Bar Chat - "Lebowski's Kool-Luah Coffee Liqueur"

Andy, Josh, and Siobhan join Matt to take a sip of nostalgia with Monica and David Kowalski, the creative duo behind Lebowski's Kool-Luah coffee liqueur and Lebowski's Tap Room in Colorado Springs. Monica shares how she's been crafting this remarkable coffee liqueur since she was just eight years old, using her late father's recipe from the 1970s that has now become an award-winning spirit taking the cocktail world by storm.

As we sample White Russians and espresso martinis made with Lebowski's Cool Lua, Monica and David reveal the incredible versatility of their spirit through creative concoctions like a limoncello White Russian that tastes like German chocolate cake. Their passion for crafting unique, high-quality experiences extends to their tap room, where they showcase local producers and have developed over 50 different White Russian variations.

Rapidly expanding distribution throughout the country, Lebowski's Kool-Luah represents the perfect blend of family tradition, craftsmanship, and innovation. Are you ready to abide a truly exceptional coffee liqueur? 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introductions
• 2:42 A Liqueur Legacy
• 7:41 Lebowski's Tap Room and White Russian Bar
• 8:41 From Iceland to Colorado Springs
• 11:45 The World Abides
• 17:18 Award-Winning Family Recipe
• 18:59 Monica's Dad was Genius/What Sets Kool-Luah Apart
• 22:01 Where can you find it?
• 34:59 Wrap-up and Boozy Quote

Transcript

Matt: 1:00

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Siobhan: 1:13

We have liftoff.

Matt: 1:17

Welcome to Matt and Friends. Drink the Universe. Drink the Universe. Welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the universe. Welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. In this episode, we have a bar chat for you with Monica and David Kowalski. Monica and David are joining us to talk about their Lebowski's Koo l- Luah coffee liqueur and Lebowski's tap room in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Joining me for this bar chat are Andy, Josh and Siobhan.

Josh: 1:47

And without further ado, let me tell you, we abide.

Siobhan: 1:49

We got our bottle Yep Perfect.

Josh: 1:50

We got our drinks made.

Siobhan: 1:52

We do abide, we do too we abide oh yes, perfect.

Matt: 1:56

Cheers, cheers.

Siobhan: 1:59

Thank you guys in advance.

Matt: 2:01

I don't know. Everybody went in a different direction. Nope, okay, sorry, I'll do the right one.

Josh: 2:06

It looks like she picked up a white Russian, so that's what.

Matt: 2:08

I picked up. That's what I grabbed too.

Josh: 2:10

We've got two cocktails each, plus a little shot glass with some of the liqueur just to taste it on its own.

David Kowwalski: 2:16

Absolutely.

Matt: 2:17

And just so you know who you're talking to I'm Matt. I'm Matt. I'm Josh.

Siobhan: 2:22

I'm Siobhan.

Andy: 2:23

I'm in the corner and I'm Andy way over here.

Monica Kowalski: 2:27

I'm like.

Josh: 2:28

Andy's arm that's the best part of him actually the best part of Andy so I always have friends join me for this podcast.

Matt: 2:38

It's one of the great joys of doing this yeah, there we go. This is, and friends, as I always say, but we're very happy to be meeting with both of you today. I guess I'll I'll. I want to keep this really casual, but I'm going to open up with a question. Monica, this was your father's recipe.

Monica Kowalski: 2:53

Yes, it was. So it was funny as I was on a sales call yesterday and they said how long have you been making this? And I was like, honestly, since I was eight, oh yeah. And I was like honestly, since I was eight, oh yeah, so, and I'm 53. So that's it. It's been a while that I've been making this, but this was my dad's recipe, and so you're enjoying a little bit of nostalgia right there.

Matt: 3:16

I love that Awesome. I'm drinking the white Russian and to me it tastes like chocolate chip cookie, which is really dangerous. There could be, several of these that will go down in a row.

Andy: 3:26

Yeah, I'm not going to lie. This should be stronger to prevent me from drinking it fast.

Matt: 3:31

That's on us it sneaks up on you.

Monica Kowalski: 3:34

I have one that's a white Russian that they call it, with Nani from love. Yeah, anyway, with that and that one, we only let people get two of those here, because you don't realize how much, because it's got you know it's a lot of alcohol and it tastes like cinnamon toast oh, okay, love that.

Josh: 3:57

Yeah, so, to be clear, I made the drinks and I went off of the recipe. That's on the bottle for the white russian and that is an ounce and a half of vodka in your glass and an ounce and a half of the coffee liqueur and then, an ounce and a half of half and half. So are you telling me to slow down, I mean that's a full shot of vodka plus a full shot of their coffee liqueur which is half of the proof of a vodka.

Josh: 4:20

So you're at a drink and a half just there in that glass.

Andy: 4:23

Yeah, it's delicious vodka. So we're, you're at a drink and a half just there in that glass. Yeah, it's delicious and it does not have that the bad vodka bite. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like none of that it's delicious.

Josh: 4:31

Yeah and um, we're not going to name the vodka, but we didn't use the world's most expensive vodka or anything, so no, we didn't yeah not needed no, no

Monica Kowalski: 4:40

and we shouldn't yeah yeah, so I, and that's the point right, not the vodka is not supposed to taste like much, and then if you want to make it a little fun and for St Patrick's day, instead of vodka, use Jameson.

Josh: 4:51

Yeah, there you go. Same recipe, but with Jameson.

Monica Kowalski: 4:54

Now you got a little Irish.

Josh: 4:57

Are we calling that a white Irishman?

Andy: 4:59

Oh yeah sure, irish Caucasian.

Siobhan: 5:01

Do, do you need?

Matt: 5:02

to say right with irishman I don't know, I guess not, but we're gonna call it a siobhan.

Josh: 5:07

Yeah, you call it a b. We could pun all day absolutely gosh.

Matt: 5:22

That leads me to a follow-up question about lebowski how is that involved in the, which I absolutely love? I love the movie I love the branding. How did that come to be?

David Kowwalski: 5:33

gotta go. Yeah, absolutely so. Um, monica and I've been planning a pup style restaurant bar for years and years. Um started out more probably like a 50 style diner.

Monica Kowalski: 5:42

We of course this okay. When he says planning for years and years, it was like oh hey, friends, we're sitting around talking this someday, we're gonna do this someday.

David Kowwalski: 5:51

That's how that was the someday so, uh, I mean to to go further, though. We we did have recipe books, we did have notebooks that we write down things whenever we go on vacation. Um, ideas for what we wanted in in a restaurant and pub style bar trip to Iceland in 2019 that inspired the Lebowski thing. We went to the Lebowski bar in Reykjavik, iceland love it there.

Siobhan: 6:12

Yep, I've been there too. We probably had a couple cocktails in it.

David Kowwalski: 6:15

We were probably drinking the universe that that that's true we.

David Kowwalski: 6:20

We knew as soon as we entered there that when we finally had this crazy restaurant adventure, it was going to be Lebowski. The burgers and their menu was very similar to what we had been talking about. The white Russians just made sense to us. We don't know why it just did so. We made a decision right then and there that night that this was going to be a Lebowski-themed restaurant. We would finally do this. So we came back, we told our uh niece about our concept. She came for thanksgiving that year and she's the one that actually designed the lebowski this is our cool logo, but obviously it's lebowski's tap room also same same logo.

Monica Kowalski: 6:59

She designed it for us um just off of what we had kind of told her we were, I was yeah, I said you know I wanted to look familiar, feel like saturday morning cartoons, right, so she got like the jetson feel that I wanted and that mid-century modern.

Monica Kowalski: 7:14

So it's like, oh, has it been around a long time, or these kind of things. And that's what she came up with and, um, slightly, we slightly modified it. The only thing that was different is, like the, the actual letters here would be um kind of bounced offset and it was just for signage and purpose. We made it level. That was the only thing that we changed on it from what she did in in 2019. So that was.

David Kowwalski: 7:40

That was pretty fun five years about doing this crazy restaurant adventure. Finally, it was a trip to Ireland in 2023 where we went with friends and every place we went we talked about this crazy restaurant idea that we had, and it was basically either do it or forget about it. I mean, now is the time to either jump into the deep end of the swimming pool or it's always going to be a dream. And so we came back and immediately started searching for locations. Fortunately, slash. Unfortunately, Monica was laid off from her corporate career with Optum United Healthcare, which allowed yeah, so I've been there for 16 years.

Monica Kowalski: 8:24

I was a director and, uh, got laid off and took my severance and created 23 jobs for the state of Colorado and haven't looked back. Hell yes.

Josh: 8:34

That's awesome. That's awesome, that's amazing. So follow up on that, If I may. I know you've been making this recipe since you were eight, but did the the restaurant come before the actual? Like official bottling of this liqueur?

Monica Kowalski: 8:46

Yes, so so that again, like everything was kind of a, a happy, a serendipitous accident, right.

Monica Kowalski: 8:53

Um so which are awesome, right. So it was difficult to find a coffee liqueur. Well, first of all, in my concept here here, our concept at the tap room is we like to feature local. So we have a lot of local colorado um craft breweries or, if they're. If I get something from another state, it's a mom and pop, just like dave and I. They are small. I'm trying to I'm not supporting somebody that is all over the place, right, I'm trying to get the ones that are in like montana or wyoming or whatever, all the little local things. So that was always my concept. Trying is all over the place, right, I'm trying to get the ones that are in like Montana or Wyoming or whatever, all the little local things. So that was always my concept.

Monica Kowalski: 9:29

Trying to find a coffee liqueur that I liked was what I couldn't find. And then you know the major brands. I had even more of a challenge to find a distributor to come here, because I was brand new, right. So they're like oh, we'll get to you when we get to you know, you're not gonna. I'm like no, no, no, I'm gonna be a vodka bar. Seriously, I'm gonna be a white russian bar. Guys, come on. I know it's not there yet. But I mean it took me 45 days to open from start to to opening uh, the doors, which I didn't realize was pretty quick that is, yeah, that's very quick yeah, yeah, so you know.

Monica Kowalski: 10:07

So I was there pounding on the doors. Well, um, my daughter was, uh, turning 18 and um at the during this whole time, and so she's nagging me because she wanted to get a tattoo with a saying that my mom used to say um to her and or to everybody, and she says I love you with all my heart. So we were looking through her recipe books and her recipes trying to find her handwriting that that way the tattoo artist could just make that and put it on her arm. And then I'm looking through that. Um, you were all too young, but back in the day in the 70s, we everybody had this Tupperware recipe box. So it's a box like this big right.

Josh: 10:50

And it's green and it's funky. We know what?

Andy: 10:52

you're talking about you guys remember it yeah. It was like just bigger than an index card right.

Monica Kowalski: 10:56

They lasted into the 80s for sure, so I still have my mom's weird, you know, with the jello salad, with the tuna fish.

Andy: 11:04

Oh, no, oh no, thank you for unlocking that memory.

Siobhan: 11:11

That sounds like something Matt would make today.

Monica Kowalski: 11:14

So in the back of that was this yellow folded legal piece of paper my dad's recipe for coffee liqueur, right as we're getting ready. You know we're just opening up. So we did use commercial two months after. So I take that out and I'm like, oh hey, I remember let's let me make this and see how this works, cause here in Colorado I can do anything. You know I can infuse, I can do, you know, jalapeno, tequila or whatever Right. So making that to try with the white Russians. So nobody else gets a test kitchen for eight months. But I did so. I made it in-house just for consumption and I had so many people that had asked to buy it. They wanted to buy it. So we decided to partner with one of our local distilleries black hat hair and color springs and that's how it went. And we we pre-sold 1500 bottles out of our first set. That's how popular it is.

Andy: 12:09

I feel like that's the proper segue to try the try it straight here.

Siobhan: 12:15

So out of the classy tiny solo cups I feel like I spoiler alerted this because I already did, or fine china for this podcast. Thank you nothing but the best yes, so good, I really like it yeah you.

Monica Kowalski: 12:30

If you put a little bit of um baileys on top of that, then you have a baby guinness and I don't even like guinness so how about that?

Siobhan: 12:40

so I would definitely drink that yeah so I love that.

Josh: 12:43

So is black hat making. Is this kind of like? A like a vodka base, like a neutral spirit base. And then, yeah, it's a vodka base, it like a neutral spirit base, yes, yeah it's a vodka base, it's neutral spirit.

Monica Kowalski: 12:52

We started that in June of last year, so 2024. And then we did start entering it just to get some street cred in different competitions.

David Kowwalski: 13:06

So the first two. We won two silver medal awards, initially one in the San Diego Spirits Festival, one at the Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards, and then we picked up our first gold medal at the San Diego International Wine and.

Matt: 13:16

Spirits Challenge in.

David Kowwalski: 13:17

February, just last Friday, so five days ago, we found out. Congratulations.

Matt: 13:23

Yeah, that's great.

David Kowwalski: 13:24

Three awards at the Los Angeles Invitational Wine and Spirits Challenge. We won a gold medal for the product, we won best in class for liqueurs and we won best coffee liqueur. So it took home three medals in Los. Angeles last week.

Siobhan: 13:38

That's great.

Andy: 13:46

I'll certainly say we kind of agreed that we weren't going to just give you an easy pass on this. We were going to give the honest opinion. That's true. Oh yeah, this is good.

Matt: 13:51

This is really good, it is.

Andy: 13:53

Listeners, if you're, if you're a coffee drinker, like or not, which is me. Oh, you're.

Siobhan: 13:58

Cause I am not a coffee drinker. I am not.

Matt: 14:01

There's two not coffee drinkers in this room.

Siobhan: 14:02

Matt is the other one.

Matt: 14:04

Yeah, and I will tell you I like historically, I've gone for black Russians. I absolutely love them. I'm going to try one out of this as soon as this podcast is over.

Josh: 14:13

He's never going to sleep tonight.

Matt: 14:16

Josh. Josh is worried about me. It will be entertaining.

Josh: 14:20

He lives two doors down from me. He's going to be banging on my door at two in the morning.

Andy: 14:24

Josh, come out and drink.

Matt: 14:28

But I will say there's another coffee liqueur that's back there on the shelf behind me that I'm not going to name, but everybody knows what it is. Oh, it's the classic. I would never dream of putting that in a cup and drinking it straight in a million years but, I, never do what I'm doing

Andy: 14:43

with this one Yep.

Matt: 14:44

This one no ice in a cup, straight, flawless, Absolutely. It's just it's fantastic. It is very good as they said, I'm not a coffee drinker, so the highest esteemed award that we give on this podcast is very simple we call it the stellar sip, which requires this yeah, stellar sip, cheers cheers, cheers, and I want to tell you all the different things that you can put it in.

Monica Kowalski: 15:10

So, if you oh yes into just a coke, classic coke oh yeah, I'm in on that really wait, wait, wait wait a coffee liqueur and a coke that'd be so good make

Josh: 15:27

a coffee flavored coke back in the day. Really, it was a thing, yeah, and coffee and Coke goes well, really great together.

Siobhan: 15:33

Yeah, of course it would work.

Matt: 15:34

Yeah, for sure.

Monica Kowalski: 15:35

Delicious.

Matt: 15:36

I tend to top my black Russians with a little bit of Coca-Cola. I've done that for years and years and everybody looks at me funny.

Andy: 15:43

But I'll do it. Well, you look at you funny most of the time.

Matt: 15:48

Yeah, they're looking at the shirt you're wearing.

Siobhan: 15:50

I was thinking the same thing. Oh, you know, I think you should stand.

Andy: 15:54

I love it. Should you stand up? Stand up. It does go well with the bottle art.

Siobhan: 15:58

It truly does. Yes, I will tell you. It's definitely. Yeah, it's a vibe.

Monica Kowalski: 16:01

Yeah, we need to get a picture of you holding the bottle with that shirt yes, oh, with Coke was one.

Josh: 16:07

What else do you like? Yeah?

Siobhan: 16:08

what else? That is one of my questions.

David Kowwalski: 16:10

So we have 54 different recipes for White.

Andy: 16:12

Russians, it's going to be a long night, wow.

David Kowwalski: 16:16

Just.

Siobhan: 16:16

White Russians.

David Kowwalski: 16:17

Wow, some of the crazier combinations. We do a limoncello, white Russian. Yes Again one-third limoncello, one-third coffee liqueur, one-third cream. It tastes like a German chocolate cake.

Josh: 16:32

We cake? Uh, we have an absinthe based white russian right, it's weird it's weird.

Andy: 16:34

I know a guy who has some limoncello. I might have some little limoncello in my fridge.

Josh: 16:36

I have some right over there.

Monica Kowalski: 16:38

Yeah, just just mix it like. Yeah, just just always do kind of try the equal parts so you can always add a little more.

David Kowwalski: 16:43

But um, you know, equal part espresso, martinis. We have 10 different recipes. The craziest is a hot honey tequila espresso martini Guys.

Josh: 16:56

I think that's a perfect segue, because we did also make an espresso martini. I will admit I didn't go directly off of the recipe on the bottle on this one. I have an espresso martini recipe that I like to make, so mine has a bit of frangelico in it.

Monica Kowalski: 17:14

I like the way that kind of rounds it out.

Josh: 17:16

So in this martini we went with two ounces of vanilla vodka, three quarter of an ounce of frangelico, one ounce of fresh brew espresso, and then I did one ounce of the coffee liqueur as well.

David Kowwalski: 17:31

I don't like mine creamy.

Josh: 17:32

personally, I you know if I want a creamy drink I'll go with the white Russian, but it foamed up really nice.

Siobhan: 17:38

And it's been holding here for us. It's really smooth, cheers, cheers.

Matt: 17:43

We're going to let Siobhan Siobhan is on a quest to drink every espresso martini on the planet, so I'm gonna let her respond.

Siobhan: 17:50

I don't know about planet, but like I'm on a journey. So obviously I've already said that I'm not a coffee drinker, but if there's any entry level that would get me into a bitter flavor, it is alcohol and also cocktails. So I just am on this sort of and it's been about a year like, which is fun for me to document um, that I've been like on this espresso martini journey because Cause like I went on a cruise, right, so like a cruise is the best honestly placed to, because we had a drink package, because if you get a drink package on a cruise, you go oh hey, I'll try this drink. This is trash Bye and I'll leave it on the table and I'll go and I'll get another drink.

Siobhan: 18:26

I. I was on the track of either do I do a Bloody Mary experience or do I do an espresso martini experience, so it was kind of like bitter savory fork in the road for me and I made the espresso martini choice, but this is one of the better ones that I've had. I have a note on my phone about the espresso martinis that I have had and I've been keeping track. But this is wonderful. It also makes me very excited that you all are doing tribute to your dad, monica, because I love that so much.

David Kowwalski: 18:58

That resonates with me a lot. So Monica's dad was an absolute genius. The thing that sets us apart is the vodka base. It doesn't add that extra flavor component to the coffee liqueur. I mean, the national brands are either rum or tequila-based spirits, so the alcohol comes through in those. The vodka acts as a natural preservative. So we're one of the only coffee liqueurs that's 100% no additives, no artificial flavors or colors, which makes it both a vegan and gluten-free product as well.

Monica Kowalski: 19:29

Monica's dad, I don't think gluten even existed in the 80s, when he was making this drink, you know what gluten was there?

David Kowwalski: 19:36

probably were some vegans, but I think they just ate salads in the 80s.

Siobhan: 19:39

maybe that's true, fair, yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Kowwalski: 19:42

But yeah, so I mean his product that he created in the 70s and 80s fits every single box of a product.

Monica Kowalski: 19:52

No, you know, and Dave says my dad was a genius, which which warms my heart because, um, my dad passed away in 1989. So this is really kind of that, that way to bring and it's very like when I say it's nostalgic and the smell and the thing it brings me back to, you know, like just a just a good good, just fun memories and and fond memories of a family and and christmas, when we used to give this to, like the neighbors and and one of our neighbors was from hello and one orange cello, I think, or clementine and stuff like. It was just stuff that people did differently, just it was different that's such a great old school thing on the bottle where it says donnie, it's, it's my dad, donnie, not donnie.

Andy: 20:38

Yeah that's such a great old school thing of like having your thing, that you are known for making and giving, and yes, you know that's. That's such an old school thing.

Siobhan: 20:48

I love that I love that too. Yeah, I lost my dad in 2015, so, like this is just. I was reading all the material that you all had and I was like, oh, what a great tribute, like just so beautiful and all the nostalgia and I'm I'm so happy for you it connects my family to the rest of his family.

Monica Kowalski: 21:07

But my family I'm the only child, so that could give that connection too. So there's a lot of fun stuff with it'm the only child, so that could give that connection too, so there's a lot of fun stuff with it yeah, the only child.

Andy: 21:14

There we go yeah, absolutely yes on that. That legacy, that memory is awesome I know that's cool.

Siobhan: 21:19

Recipes really bring us together.

Matt: 21:21

That is a really beautiful thing, I love it and for the only children our christmas presents are the only ones under the tree so hot.

Siobhan: 21:27

That's right, that's right, exactly. Yeah, that's so great you.

Matt: 21:33

I think you had a couple of questions do?

Siobhan: 21:35

I mean not that many, but like we've, because we've covered all the things 97 questions no I don't, I don't.

Josh: 21:41

I've got two if you oh my god, josh, go all right so I come from the, the on-premise sales world in the liquor industry, grew up in the restaurant industry, worked behind bars, managed bars.

Siobhan: 21:54

Behind bars in jail, just kidding. Not those bars.

Matt: 21:57

I hear the booze are coming.

Josh: 22:01

So two questions, because I live in the on-premise world here in Pennsylvania, so how has your distribution gone through this process? Are you in a lot of states at the moment? Are you kind of localized to Colorado at the moment?

Monica Kowalski: 22:13

Great, yeah, great, great question. So since we partnered with a current distillery, we're able to sell in California, Texas, florida and Colorado right now Dave is. So we separated our licenses. So I have the license for the tap room. So when you're in colorado, inception all of you, when you're in colorado and you're at the tap room, that's my license you're drinking under where where exactly? I want to shout that out.

Andy: 22:41

We are sponsored by a traveling yeah, we are so puffins, uh, travel company. How can you get?

Siobhan: 22:50

us to.

Andy: 22:50

Colorado.

Josh: 22:51

Springs. Is it Colorado Springs?

Monica Kowalski: 22:53

Colorado Springs, colorado, and then you can see Pikes Peak.

Siobhan: 22:56

Yes.

Monica Kowalski: 22:57

You know, pikes Peak is a beautiful mountain. That they, what is it? America Beautiful, yeah, yeah, that's what it was written. Mountain's Majesty.

Josh: 23:05

Awesome. So are there then plans to expand out of those states? I would assume as.

David Kowwalski: 23:11

Monica mentioned, we just launched the product last June, so we're literally only nine months in and we're still in four states. That's pretty good right.

David Kowwalski: 23:21

We've sold over 5,000 bottles of products so far. We just ordered 25,000 bottles from Black Hat as we get ready to launch across the United States. We have it in liquor stores all over Colorado. We have it in 27 other restaurants that are now carrying it as their primary coffee liqueur, and growing every day. So we're excited to expand into California, Texas and Florida initially, but we're hoping to add two or three states a month by the end of 2025, our goal is to be pretty much everywhere.

Matt: 23:49

Amazing. We have a little core of listeners down in, like the Tampa Bay area, so I'm going to get them there.

Josh: 23:55

They go, I'm going to get them on the train for sure. And so a more geeky bartender question, literally from a meeting I was at with some bartenders earlier today, the coffee liqueur realm goes from like five milligrams of caffeine in a shot up to 200 200, which would be about a normal cup of coffee. Where do you guys fall in there?

David Kowwalski: 24:15

some people care and some people don't care about that, but it's interesting so a one ounce shot has about an eighth of a cup of coffee okay, you have to do eight shots to be equivalent to a cup of coffee so you're not going to be too buzzing right off of uh one. No one drink three martinis and you're still gonna still be too buzzing right off of one drink, no, I mean three. You're still going to go night-night.

Josh: 24:35

Challenge accepted.

Siobhan: 24:36

Yeah right.

Josh: 24:38

Exactly. Well, I did put real espresso in that martini you're drinking, Matt.

Monica Kowalski: 24:41

Yeah, you did. Okay, that's not my fault, no, no no, we're not blaming you at all.

Andy: 24:45

That's definitely not them. I got a research paper to write, so you know.

Siobhan: 24:50

Matt will be calling me and make it more enjoyable. Perfect.

Matt: 24:54

Perfect.

Monica Kowalski: 24:55

Yeah, we had, uh, it was featured in one of the morning shows in LA and, uh, they were doing like, like big shots Like you're, you're almost in between the, your red solo cups, and they had glasses like that and they were doing and I was like we should not be doing that much shots.

Matt: 25:15

Okay, well there are some mornings Truly Absolutely.

Siobhan: 25:23

Yeah, but I would love to know sort of each of you what is cause. You said how many recipes you have of your drinks that are including this. What are your, each of your, favorites?

Monica Kowalski: 25:36

probably. The tequila, old-fashioned, is probably my favorite and I use a reposado, so yes, I use a certain Reposado that's my fave. Oh, so I use that an ounce and a half, and then an ounce of coffee liqueur, my coffee liqueur, yeah, and then about four dashes of Aztec chocolate bitters on a craft ice, and that's it. That's it here for it.

Josh: 26:08

That sounds great we didn't even tell you the reason we were late is because we were having dinner, um, at josh's house down the street and, uh, we, I did a uh flank steak with a uh coffee rub, a dry rub on the flank steak. I was like, hey, we're gonna have coffee tonight, let's do a little coffee in our, in our dinner.

Monica Kowalski: 26:23

So yeah, so it's really nice with the reposado, just because it's that sweeter. So you get like the just a nice sip as you're sipping on that. But I mean, from a white Russian perspective, I'm going to have to go with the pink Russian. It's a strawberry vodka based, so it has, and then we top it with fruity pebbles. Oh what okay, wait I love what I'm hearing.

Josh: 26:49

You got a lot of head turns on that and there's only four of us in here.

Siobhan: 26:52

No, but I feel like I'm the last person that's gonna say I love that.

Josh: 26:55

But I love that like you are wearing pink and and teal um kitty cat headphones.

Siobhan: 27:01

I'm wearing cat headphones because matt's daughter gave me these headphones to borrow.

Matt: 27:07

However, she forgot her, so she has the headphones from my nine-year-old and she's doing a great job back there.

Siobhan: 27:12

I don't hate on those, but I feel like wait a sec.

Josh: 27:15

That sounds great someone needs to call the plcb and get this, this liquor, in here so that we can uh make more of these, these recipes, yes I know I'm not a big sweets person like oh, but I would, I'm a huge coffee person, right like, like my coffee's bougie.

Andy: 27:31

Right Like we get the local roasted coffee like that's from down the street, that's what's in here Roasted down the street. Right, we have the coffee maker that grinds the whole beans and then drops it straight down, like we take our coffee pretty seriously. Same here.

Josh: 27:48

There's two coffee nerds. I drink it black. There's two coffee nerds and two coffee haters.

Siobhan: 27:54

Well, hater is a strong word, I feel.

Josh: 27:56

Two coffee non-coffee drinkers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

Andy: 28:00

I think we all agree this is a damn good coffee liqueur it is.

Matt: 28:04

Honestly, it really is.

Andy: 28:05

The mixed drinks are great. I love them. They're fantastic, but just straight.

Monica Kowalski: 28:12

Like you said, matt the other main brand coffee liqueur like I wouldn't drink that shit straight I gotta say, and then to have a little fun with so, since you're non-coffee drinkers, we do. Yeah, partner with the local creamery, because again, we have our own test kitchen, right lebowski's tap room is is we can test anything out and if, if we get the thumbs down, then we, you know, go another direction. But a local creamery makes it's called the dude's ice cream and it's our coffee liqueur and, and you know, you don't have to be 21 to buy it, because you figure vanilla is 30 by alcohol anyway, right, so they're just using it as a flavoring, but it is with ice cream so you get like that affogato flavor?

Siobhan: 28:56

yes, oh nice I'm here for that, yeah I want to you, monica, you answered. Now, dave, you should answer what's your favorite, my favorite, so what's your favorite?

David Kowwalski: 29:06

um, I mean I to go to a drink we featured during Christmas time. So it was with a Molly Brown distillery out of Denver. They make a spiced bourbon and so basically, molly Brown spiced bourbon, half and half with our coffee liqueur the way I described it is. It tastes like Christmas born. It's just basically a black Russian, but you get the spice from the bourbon, half and half with our coffee liqueur. Very, very simple drink, but I drank that all through the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. That was my favorite new concoction that we came up with recently. I like that.

Josh: 29:44

So good. That sounds delicious. You could make that at home too.

David Kowwalski: 29:47

You could do your own spiced bourbon you could infuse a bourbon.

Josh: 29:50

That would be awesome.

Siobhan: 29:51

We probably have stuff here in crummy Pennsylvania that they sell.

Josh: 29:56

What I'm hearing is do you have some bourbon?

Matt: 29:58

Yeah, with spice. What I'm hearing is I need a plane ticket to Colorado Springs.

David Kowwalski: 30:02

I mean you do? That is what I'm hearing. Have you ever been? I have not. That's got to come and visit.

Matt: 30:07

But this is why I started this podcast To meet folks like you, to hear your story. That is why I started this podcast, and I'm so excited to be tasting this today and to be with both of you. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

David Kowwalski: 30:26

Anything else. We need to know that you'd like everybody else to know. No, I just wanted to like the crazy adventure that we've done and it's just been phenomenal. I mean, the restaurant has been a ton of hard work but uh, um, if we wouldn't open a lebowski themed restaurant, the coffee lapoor would not. I wouldn't have ever looked for my dad's recipe.

Monica Kowalski: 30:43

Why would I? Why would I have looked for that right? You know it was just that's beautiful, all the different things just came in and it's just been such a and like you know, meeting people, getting to talk to people, sharing that and sharing the story and saying you know what? Do you remember it? It's fun that you all remembered something Like I triggered a core memory with all of you and I hope that's, you know, like the journey that we continue on across the united states.

Matt: 31:08

Appreciate that very much. I didn't say this initially. My first drink ever was a black russian, so that's that's why I want to try this choice.

Siobhan: 31:17

Wow, yeah, there you go, we were only children at heart.

Monica Kowalski: 31:22

Yeah, absolutely, I didn't do that, did your dad, give it to you. Yeah. And there was a reason I don't know, so this was a legit reason. I got chicken pox and they were all like in my throat and he's like here you need to drink this.

Monica Kowalski: 31:40

And then I wrapped up in like this big blanket that a friend of mine had brought me back when he was a family friend, had brought me back when he was stationed in the Azores. So it's this big wool blanket to get them to pop out of my body. So they were like this is this. And it completely broke the fever. All the chicken pox came out and then I was fine.

Matt: 32:01

But yes my dad gave me my first drink. Dang, we had a picnic. It's the same, different story it wasn't a chicken pox picnic.

Siobhan: 32:10

No, it's the same Different story.

Matt: 32:11

It wasn't a chicken pox picnic, Matt Slightly different situation.

Andy: 32:14

I do think we need to have a podcast discussing our first drink.

Siobhan: 32:19

Oh boy, oh yeah I remember mine.

Andy: 32:24

I can't tell the story.

Josh: 32:25

I don't think because my mom might listen to this.

Matt: 32:29

I don't think I can tell that story. Fantastic, write that down.

Josh: 32:32

Well, listen for me as a rep. I've seen a lot of brands come and go and I think this is a really great product and I really wish you guys the best.

Monica Kowalski: 32:41

Thank you so much from all of us for reaching out to us.

Josh: 32:44

That's just from me and I really appreciate it and I hope you guys do well with this.

Monica Kowalski: 32:48

That's just from me and I really appreciate it and I and I hope you guys do well with this. Thank you, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Siobhan: 32:51

Yeah, and thank you for sharing your story. It truly meant a lot to me. I'm like a real empathetic person, and so it just like means a lot. When you hear about like a lot of good backstory behind stuff too, like it's not just sort of another product on the shelf, that it is a nostalgia kind of brand that like brings people closer to another thing, so I love it, thank you guys and I will ask you the very selfish question of do you take venmo and can I get another bottle?

Matt: 33:17

just what better ringing endorsement can I give you? Truly, we are.

David Kowwalski: 33:21

We are working with a nationwide distributor to be able to to ship the product, uh, throughout the united states very soon.

Andy: 33:26

So yeah, we'll be online by the end of March.

Monica Kowalski: 33:30

We will keep you in the loop, absolutely.

Matt: 33:35

I think you have my email address. Keep us in the loop. We'll be more than happy to tell our listeners what's going on. Family friends, you will have a following in Pennsylvania because this is absolutely fantastic and send us your recipes.

Josh: 33:46

Absolutely.

Siobhan: 33:48

I would love that we try to update them on our.

Matt: 33:50

And send us your recipes.

Andy: 33:50

Okay, absolutely yeah. I would love that you guys have social media stuff.

Monica Kowalski: 33:52

We try to update them on our website stuff, but it's Dave and I, so we. You know we only have so many cycles in a day.

Siobhan: 33:59

Yeah, of course Of course.

Monica Kowalski: 34:01

So we try to keep you know some fresh and new, different recipes, flipping them through so that way people can figure out how do I use this. What's a fun way to do it? You know, like I said, just drop it in a Coke, you know do, do you know? Mix it with limoncello and you'll you'll enjoy a German chocolate cake. You know those?

Matt: 34:24

those kinds of things you'll just really really enjoy wwwlebowskiskoolluah. com. Yep, I was going to say where else can we follow you Social media, social?

Monica Kowalski: 34:29

media. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook and we have a tick tock, but that's for the Bowski's tap room. But I would say, following there, because you'll see the guys on the team making. I say, guys, it's all, it's all of our people making white Russians and having a lot of fun with it. So you'll, you'll get the recipe from there too Nice.

Matt: 34:54

Fantastic. Thank you so much for being with us on Matt and friends drink the universe.

Siobhan: 34:58

Yeah, thank you. This podcast is a production of unfiltered studios. If you would like to know more about joining unfiltered studios, please visit our website at unfpodcom for more information.

Matt: 35:11

What better boozy quote for this episode than one from Jeff Bridges as the dude himself in the Big Lebowski? Hey, hey, man, be careful, there's a beverage here. On social media, please like, follow and push all the buttons for us. That's Matt and Friends DTU at Facebook, instagram Threads and TikTok. For more information about the podcast, as well as links to our merch store, social media and all the places you can listen to us, visit our website mattandfriendsdtucom. That's mattandfriendsdtucom. Thank you again for listening to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe.