Wet your whistle with Beefeater

The drinks world has been inundated with new products over the last few years, nowhere more so than in the flavoured vodka market. All of the major international brands have launched flavour variants, and the white spirits market has grown substantially as a result.

But what of gin, the perennial underachiever of the white spirits category and a product, which in some markets at least, has a somewhat stuffier image than its more youth-orientated rivals, vodka and tequila?

Well, it too is about to get its own 'flavoured' variant with the launch later today of a new product, Wet by Beefeater, in the US market. The new brand is the brainchild of the UK's Allied Domecq, whose Beefeater brand is one of the biggest sellers in the gin sector.

Details about the product are being closely guarded until it is officially launched in the US, but in a telephone interview with Food and Drink Europe.com​, an AD spokesman in the UK did shed some light.

The drink is not being described as a 'flavoured' gin, not least because this comparison with flavoured vodka does not hold water. Whereas vodka to all intents and purposes is a flavourless spirit to which a fruit flavour can be added relatively easily, Beefeater and other gins are far more flavoursome to begin with, infused as they are with juniper berries and other botanicals such as coriander seeds, orange and lemon peel and Angelica root.

So Wet by Beefeater is in fact a pear-infused gin, made presumably in the same way as traditional Beefeater but with the addition of pear to the dozen or so botanicals which give it its flavour.

Pear is not a flavour which is commonly seen in the vodka market, to say nothing of gin, but it was not chosen at random by Allied. In fact, it was the flavour of choice of a wide range of 'mixologists' and consumers questioned by the Bristol-based company before the launch the brand. While the core audience is likely to be barmen and cocktail aficionados, the brand can equally be drunk on its own or on the rocks, AD said.

Nor was the decision to focus on the US for the launch of the drink a random choice either. The US is one of the main markets for the flagship Beefeater brand, but like all 'standard' gins, it has struggled to lift sales there in recent years. All of the growth in the US gin market has been at the premium end - brands such as Tanqueray, produced by arch rival Diageo - and Wet is seen as AD's way of making a major inroad into that fast-growing segment but with a product which stands out from the crowd.

The brand will also be positioned at a higher price point than the main Beefeater brand, and its premium positioning will also be reflected in the marketing activities behind the brand, although AD refused to give any more details about what these would be.

The company was cagy about future plans for Wet in terms of distribution in other countries or the development of other flavour variants, although it did say that it would surprising if Wet by Beefeater were not to found in markets in Europe and Asia by the end of next year.

Spain is likely to be a leading contender for the European launch of the brand - the new bottle design for the main Beefeater brand was unveiled in Madrid last year - as the country is one of the most important markets for the core brand. In Spain, consumers do not so much ask for a gin and tonic as a Beefeater and tonic.

But the company did hint that there would undoubtedly be more new products from the AD stable in 2003, following the various new launches already seen in 2002. These include Tia Lusso, a cream version of the Tia Maria liqueur, a number of RTD products such as Stolichnaya Citrona and Sauza Diabolo in the US, and now the gin extension.

The AD spokesman said that the decision to keep the Beefeater name and design for the new product reflected not only the importance of that brand but also the pride that the company has in it. While the Beefeater name and imagery will be retained, the traditional square bottle design will not be kept for Wet.