SELFIDENTIFYING DRINKS

Diversification Is The Newest Category To Hit Drinks

The tried-and-true formula of being a specialist and sticking to what you know is no more. To truly stand out in this world of fast-paced innovation, it seems that tearing up the rule book is the way to go. As brands step outside of their traditional categories to create new liquids, we ask why diversified portfolios are becoming the ambition of some of the biggest brands.

Reputation and quality are everything in a drinks market that is becoming increasingly premium. Heritage and provenance then have therefore traditionally been the calling cards for some of the biggest drinks brands in the world when it comes to asserting their credentials. Essentially, tapping into a rich, storied brand history and referencing the years of acquired expertise and specialisms that you as a brand have acquired, have long been the go-to method used by brands to assert that they’re the best. You should trust them.

Yeah, nah. Now the market has moved on. From gin makers flipping to make vodka and whisky, liqueur makers now making gin and whisky makers inventing and producing entirely new liquids, the latest trend is to step entirely outside of what you know and switch categories.

Right now, brands are making surprising moves. Amaro brand Stambecco's latest NPD is new Tiramisu flavour. The launch isn’t entirely out of leftfield, hailing from Torino which is said to be the Italian capital of coffee. And as previously mentioned in Liquid Thinking, Monkey Shoulder tore up the rule book entirely earlier this summer with the launch of Fresh Monkey, creating a new style of spirit made from a mix of two new make grain spirits and one Speyside malt spirit. Its aim was to straddle the line between a rum and a Scotch, taking the brand more into the cocktail moment with an easily mixable liquid.

And what comes to mind when you think of the cream liqueur brand Amarula? I bet you it’s not gin. But that’s exactly its new direction. Launched under the tagline ‘When was the last time you tasted something for the first time?’, the Distell brand keeps the core brand’s DNA by using the indigenous subSaharan African marula fruit to make its base spirit.