Siponey Wants to Redefine, Not Crash, the Canned Cocktail Party

For bar and spirits industry veteran Amanda Victoria, the inspiration to get into the canned cocktail game wasn’t a matter of responding to the pandemic. It was a matter of environmental concerns, quality ingredients and career fulfillment. Victoria is pursuing all three goals with her brand, Siponey (“sip-OWN-ee”—or simply say “sip honey” really fast). The company, which launched in June 2020, is celebrating its anniversary by adding online advertising to its April out-of-home placement in New York's West Village. The OOH ad features the brand’s first two products, Siponey Royale and the cold brew-based Siponey Café. Like the company and its product, the OOH ad is a homegrown, family affair: Victoria, who is CEO of Siponey, designed billboard’s art on a cocktail napkin. She continued to work on it with her horticulturist husband and co-founder/COO, Joseph Mintz, before handing it off to his childhood friend, graphic designer Aaron Leopold, for the final rendering. Siponey’s brand identity is rooted in its founders’ New York ties. While available nationwide, Siponey’s connection to NYC can be traced through the beverages’ ingredients. In addition to natural lemon juice, the ready-to-drink 12-ounce cans each contain four-year-old New York State rye whiskey along with local wildflower honey (the Royale is 7.25% ABV, while the Café clocks in at 5% ABV). Even the brand’s marketing has relied on word-of-mouth largely stemming from relationships Victoria has struck with local bartenders, as well as wine and spirits shop staffs. A career stirred, not shaken Her professional arc has had three acts so far. Victoria’s first act started with a quick rise as a star bartender at the beginning stages of NYC’s craft cocktail boom of the mid-2000s. Stints at such seminal craft cocktail dens PDT and Dutch Kills followed her start at the now-shuttered Pegu Club. The brand’s marketing has relied on word-of-mouth marketing largely stemming from relationships Victoria has struck with local bartenders as well as wine and spirits shops. In her second act, she made the leap from behind the bar to senior marketing positions at such major spirits brands as Lillet at Pernod Ricard and William Grant & Sons, St. Germain (during the acquisition by Bacardi), and Moet Hennessy’s Belvedere Vodka. She’s also served as communications director for The Scotch Malt Whisky Society and as a judge in multiple drinks competitions from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. To top it off, she also founded a wine and spirits education consultancy, Aperitif Hour with clients such as Fever-Tree mixers. Alongside her extensive work history on both sides of the bar, Victoria, who was born in the Bronx and grew up in the Hudson Valley, majored in advertising and marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology before transferring downtown to study French Cinema, language and Media at The New School. With that additional media education in her background during her bartender period, she was ready in 2018 to leave the debilitatingly exhausting and male-dominated (and often toxic) corporate spirits world. Her third act would contain another complicated mix: startup entrepreneur, new parenthood and a global pandemic. The canned cocktail gold rush As Victoria considered starting her own business, hard seltzer brands like White Claw were taking off. Victoria noticed the space had room for products that promised all-natural ingredients in place of “a long list of chemicals no one could pronounce.” “It was motivated by wanting to bring a higher level of quality of canned cocktail into the home,” Victoria said. “I was very angry by what some brands were doing to the consumer. They were offering low quality products and without education of what a great cocktail truly is. The cans were practically telling people, ‘This is a vodka soda’ when in reality they were malt-based. I thought I could have a positive impact on the RTD category.” One of the major drinks to come out of the mid-2000s craft cocktail renaissance was a whiskey sour created by T.J. Siegel at Milk & Honey called The Gold Rush. The bourbon whiskey drink used honey syrup as a sweetener in place of sugar, which is the more typical counterpoint to a sour’s lemon juice. A premium focus This cocktail became a favorite of Victoria’s, particularly as she sought to cut processed sugar out of her diet. And it became the inspiration for Siponey’s products. Ultimately, she believes there are enough consumers who share her views—and taste—of what a canned cocktail should represent. The ideal consumer for Siponey, which sells a four-pack for $19.99, “is someone who is conscious of what they’re putting in their bodies, and is conscious of how things are manufactured,” with the planet’s health also as a major consideration, Victoria said. Her health-conscious, earth-friendly consumer focus may be right on trend—so, too, might her appreciation for high quality food and drink. In a career that can be compared to a complex, yet expertly balanced, mixed drink, Victoria poured her knowledge together with that of her horticulturist husband’s, Joseph Mintz, to create Siponey. A recent Adweek/Morning Consult survey about the category found that consumers aren’t that interested in hard seltzer—just 21% said they’re interested in trying that drink—despite all the attention those products have attracted. The survey found more interest in trying options like canned alcoholic lemonade (39%), iced tea (31%) and other ready-to-drink cocktails (37%) this summer. “We're seeing a lot of whiskey lovers, and then also people new to whiskey coming to try a refreshing beverage, that is a spritz style,” Victoria said. “People that are interested in food and wine and the finer things in life and are ready to trade-up from hard seltzers, because that's the move.” Demographics and sustainability are two other points of departure from many other brands in the category, which tend to skew to those under-30. As part of aiming a little older, Siponey’s brand positioning emphasizes a “premium” sensibility. “Siponey drinks like a glass of brut Champagne,” Victoria said. “We’re on an important environmental mission as part of our DNA to save honeybees one can at a time. We partner with non-profit beekeeping organizations, like Detroit Hives, to donate to teaching the next generation of beekeepers.” As the world reopens In addition to OOH-driven sales, Siponey has also racked up accolades as well. The brand recently won two Gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition for both Siponey Royale and Siponey Café, “which is practically unheard of in the ready-to-drink category,” Victoria said. Those distinctions should help Siponey as the canned cocktail segment is likely to face new challenges as the U.S. transitions from pandemic social distancing and lockdowns to the full re-opening of bars and restaurants. In Victoria’s estimation, the brand’s DTC approach, along with canned cocktails in general, is not a temporary trend. She’s already planning for the long-term. “I have a background in successfully implementing alcohol DTC beginning in 2016,” Victoria said. “DTC was a strong Covid pivot, especially in the uber-competitive RTD category. That said, Siponey will be there as the world reopens.”