Dragos Axinte believes that nothing worthwhile comes easy. He was born and raised in a communist dictatorship (Romania) where adversity was his best friend, moved to the U.S. with a handbag and a smile, built a consumer product company (ColdHeat) that quintupled its market category in one year, kept the faith during the fourteen years needed convince the American government to let him stay, and then finally found home in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

And also in the Brazilian jungle. Today Dragos is the majority owner of a zero-waste, USDA organic certified cachaça distillery and sugarcane plantation in the Atlantic Rainforest of Southern Brazil’s coastal mountains, somewhere between the ocean and the sky. The business - named Novo Fogo – is a leading steward of the process of barrel aging cachaça, with numerous expressions matured in a combination of Brazil’s traditional favorite American oak and the less frequent Brazilian hardwoods. Novo Fogo lists among its spirits an oak–aged expression named the #1 cachaça in Brazil by the highly reputable Cúpula da Cachaça and is also a model business in a model community: the rainforest town of Morretes, PR.

A firm believer that what goes around, comes around, Dragos established wellness and balance for humans, communities, and the environment as the core of the Novo Fogo brand. Convincing doughy bartenders to run through the French Quarter and to play soccer in Portland is one of his life-long objectives, and so far things are going well. These tournaments attract hundreds of participants and the company hosts smaller “Sweat Sessions” for bartending communities throughout the country. Should you find yourself near one, it would be wrong to miss it.