which have been ascribed healing properties by some new age believers
At the recent IAADFS Duty Free Show of the Americas, The Moodie Report Chairman Martin Moodie spent an enthralling hour in the company of the film star-turned-entrepreneur, who was at the show to meet key customers for the fast-rising brand, which has grown to a 6.5 million bottle proposition since its launch in 2007. Crystal Head is gluten-free, additive-free and sugar-free. You probably won’t find many ghosts in there either”¦
Martin Moodie: Dan you are clearly a man for all seasons. How did you get involved in the alcoholic spirits business?
Dan Aykroyd: I learned to respect alcohol beverage at an early age [Aykroyd’s father is a wine aficionado]. Basically my whole career evolved because I’ve always been convivial, a hustler, a host and a purveyor of spirits”¦ starting in my parents’ basement.
My friends would come down the coal shuttle, and I had a nice bar set-up for after college nights. Then there was an after-hours club in Toronto – a key club for streetcar drivers, cops, waiters, waitresses, dancers, the kids from Second City. It was a place you could get a drink after one o’clock. And then we started the House of Blues – so I’ve always been a purveyor of spirits and always knew about brands.
How did your foray into the spirits industry begin?
With a margarita. We live on a lake in Canada, and in the summer people have dockside parties, and I used to make these great margaritas, but I wanted them to be greater.
[Limited to two tequila brands in Ontario’s government-controlled liquor system, Aykroyd approached a close friend, The Patrón Spirits Founder & Owner John Paul DeJoria, for some ideas. That led to Aykroyd’s appointment as the importing agent to Canada for the Patrón line of spirits.]
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[Click on the icon to listen to Dan Akyroyd tell Martin Moodie about his finest moment]
I was able to leverage whatever celebrity I had there, and goodwill, and we got the brand going really quickly. We represent a large part of Patrón’s foreign sales now. We’re in the top 10% of the luxury tequila market in Canada.
So that was my acquaintance and education with the industry. Then I started looking around for other things to do. I used to take vodkas off the bar, and I’d sniff them, and they smelled like Chanel No. 9. “What’s going on here?” I thought.
[Aykroyd spent time learning everything there was to know about vodka and its multifarious components – glyceride, masking and fusel oils, limestone and sugar additives – and decided he wanted to create something “cleaner”. He spoke with another friend John Alexander, a renowned American sculptor, painter and designer, who confessed that he’d always wanted to present a tequila in a bottle – but not just any bottle.]
I asked him what kind of a bottle and his answer was a skull bottle. Whoa! So I asked him to draw one for me.
[The impromptu design was ready within minutes. It reminded Aykroyd of the Mitchell-Hedges skull, one of the 13 legendary crystal skulls that both men were fascinated by. ]
I didn’t want to put a tequila in the bottle because of my loyalty to Patron so vodka was the logical next step. Wow, I was researching the no-glyceride, no-limonene and no-sugar vodka and here was the bottle for it. It says purity, it says cleanliness, it says enlightened thinking, enlightened drinking.
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Dan Aykroyd underlined his belief in the travel retail channel by attending the recent Duty Free Show of the Americas in Orlando |
[The bottle, from Milan-based glass manufacturer Bruni Glass, took two years to refine. During that time Aykroyd was frustrated in his quest for an additive-free vodka, deciding finally to make it himself, subsequently creating what he considered to be one of the world’s purest vodkas.]
I began to do the research, and we went to source our water. Of course, vodka is an old Russian word for water, so all great premium vodka should come from great water.
Throughout my career, whether it’s been in radio, television, recording or films, I’ve always collaborated with the best people because I just wanted to do something better. I had this sort of vision with vodka, and so I chose a place where the water is beautiful, pure, pristine and clean and has never been touched by acid rain, and that’s the province of Newfoundland, Canada.
Aykroyd partnered with the government-owned distillery to contract and produce the beverage, working with sweet water, Chatham peaches and cream corn – and without sugar.]
The result?
You know what? It worked. The sweetness was there, the oil and a bit of fire too. I like the fire, because it’ll come through in a cocktail. I told the distillers that people were going to like it and well, today I sit before you proudly saying that in 2013 we won the ProdExpo in Moscow.
Out of 400 beverages they gave us the Gold Medal for Excellent Taste. As a vodka maker my truck left the highway when they told me this on the phone. I was in Malibu. I pulled over, and they said “Did you hear the notes that Anthony Dias Blue and his panel gave you in San Francisco?” And of course Dias Blue is the Robert Parker of the vodka business.
A 98-rating without the oils. That’s like me getting 78 in math without studying. Sweet, vanilla, dry, crisp, with a kick of heat off the finish. I was thrilled.
It came through, it connected, and people are now trying the fluid and not going back to the lesser expensive brands because they’ve got the junk in it.
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Dan Aykroyd with SMT Duty Free Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing Eddie Ferenczi |
[Crystal Head launched in Southern California in 2008 and in four other states shortly after. Supply could not keep up with demand and the company had to hold further release until sufficient stocks were built up. The brand launched in the rest of the USA in 2009 before the first stage of a planned international roll-out.
In 2010, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario refused to carry Crystal Head in its stores because it said people might find the bottle offensive but eventually lifted the ban because of popular demand. In May 2011, when 21,000 bottles of the vodka were stolen from a warehouse in Southern California, Aykroyd told the TMZ celebrity website: “My partners and I are sorry to lose this much vodka to theft and do not condone criminal activity in any fashion, but we are happy that some consumers will be afforded the opportunity of tasting it at significantly lower than retail price.”]
We had a head start, because the design was so striking and the legend was so great that people just bought it for the bottle. Now they’re starting to discover the quality. We’re at 6.5 million bottles sold worldwide so far.
What’s the next step?
We have a lot of work to build awareness. We’re not overconfident, but we know we’ve got a quality product, and that’s why I stand tall today.
You say you had a head start, but you didn’t pick a soft target. You went into the most crowded, competitive liquor category on the planet.
Of course, yeah, and I can name ten brands that have come on the market since we’ve launched and are gone. We’re still here because the quality is there. There’s no fooling around. It’s not just a celebrity brand either. We really thought about this. It doesn’t need me to sell it. It sells itself if people try it. That’s our challenge, to get people to crack it open.
OK you have passed the 6.5 million bottle mark and you are trying to get a global footprint. Why do you think people should choose your vodka?
Bartenders, bar chefs and mixologists are the gateway to a truly successful brand. A bar always needs a premium vodka. Always.
And so if a mixologist knew that he could make a Long Island Rail Road bar car martini with a vodka without glyceride, wouldn’t the choice be crystal clear?
If a bartender knew he could make a cocktail that has citrus elements, lemon, lime, whatever, and do it without the citrus oil that they put in lesser expensive vodkas, wouldn’t the choice be crystal clear?
And then of course emulsified sugar. You know, you’re adding blueberries and brown sugar in some of these things and maple sugar and molasses and all kinds of sugars get added. Wouldn’t it be great to have a virgin canvas, a clean slate? Say you’re a professional mixologist, bar chef. If you knew you could get a vodka with no sugar I think the choice is crystal clear.
With so much consolidation in the drink’s industry you’re competing against giants. How tough is it for you as an independent?
It’s tough, because we’re fighting tens of millions in competitors’ advertising budgets, and a lot of the world is pay-to-play. A lot of places – hotels, Vegas, bars, other brands are paying. It’s like, “We like your skull, and we like your beverage, but if you can’t pay you don’t play.” So we are always looking at that as a challenge, but as sales increase our budget for marketing increases, and we put the money back into it.
So you’re in Orlando to spend some time with the duty free guys. Dan, what do you know about that particular market?
Well, I’m going to read your magazine! But it’s a huge opportunity and it’s great. Thank you duty free, it’s a great deal for the consumer!
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Dan Aykroyd: “The ProdExpo medal in Moscow is the one that goes on my tombstone!” |
The channel seems ideally suited to everything you were talking about in terms of premiumisation and quality.
That’s our mission. We are selling to consumers 25 and older that have a discretionary budget, and that’s who buys it, 25 and up, flyers of course. Whether you’re a drinker or not, it makes a great gift.
How do the challenges of developing your vodka compare with those you faced during your film and TV career?
I’ve been nominated for an Academy Award. I’ve been nominated for a Grammy with the Blues Brothers. I’ve been invested with the Order of Canada for Canadians who want to make a better country. I even received an award from the California Undertakers Association for my sympathetic portrayal of a funeral director!
But the ProdExpo medal in Moscow is the one that goes on my tombstone! A Russian-style engraving; it will be my face. It’ll be that ProdExpo medal. The Russians love my vodka, and that’s it!
I had a ball in the film business, 30 incredible years, working with the best people. It was about relationships then; you’re on a film set, you know people for maybe a month or two months, and then you never see them again, and you think they’re going to be family forever. In this business, you’re building relationships all the time. You’re meeting great people.
I don’t crave to be on a film set after getting up at six in the morning and listening to perhaps a mediocre director tell me what to do. I love this. I am having so much fun. I brought half of my family here to Orlando – my wife and a sister-in-law and one of my kids. This is a place that they’ve never been before and we all went to Australia last time.
I know everyone must ask you this but are you going to make another film?
I don’t chase that too much. It would have to be a very special project for me to go out the door right now.
Dan Aykroyd, good luck with Crystal Head. And thanks for your time.
Martin you want to try it before you go? We can have a nice Firefly martini. I love to show it off that way. A rinse of vermouth and two-and-a-half ounces of Crystal Head. Just rinse the vermouth in the glass, add a splash of olive juice, throw an onion and three olives in the glass – shaken with ice chips.
