{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Tara Hankinson: Brewery co-founder, customer experience whiz, and loves a chilled red","description":"Welcome back to Cheers with Nat \u2013 the podcast dedicated to cheering on women in drinks. We\u2019re continuing our four episode mini-series from NYC! Today\u2019s guest is Tara Hankinson, co-founder and co-CEO of TALEA Beer Co. TALEA was founded with a mission to bring craft beer to a broader audience \u2013 and you\u2019re about to hear exactly how they\u2019re doing it. From brand voice, to customer experience, to collaborations and partnerships, Tara tells us how her early inspiration and entrepreneurial spirit snowballed to get her where she is today\u2026 and she\u2019s got loads of great insight to share. What stuck with me from this conversation: On getting to where she is now: \u201cThis is probably my 5th or 6th career post-undergrad, so it\u2019s not as linear as most people think. I think a lot of people expect to find that dream job at age 23, 24 and that\u2019s just not practical. So, it took a bit, but I love it now. And I think Leann and I are actually good at it. Both because of all the non-linear starts and stops we\u2019ve had in our career and because we are very agile and flexible and have built this business from the ground up.\u201d On her initial vision for a business: \u201cI had always loved wine, and I felt such a connection to the experience of going to a great winery and wine tasting. And that high end hospitality-forward experience had never been a part of the beer world that I had explored. So that was kind of my original kernel for getting interested in beer.\u201d On being data-driven: \u201cNowadays, you can export every Google review you\u2019ve ever gotten and put it into Claude or Gemini and say, what are the positive trends, what are the negative trends, what\u2019s the biggest opportunity in our negative reviews to turn this experience around. That didn\u2019t exist when we started the business, but I think just thinking of customer experience as something you can quantify, you can use data to make decisions and make investments.\u201d On TALEA\u2019s brilliant beer descriptions: \u201cThis is meant to be relatable and approachable and to convince you to stay on the beer side of the menu versus the wine and cocktails that are on the back.\u201d On collaborations and partnerships: \u201cI think [they\u2019re] a way in which we are continuing to challenge the preconceived notions of what craft beer is and who it\u2019s for.\u201d On what the business is here to do: \u201cIn its simplest form, we are trying to give people little moments of joy.\u201d   Links & things: What we\u2019re drinking: TALEA\u2019s spicy marg sour (and their brite lager as a back up!) TALEA's: Taprooms Social, and Latest collaborations x NYPL x Flamingo x Levain Other shout outs: An early inspiration: W\u00f6lffer Estate Vineyard A mentor: Mike Seitz at Bare Bottle Highlights from our last call round: Podcast recc: Acquired Producer we need to know: Wild East Brewing Where Tara wants to visit: Germany Another awesome woman in drinks we should meet: Jamie Fox from the New York Brewers Guild   Recording info: April 2026 in NYC We recorded in the basement of Talea West Village\u2026 right next to a rather noisy ice machine that decided to chime in part way through our conversation! The background noise settles soon after, so please do hang in there. (And thanks for your patience and understanding!)   Subscribe | Follow on Instagram | Email ","author_name":"Cheers with Nat","author_url":"https:\/\/cheerswithnat.substack.com\/","html":"