Hi, I’m Chiyo Takemoto, founder of Coquetel Collective. I launched Coquetel back in 2017 after spending many years in the hospitality industry, followed by a few years in the wholesales distribution world. From running beverage programs to helping to curate and manage a spirits portfolio during the helm of the cocktail renaissance, I’ve worked all three tiers of the liquor world.

My passion for brand building began in 2014, when I began working with a wholesale distributor as their very first Spirits Specialist.

When I joined the distributor, they were just getting started with their spirits division and I had the opportunity to help build their portfolio. This was exciting times as new craft distilleries were just starting to pop up all over the country. I worked diligently to build brands like Mezcal Vago, Don Fulano, Nardini, J. Rieger, and BroVo, while also building new categories like sake and singani.

I really saw the need for local representation for these small, emerging brands, especially when competing with the larger conglomerates who seemed to have a never ending marketing budget.

And for those reasons, I formed Coquetel. I wanted to create a sustainable way for small brands to access local representation and therefore, created a co-op structure.