Flying Embers, a Ojai, California-based hard kombucha and hard seltzer-maker, continues to explore “fourth category” beverage alcohol. Its newest offering: cocktail-inspired ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.
Today, the company announced two RTD lines: Sparkling Margarita (available in Classic Lime, Blood Orange Pomegranate and Strawberry Guava, each 10% ABV) and SparklingMojito (Lime, Watermelon and Mango, each 8% ABV).
The RTDs are aged in tequila and rum barrels without “extra mixers, fillers, syrups [and] colors,” Liz Tomic, Flying Embers chief strategy officer and general manager, told Brewbound.
“We can take all the classic ingredients of a cocktail and kind of transform them,” Tomic said. “[It] felt like the best way to still deliver on our naturally sugar-free, carb-free proposition and still be really full flavor, really bold.”
The RTDs will be available in two variety 12 oz. 6-packs – Sparkling Margarita Variety Pack and Sparkling Mojito Variety Pack – with a suggested price of $11.99. The offering will launch in select off-premise retailers in Flying Embers core markets: California, Texas, Colorado and North Carolina.
While the beverage uses a sugar-based alcohol, the company also uses a “proprietary” fermentation process to create the ABV, which Tomic said would place the RTD under flavored malt beverages (FMBs), but with “no malt used.” The base allows Flying Embers to “leverage” its “existing relationships” with wholesalers and retailers, by distributing through beer distributors, Tomic said.
To stand out in an increasingly crowded segment, Flying Embers sees its cocktails as speaking to a “premium, adventurous, organic, mindful shopper,” in search of something with “authentic style” and “authentic flavor,” Tomic said. Capitalizing on the fermentation and flavor knowledge the company had from its hard kombucha offerings felt like a natural step.
Flying Embers CEO Bill Moses hinted at exploring the RTD segment during a conversation with Brewbound in January, following the company closing a $20 million funding round, led by Beam Suntory. While the company has been keeping an eye on the growing RTD category since it began to rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, Moses told Brewbound this week that the “go time” moment happened about six months ago. The speed to market, along with a “superior quality product,” is what’s needed for a “new innovative company” to be able to “compete against legacy brands,” he continued.
Exploring different segments and “unique beverages” within bev-alc was always the plan for Flying Embers, which was originally workshopped with its parent company’s name, Fermented Sciences, Moses said. While launched as a hard kombucha producer, Moses said he told initial community investors that hard kombucha “would not be the No. 1 selling category” within five years.
“I’ve always had a vision of [Flying Embers] being a platform,” Moses said. “[But] I’ve never had any certainty as to what it’s going to be, where it’s going, what’s really going to be the balance of the portfolio.”
The through line of products is a “commitment to being fermentation experts” who offer “full flavor” beverages for “a premium, adventurous, health conscious” consumers, Moses said “is not something that could be standardized.”
The RTD extension doesn’t take away from Flying Embers’ hard kombucha sales either, but rather brings in more consumers.
“We’ve found that certain wholesalers that have been slow to get on board with hard kombucha have gotten on board quickly with the canned cocktails,” Moses said. “In a market [with] a consumer and a wholesaler and even retailer environment where hard kombucha is still something to many of them that is hard to pronounce, getting something that’s more familiar to them to be on shelf and perform will help advance the hard kombucha category and our hard kombucha brand family as well.”
“We learned that with hard seltzers too,” Tomic added. “Someone comes in, they see seltzer, they’re familiar, they see unique flavors, they try it. And then once there’s that connection and trust – that the brand makes things that are delicious and tastes good – it decreases the barrier to try a category that you weren’t otherwise familiar with.”
Expansion of the RTD line will continue mainly in Spring 2023, depending on initial performance. Tomic said there is also “a ton of room in single serve” within grocery and convenience channels that Flying Embers is open to exploring as it continues to “develop [its] portfolio.”