RTD COCKTAILS ARE SHAKING THE INDUSTRY

TRENDINGTHE FUTURE IS READY TO DRINK NEXT TIME YOU’RE DOING YOUR TESCO ORDER ONLINE, TAKE A LOOK AT THE MASSIVE SELECTION OF READY TO DRINK (RTD) COCKTAILS RANGING IN PRICE FROM 70P TO £4.00. IF THERE IS ANY TIME TO BE THINKING ABOUT PUTTING YOUR SPIRIT IN A CAN, IT’S NOW. VELO MITROVICH REPORTS

If you’re like many of us, when you want to spot a trend, you take a quick look at what’s happening across the Pond for it will soon be here. Does this always work? As much as we hate to admit it, it does seems to for a good portion of the time. Craft beer, tap rooms, and food trucks were – and continue to be – big business in the States. It took a while here before brewers caught on, but there is no looking back. And indeed, some would say our brewers have yet to realise the full potential of creating a complete craft beer experience for their customers. That said, other trends such as putting pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, allspice, and ginger) into everything from whisky to Starbucks will never have the same appeal here as in the States where, embarrassingly for the human race, the first Starbucks pumpkin pie spice lattes of the season are reported as news. While RTD cocktails have been around since the 1960s in the States, they never made much of a dent in sales until 2019 when, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, people around the world abandoned pubs, bars, and restaurants, and instead started mixing and pouring cocktails at home. Consumers quickly realised that it was a whole lot easier opening a can than creating a home bar, and spirit manufacturers were happy to oblige. “Canned cocktails are a convenient and quality solution for cocktail lovers,” says Earl Kight, the co-founder and chief sales and marketing officer for San Diego’s Cutwater Spirits. “No ingredients, no prep or clean-up. They offer controlled ABVs and consistently taste delicious.” Cutwater first started making spirits in the back of its brewery. Now, besides having a full range of spirits, it has nearly 30 RTD

cocktails, using rum, tequila, vodka, gin, and whiskey spirits, with the majority of its range found in vodka and tequila drinks. This is truly becoming a global trend with producers, for example, going after specific ethnic markets. Korean American Grace Choi says that she always knew she wanted to start a brand which celebrated her heritage. While she had numerous ideas, it struck her that what she liked doing most was to spend time with family and friends, and drinking the Korean national spirit, soju. By cold-calling canneries, she finally found one that was ready to take her canned soju cocktail line, Jumo, from concept to reality. Carol Pak, who has started Sool canned soju cocktails, says that while working for ZV Ventures, the innovation arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev, she realised that there would be a huge global shift in the beverage environment and she wanted to be part of it. According to NielsenIQ, the RTD segment saw a massive 40 percent increase in sales and its biggest growth in shares of sales year-on-year by a staggering 416 percent in 2020. NielsenIQ says that this growth continued in 2021 – now past pandemic shut-downs – with continued triple-digit growth. This isn’t happening just in the States but is global, and it’s only going to get bigger thanks to Coca-Cola and Jack Daniels teaming up to put Jack & Coke into a can. While it’s easy to say that Covid brought about this growth, the continued growth has happened because manufactures have considerably upped their game with natural flavours premium spirits. In talking with some London bartenders, they can 54 | AUTUMN 2022 DISTILLERS JOURNAL

see the day when RTD cocktails are available in a pub. “You don’t expect the person behind the bar to have made the beer they’re pouring. They’ve either popped a bottle, opened a tap, or cracked open a can,” says one bartender speaking off the record. “If the quality continues with RTD, why should it be any different?”

BESPOKE COCKTAILS

One London mixologist willing to go on record is Pritesh Mody, resident cocktail expert for Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and founder of bespoke bottle cocktail company World of Zing. With 20 bottle cocktails, last year his business sold a whopping one million cocktails. “RTD cocktails have taken huge chunks of sales away from wine, beer, and classic spirit and mixer style drinks, and I can see this trend growing as consumers continue to demand more interesting experiences from food and drink,” says Mody. “Continuing in 2022, the hospitality industry appears to be suffering a shortage of skilled bartenders and staff from the ongoing effects of Covid-19. Pre-batch cocktails offer many benefits, including speed of service and reduced wastage. “Covid-19 also saw the on-trade industry innovate with new revenue streams, such as delivery and meal kits, showing how a great pre-batch solution can enhance customer experience. Alongside traditional on-trade, we have been able to put RTD cocktails everywhere from hotel minibars such as The Langham Hotel and Dark Kitchens, to popular national groups such as Curzon Cinemas, Tonkotsu, and Bill’s,” he says.

A problem RTD cocktails have had from the beginning is that most tasted canned. If you compared the tasted of canned orange juice to fresh, the taste difference is extreme. Some manufactures of RTD drinks tell Distillers Journal that due to continued fermentation, bacteria, and other issues, it isn’t as simple as just putting fresh juice into a can along with a spirit. “To most people, most cans and bottles found on supermarket shelves are seen as cheap and mass produced. However, pre-batch is a totally different concept,” says Mody. “Pre-batched cocktails should deliver the same experience as a freshly made cocktail – and at World of Zing, we’re positive they do. By handcrafting each cocktail from a dedicated mixology lab in South London, we can ensure our bottles and pouches are filled with bartender-quality cocktails. “The World of Zing team is largely made up of former bartenders with experience at some incredible venues, such as Hawksmoor and Dishoom. As such, we would argue that our extensive R&D process and experience allows our customers to benefit from consistently brilliant cocktails, rarely seen outside of the absolute best cocktail bars.”

With Mody being an expert, he was asked what would grab his interest in trying a RTD cocktail? “In the modern context, pre-batched cocktails have dovetailed with the rapidly increasing demand for cocktails. From a practical perspective, they are not only hugely convenient, but can also be more environmentally friendly through reduced waste, and most importantly – if properly crafted and rested – can taste even better than a freshly made drink. “For me, it is all about the flavour. I was brought up surrounded by exciting flavours and ingredients, growing up in one of the oldest spice merchant families

RTD cocktails have taken huge chunks of sales away from wine, beer, and classic spirit and mixer style drinks’ Pritesh Mody

within the UK. Consequently, this helped inspire us at World of Zing to be creative, with exciting flavour combinations playing a key part.”

Jim Vorel, a US drinks writer and an extreme fan of Tiki cocktails, says that most tiki cocktails are defined by complexity and complexity, which makes them and similar drinks not suitable for RTD. “Well-made tiki cocktails often feature multiple kinds of fresh fruit juice, various syrups being used for sweetness or to add spices, blends of rums/other spirits, and additional liqueurs or mixers. RTD cocktail makers, on the other hand, want the production of these products to be as simple as they possibly can be, and that is almost universally going to result in worse cocktails,” says Vorel. However, Mody believes this doesn’t have to be the case.

“It’s no longer acceptable just to have a standard Mojito or Margarita on the menu – there needs to be an added twist to take the drink in a direction that consumers won’t already be familiar with. “For example, our Persian Lime & Nori Margarita and Yuzu Whiskey Sour saw huge like-for-like sales increases in the on-trade, as we started to exit the pandemic. Citrus forward ingredients such as Yuzu and Lemongrass are moving into the mainstream, and seasonal fruits and flavours are also key to keeping brands engaged with consumers throughout the year. “We don’t necessarily develop new cocktails with the intention of being overtly innovative, but we are also constantly pushing the boundaries of flavour and styles of cocktails that can be bottled. Ultimately, it’s all down to flavour. It may sound obvious, but if something doesn’t taste incredible and makes the drinker pause the first time they have a sip, then we don’t have a business,” he says.

GREATER ABV DIVERSITY

Data sows shows that RTD product launches are increasingly leaning into super-premium pricing, packaging with less plastic, fewer direct health claims,

and greater diversity of alcohol content, with half of all new RTD products having an ABV of 5% or higher. This is true across the key RTD markets – Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, and the US – which represent 85 percent of global consumption of RTDs. “The ability to respond to consumer needs goes some way to explaining the rapid rise of RTDs,” says Brandy Rand, COO Americas at IWSR which conducted the research.

The number of RTD products using plastic-only packaging is reducing. IWSR data shows that just one percent of new RTD products used plastic-only packaging in the second half of 2021, down from five percent in the first half of the year. Environmentally focused packaging cues are increasingly important to consumers. In the US, for example, IWSR research shows that 44 percent of alcohol drinkers feel that their purchasing decisions are positively influenced by businesses with an active environmental or sustainability agenda. Some markets are moving away from plastic more quickly than others. In Germany, Japan and South Africa, no new products used plastic alone last year. On the other hand, Brazil and Mexico are progressing away from plastic but still have some way to go.

IWSR has been tracking an evolution in flavour profiles for RTD products, especially for spirit-based RTDs in the US, with two distinct flavour profiles coming to market. IWSR has defined these as “complex” and “simple” flavour products. “Complex flavour” drinks are those that contain full amounts of sugar, calories, and ingredients. They provide the full-flavour taste profile of an alcohol drink and tend not to be carbonated. In contrast, “simple flavour” drinks have lower sugar and calorie contents. They tend to be lighter and clear, based on seltzer or soda, and therefore are generally more refreshing in character. The two groups aren’t completely distinctive, however, and already show some overlap. For example, Spa Girl cocktails are low in sugar and carbs, and at 11.5-16.5% ABV, they contain 3.4 times more alcohol per serving than the average spirit-based RTD.

As an extension of evolving flavours, new RTD brand owners, as well as established producers, are increasingly introducing products with higher ABV rather than focusing on the more traditional 3-5% ABV range. Around half of all new RTDs launched in the second half of 2021 had an alcohol content of five percent or higher. This trend has been led by China, the US, and Australia, but is not universal. Other countries such as Germany and Japan are seeing a decrease in new innovations with higher ABVs.

The number of health claims associated with new RTD products is decreasing. The share of launches that included messages about low calories, sugars, carbs, or gluten dropped from 38 percent in the first half of 2021 to 29% in the second half of the year. “Despite knowing that dietary needs are indirect motivators to product selection, producers are opting to highlight natural ingredients instead. This movement is likely linked to premiumisation in the category,” says Rand. She adds that, in a sense, natural ingredients might be seen as healthier than substituting certain ingredients such as sugar. With RTDs shifting towards more premium, sustainable examples with fewer direct health claims and a greater diversity of alcohol levels, consumers have a broad and varied range of options in this fast-growing category.

GAME CHANGER

There is nothing new about the drink Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola. Bartenders

have been taking orders for Jack & Cokes since at least 1907 when an employee of the US Bureau of Chemistry and Soils encountered the drink when visiting the US south and the bartender called it a “Coca-Cola high-ball. There is nothing new about RTD cans with whiskey and cola or Jack Daniels and cola, but there has never been an RTD drink with Jack Daniels and official Coca-Cola.

Since 1892, Coca-Cola has taken what it saw what it saw as the moral high ground (we won’t mention that formula with cocaine) and has not associated itself with alcoholic spirits, seeing itself as an alternative. Those days are over, however, and it will be genuine Coca-Cola – not some watered-down cola-copy – going into this new RTD cocktail. On the plus side, for those of you selling RTD cocktails, if this doesn’t make drinkers being willing to try RTD cocktails, nothing will. And once they do, hopefully they will try yours. On the negative side, Coke is a giant. While you might be struggling to get your RTD cocktail into the hands of a drinker 10 feet from your distillery, Coke will be thinking of global domination. You can find Coca-Cola literally on every continent – including Antarctica. No company in the world has a distribution network like Coca-Cola.

Each second the world consumes 10,000 Coke soft drinks, with 1.9 billion cans/ bottles sold a day. Mexico is the world’s largest consumer of Coke products with the average person – man, woman, and child – drinking 630 8oz cups a year. It’s no surprise that diabetes is the number one killer in Mexico. The US is second with 403 cups per person, with the UK at seventh, drinking 210 8oz cups. With Coke being in such huge demand in Mexico, its Jack & Coke RTD will be first trialled in Mexico this year and will then go globally.

Brown-Forman – which owns Jack Daniel’s – CEO Lawson Whiting was asked just how big this was going to be. “We haven’t given any guidance on the absolute size of the product. It is a little bit difficult to know. There is a Jack and Cola product that’s already quite sizeable for us. It’s a big business for us around the world. It’s particularly big in places like Germany and Australia. But certainly, putting the Coke label on the can is a game changer and something that we’re really excited about. “This is a global agreement and it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get ourselves organised and get it into distribution. But I do think 2023 will be a big year. Coke has such a magnificent distribution system, obviously, as large as they are, so places like Africa, India, we see this as an emerging market play in places where we’re not as big. “It’s exciting in those markets where consumers often can’t afford an entire bottle of Jack Daniels, but they can afford a can of Jack and Coke. It’s an entree into some of these markets for us and another reason why we feel pretty good.”

UK DRINKERS DRAWN TO THE MOTH’S FLAME

AT TIMES, ONE OF THE MOST TIRED EXPRESSIONS YOU HEAR IS SOME COMPANY TELLING YOU THE FIRST THING THEY DID WAS TO TEAR UP THE RULE BOOK. AND, NINE TIMES OUT OF 10, THIS MEANS THAT IN REALITY, THEY’RE FOLLOWING EVERY RULE IN THE BOOK AND THEN SOME. BUT THEN THERE IS MOTH RTD COCKTAILS, FOUNDED BY SCHOOL FRIENDS ROB WALLIS AND SAM HUNT. DISTILLERS JOURNAL REPORTS

In talking with Rob Wallis, you get the feeling that he’s never even heard of the “rule book” and if he did, he would have just ignored it. Let’s quickly go over some of the thing’s MOTH is doing differently. You name your brand after some insect. You don’t under-price your competitors but take the opposite tack and have the most expensive RTD drink on the shelf, and at times in the smallest can. You don’t try to swamp the market with various cocktails but instead, take a very slow approach. Your cans don’t look like something holding cocktails but more like a craft beer. You genuinely believe that flavour, quality, and product safety, will bring you to the winner’s circle. And, as MOTH’s website proclaims: DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE. The insane thing is; the MOTH philosophy is working. Clients include Selfridges, Harrods, The Ritz and Hoxton Hotels, Waitrose, Sainsbury and now Tesco, going from 250 stores nation-wide to over 1,600. [The following interview has been edited and shortened for space. For the complete interview, go to Distillers Journal Podcast on our webpage]

Distillers Journal: Let’s get this one out of the way first, where did the name MOTH come from? Rob Wallis: We had a different name in the beginning, and it was really hard to spell – it was a bit French and a bit left of centre. So, we started a rebrand with this amazing agency called Pentagram. We all sat together in a room and there’s a big list of names. We went through them all and ‘moth’ was the last one on the list, and everyone said: ‘You can’t name a cocktail brand after an insect.’ We came back two weeks later, and that was only one that we remembered. I asked Pentagram what if moth stood for something, what if it was an acronym? They went away and being much cleverer than me, came up with ‘Mix Of Total Happiness – MOTH – which for me is the cocktail and the environment that you’re in. Now, I couldn’t imagine it being anything else.

How did a couple of lads from the University of York decide that RTD – ready to drink – cocktails were the way to go? That’s a very good question and I’ll let you know when we decide. We actually were friends from school, next door to each other. So I’ve known my co-founder for about 14 years. We both went to university where we became foodies and very competitive in the kitchen. I got my first ever bartending job to pay off my student overdraft and I worked in ‘luxury hospitality’ for the world’s best ski company. looking after millionaires and billionaires and they all had amazing chefs. I spent every day working and living with these chefs and people making drinks and couldn’t help but fall in love with a world of great service and people with incredibly high standards. I came back to more bartending and Sam was off building a career in film and television – he was working with clients like Netflix, Disney, and BBC. He likes to say that he had a proper career that I ruined. Which is true, because I sent him a message one day saying: ‘I want to start a company that makes the perfect bottle of Old Fashioned’. And he sent back a Facebook message which verbatim said: ‘That’s not actually a terrible idea. ” Did quite a bit research go into creating the perfect cocktail? I made up a litre of Old Fashioned as a test. It wasn’t perfect, but it produced a little germ of an idea saying if cocktails were just as easy, you’d always have them because cocktails are amazing. Not everyone’s a bartender and knows how to make them, but everyone who’s had a cocktail wishes they could recreate ibe at home. So that’s where we started. We

MOTH founders, Sam Hunt (L) and Rob Wallis

landed Selfridges, and then to Harrods and The Ritz and to Daylesford and two really high-end clients and sort of got this little brand that we handmade ourselves; every bottle was ridiculously expensive. From there was the realisation that we were onto something but not how we were going about it. Rebranding took place along with raising money. And then the big break was Waitrose. They were amazing, helping us with our branding and gave us expert advice; they really became involved. We finally said: ‘We’ve worked on this together, give us a little 25 store trial.’ They said: ‘No, we’ll put you in 200 stores and you’ve got three months.’ And so from that moment it was like getting on a roller coaster, and I’m still holding on 15 months later.

It’s hard not comparing the US to the UK market and trying to spot trends. In the States, hard seltzers have done well; not so much here where few see the attraction in drinking a mostly carbonated water beverage with little alcohol and flavour. In the States, RTD

cocktails have shown some of the greatest growth in the spirits industry, with some supermarkets seeing up to a 60 percent increase in sales. Will it be the same here with continued growth or just another hard seltzer flop? I think the trend and the growth in RTD in the UK is going to come from premiumization and innovation, not from making it cheaper and in very heavy quotation marks ‘healthy for you’ like hard seltzer is trying to do. There’s a real fallacy in trying to make something that is fundamentally unhealthy and should only be drunk in moderation. I would never suggest that you drink either a hard seltzer or a MOTH before doing yoga or driving. Right? That is not what it’s for. So, I really struggle with the hard seltzer market in the UK. There are really strong trends showing that the UK is going to have an enormous RTD market; it’s just not going to be hard seltzer.

People involved in RTD cocktails have told me that it’s far from being as simple as mixing a big batch of cocktails and putting it a can. When different liquids are mixed, their chemistry changes and, in part due to the lower ABV, the stability and shelf-life of the product are reduced. Is this a real challenge in creating a RTB cocktail? I think the answer is staring us all in the face, which is putting more alcohol in it. We solved that problem by making it the same strength as a bar, so we don’t have to pasteurise it and we don’t have to put nasties [preservatives] in it.

Following up with that, a US publication says that it is easy to make a RTD

As we said from day one, if we can’t say yes to big opportunities, then we’re not ready’ Rob Wallis

cocktail; the challenge is in making one with real ingredients and making an authentic cocktail. I think it’s very easy to make a cocktail flavoured thing and an Espresso Martini flavoured thing. However, to make an actual Espresso Martini in a can it is a real challenge because how it interacts. In a bar, an Espresso Martini has a total lifespan of 10 minutes; in a can it can be sitting somewhere for 10 months, and you still need it tasting as fresh as when it went into the can. So yeah, it’s a hell of a challenge to create something that’s authentic. But I think we’re showing people that they don’t have to accept a subpar experience.

Do you outsource production or make in-house? It’s all made in the UK, but we outsource it. We could go gung-ho and make it ourselves, but we want to work with some of the biggest customers in the UK. We have to be absolutely safe and absolutely consistent. So, we work with people who have much more experience. We take them the recipe and explain how to make it and everything, but the knowledge and expertise of putting what we have on a page into a can is something we pay them for.

The spirits used in your drinks aren’t cheap; the mixes used aren’t cheap, and even your design company wasn’t cheap, giving you the most expensive RTD cocktails on a supermarket shelf. For example, at Tesco’s, a House of Cocktails Mojito costs 0.75p for 250 ml. Your Mojito at Tesco’s costs £3.90 for a smaller can. From day one, were you out to create a high-end, authentic RTD cocktail experience? First thing, that 75p House of Cocktails Mojito is astonishing – it’s not a bad drink. I’ve tried to work out how they make it at that price and I can’t, it genuinely blows my mind. With us, we’re not trying to create a Mojito thing, we’re creating a cocktail, it’s a totally different kettle of fish. What you can compare us to is that £12 cocktail you had in the bar last week. We’re incredibly proud of what we put in our drinks; I’ll shout till the cows come home about the amazing partners we have because we’re only as good as what we put in our drinks.

Does your insistence of using high quality ingredients and then the accompanying price almost doom you to not being a market leader? I figure, lets us be a market leader but in a different market. I think we are creating a category. And it is no surprise that now

lots and lots of other people are following suit. It’s not going to be us forever. But I hope it’s always us leading.

You first went into Waitrose which seems like a good fit, but now you’re also in 450 Sainsbury’s and 900 Tesco’s shops. With inflation growing and paycheques shrinking, do you think Tesco shoppers in particular will be willing to pay easily double for a MOTH RTD? So we’re finding out the theory is yes and I’d say there’s a few things behind that. One is, there’s always room for a better product. And it’s still way cheaper than going and buying all the ingredients for a margarita which might set you back 60 quid with three limes thrown away at the end of the week, which isn’t great, right?

The other thing is, if the world goes into recession, you will trade down from your bar experience and there’s only one can on a Tesco shelf that can give you that bar experience. And that’s us. So maybe you won’t go out with 20 friends and rack up a £100 pound bar tab, or maybe you’ll have a few friends over, have a few MOTHs to create that experience, and still have some social time over alcohol. I think the word I heard once to describe us was ‘reassuringly expensive’. We are also different to other things on that shelf, and it might be immediately first reflected by the price point. But if you take that risk, that little jump, and you taste us, you immediately understand the why.

To sell to Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s, did you have to significantly increase production? Yeah, absolutely. We’re still learning what scale means with those guys. We’re very lucky that we have an incredible operations team that really are the core of our business. We’re operationally complex, right? There is loads of stuff to make a cocktail, so there’s a huge jump in scale. But as we said from day one, if we can’t say yes to big opportunities, then we’re not ready.

We have to be from day one ready to say yes, if Tesco and Sainsbury’s come knocking, and it’s no secret that I thought they weren’t coming knocking this year, I thought it wouldn’t be until 2023 that they’d be anywhere near us. I was as surprised as anyone and more delighted than most. But yeah, it was a hell of a jump. And it’s kept us up at night for a few sleepless nights. But we were ready from day one because we built MOTH to say yes.

We talked about your successes, what challenges do you see coming this year? Scale, as you mentioned earlier, is obviously a huge challenge. And if this goes really well, things will move very quickly. And we’ve got to be funded for that. And we’ve got to be ready to make the big calls. And, if we do everything we say we’re going to do, we won’t be the only ones doing it for very long; competition is obviously going to be a thing. But I do believe that will we stay out in front. The other big challenge for us is the team is really small right now, we’re eight people, and recruiting people who understand what we’re doing, who want to join the journey and want to grow with us. And who have the energy and the ambition to keep up. That’s a huge challenge. So far we’ve been incredibly lucky that all of our hires have fit in so well and they’re all incredibly ambitious people. Lucky so far, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same forever – we need to put tougher a team of 20 to 30 by the end of the year. And the last huge challenge, keeping our culture in the MOTH brand and everything that makes MOTH a success.

EDIBLE QR CODE TAKES ON FAKES

ACCORDING TO THEFT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY EXPERTS PWC, NEARLY ONE IN FIVE UK CONSUMERS HAVE UNWITTINGLY PURCHASED COUNTERFEIT SPIRITS. HOWEVER, THANKS TO RESEARCHERS AT PURDUE UNIVERSITY, A SMALL SILK TAG MIGHT MEAN THE DAYS OF FAKE WHISKEY ARE NUMBERED. MATTHEW OAKS REPORTS FROM PURDUE

In the future, when you order a shot of whiskey, you might ask the bartender to hold an edible fluorescent silk tag that could be found floating inside – even though it is safe to consume. This little silk tag with a QR code is a security measure that could reveal if the whiskey you’re wanting to buy is fake. Simply using a smartphone to scan the tag, which was developed by biomedical engineers from Purdue University and the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences in South Korea, could confirm the drink’s authenticity. There are, of course, no tags currently placed in bottles of whiskey. But this new anticounterfeiting technology, published in the journal ACS Central Science, could be a step toward not only finding a solution for the alcohol industry but also addressing fake medications. “Some liquid medicines contain alcohol. We wanted to test this first in whiskey because of whiskey’s higher alcohol content,” says Young Kim, associate head for research and an associate professor in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. “Researchers apply alcohol to silk proteins to make them more durable. Because they tolerate alcohol, the shape of the tag can be maintained for a long time.”

Kim has worked on anticounterfeit measures ranging from cyberphysical watermarks to tags made of fluorescent silk proteins. The tags have a code that a consumer or patient can activate with a smartphone to confirm authenticity of a product. The code on the fluorescent silk tag is the equivalent of a barcode or QR code and is not visible to the naked eye. The tags are also edible, causing no issues if a person swallowed it while downing a shot of whiskey. The tags have not affected the taste of the whiskey. Kim and Jungwoo Leem, a postdoctoral research associate, said making the tags involves processing fluorescent silk cocoons from specialized silkworms to create a biopolymer, which can be formed into a variety of patterns to

encode the information. “Alcohol spirts are vulnerable to counterfeiting. There are a lot of fake whiskeys being sold,” said Leem, referencing other studies mentioned in the journal article about the economic cost and loss of purchasing fake alcoholic spirits, including how 18 percent of adults in the United Kingdom experienced purchasing counterfeit alcoholic spirits. “Counterfeit items, such as medicines and alcohol, are big issues around the world. There are numerous examples of large amounts of fake medications sold throughout the world, which, in some instances, kill people,” said Kim. “Online pharmacies sell controlled substances to teens. People can buy counterfeit opioids easily. This work is extremely important for patients and buyers in addressing this issue,” Kim said. “If you have this technology on or in your medicines, you can use your smartphone to authenticate. We want to empower patients to be aware of this issue. We want to work with pharmaceutical companies and alcohol producers to help them address this issue.” Kim and Leem placed tags in various brands and price points of whiskey (80 proof, 40% alcohol per volume) over a 10-month period and were able to continually activate the tags and codes with a smartphone app. One of the ways of bringing this issue to light is to literally shine a light on the tags. The team developed ways and methods for the tags to be activated by smartphones in a variety of light settings.

Jungwoo Leem (l) and Young Kim are part of a global research team that has developed an edible QR code on a tag made of silk which could help consumers detect fake whiskey Photo credit: Purdue University photo/John Underwood

HARD SELTZER OPPORTUNITY

IS IT WORTH ADDING A HARD SELTZER OFFERING TO THE DRINKS YOU PRODUCE, ESPECIALLY IF YOUR DISTILLERY IS ALREADY MAKING RTD COCKTAILS? HERE, DR CHRIS COLBY FROM FIRST KEY CONSULTING, TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SECTOR’S GROWTH, AND OFFERS A WEALTH OF ADVICE ON THE PRODUCTION OF THIS POPULAR BEVERAGE.

Packaged hard seltzers continued to show strong sales through 2020, and their sales are predicted to continue to grow in the next several years. In addition to numerous craft production breweries, many establishments are also brewing and serving hard seltzers to boost their bottom line. Tap accounts are also opening up at bars and restaurants. Venues such as brewpubs have many options when it comes to serving hard seltzers. These may increase customer satisfaction and drive return visits.

Packaged hard seltzers are brewed by fermenting a high gravity sugar wash. Later, this fermented sugar wash is diluted and cleaned up — most often by filtering through activated carbon. Then, the flavouring is added. The flavouring may be accompanied by an addition of sugar or acid. The flavouring may also contain preservatives. Brewpubs have the option of fermenting the beverage at working strength. Most are not set up for high gravity brewing and a working strength fermentation should yield a “blank” seltzer that requires less clean-up.

A brewer or distiller taking this option could also opt to add the flavours when the sugar wash is mixed, prior to fermentation, saving a step. Depending on the flavouring, this may add nutrients to the sugar wash, and therefore require a smaller yeast nutrient addition. However, the fermentation would need to yield an acceptably clear beverage, as carbon filtration would remove any flavouring present during the fermentation. Additionally, fermentation may remove or lessen flavours from the beverage. Also complicating matters is the fact that many flavourings contain alcohol, and this would have to take into consideration — both in terms of how the final alcohol content of the beverage is impacted and if the brewery can legally do this.

Before attempting a full-sized batch using this method, the brewer should have at least one successful small-scale test fermentation. Another approach would be to brew an unflavoured base beverage. If the venue makes a “blank” hard seltzer, this will allow the beverage to be cleaned up by fining or filtration. And the flavouring could be added at the bar. A single serving tank of clear, flavourless hard seltzer could yield a variety of flavours at the bar.

The simplest approach would be to concoct one or more mixtures of flavouring, sugar, and acid. A measured amount of the flavouring mix added to the blank hard seltzer would yield a flavoured hard seltzer. If fresh fruit juice — as opposed to fruit extract — is used as the basis for the flavouring, the particulates in the juice could mask small amounts of haze in the blank hard seltzer. Fresh fruit juice — or any flavouring that isn’t an artificial flavour — could also appeal to customers who desire natural ingredients. In that case, any slight haze in the beverage becomes a feature, not a bug. Adding juice to the blank seltzer at the bar would likely appeal to many. However, because of the sugar content, juice should not be added to kegs, growlers, or crowlers. This would also apply to any flavouring that contained sugar.

Informal studies have shown customers prefer a sweeter, more flavourful beverage in a blind taste test. However, when selecting hard seltzers at a store, the calorie count becomes the major determining factor. If a blank seltzer is flavoured at the bar, the calorie count will not appear on the glass. Thus, an establishment could produce a more flavourful (and sweet) version of the beverage, if desired. A brewpub would also have the option of offering sweet or “unsweet” versions of the beverage. These venues should consider how many options — different flavours and perhaps levels of sweetness — to offer. In some ways, more are better, but too many could slow down the bartenders and waitstaff. An excessive number of choices may also bewilder customers.

A venue such as a brewpub could treat their seltzer flavours in a similar manner to the types of beer they offer — offer a core number of year-round flavours, perhaps with an option to sweeten each, and a rotating flavour of the month or season. If the region is known for any agricultural product that could be used to flavour a hard seltzer, that would be a good option for one of the offerings.

Flavourings in a hard seltzer will taint the serving lines. Another advantage of pushing a blank hard seltzer is that it won’t flavour tap lines, allowing the brewpub to switch from seltzer to beer, if needed. Establishments that wish to serve hard seltzers as similar to canned seltzers as possible may need to rebalance

one or more lines of their draft system to dispense a more highly carbonated beverage. Hard seltzers are generally carbonated to around 2.8 volumes of CO2, whereas typical craft beer is served at 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2.

In order to serve seltzer carbonated to a higher degree, the length of the tap line (or vertical distance traversed) will have to be increased. Installing a tap line with smaller interior diameter (ID) tubing will also work. Unless the brewpub has reason to believe sales of their hard seltzer will be strong, dispensing hard seltzer at normal beer levels of carbonation would save the hassle. Finally, the glassware used for hard seltzer should be something other than a shaker pint. Although there is no “official” glassware for a hard seltzer, a straightsided glass is what most hard seltzer advertisements feature.

The brewpub additionally has the option to serve the drink over ice or to garnish it with a wedge of citrus fruit or a cocktail skewer of cherries and orange (or any other combination that makes sense). Serving the seltzer over ice will, of course, dilute the alcohol content. Depending on how sensitive the brewpubs customers are to that, it may make sense to dispense a higher alcohol version of the beverage that becomes a 4–5% ABV drink when the ice melts. Ten fluid ounces of a 6% ABV seltzer and 2.0 oz. of ice yields a 12-oz. serving at 5% ABV. Any flavouring will, of course, also dilute the alcoholic content, so — in order to serve a 5% ABV seltzer — the brewpub would need 10 fl. oz. of 6% ABV seltzer and the total volume of the flavouring and ice together would need to total 2 fl. oz.

For a general solution for any alcohol content and drink volume, use the equation CV = CV (concentration times volume equals concentration times volume). For example, to produce 16 fl. oz. of 4% ABV seltzer from a 5.5% ABV blank seltzer, you would set up the equation like this: CV = CV = 4 (%ABV) X 16 (fl. oz.) = 5.5 (%ABV) X V (fl. oz.)

Solving for V yields 11.6 — so the drink would require 11.6 fl. oz. of the 5.5% seltzer and the remaining 4.4 fl. oz. would be filled by ice and flavouring.

Of course, you wouldn’t want the bartender to have to do these calculations each time a drink is served. The calculation would be made beforehand, and a generic mix proscribed — i.e., add this amount of blank seltzer to the glass plus this much flavouring, then fill with ice (or soft seltzer). And note that the flavouring may also contain alcohol.

If the bartender mixes the drink at the bar, or adds garnish, a brewery taproom more closely resembles a traditional bar in this respect — and this is something that may appeal to some customers. Bartenders may also see an increase in their tips if customers perceived they are doing more than just pulling a tap.

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