CANNED COAST: The pink color of Ysidro Sake Spritz is designed to reflect "pink moment" sunsets while the flavors recall citrus groves and ocean spray. | Credit: Kayla Pournazarian
The sake-based hard seltzer Ysidro is a pandemic baby, born out of a dream inspired by a Zoom wine tasting, an open air walk allowed by social distancing rules, and that sense of why-the-hell-not that so many felt during Spring 2020’s end-of-days atmosphere. The wine tasting was hosted by Alex Dessouky, who’d just launched his Barrel Down Selections import company, and his Montecito neighbor, Monica Epstein, was one of many “attendees” staring at her computer screen and sipping along.
“The whole thing was very surreal,” she said of that early stay-at-home era. “That night, I had a dream that we were on Zoom and talking about a drink we had started.” She told her husband, Seth Epstein, about the vision, and then they ran into Dessouky while at Miramar Beach that same morning.
SAKE TRIO: Ysidro’s founders, from left, Alex Dessouky and Monica and Seth Epstein wanted to elevate the hard seltzer game with their sake-based grapefruit-and-sea salt spritz. | Credit: Courtesy
“We thought the world could end tomorrow,” recalled Dessouky, “so we figured we’d give it a shot.”
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