As competition in the ready-to-drink (or RTD) category increases, brands are counting on quality ingredients and carefully designed packaging to resonate with consumers and drive sales.
Premixed cocktails were the fastest-growing category for spirits in 2021, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. Helping to spur that surge in popularity is Cardinal Spirits. The Bloomington, Ind.-based craft distillery was founded in 2013, began distribution in 2015 and has been in the ready-to-drink (RTD) market since 2017. The company has focused a fair amount of effort to the RTD space during that time, and it has paid off with a number of well-received product developments.
“There weren’t many pre-canned cocktails in the market yet,” says Cardinal Spirits cofounder Adam Quirk about the company’s first RTD cocktails, “so we saw a lot of good traction in the early days. That segment of our business has grown rapidly—we’re pretty well focused on R&D for it.”