Photos courtesy of TSL
Two Westchester families collaborated to launch TSL, an all-natural and refreshingly light tequila-based canned cocktail.
If you’ve been searching for a healthier drinking alternative, TSL is here to help. The canned cocktail, crafted by four Westchester residents, boasts a clean, simple, and elevated taste made from tequila, soda water, lime juice, orange blossom flavor, and cane sugar.
Co-founders James Glover and Seth Jerabek met a decade ago when their families moved across the street from each other. The duo’s tequila ventures began like a lot of our Friday nights do in Westchester, with a few friends and a batch of handmade cocktails. Except not all of ours turn into a business opportunity.
When Glover and Jerabek hold parties and events at their respective Pelham homes, there’s one thing guests know they can rely on: a chilled TSL. The margarita concoction is made at the margarita station, which is stocked with a citrus press; batches of limes, tequila, soda water; and Cointreau. The hit cocktail was initially made in large batches and poured back into Casamigo’s bottles, where its natural green color could be displayed.
Come Monday mornings, Glover resumes his job in advertising tech at Google and Jerabek as an orthopedic surgeon at HSS. It wasn’t until their friends began purchasing large citrus presses to create their own TSLs at home and ordering TSLs at the golf club that they said to each other, “Maybe we have a thing.”
Once the snowballing phase commenced, the team started browsing the tequila canned cocktails that were available on shelves. They were out of luck and found only tequila seltzers, which mix in fake sugars, don’t use real tequila, and provide an overall lower quality beverage than what they hoped to achieve.
“We didn’t have a canned option, so we decided to do it ourselves,” Glover explains.
The TSL team worked with a food scientist in Brooklyn to nail down the taste that all their friends and family savored. “We said if we can get it as close to that [the homemade patch] as possible, we’ll build the business and pursue it,” Glover notes.
The quality of TSL is the core principle of the brand. It was important to the founders to produce a canned cocktail that was clean, honest, and had a “counter-worthy” visual appeal. The can boasts a vibrant aesthetic with the logo and list of ingredients, honoring their goal of being transparent.
Glover acknowledges, “It will never be homemade, but it’s darn close.”
The TSL team launched in stores in July of this year. They’ve also been dabbling in sponsorships and attending athleisure events, an unexpected market they’ve now fully tapped into. James and Seth’s wives, Lauren Glover and Jen Jerabek, do all the account management, sales, and events.
They have already completed some big sponsorships with Bandier, a high-end athleisure brand, FP Movement from Free People, and Head Sportswear.
“There’s been a neat synergy between our can and high-end leisure. You work hard [so] you can treat yourself with a high-quality cocktail, whether that be post-tennis, post-pickle, or during golf,” Glover says.
TSL comes in two flavors: the original Tequila Soda Lime and the Rosarita. The latter was a “happy accident” concocted when the duo was running low on TSL mix but had an abundance of rosé, so they combined the two.
A flavor combination that at first glance seemed overly simple turned out to be hard to pin down in the supermarket. Friends and family backed TSL, some even joining the team, to help get it off the ground and promote it throughout Westchester County. Today, TSL can be found on the brand’s website and select locations around the 914. The only question left then is which flavor will you try first?
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