With the help of a superhero movie actor, an inventive canned cocktail brand hopes to take on the established ready-to-drink alcohol category.
Wyatt Russell — star of Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” Disney+ series and upcoming film “Thunderbolts” — and producer Richard Peete debuted Lake Hour sparkling cocktails last year, and expanded its distribution this year. The brand contains 3.4 grams of sugar per can and 109 calories.
Lake Hour cocktails are sold in four varieties: Honeysuckle Ginger, Rosemary Yuzu and Peach Jasmine, made with vodka; and Watermelon Cucumber, containing blanco tequila.
The idea for launching the brand came about when the two co-founders discussed the RTD cocktail space and concluded that many of the drinks tasted “fake” and stale. They wanted to create a better-for-you alternative that could bring the format forward toward consumers who primarily drink beer.
Russell, the son of Hollywood icons Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, said he and Peete lamented that the current offerings in the hard seltzer and cocktails category were not appealing to consumers in their thirties with children.
“They were all overly sugary. You have two of those and you’re blasted or you get a sugar rush,” Russell said. “We thought, ‘there’s got to be a way you can flavor it with something that’s subtle, more like a sparkling cocktail, and still have fun flavors,’ so that’s how we started.”
The ethos of the brand sought to call back to the co-founders’ shared history of growing up visiting lakes on vacations with their families. The branding and packaging evokes nature-themed vintage catalogs and magazines. The products are currently available in select liquor stores and bars, and can also be purchased on the brand’s website.
In order to source their flavors, Peete’s wife helped curate tastes that would go together.
“We didn’t sit down and try to do what most would would like or what there was a market for, we just picked the one we liked the most, knowing we wanted it to be unique,” Peete said. “There were probably ten different iterations of six flavors, and I narrowed it down to our favorite four. There are still a couple that we developed that are sitting there, and we’re excited to make more as well.”
Peete believes the RTD cocktail category is not a fad, but can be built upon as a healthier alternative to beer. According to Russell, continuing to grow its presence in the Northeast and expanding into California, Texas and Florida is the brand’s core focus going forward.
“There’s some fun things we have planned as we enter those states incrementally, not biting off more than we can chew,” Russell said. “You want to focus on keeping the fans you’ve created and pay attention to those territories we’re in now.”
