Cast member of the Bravo TV show ’Summer House," and perennial Rye regular, Kyle Cooke developed a line of sparkling hard teas branded "Loverboy" now being sold in New Hampshire.
"It’s a tasty, fun drink," said Cooke, 38, a four-season member of "Summer House" that showcases young New Yorkers blowing off summer steam at Hamptons houses.
Cooke launched Loverboy in New Hampshire last month, sold a truckload in two days and it was out of stock for a week before he could get more distributed.
"We keep running out," said Cooke, a native of Manchester.
Cases were stacked near the door of the Gary’s Beverages Route 1 Bypass store in Portsmouth last week when a customer buying one said he heard about it from a friend. Cooke said early buyers have been "Summer House" viewers who, for the past two seasons, watched him and his fiance Amanda Batula, develop the sparkling hard tea line, some of which is shown in episodes of the show.
"We have a strong social following," said Cooke, adding that an additional email list, of hundreds of his New Hampshire contacts, allowed him "to make some noise" when he launched in his home state.
Loverboy is advertised as a 90-calorie, zero-sugar sparkling hard tea "with all the flavor and none of the guilt."
"Carbonated like a seltzer, but with the light refreshing taste of an iced tea, Loverboy marries the perfect balance of organic brewed tea, botanicals, and monk fruit, with gluten-free alcohol to create a keto-friendly 4.2% ABV drink you can sip all day and night," Cooke’s company pitches.
It comes in three flavors, White Tea Peach, Hibiscus Pom and Lemon Iced Tea. Cooke said you can drink it out of the can, or use it as a mixer with spirits. He said his future father-in-law adds whiskey to the lemon ice tea, you can "do a little floater" of tequila in the hibiscus pom, or "vodka will work with all three of them."
Developer of an app to connect people with nutritionists, Cooke said he eats clean and works out during the week, then lets loose on weekends with his friends and cast mates in the Hamptons. He said when hard seltzers became popular, he enjoyed them but didn’t like seeing 30 grams of sugar listed on the side of the cans.
"It’s so bad for you," said Cooke, who turned his entrepreneurial attention to creating his no-sugar "guilt-free" line. It’s sweetened naturally, he said, from fermented sugar cane and classified as a beer so it can be sold anywhere beer can be sold.
"So if you go to a 7-Eleven and they don’t have it, ask for it," he said.
Cooke said he found hard seltzers boring and set out to make his line of hard teas more flavorful. He said it’s clear, neutral and about a quarter the strength of vodka.
Without the sugar, he pitched, "You don’t wake up with a hangover."
Cooke said he started with about 120 possible names for his adult beverages and landed on Loverboy because it made him laugh, "it’s fun and flirty and colorful."
Also, he said, because of the Loverboy song "Workin’ for the Weekend," much like his own life, as shown on "Summer House."
Cooke said he’s "a pretty normal kid from Manchvegas" who moved to New York and landed the recurring "Summer House" role after going to an open casting. His extended family has annual Rye Beach reunions, including with his cousins Tyler and Ryan McGill, who own Summer Sessions Surf Shop. It’s called off this year, he said, due to the coronavirus.
"I have a lot of pride in the 603 and a sense of pride in bringing something back home to New Hampshire," Cooke said. "Unfortunately because of COVID, we can’t do a proper launch party."
Helping him with sales are high school friends Carl Longo who is handling sales in the Manchester area and Nathan Jensen who is getting Loverboy into the Portsmouth market. Longtime friend Chuck McMahon of Portsmouth is helping with word-of-mouth, alerting the media and sharing cans of Loverboy with friends.
Loverboy is stocked now at both Gary’s Beverage stores in Portsmouth, On the Vine in Exeter and at Sandpiper Country Store and Summer Sessions on Rye Beach. For more information, visit drinkloverboy.com.
The Link LonkAugust 23, 2020 at 12:31AM
https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20200822/rye-regular-bravo-tv-star-brings-loverboy-hard-tea-to-rsquothe-603rsquo
Rye regular, Bravo TV star brings Loverboy hard tea to ’the 603’ - Seacoastonline.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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