Sabrina Carpenter isn’t the only one capitalizing on the intoxicating allure of an espresso these days.
Two female entrepreneurs from West Vancouver have just released a new canned espresso martini, now selling in BC Liquor Stores across the province.
The enterprising pair say their beverage – 1983 Creamy Espresso Martini – is the only product of its kind to use real cream liqueur.
“I know 70 per cent of Canadians drink their coffee with milk or cream in it,” said co-creator Gabrielle Mustapich. “So I figure, why not their coffee cocktail?”
The drink is packaged in a petite 250 millilitre can, but packs 15-per-cent alcohol by volume. It’s advertised as being bar strength and bar quality, with no mixing required – and currently retails for $6.99 at the BCL.
“I think if [Canadians] are willing to give it a shot and support something local and different … I think they’ll enjoy it,” Mustapich said.
Canned cocktail journey began with boozy freezy venture
It was by happy accident that Mustapich, 30, and business partner Sheereen Price, 40, got into the canned cocktail market.
In fact, the friends’ journey started in 2019 with a fun idea to make a boozy freezy.
“I always joke that it was a little side project that snowballed into a angel-backed venture we ended up taking to the U.S.,” Mustapich said.
While they started making their Hardpops in Alberta, opportunities froze in other Canadian markets. In B.C., the provincial distributor determined that the product could appeal to minors, and wouldn't stock it.
But regulators south of the border were warmer to the idea, and the pair soon had US$800,000 in investor capital, with Hardpops heading to stores in Texas and California. They also sold an official branded Florida Panthers product to hockey fans at Amerant Bank Arena, the only NHL venue with an outdoor section connected to the indoor concourse.
Ultimately, Mustapich and Price wanted to move themselves and their future business plans back to Canada, making something that could be made and sold domestically.
“We thought: Let’s do a canned cocktail, but we want to be unique,” Mustapich said. “We love espresso martinis. We love them with a little splash of cream liqueur, and there was nothing on the market like that.”
They saw creamy coffee products on shelves all the time, and wondered why there were no alcoholic products like that.
“We quickly found out that it’s because it’s very difficult to do,” she said, noting a number of complications to making a shelf-stable beverage with real cream and alcohol.
“But we worked with some of the best food scientists and formulators in the industry because this was really important to us to get right,” Mustapich said.
The business partners said they weren’t going to put out their product if it didn’t hit a few key criteria.
“One was ingredient quality. We wanted it to be bar quality, just like a bartender would make it with no weird fillers or funny ingredients,” Mustapich said. “And two, it obviously had to taste really good.”
Canned cocktail tips hat to famed espresso martini inventor
Following months of testing, they had a beverage they could stake their reputation on, despite it being “very expensive” to make.
They called it 1983, referencing the year the cocktail was invented by late British bartender Dick Bradsell, who famously made the drink first for an unnamed to-be supermodel – or so his story went until he took it to the grave in 2016.
For the branding, Mustapich said they wanted a “nostalgic, retro” colour palate, and ended up using the cover of an old blank VHS cover as the inspiration.
“It had stripes of orange and burgundy and these cream colours on it. I thought, that’s screaming espresso martini to me,” she said.
After launching in BCL stores Aug. 4, Mustapich said they’ve gotten a very positive response.
“Everyone that we talked to in stores is loving it,” she said, adding that the feedback was also strong during their public debut at Harmony Arts Festival in West Van.
While 1983’s launch was exclusive to B.C., the buzzy potion is coming soon to retail in Alberta and Ontario in September.
Mustapich gives props to all their Hardpops enjoyers in the U.S., but said she and Price are happy doing business in Canada.
“Ultimately, this is our home, and this is where we wanted to start from the get go,” she said.
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