Buena Gave serves summer drinks in a can
If you were to walk into a bar a couple of summers ago and order ranch water, you might have gotten some odd looks. Steve Poirier and the other owners of Buena Gave have been working to change that.
Poirier said that the first year he and his partners in the Manchester-based canned cocktail makers were trying to introduce their canned tequila drinks, their “ranch water” — a common drink across the southern U.S., particularly in Texas — was completely unfamiliar to New England customers.
“We still have ranch dressing conversations all the time,” he said. “Ranch water is obviously a massive thing down in Texas and any of the southern states. The original ranch water recipe is tequila, Topo Chico mineral water, real lime juice, and then salt or no salt, depending on your personal preference.” Now in its third year, Buena Gave Ranch Water is selling well.
“This cocktail is going to continue to boom,” Poirier said, “because tequila is on a rocket ship to the moon right now as a category. People are trying to clean up their drinking right now, and ranch water allows that to happen. It’s basic — no sugar, no sweetness, just back to basic ingredients.”
The Buena Gave team decided to start their own canned cocktail business because they saw an untapped market for simple tequila-based drinks. Poirier and his partners set out to make something different, with clean, easily tasted ingredients.
Poirier said customer demand has also been surprisingly high during the winter. “We see a lot of success with the ski community. We’ve had two great years at Waterville Valley ski resort. It’s the whole convenience factor — lower-calorie, cleaner drinking, cleaner taste, refreshing — that’s definitely becoming more of a thing as we meander through this whole process.”
The decision was made early on to limit the number of Buena Gave products to tequila-based cocktails that are popular in Mexico and the Southwest, near Jalisco, Mexico, where tequila is produced. A strong example of this is Buena Gave’s Cantarito.
“It’s a classic Mexican drink in tequila country,” Poirier said. “You get it at a lot of roadside stands and bars. It’s named after the mug it’s served in — a terracotta mug called a cantarito. It’s grapefruit juice and orange juice, with tequila, some soda water, sugar or no sugar depending on your preference. It’s like a mimosa meets a paloma. It’s super juicy, super citrusy. It’s unique [in this type of product]; the can is close to 28 or 30 percent fruit juice.”
“There are lots of places that just have beer and wine licences and don’t have full liquor licenses,” Poirier said, “and because of our alcohol level [6 percent ABV, or less], we fall into the beer and wine category. [We have customers] who have done really well with our Ranch Water, for instance, because they can’t carry full-proof spirits but they can carry canned cocktails.”
