Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/541538
RTD Cocktails 48 Beverage Dynamics • July/August 2015 www.beveragedynamics.com and that's how we can connect with customers over some of the bigger brands." MORE THAN JUST MILLENNIALS Millennials are not alone in en- joying RTDs. Surprising even the brands, these products have found a broad appeal across generations. "We fi gured our tar- get-consumer sweet spot would 27 years old," Heyworth says. "And that was not at all true." As many brands have discovered, there is a major market for RTDs among Baby Boomers. Crafted Cocktails have received similar reactions among non-Millennials. "We're hot with the moms who like to en- tertain, the 30-50 age group," Vieira says. "They like Crafted cocktails because it's something unique you can bring to a party. And the packaging looks classy. Martha Stewart quoted our brand as being a great hostess gift." Bauer, too, has witnessed strong Baby Boomer interest in LIQs. "We were shocked to see that, at a lot of our tastings, the products were very popular among people in their 30s, 40s, even 50s," he recalls. "Of course, we're thrilled to see that. It means that we've created a good product. These people could be someone who wants to host a party with ease, and doesn't want to be stuck making cocktails for their guests all night long." THE CONTAINER CONUNDRUM Getting to the point where a new RTD enters the consumer consciousness entails a great deal of work. Producing RTDs is a diffi cult business from the onset. An industry still in its infancy, it requires extensive R&D and innovation prior to progress. The greatest struggle for many RTD companies is fi nding an effective drink-container design. BuzzBall cocktails are sold in plastic, orange-sized balls. "We actually invented the fi rst plastic cocktail can in the United States. I got the idea from a tennis ball can," Kick says. "The lid posed problems. At fi rst, I imagined a peel-away lid, like for yogurt containers. But you have to have something that can hold in a carbonated cocktail. So I looked into how coke cans held in carbonation, what parts per million worked to keep the beverage inside." That's how Kick came up with the metal top, which is hot- sealed to the top of the plastic can. Working with natural ingredients can also present obstacles — or so Crafted Cocktails discovered. "We use a glass bottle and have to hot fi ll it above 190 de- grees in order to fi ll it without preservatives," Vieira explains. "There's no way to hot fi ll a plastic bottle. That means that anything in a plastic bottle has preservatives in it." For its natural watermelon ingredients, Crafted Cocktails will dehydrate watermelon into a powder, and then rehydrate it during the hot-fi ll manufacturing process. Bauer and his LIQs business partner faced a different prob- lem. They could not fi nd an American distillery that owned equipment necessary to fi ll and seal their shot glasses. Even- tually, they located a machine that fi lled foodstuff, and spent $50,000 outfi tting it to suit their needs. "And then we had to fi nd a company that could label our shot glasses," Bauer says. "Our glasses are not perfectly round, like shampoo or soft-drink bottles. They're shot glasses, so they're angular. We probably went through 20 labeling com- panies. It would have been a lot easier to create another vodka brand - everything for LIQs had to be made custom." BD "As long as Americans continue to be Americans, with their time becoming more valuable and less available, RTDs are going to see huge growth." — Sandra Pacheco, national sales director for Southwest Wines Double Barrel shots, from the maker of Twist- ed Shotz, contain a higher alcohol content and mix two different fl avors in each serving VO | CO beverages are a mix of vodka and coconut water. Flavors from ready-to-drink brand Crafted Cocktails include Moonlight and Lanai.