Cream liqueurs have spent decades typecast as the supporting act of the drinks world. The splash that rounds out a cocktail. The bottle you reach for last. But that perception is shifting, and cream liqueurs are a big reason why.
On episode 43 of The Spirits Business Podcast, host and editor-in-chief Melita Kiely sat down with Matthew J Benny, our chief commercial officer for the Americas, to talk about how cream liqueurs earned their place as one of the more interesting corners of the spirits industry, and what brands can do about it.
You should really hear the whole conversation (links at the bottom), but here are a few moments that stuck with us.
A liqueur doesn’t have to be an ingredient
Early in the episode, Melita asks Matthew about the category’s biggest misconceptions. His answer gets at something we run into all the time.
“The general perception historically has been that they’re used in cocktails to enhance flavor, or as ingredients in something else,” Matthew says. “But that being said, I think a lot of them have their own unique characteristics and can be drank on their own.”
Cream is a case in point. Unlike most liqueurs, “it’s generally consumed as itself.” No mixing required.
Cream liqueur is harder to make than you think
Pour heavy cream into vodka and you’ll see the problem immediately: it curdles. Alcohol and cream don’t want to mix, so every cream liqueur is really an emulsion, which is the combining of two liquids that are immiscible (or in less less technical terms, do not naturally mix) bound into one stable liquid that has to stay that way for years.
“It’s definitely not a simple process. It takes specialized equipment,” Matthew explains. “It’s very much a science… at the same time, there’s some art form to it. And we’ve been doing this for 40 years.”
Stability comes before everything else: “That’s our number one priority, always. Is the product going to be physically stable for at least a year, if not longer? Nothing we do is less than that.”
Where the growth is coming from
The trends portion of the conversation covers a lot of ground. A few takeaways:
Tequila cream. “Over the past five to seven years, tequila has just become more and more popular,” Matthew notes. And drinkers are getting more adventurous with it. “If someone’s not interested in drinking a high-proof tequila, maybe a tequila cream is something that still [gives] you the taste of tequila, but it’s a little bit more sessionable.”
The whiskey surplus. Bourbon inventories are running high across the industry, and Matthew sees an opening there: “Put your bourbon into a cream liqueur and you just entered a different segment that’s not as crowded.”
Wine and malt bases. These carry a tax advantage in the US, but the bigger prize is distribution. “Depending on the state you’re in, you can put your product in grocery and convenience stores, whereas a spirits product you wouldn’t be able to.”
Flavor and format experimentation. Hybrid flavors like sweet-and-spicy (and yes, “swalty”), smaller formats, RTD innovation, lower ABV. Much of it driven by Gen Z’s appetite for trying new things.
Why we’ll never compete with our customers
Matthew also talks about the question we get asked a lot: would Creamy Creation ever launch its own brand? It has come up internally over the years, and the answer is always the same.
“Every time it’s a pretty quick decision. We don’t want to compete with our customers. We want to make our customers more successful.”
That focus is the whole point of working with a B2B cream liqueur developer and manufacturer. For entrepreneurs and smaller companies without in-house marketing or R&D, “that’s typically where we shine, because we have those experts within our team,” Matthew says. Trend data, flavor insight, and ready-to-bottle development from our teams in the Netherlands and the US. In some cases we’ve taken a customer’s idea from concept to market in nine months.
His advice if you’re building a cream liqueur brand
Toward the end of the episode, Melita asks what Matthew would tell someone creating their own liqueur or RTD. He’s seen great-tasting products fail without a go-to-market plan, and well-funded products fail because the liquid wasn’t good. You need both, and you need a point of difference: “It’s got to be a little bit different. It’s got to have a marketing story behind it, and it’s got to taste good.”
The good news for anyone eyeing the category? “The cream liqueur category still has room in it. It’s not like other categories where there’s 52 brands on the shelves.”
Go listen to the full episode
There’s plenty we haven’t covered here. Matthew and Melita also get into whether cream is really just a winter drink, the on-premise opportunity most brands are ignoring, what bartenders actually need from cream liqueurs, plant-based and oat-based innovation, his industry outlook for the next 12 months, and a first look at our upcoming frozen cream liqueur line, which brings higher-ABV slushy and boozy ice cream formats to market.
Listen to episode 43, “Creamy Creation: how cream liqueurs became a standout spirits category”:
- Listen free on Acast
- Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music — search “The Spirits Business Podcast”
Curious what a cream liqueur could do for your brand? Request a sample and taste it for yourself.
