On April 20, 2024, two Engineers who share a twenty-year friendship and a compelling urge to explore their creative talents, opened New South Spirits in downtown Greenville. Located at 1 Augusta St. #102, New South Spirits can be described as an experiment in combining the problem-solving skills acquired during a professional career in engineering with the artistic talents of free-thinking entrepreneurs. Owners Todd Harbin and Lisa Messenger have built New South Spirits from scratch, and with a unique product and ideal location, they are poised to be the next big thing in downtown Greenville.
New South Spirits is the third business that Harbin and Messenger have opened together. The previous two businesses were engineering firms where they did product testing on everything from air bags to weapons, to aerospace testing, to materials testing. They primarily worked on products that were in the development phase. Three years ago, Messenger suggested to Harbin that they start another business.
“I was up for it,” says Harbin, “but only as long it had nothing to do with engineering because I was ready to do something different and fun.”
After some time and a trip to Kentucky, Harbin returned and told Messenger that he knew what kind of business he wanted them to start. After shooting down Messenger’s guess that he wanted them to start a bourbon business, Harbin revealed that bourbon does not allow for the creativity in product development that he was seeking—but agave and rum do.
“Agave is a rising spirit in the United States, so I thought it would be good to capitalize on that while it’s popular. Agave is tequila, but since it is not made in one of the three regions of Mexico that have trademarked the name “tequila,” we cannot legally market it as tequila,” says Harbin.
Once Harbin and Messenger determined what their product would be, Harbin spent the next year researching to learn how to make a quality product and make it consistently. Next, it was Messenger’s turn. Messenger does the business side of the business—accounting, marketing, doing market research, and developing a business plan. Says Harbin,
“We looked at the business plan and thought, this dog might hunt. So, we decided to move forward and contact First Citizens Bank. They liked the plan and wanted to work with us, so now we had to find a location.”
Harbin and Messenger knew they wanted the business located in downtown Greenville due to tourism and foot traffic, but after a few months of looking, they found out that it was illegal to distill in downtown Greenville. However, after receiving a tip that there was potential for this law to be changed, Harbin and Messenger waited patiently, and in July 2023, zoning laws were changed to allow alcohol production in downtown Greenville. As soon as this change was made, Harbin and Messenger signed a lease on their current location.
“We’ve been doing well so far, but our biggest challenge right now is letting people know we’re here,” says Harbin. “We’ve had someone, like a friend or customer, go outside the business and hand out flyers, just letting people know we’re here. We just signed a distribution agreement and in August 2024 we are starting the distribution process. We just filled our first order, and we will be in local liquor stores doing tastings of our products. We will be doing this heavily in Anderson. We really want to see our product sold in our local area,” says Harbin.
The link between engineering and agave and rum recipe development and product creation seems hard to make at first, but Harbin says that even though the product is liquor, it’s still manufactured through a specific process that must be controlled.
“One example of how I use my engineering background during this process is when I built my own PID controls system that allows me to control the exact temperature of the still. I did not want to control the amount of power I was using, I wanted to control the temperature of the stills. By building the PID controls system, I can set a temperature and it will automatically set the still at that temperature and hold that temperature. I get to decide when the temperature changes. Lisa and I have built a lot of our control systems ourselves,” notes Harbin.
The recipe development is the artistic part of the process. Harbin and Messenger use all-natural ingredients with zero additives and zero preservatives, so once they identify a flavor pallet they want to create, they must figure out how to create it with natural ingredients. Some of their more popular recipes are the Agave Sunrise and Rosemary Poloma. Their most popular cocktail is the Rum Old Fashioned, however, they offer two very popular cream products—the Peanut Butter Cup Cream and Vanilla Cream.
In addition to showcasing their creative talents through their drink recipes, Harbin and Messenger have displayed their creativity with personal touches throughout the bar.
“We laser engraved our tables ourselves. Lisa paints, so she’s got her artwork in the building. These personal creative touches have allowed us to really pour ourselves and our heart into the business,” notes Harbin.
Harbin and Messenger have discovered a community of passionate and dedicated people in the distilling industry, and this community is part of what energizes them and keeps the creativity flowing.
“There is a distiller’s guild in SC and every person I have met in that guild has been amazing,” says Harbin. “They are very open, they share information and want to share information, which is not something that happens often in engineering when dealing with trademark and design laws. It’s been refreshing sharing with these guys and seeing the passion in their eyes.”
New South Spirits is open Thursdays from 1pm-9pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 1pm-10pm and Sundays from 2pm-6pm. They offer tastings and tours, and no advanced scheduling is required for tours—simply walk in and request a tour. Tourists are taken through the entire distilling process from raw materials to finished products.
Learn more about New South Spirits by going to their Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok handles at @NewSouthSpiritsGVL.