New liqueur brand a blend of bourbon and cinnamon
BACARDI Brown-Forman is targeting what the firm describes as the growing shot category with its latest product, Early Times Fire Eater.
The product, a liqueur that blends hot cinnamon with Early Times bourbon, is aimed at the young adult market and is designed to be consumed neat as a shot.
Speaking to SLTN, Crispin Stephens, American whiskey marketing manager at Bacardi Brown-Forman, said the product is targeted at “high energy nights out, with mixed groups of Millennial consumers”.
He added that the speciality shot market is currently growing at “six times the rate of the spirits category within the on-trade, which is significant”.
“That obviously started with Jagermeister and the Jagerbomb, but lots of other spirits have benefitted – like tequila, like sambuca,” said Stephens.
“The wider shot category has really benefitted. It’s very much a regular part now of that evening with friends.”
The new product is being introduced to select outlets in Scotland, initially focusing on Glasgow and including Stonegate’s Scream and Yates’s pubs as well as selected independent outlets.
“Glasgow is an important part of a very focused plan,” said Stephens.
“We’re not focusing on every single city in the country, we’re focusing on a handful of locations.”
In the off-trade, the brand is being stocked exclusively in Asda for a time, before being rolled out nationally.
The launch is being supported in the on-trade by intensive sampling and promotional activity that includes point of sale material.
Fire Eater has already been introduced in the United States, where it is bottled at 33% ABV. However, the UK bottling is slightly stronger, at 35% ABV.
Speciality shots are growing at six times the rate of spirits in the on-trade.
Stephens said the higher strength “lends credibility and lends flavour”.
And he added that, as with the company’s Jack Daniel’s liqueur, Tennessee Honey, Fire Eater could help to drive interest in the broader American whiskey category.
Tennessee Honey was introduced into the UK in 2012 after a launch in the United States.
“The shape of the bottle is very obviously American whiskey – so it’s very much of the category in terms of what it’s projecting,” he said.
“This, we believe, will help bring a new audience to American whiskey, a little in the same way that Tennessee Honey is doing.”
