Cocktail Winds 💨🍸🍹🥃

As beverage categories and their respective product lines continue to evolve and expand, cocktails are increasingly being called upon for inspiration. Borrowing from the spiking success of actual spirit-based, canned versions like High Noon and Cutwater, the use of cocktail-themes is helping power brand extensions across a number of categories including hard seltzer, sparkling water, THC drinks, and of course beer. The use of these multi-faceted flavors offers a series of intriguing benefits to a drink brand looking to extend the occasions they’re associated with. Today I’m going to share a personal anecdote followed by a break down recent ways this strategy is being deployed by White Claw, Climbing Kites, Spindrift, Athletic Brewing, and Alvarado Street Brewing.

Pursuit of ̶F̶r̶e̶e̶d̶o̶m̶ Cocktail Flavors

The first year of the pandemic was also the encore to White Claw Summer. Just about every brewery would be asked whether they’d be pursuing a hard seltzer. We passed on the idea at Revolution Brewing, mostly because not a single person in the building seemed excited to make or sell one. We did however acknowledge that a flavor shift was happening that we shouldn’t ignore, so we took a look at our portfolio, finding a solid crossover with our session sour Freedom of Speech 🍑, which had seen a few small batch variants as well. These recipes helped us appeal to consumers who don’t love the taste of traditional beers or IPAs. Oftentimes, this means preferring wine or cocktails, with a particular openness to fruit-forward flavors and acidity.

We decided to make these 4.5% ABV sours our “alternative to alternatives”, as we phrased it in our Annual Business Plans (ABPs) 3 years ago, adding a Variety Pack and more rotating one-offs to our existing Peach and Black Currant flavors. After focusing the first few years of exploration on fruit combinations, the use of two consecutive fruits as brand names began to feel less exciting and inspiring, so we turned to cocktail and related recipes for inspiration like the two options below: Paloma (Grapefruit & Lime) and Sangria (Pineapple, Orange, Grape, and Lime). What sounds more interesting to you? “Paloma” or “Grapefruit and Lime”?

Pursuit of Freedom is the name of our one-off, small batch Freedom Sours, versus the year-round versions just named Freedom

Session sours had a strong moment in 2021 and 2022 but had no answer the past couple of years as countless fruit-forward beer alternatives flooded the market. As we’ve considered whether to take our foot off the gas with fruited sours or continue breathing new life into them, the cocktail theme remains toward the top of the white board, but questionable as to how much farther it will be pursued. As a result, it’s been both affirming and intimidating to see so many other awesome brands come to market with similar ideas heading into 2025 across many different drink categories. Let’s dive into them and break some down.

Claw Tails

Speaking of White Claw, hard seltzers have lost a lot of their momentum as far as growth goes, but remain a sizable category that’s carved out a place with a wide range of drinkers over the last 5-7 years. The White Claw brand has evolved quickly to stay relevant and cover a lot of ground, extending into all the fruit flavors imaginable, lemonades, teas, Surf (exotic flavors), Surge (higher ABV), Pure (no flavor), and the famous non-alcoholic White Claw that I bravely played Devil’s Advocate on. While they haven’t officially announced yet, the following labels have surfaced indicating that one of their next moves will include a cocktail-inspired strategy.

Observations:

• Unlike classic White Claw which uses natural flavors and extracts to achieve its fruit component, Clawtails distance themselves by:

  • Highlighting a fruit in the name of each (except Mai Tai) cocktail,

  • Mentioning Real Juice along the shoulder of the can,

  • Re-mentioning those specific juices underneath the flavor name, and

  • Bringing the image of fruit front-and-center in the design

• A contentious issue in some circles, Clawtails don’t bury the fact that they’re malt-derived rather than spirit-derived. They place this information in a somewhat subtle font color but in a prominent location directly above the brand name on the label.

• On the backside of the can, they double down on both of these points mentioning the Real Juice for a 3rd time, distancing itself from their other seltzers, but specifically stating “Not a Cocktail”. I thought this statement was smart from the standpoint of being upfront without sounding like a disclaimer.

Kitetails Take The Wind Head On