Friday happy hour and you’re out with your coworkers. One of you orders a Moscow Mule, another a Manhattan, and for you? Margarita on the rocks, no salt. The bartender whirls, mixes, shakes and pours, and as if by some kind of alchemy the three drinks appear, perfectly concocted.
Good bartenders can seem like magicians. With specialized knowledge and an encyclopedia of recipes, they’re able to turn the bottles lined up on the back wall of the bar into countless wonders. But Mark Tinus, founder of Simple Times Mixers, wanted to take some of that magic out of the bar experience, and let people make their own magic.
Originally working as a craft spirits and liquor representative in the Columbus, Ohio area, Mark would often find himself creating mixers of his own to showcase the alcohol. On the sales trail, he talked to consumers one-on-one, and would hear the same thing over and over: people were often reluctant to buy craft spirits because they weren’t confident in their cocktail skills. Though Mark had samples on hand, people didn’t think they could actually execute the same drink at home. When he started researching for readily available mixers for these potential customers, all he found were mixers heavy on added sugar and full of artificial flavors. Nothing could measure up to his homemade mixers.
Since he couldn’t find a mixer on the market that did the trick, he decided that he would just have to create one. Harkening back to a time when fresh real ingredients were the norm, he named his company Simple Times and launched in late 2017. All of the fruits in his mixers are cold-pressed in-house, using only the highest quality fruit, roots, and organic cane sugar. Much of the produce comes from local farmers within 45 miles of his Columbus facility. No preservatives, artificial flavors, colors or extra acids are allowed, which leads to mixers that taste and look as vibrant as the fruits they come from. And they’re easy to use for even the most amateur of bartenders, always poured at a 3 to 1 ratio with a spirit.
We can say with confidence that Mark’s taken all that bartender magic and made it... well, simple.