SAN DIEGO, Calif.— Newly launched premium spirits brand Club Kokomo Spirits has entered the beverage space with the debut of its first four products, a line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails inspired by its well-known founder’s iconic career. Club Kokomo Spirits is a project by Mike Love, co-founder of The Beach Boys, and Seven Caves Spirits, an award-winning craft rum and gin distillery based in San Diego, California and now a subsidiary to Club Kokomo Spirits.
As part of plans to quickly expand its footprint and products, Club Kokomo Spirits has become majority share owner of Seven Caves Spirits, a highly acclaimed grain-to-glass distillery that specializes in small batch rums and gins. In addition to Love’s active role as founder of the new brand, Seven Caves’ founder and distiller Geoff Longenecker will now act as Head of Distillery Operations for both brands, a role in which he will continually develop high quality products in the ready-to-drink and spirits categories. Club Kokomo Spirits will exclusively use Longenecker’s spirits in its products.
Following months of planning and testing, Club Kokomo launches with four premium RTD cocktails including three rum cocktails and one gin cocktail, all at 10% ABV and inspired by the Kokomo spirit and the song’s strong connection with the tropical islands of the Caribbean. Club Kokomo Spirits is committed to high quality ingredients including natural sugars, flavors and colors; current products are also gluten-free. Club Kokomo Spirits’ debut cocktails include:
- Kokomojito – The drink that started it all, famously coined by Mike Love himself and inspired by Love’s favorite cocktail, the Mojito. This cocktail delivers a smooth blend of lime and mint with subtle hints of lemongrass
- Mystique – A bright rum cocktail featuring tropical flavors of guava and lychee with jasmine tea infused rum
- Afternoon Delight – This combination of citrus, maple, ginger and allspice can be enjoyed cold from the can, over ice or served hot toddy-style for sipping on chilly days
- Excitation – This fresh and crisp gin cocktail has unexpected notes of black cherry, passionfruit and citrus
The concept for Club Kokomo came to life years ago as Love enjoyed a particularly well-made Mojito. He hummed the chorus of his co-authored hit song Kokomo and his penchant for wordplay took over as he uttered the word “Kokomojito.”
“Club Kokomo is an idea that I’ve had in mind for many years,” said Love, who has authored more than 140 songs and eleven Top 10 singles in his more than 60-year career, including some of the most performed songs across pop music such as “Good Vibrations,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Do It Again,” “California Girls” and the incomparable “Kokomo” after which Club Kokomo Spirits was named. “It’s amazing to see the concept finally come to life alongside family and friends, old and new. The song ‘Kokomo’ was number one on the charts when it was released in 1988 and it’s still one of the most popular ‘sing-alongs’ at our concerts today. There is a decades-long recognition of ‘Kokomo’ and we are thrilled to build upon its history with this new chapter in the song’s journey.”
The canned cocktail space has seen a recent surge in popularity. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., premixed cocktails were the fastest growing spirits category in 2021 with sales of premixed cocktails surging 42.3% to $1.6 billion in 2021 compared with a year earlier. Ready-to-drink cocktails were second only to vodka in terms of volume consumption, beating American whiskey, tequila and rum.
Club Kokomo Spirits is available now in multiple retail locations across San Diego and plans to expand to new regional and national markets during 2023. Several additional RTD cocktails are slated to be released throughout the next few months, with Club Kokomo Spirits planning to expand its product offering to include flagship bottled rums in 2023.
