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www.HartfordBusiness.com December 7, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 3 FACES OF BUSINESS Hartford Flavor Co. pitches 'healthy' liqueur market By Stan Simpson T he epiphany for LeLaneia and Tom Dubay to start their new liqueur business came at a holiday party two years ago. Some mixologists and restaura- teurs were in the room, mingling, nibbling on hors d' oeuvres, sipping a homemade concoction poured from a bottle hand-labeled "LeLa- neia's Lavender Liqueur." LeLaneia had pulled lavender plants from her garden and steeped them in vodka. She was floored by the reaction. "They tasted it and said 'Oh, my God, this is magic in a bottle. You've got to get this to market,' '' recalls LeLaneia. "And then they said 'start a company.' '' Whoa. Dubay and her husband Tom, though flattered by the party reviews, had major trepidations about starting a business. They both had jobs that were fulfilling. LeLaneia still runs a landscape- design firm and has an expertise in plants. Tom, who has an MBA and background in operations, works in the private sector. Though LeLaneia for years made cranberry liqueurs for family and friends during the holidays, she and Tom really didn't know much about the business of liquor. After the holiday party, the couple, married 13 years after meeting online, organized sev- eral focus groups. The samplers gave the thumbs up to other all- natural, plant-infused liqueurs — such as carnations, cucumbers and sumac — devised by LeLa- neia (pronounced La-Lane-yah). The Dubays, who live in Hart- ford, cobbled together $175,000 from personal savings, loans from friends, family and a small business empowerment group. In April, the Hartford Flavor Company was launched in a for- mer stocking-import building on Arbor Street. LeLaneia is the founder, the self-styled "creatrix and infusionary." Tom is the CEO, aka "lord of the spreadsheets." There are 10 part-time employ- ees. The company's first line of liqueurs is called "Wild Moon" and features six flavors — rose, cucumber, lavender, cranberry, and birch and chai spice. The rose blend recently won a silver medal in the 2015 New York World Spirits Competition. The 12-ounce bottles sell for $20 and are distributed to 250 liquor stores and bars in Con- necticut. So far, Hartford Flavor Company is producing 4,500 to 7,000 bottles a month and has generated about $125,000 in sales. The Dubays say what distin- guishes their fledgling business, believed to be the only distillery in Hartford, from other distillers is that its product is all-natural, botanically infused, gluten and GMO free, with no artificial addi- tives or chemicals. It's a liqueur for those who are health conscious. "It never dawned on us that there was commercial viability here,'' Tom, 51, said. "It sounds like an oxymoron — healthy drinking— because, after all, it is alcohol. That said, if you had the same amount of our product and same amount of another product similar to it, I think the next morning you'd feel a little different with ours, because you don't get that chemical hangover." LeLaneia concurs. "People have said to us that we have a new wedge of the alcohol pie by having Continued William Barnett, Ph.D. Dean of Graduate Studies Trinity College gradstudy@trincoll.edu http://gradstudy.trincoll.edu THREE-YEAR FLAT TUITION RATE FOR M.A. STUDENTS CONTROLLING THE FUTURE As George Orwell's 1984 reminds us, those who control the past control the future. Presently, however, cultural institutions that focus on history or the arts face declining sources of revenue, especially public support. As a result, we risk forgetting our cultural past, thus forfeiting valuable perspective that could help improve our future. For our social health, we should ensure that our cultural and educational institutions can continue to preserve our heritage and teach us how the past influences our present and future. For example, what sort of conditions caused Hartford to become an insurance center that continues to exist today? Why did various business and industrial sectors decline while others prospered? How did Connecticut support the arts in the past? How did the tragic legacy of slavery and the struggle for social justice in Connecticut shape our increasingly diverse society of today? By helping teachers and museum profes- sionals explore these and other questions, the American studies program at Trinity College supports maintaining our cultural heritage in order to enrich and improve our community. We invite others to join us. P H O T O | S T E V E L A S C H E V E R LeLaneia and Tom Dubay are trying to find their niche in the liquor market by producing an all- natural, botanically- infused liqueur that doesn't have gluten, artificial additives or chemicals.