Branded Hearts Distillery founders, Joshua Nichols and Ryan Cherrick, offer a perspective on life and business that is as unique as the spirits they engineer. When Josh and Ryan took a dramatic detour from their careers in law enforcement, they didn't look at themselves as aged, but as imprinted. Their attitude toward creating unique and powerful flavors in their whiskey and rum is the same. As partners in the Ventura sheriff's office they have a history of taking on challenges together. The distillery allows them to creatively engineer each part of the distilling process, from charring the oak of the barrel to printing the labels for the bottles. "The science behind it is quite romantic," Ryan explains, "but that's not what the name implies." He goes onto explain how a branded heart refers to the portion of spirit kept during distillation that is aged in charred oak barrels. "When you walk away from something having had a good experience, it stays with you. You now have a branded heart," Josh explains, adding that he enjoys being able to approach his new venture both scientifically and artistically.