Beija

When entrepreneurs Kevin Beardsley and Stephen Diforio came up with the idea for Beija Cachaça, they had a dream, a plan, a mission—everything but one key factor in the equation: the dollars it takes to transform a dream into reality. But sometimes, passion can be a currency in its own right. 

Inspired by Tradition, Defined by Modernity
In 2005, Kevin, then an undergraduate at Duke University, took on an internship in finance in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he quickly developed an appreciation for Brazilian culture and the country’s national spirit, cachaça. “I loved the light, natural flavor that the super-premium cachaças delivered,” Kevin says. “I became fascinated with the subtle differences between existing brands.”
Kevin realized the distinct flavor of Brazil’s national spirit, which is the third most consumed distilled spirit in the world, had barely been discovered in the United States. He became singularly focused on creating a product that would be Americans’ introduction to this Brazilian beauty. He set to work with distillers and blenders to produce a spirit with the characteristics of an artisanal cachaça and maintain the rigorous quality controls and production standards of a world class brand.

Distinctly Beija
Kevin recruited his high school friend, Stephen Diforio, who had just received a business degree from George Washington University. They maxed out credit cards to make several trips to Brazil, suspecting all the while that their investment would pay itself off. They sought out local distillers and blenders, trying different cachaças, and developing their own perfect formula. The smooth, slightly floral, vaguely herbal blend that’s become Beija’s signature is a culmination of Brazilian heritage, technical expertise, artistic flourishes and an unwillingness to sacrifice quality or flavor. At the end of 2007, Beija arrived on U.S. shores. 

Beija, Today and Tomorrow
With a decidedly vintage sensibility involving pounding the pavement and talking to one individual bartender after another, Kevin and Stephen launched Beija (Brazilian for “kiss”) in Massachusetts, where they were living, and cultivated the brand with enthusiastic support from top, trend-setting bartenders in Boston. As word of the brand – and the Caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink – spread, so did an awareness of Beija’s distinct smoothness and production methods. Before long, Beija broke free from the traditional Caipirinha. “When the top mixologists in Boston started creating original cocktails with Beija, we knew we had something special,” Stephen says.

By the spring of 2008, just two years after Kevin had forsaken his path to a career in finance, Beija was turning heads far and wide. Tasting Panel Magazine gave it a 92 point rating, the highest ever bestowed on an entirely un-aged cachaça. It clinched “Best in Category – Top Performer” at the 2009 New York Spirits Awards.

By the end of that summer, Beija was featured in over 65 bars and restaurants in Massachusetts and carried in 40 liquor stores. At that time, Kevin and Stephen expanded operations in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in 2009, they launched Beija in Manhattan. You can now find Beija in more than 250 restaurants and stores in the Northeast.

With more and more bartenders serving caipirinhas and experimenting with using it in other drinks, more American imbibers have grown fond of the Brazilian staple. Kevin and Stephen are ready to bring the trademark Beija flavor and the ever-expanding menu of Beija cocktails to the rest of the world and share the wealth of this lively Brazilian spirit.