Flavored Vodkas Grew by 16 Percent
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FROM SAVORY TO SWEET FLAVOREDON THE VODKA RISE By Laura Holmes Haddad reen tea, blueberry, pomegranate, honey pepper, kiwi fruit. These are just a few of the new vodka flavors showing up on back bars and retail shelves today, and there are many more to follow. G While total vodka sales slowed to 1 percent growth last year, flavored vodkas grew by 16 percent. With over two hundred flavored brands on the market, plain vodka is taking a backseat to its flavor-spiked cousin. Growth in the premium sector is even higher; flavored vodkas represent over 20 percent of the premi- um vodka category. According to The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), in 2000 fla- vored vodkas represented a 6.9 percent share of the vodka category but rose to 12.4 percent in 2005. FLIP FOR FLAVORS The best-selling flavors in the U.S. market are lemon, Kelly Spillane, executive VP of Castle Brands, whose orange, raspberry, and vanilla, according to Adams Beverage portfolio includes a line of Boru flavored vodkas, offers a Group. To make these flavors, distillers add either purchased similar perspective. “Flavored vodkas are what the 21 to 30- flavorings, made with real fruit oils or synthetic blends, or year old consumers are expecting from their beverages. It’s use flavors from fresh ingredients. Some are even infusing changed the drinking landscape,” says Spillane. “When I was their vodkas, a process which saturates the ingredients in an kid it was Pepsi, Coke, and Canada Dry. As these kids, who already distilled vodka. grew up with so many different flavors, become adults, they will demand that from their beverage alcohol choice going forward. Flavored rum, flavored whiskey, liqueurs; you’re The Young Consumers starting to see the beginning of what adults of the future are Why are consumers turning to flavored vodkas? The demo- going to demand and that’s flavor choice.” graphic profile for flavors is pointing to the younger con- The overall cocktail trend of fresh flavors is another sumer. “Flavors seem to be big with the 21 to 35 year old set, factor in the flavored vodka success. As John Higgins, especially the female consumer who doesn’t want a beer, marketing director for Finlandia, points out, beverage but rather a Martini,” says William Eldien, president of consumers want fresh and light. “Look at consumer Nolet Spirits USA, which has one flavored vodka, trends,” he says. “Consumers are going to lighter, Ketel One Citron, in their portfolio. smoother, easier to drink beverages and then look to fla- Martin Silver, president & CEO of Star Industries, vored vodka: it’s clean and naturally flavored. It’s easy to distributors of Georgi Vodka, also attributes vodka’s still- put a natural flavor with the product.” growing success to the younger, more adventurous crowd. “The flavor craze is growing because the younger legal-age consumers are into wildly different flavors and this fuels the growth.” Consumers’ Evolving Palates With flavored vodkas, distillers are giving the younger con- Others note the overall shift in consumer’s palates to higher-qual- sumer what they want. “You’ve got this generation of legal ity beverages. “For the consumer, what tastes good and what does- drinking age customers and they expect flavors, so these flavors n’t is slowly evolving. It’s the same with craft brewing. There’s are not unique; it’s what they’re accustomed to,” says Todd been this huge shift, a shift driven by palate,” says Lance Winters, Nickodym, executive marketing manager at Luxco, importers of distiller at Hangar One Vodka in Alameda, California, who the Pearl brand. And Nickodym notes that flavors aren’t limit- makes seven flavored vodkas. ed to vodkas; he points to flavored rums, tequila, and whiskey With seemingly endless flavors to choose from, distillers are entering the market. taking many factors into consideration when they are approach- “There is a glut of flavored vodkas, but amongst that glut, there are a lot of good ones. It takes a discerning palate to choose the best.” – Duggan McDonnell, Frisson, San Francisco ing new flavors. For Pearl vodka, the sees flavoreds as a permanent fixture in pomegranate flavor came from looking the vodka category. “Because vodka is beyond the traditional spirits market. completely flavorless, you can’t continue “We looked outside the spirits industry in that forever. You’ve got to find something a broader sense and looked at the success that differentiates that,” he notes. “As we POM brand had and decided this flavor grow and become part of a world market would help us meet our objectives,” notes and find more flavors we need new fla- Nickodym. “Five years ago POM was a vors to keep our palates interested. As blip and now it’s close to a $100 million long as there are interesting flavors to business. Pomegranate has gone from a play with it can be sustained.” niche market to mainstream.” Nickodym Absolut recently added a unique fla- also identifies grape and cherry as emerg- vor to its extensive line of flavoreds: ing flavors. Ruby Red. And another recent, innova- At Charbay, based in St. Helena, tive addition from Pernod Ricard: Stoli California, distiller Marko Karakasevic Blueberi, which features the essence of produces six flavors, including their most fresh ripened blueberries. recent launch, raspberry, and a pome- Two new flavored vodkas with a granate releasing in Fall 2006. “I like to kick — and not a part of the fruit cate- say we’re on the pulse of flavor. We’re not gory — is Van Gogh Espresso and a giant corporation so we can react fast; Double Espresso Double Caffeine our only limitation is when the fruit is vodka. Dave Van de Velde of Van Gogh ripe,” remarks Karakasevic. vodka, says, “Espresso and Double For Finlandia, pinpointing the con- Espresso Double Caffeine vodkas pro- sumer palate is always a challenge. “People vide consumers with a better flavor are looking to try exotic new things than a real cup of Espresso. It took sev- and they challenge us to come up eral years of research to develop this with new flavors, to challenge con- perfect espresso flavor formula.” Van sumer’s palates,” says Higgins. Gogh currently has fifteen flavors “Orange and mango are hot fla- in its line. Van de Velde adds, vors; berry is also hot.” Mango is “Our vodkas are unique in the Finlandia’s best-selling flavor. fact that they are all natural Hangar One’s Winters and provide a high quality, notes that the flavor pos- bold taste; all of our flavors sibilities are endless and are intermixable.” Lending Bartenders a Hand kas become garnish on the back bar. They simply While Karakasevic feels the move to flavoreds become baggage.” is coming from the consumer, he notes that it McDonnell incorporates flavored vodkas into also helps the bartender. “If you can make a many of his drinks and notes that creating a cock- pomegranate martini by putting Charbay tail with a flavored vodka has more to do with the pomegranate vodka in a shaker and not having brand than the flavor. “It’s a give and take. It to do anything to it, that’s pretty exciting,” he depends on how good the product is and what says. “When I talked to bartenders in Vegas and the consumer wants. If I have a good product they said, ‘Why are you doing this? It’s our job to mix I will put it into a great drink,” he says. “There flavors’, I told them, ‘I’m helping you out.’” is a glut of flavored vodkas but amongst that glut Georgi Vodka also has a pomegranate flavor in its line. there are a lot of good ones and it takes a discerning And in addition to the current consumer enthusiasm for all palate to choose the best.” things pomegranate, CEO Silver feels there is an added benefit Colleen Duggan, manager of Honey Bistro in Los Angeles, for bartenders as well. “We came out with a pomegranate flavor sees her customers asking for specific brands. “People request fla- last year and we immediately found that it eliminates the need for vored vodkas a lot; Stoli Vanilla is very popular,” she says. “The bartenders to mix. In a crowded bar, when someone orders a palate now is going a little sweeter but more of a purist.” Duggan pomegranate martini, they use our vodka.” Silver also notes that uses flavoreds differently from the infused vodkas. “We are using orange is Georgi’s best-selling flavor. them to accentuate a drink but we use infused vodkas on their own; right now we have one by Modern Spirits.” Honey carries ten different flavors, including chocolate. Creating Cocktails Bartenders often make their own vodka infusions to create cer- Boutique Brands tain flavors but are now turning to flavoreds to create specialty As new flavored products arrive to off-premise outlets, retailers cocktails. Duggan McDonnell, a mixologist who most recently see the category growth in the most direct way. Retailers point to worked at Frisson in San Francisco, saw customer demand for the boutique distillers, who are setting themselves apart from the flavoreds. “People walk up to the bar and say ‘Stoli Raz and tonic’ crowd with hand-crafted, all-natural flavors such as Hangar One’s or ‘vanilla and soda.’ People will call ‘Effen Black Cherry Vanilla Buddha’s Hand Citron and Charbay’s Blood Orange. “There is a and soda’ again and again,” he says. When he’s deciding what to flood of products,” says Mike Ulanday, a sales staff member at Red stock, McDonnell says it’s a matter of how the bar approaches the Carpet Wine & Spirits Merchants in Glendale, California, who cocktail, and views citrus and orange flavors as staples of any bar.