Lunar co-founders Sean Ro and Kevin Wong were a couple drinks in, reminiscing about the “before times” — when COVID-19 hadn’t locked down the country, halting travel — when they thought up their next flavor launch for their up-and-coming hard seltzer brand.
Ro recalled visits to Korea and eating street food. Wong thought back to his trip to Thailand a couple years ago, and the sweet and spicy taste of mango chili salt. Those memories sparked the inspiration for a line of limited-edition seltzers — The Heritage Line — featuring flavors meant to spark memories for other Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
The Heritage line will feature three flavors that pay homage to classic Asian foods: Tamarind & Rice Paddy Herb, Pineapple Cake, and Mango & Chili Salt.
“This is something that’s fairly novel to the American public. It’s something exotic — which can have, at least for the AAPI community, a little bit of a negative connotation — but is so tasty and delicious,” Ro said. “We use that inspiration to show there’s got to be more things in the Asian culture and heritage and food and beverage culture that is lost and buried on that side of the hemisphere that would be really exciting to tell and share with the rest of the world.”
To emphasize the importance of authenticity in flavor, Lunar collaborated with local New York restaurant owners to help with development.
“Even within the Asian American community, we didn’t want to tell a story that wasn’t familiar or that we couldn’t do justice,” Ro said.
Ro, a Korean American, and Wong, a Taiwanese American, wanted to make sure they included people of other Asian heritage with direct links to the flavors they were looking for.
“We wanted to deliberately make sure that we’re not being too East Asian biased,” Ro said. “It’s often easy to forget that [the Asian American community] is not quite a monolith, and even within the AAPI community, there’s a lot of distinct and different cultures as well.”
Tamarind & Rice Paddy Herb was co-developed with first-generation Vietnamese American restaurant owners Kim Hoang and Tuan Bi, who run Di An Di in Brooklyn. The flavor is inspired by the Vietnamese sweet and sour soup canh chua, and tastes like nothing “ever tried in a beverage format, let alone an alcoholic beverage,” according to Ro. To make the flavor, fresh Vietnamese rice paddy herb, or ngo om, is sourced locally in New York, along with natural tamarind paste from India, creating a “tea-like” finish, according to a press release.
Pineapple Cake was co-developed with Eric Sze, the owner of the Taiwanese restaurant 886, who called the collaboration a “no brainer,” having followed Lunar since it’s early days. The flavor is inspired by “one of the most quintessential Taiwanese treats,” according to the chef. The seltzer combines the tartness of pineapple juice, with the aroma of freshly-baked shortbread that “bubbles up the moment you open the can.” The flavor is the first seltzer to feature MSG, adding a salty finish to the drink.
Lunar brought on Vietnamese-American artist Vanessa Nguyen to help with the Mango & Chili Salt flavor, inspired by the fruit carts of Southeast Asia serving fresh green mangoes dipped in chili pepper, salt and sugar. The seltzer uses organic mango puree sourced in the U.S., and organic red chili peppers grown in Thailand.
Fresh ingredient sourcing is at the heart of Lunar’s business model, Ro told Brewbound. Lunar seltzers use ingredients sourced in New York, or shipped from Asia.
“We always say there’s no shortage of fruit ideas or inspirations that we grew up with from Asian cultures,” Ro said. “What there is a shortage of is reliable, economical, or feasible sourcing options.”
The direct sourcing leads to boots-on-the-ground work for Ro and Wong, who run all research-and-development efforts. While developing the tamarind and rice paddy flavor, the pair ran out of rice paddy, and had to explore the city to find the ingredient.
“I literally scoured every Southeast Asian grocery store that we could,” Ro said. “If it was 1995, we would be going down the list of a phonebook. But thankfully it’s 2021, so we went down the list of Google Maps, calling every place, visiting, just to try and find rice paddy.”
Sourcing ingredients can be difficult with language barriers and the wide range of terms that are used for the same foods. And coordinating shipments isn’t any easier, with shipment delays caused by COVID-19, and even a two-month delay on a uzu shipment due to the blockage at the Suez Canal earlier this year.
Ro said the stress is worth it for the quality of their ingredients.
“Food and beverage is such a very subjective but deeply emotional thing to people,” he said. “So that’s something we don’t want to compromise on, strictly from a quality of ingredients standpoint.”
Ro and Wong launched Lunar in 2020 with their first flavor, Yuzu. Despite development setbacks due to COVID-19, Lunar went on to win Brewbound’s 2020 Pitch Slam competition in December. Since that win, Lunar has added two more flavors to its core line — Lychee and Plum — and in March launched an e-commerce operation to reach consumers outside of the New York area. They also expanded distribution to shelves in Virginia, Ro and Wong’s home state.
During Wong’s pitch to Brewbound’s judging panel, he explained the idea of “lunchbox moments” — times when AAPI students feel ashamed by the foods in their lunch boxes that may look or smell different than their classmates’.
“With Lunar, we’re creating what we call a reverse lunchbox moment where people can be proud to be seen drinking our seltzer,” Wong said.
“I think people have a preconceived notion of what to expect when it comes to seltzer, which is aggressively carbonated, clear, mostly uses artificial flavoring, and probably zero sugar,” Ro said. “I think when they give us a try, they see that we’re a little bit different, that we are a little bit elevated, and that we are a little bit more intentional in how we crafted the product together.
“It’s been fairly emotional feedback that we’ve been getting,” he continued, recalling one consumer who tried Lunar seltzer, and immediately started missing her grandparents in Korea. “We didn’t expect that, which is very powerful. And it just goes to show that there is a blank space in the market.”
The Heritage Line will be available throughout the New York area and in local restaurants, including Di an Di and 886. Lunar also plans to sell the line outside of New York through its e-commerce platform.
Ro is anticipating a big summer — with possibly more flavor launches — and estimates that Lunar will produce a minimum of 1,500 barrels overall this year, “on the conservative end.”