Maybe that's not the most cost-effective way of doing things, but Cooper says he wants to build the integrity of the brand, price aside.

Fortunately for Cooper, he is able to focus on the "inherent value of his product beyond day-to-day profitability” because of another well-known liqueur. Cooper's father controls spirits company Charles Jaquin, which owned the raspberry liqueur Chambord and sold it to Brown Forman for $255 million in 2006. Cooper, who had been working on the Chambord account, got a small percentage of the sale price.

With that seed money in hand, Cooper started his own business, Cooper Spirits, and St. Germain is its initial offering. Two other products are in the works, and Cooper claims they are as innovative as his first flower.

Most entrepreneurs are not able to "sacrifice profitability," and instead just struggle to pay the bills, but Cooper is clearly caught up in a labor of love that reflects his devotion to the history of spirits. His aim is "to be able to craft St. Germain in a similar way to a wonderful historical product like Chartreuse, which has been made by Carthusian monks in France since 1509."

If the production of St. Germain seems like a throwback to another century, the marketing and distribution is thoroughly modern, casually slick, and slightly stealthy. For example, Cooper paid online Web site Daily Candy to promote his product without being too "promotional." Instead, readers were just "encouraged to invite friends to go out and meet them for a cocktail based on St. Germain...but it wasn't like we were the ones inviting the customers to come have a drink," Cooper says.

As for distribution, Cooper says being a small, independent company in the spirits industry "you're always fighting for attention," so it has not aligned itself with any one distribution company. "Each distribution partner is always knocking on our door saying, 'When can you jump ship and work with our distribution house. So I think it really enhances our ability to [get] attention from our distribution partners."

Cultivating an air of exclusivity certainly seems like the name of Cooper's game. At Morrell & Company, a wine store in New York’s Rockefeller Center, St. Germain was front and center, on display by itself. The price tag for trendy exclusivity: $32.50 a bottle.

THE SIX SHOOTER

1. Where were you the moment you decided your business plan?

I was in my office, plugging away at the continued development of St-Germain…I had over five years to figure out the business plan since that’s how long it took to create the elderflower liquid…

2. What was the one thing you didn't know that you had to bluff your way through? 

Operations, finance, supply chain, inventory management -- the back-end business management. I can do it, but my strengths lie elsewhere.

3. What one life lesson did you learn that helped you build your business?

Humility, period.

4. Who is your role model or inspiration?

The old timers in the woods cookin’ shine….Seriously? Paul Ricard (founder of Pernod Ricard)

5. What do you wish you had more of: time or money?

Time! (OK -- and more money, because that means more resources to continue to innovate and create...)

6. What is the one word your employees would use to describe you? 

Passionate.
 

Want to know who's next? Check back every other week for more Young Guns...And if you know a young entrepreneur with an interesting story, e-mail us at youngguns@foxbusiness.com.