Need help starting Kava bar/stand in NYC

[BrooklynKava]

Hi, Hope all is going well. I make a bottled kava brand called Brookyln Kava(brooklynkava.com) that is sold in wholefoods around NYC. We really want to sell freshly prepared traditional kava at an outdoor market called Smorgasburg here in Brooklyn, but for whatever reason our application has been rejected/not responded to. I think Brooklyn would be a great market for kava!

I was hoping people could write into the email address info at brooklynflea.com and request them to allow us to have a stand there!

Thanks for your help!

-Nick Haycock

 

[Runding]

Dang, that website needs some work. What products do you actually offer? The site didn't really give any info at all...

 

[The Kap'n]

I've seen quite a number of pictures on instagram of your product. I'd say if your product is on the shelves of Whole Foods, then they should beg you to have a stand in their market. They must not know how difficult it is to get in with wholefoods.

 

[verticity]

Web site works fine for me. They apparently sell a powder mixture of melo melo / borogu for $30/lb - a pretty good deal.
Brooklyn would be an excellent location given the high hipster concentration.
I guess the question we all want to know is can you guarantee the nobility/purity of your product?

 

[Steve Mariotti]

Looks awesome! I wanna drink one of your prepared drinks!

If you want to have your kava tested I know a lab that does work on spec and will give you detailed results. In fact, our own @Deleted User heads up the True Kava group dedicated to doing just that. Perhaps lab test results would knock them off the fence. "This guy knows his shit!"

 

[verticity]

I wonder if the problem may have to do with the fact that that appears to be a market for food vendors. It's not clear if they have beer or wine vendors. Maybe they don't want a vendor of a "mildly intoxicating" drink. Or maybe it would help if you offer some yummy Polynesian food with the kava?

 

[odys1i]

Hi, Hope all is going well. I make a bottled kava brand called Brookyln Kava(brooklynkava.com) that is sold in wholefoods around NYC. We really want to sell freshly prepared traditional kava at an outdoor market called Smorgasburg here in Brooklyn, but for whatever reason our application has been rejected/not responded to. I think Brooklyn would be a great market for kava!

I was hoping people could write into the email address info at brooklynflea.com and request them to allow us to have a stand there!

Thanks for your help!

-Nick Haycock

Aren't you the KingKava guys?

 

[odys1i]

So on my lunch break I went over to Whole Foods @columbus circle and they did indeed carry BrooklynKava, but at $5.99 for 1 I decided to eat lunch instead. I hope this product packs more of a punch than kingkava did, looks like it should it's got a whole bunch of residue at the bottom. IF you guys are selling powdered kava as it seems you are on your site I'd love to get me some

 

[verticity]

So on my lunch break I went over to Whole Foods @columbus circle and they did indeed carry BrooklynKava, but at $5.99 for 1 I decided to eat lunch instead.

It's not called Whole Paycheck for nothin'

 

[BrooklynKava]

Web site works fine for me. They apparently sell a powder mixture of melo melo / borogu for $30/lb - a pretty good deal.
Brooklyn would be an excellent location given the high hipster concentration.
I guess the question we all want to know is can you guarantee the nobility/purity of your product?

We are working on getting the powder sales going. We actually don't really sell powder yet although we have the packaging printed. We are trying to figure out what the sourcing will be for the powder. I can't really say what the final pricing will even be on the boxes at this point.

 

[BrooklynKava]

So on my lunch break I went over to Whole Foods @columbus circle and they did indeed carry BrooklynKava, but at $5.99 for 1 I decided to eat lunch instead. I hope this product packs more of a punch than kingkava did, looks like it should it's got a whole bunch of residue at the bottom. IF you guys are selling powdered kava as it seems you are on your site I'd love to get me some

yes, we are the same company as King Kava although someone posted on here about trying to start a company in nyc called "king kava" who wasn't part of our company which is a weird coincidence.
We started putting a lot more kava in our bottles and using a new technology called high pressure processing to increase the shelf life. The high price point is kind of just the economics of bottling things and using high pressure processing, unfortunately. Instead of trying to lower the price we are just going to try to keep making the quality higher since I think that is more realistic.

 

[BrooklynKava]

I wonder if the problem may have to do with the fact that that appears to be a market for food vendors. It's not clear if they have beer or wine vendors. Maybe they don't want a vendor of a "mildly intoxicating" drink. Or maybe it would help if you offer some yummy Polynesian food with the kava?

they also sell consumer products at the market, but I was hoping to brew the kava that we would sell their onsite instead of selling our bottled stuff.

 

[verticity]

We are working on getting the powder sales going. We actually don't really sell powder yet although we have the packaging printed. We are trying to figure out what the sourcing will be for the powder. I can't really say what the final pricing will even be on the boxes at this point.

Well if you do get your web site able to sell your beverage (and/or powder) online, I think lots of folks on this forum would be interested in ordering some. Unfortunately most of us who are not ny residents probably can't help much with the situation in the Brooklyn market. I don't know if an email from a random guy in Colorado would do much to persuade them.

 

[BrooklynKava]

Well if you do get your web site able to sell your beverage (and/or powder) online, I think lots of folks on this forum would be interested in ordering some. Unfortunately most of us who are not ny residents probably can't help much with the situation in the Brooklyn market. I don't know if an email from a random guy in Colorado would do much to persuade them.

haha that's probably true. I was just hoping emails from some other people would help them realize how passionate some people are about kava. Hopefully we will start selling bulk kava powder soon online too.