Lemonati’s Mighty Swell Brands: Redefining Spiked Seltzer and Disrupting RTD

Tiger’s Blood, Purple Magic, Bluepeary, Papaya Punch, Cherryosity…This short list of Mighty Swell’s sixteen Spiked Seltzer and five Spirited flavors sounds more like confections from Willy Wonka’s laboratory than a beverage company portfolio. Featuring only real fruits and ingredients in all of its spiked seltzers and spirits, Mighty Swell’s kooky, innovative flavors are some of the craziest we’ve ever seen.

For instance, Tiger’s Blood includes strawberry, watermelon, and coconut and won Seltzer Nation’s “Best Spiked Seltzer” in 2023. Or Purple Magic, a reference to that childhood grape drink (whatever that means to you! No wrong answer), somehow mysteriously nails the quirky combination of grape, blueberry, and boysenberry.

Last year, the newly formed Lemonati acquired all Mighty Swell brands, including Mighty Swell Spiked Seltzer and Mighty Swell Spirited. With the goal of becoming a Total Beverage portfolio company, Lemonati now produces spiked seltzer and ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails while currently working on two new brands of non-alcoholic beverages.

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

They’ve also had the opportunity to refresh the entire sixteen-flavor Spiked Seltzer line; unleash a new RTD premium cocktail line featuring rum and bourbon; bring all the storage, shipping, and packaging under one roof in the heart of a new 52,000-sq-ft warehouse in Charlotte; and expand their team across key markets.

In a section of alcoholic beverages that has seen its own crests and ebbs, Mighty Swell has managed to stay at the peak of the wave thanks to its dedication to wild flavor combinations and willingness to go where no spiked seltzer and RTD brand has gone before.

Keeping It Weird in Techniflavor Spiked Seltzers

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

“Our taglines … at this point are ‘Blue Sky Drinkers’ and ‘Flavor Pioneers,’” says Lemonati President and Mighty Swell CEO Jeana Harrington. “We don’t want to be derivative. If it’s already made, what sense does it make to make it again?”

That singular thought drives everything at Mighty Swell. Even the Original Variety 12pack has a first-of-its-kind Cherry Lime and Watermelon Mint.

Overall, you’ll find sixteen flavors spread across four different variety packs—Original, TECHNIFLAVOR®, Tropic, and Keep It Weird®.

Concocting Willy Wonka-esque seltzer flavors keeps Mighty Swell’s heads above the rest of the offerings in the proverbial water.

“People think of seltzer as static-flavored water with alcohol in it,” Harrington says. “For us, Mighty Swell is flavor-forward and true-to-fruit. We consider ourselves flavor pioneers, whether making the first Cherry Lime spiked seltzer as we did in 2018 or the innovation we do tomorrow … we are very intentional about what we make and release.”

Case and point, Lemonati’s Director of Brewing & Innovation (who might as well be called the Flavor Captain) Andrea Clodfelter could take over nine months to fully flesh out a recipe.

“We might go through twenty or thirty iterations before we’re happy enough with the prototype to take it to a smaller tasting panel,” explains Clodfelter, always looking for new flavors. “When you have that mentality, anything can become a source of inspiration.”

Clodfelter doesn’t want to rush the process. Sometimes, she’ll work on flavors for years before they come to fruition.

For instance, Bluepeary, a flavor in Mighty Swell’s TECHNIFLAVOR® Variety 12pack that Clodfelter tinkered with for three years before nailing.

“From the very first pack that I started working on at Mighty Swell, I wanted there to be a blueberry, and it just was not working,” says Clodfelter, who tried variation after variation before finally nailing it with a combination of blueberry and pear.

Often, at Mighty Swell, they’re not just looking for any ‘ol flavor but rather for a taste that mimics a memory.

As with many of the flavors in Mighty Swell’s Keep It Weird® variety pack.

Based on nostalgic flavors with an entirely unique spin, the Keep It Weird® Variety Pack includes Purple Magic, Pink Colada, Rocket Pop, and Tiger’s Blood.

Rocket Pop takes inspiration from the red, white, and blue bomb-shaped popsicles many of us probably remember from childhood.
Similarly, Tiger’s Blood is based on a popular snow cone flavor often found in Texas, and Pink Colada is a classic piña colada flavor made weird by Costa Rican pink pineapples.
And Purple Magic is essentially an elevated grape soda.
Clodfelter calls Purple Magic one of the most interesting flavors she’s developed at Mighty Swell.

“I’ve got a lot of love for that one,” she says. “Especially because it almost didn’t make the pack.”

Now, Clodfelter thinks Purple Magic perfectly represents Mighty Swell because it’s not just about the flavor but a specific, personal drink memory. This Proustian approach rings true for so many different people.

“On its face, it just seems like the nostalgic Concord grape profile that we all recognize as the ‘purple’ flavor from childhood,” she says. “But we’ve underpinned that flavor profile with other fruit flavors to make something more sophisticated and mixable for adults. I also think it’s more purple-y tasting than just grape, and that’s an interesting place for a flavor to live when the sum of components is both nostalgic and something new.”

For Clodfelter, a lifelong Southerner, grape reminds her of popsicles and candy. “It didn’t matter whether it was a high-end popsicle brand or the cheap ones you push up… Pixie Sticks, too,” she reminisces. “I always wanted the purple flavor.”

On the other hand, Harrington grew up all over the country, from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest to the South. “I was a sports kid, just getting whatever sugar water we could in the ‘80s and ‘90s after T-ball, softball, or soccer,” she recalls. “That was either Shasta Grape or Crush Grape.”

Lemonati’s Kadeeja Janneh remembers spending time at her grandma’s house. “I had a Kool-Aid-guy purple cup, and I always had grape juice in it. … So it was very nostalgic for me.”

Now fellow Southerners, Clodfelter and Harrington agreed on the name “Purple Magic,” a nod to the Tennessee favorite, hip hop group Three 6 Mafia.

Similarly, a new flavor in the Tropic Variety 12pack—Papaya Punch (which has now replaced Grapefruit)—invokes childhood but with an elevated, adult twist.

“When papaya came up, it just jogged memories,” explains Harrington. “It’s not like your store-bought Hawaiian Punch. … You’ve got the guava, Cara Cara orange, and cherry; it’s just delicious.”

Clodfelter continues, “It’s another one that has both the nostalgia and the elevation.”

But Mighty Swell’s magic doesn’t just come from capturing a moment inside the can.

Drinking With Your Eyes First

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

Capturing a moment inside a can that’s magic.

Capturing a moment outside of a can that’s art.

Even before Lemonati acquired the brand last June, Mighty Swell had started a rebrand, moving away from white packaging to a fully immersive, colorful experience.

“I wanted the innovation on the cans to match the flavor you’re drinking,” says Harrington, and the vision for Mighty Swell’s cartons is that of the ‘80s and ’90s “cereal box”

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

Each of the six sides of each series’ carton contains something: a vending machine-style side with a large can of each flavor; a stylized side featuring inventions that include a television and a hyperrealistic aquarium; a standard top side for chain cold box sets with a large logo, theme, and slogan for each pack; a side with the pack’s story and a large QR code that directs to the new website; a classic can/flavor layout side; and an NFP/ingredient side.

“There are no word searches or crossword puzzles, and we don’t include prizes,” laughs Harrington. “[But] I think the customer deserves something innovative and special. Brands that copy and paste their white cans and logo on every side of a white box and their point of sale aren’t bringing new consumers or excitement to this category.”

While each flavor variety pack stands out on its own, TECHNIFLAVOR®, in particular, perfectly complements the spiked seltzer brand’s playful design.

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

Packaged to look like a box TV set, TECHNIFLAVOR® cleverly uses the colors of the flavors inside to mimic the “Please Stand By” screen familiar to anyone who grew up watching television in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and even early ‘90s.

She says she came up with the idea after tasting the variety pack’s Cantaloupe, describing the flavor as “definitely high-def” and “so bright and happy” that it made her think of the emergence of Technicolor television, along with Hanna Barbera cartoons

Harrington even researched a scratch-and-sniff TECHNIFLAVOR® shelf talker to add to the packaging, but she couldn’t find accurate-smelling fruits to illustrate the flavors inside.

Each pack brilliantly stands on its own, but almost in a Pokémon Gotta-Catch-‘Em-All fashion, you want to collect each of the brand’s distinct designs.

Whether it’s the Keep It Weird® purple and red tiger-striped beauty or the hyperrealistic photography on the Tropic Pack’s aquarium.

Harrington says even the cans inside the Original pack now pop a bit more with the Watermelon Mint flavor housed inside a bright green and deep pink can.

“I want you to know exactly what you’re getting,” says Harrington. “Whether it’s a more standard classic like the Original or crazy like a kiwi-honeydew TV-inspired pack.”

From Spiked Seltzers to Spirits: Not Your Yo Ho Ho-Hum Rum

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

When Mighty Swell expanded from spiked seltzers into the RTD segment, they approached the new project with the same goal of flavor innovation.

“We don’t make products just to make products,” Harrington reemphasizes. “We look at categories and subcategories that are ripe for innovation.”

One space they saw an opportunity?

Rum.

And, of course, not just your ho-hum rum.

“If you look at the rum space, it’s Mojito, Piña Colada, Bahama Mama, right?” says Harrington, noting all the current products she found looked the same—ocean blue and orange packaging. “There isn’t a sessionable, healthy, modern take on rum cocktails.”

On the other hand, if you look at the vodka and tequila space, they’re packed with heavy hitters. “We could struggle in that space,” admits Harrington. “[But with rum] we have an opportunity not only with the flavors to do something different but also to innovate from a packaging front where it’s really going to stand out.”

Mighty Swell’s Spirited line, the first 8-pack variety pack called Spirited Ready to Disco™ (get the play on “RTD”?), offers four flavors: Pineapple, Peach & Cherry; Tangerine Pomegranate; Passionfruit Papaya; and Strawberry Lemon.

The latter a flavor Harrington and Clodfelter had booked for over three years. “I wanted more Meyer lemon,” says Clodfelter, “and [Jeana] wanted more jammy strawberry. How could we make the most of both things?”

After much tinkering, Clodfelter, a self-proclaimed rum lover, made a version that scored very highly in Mighty Swell’s tasting panels.

“We’re very harsh [testers] on all the flavors,” explains Harrington. “If it gets above an eight, it’s worth tweaking and looking at. Strawberry Lemon started at an 8.5. Tt’s not zany, but no one in rum is using it, and it’s a crowd-pleaser for sure!”

To differentiate its RTD line from the spiked seltzers, Mighty Swell packages these beverages in standard cans (as opposed to the hard seltzer’s sleek format) and amps up the ABV.

Although not to the point where you’d pass out on the dance floor. At 5.5% ABV, these rum-based beverages actually stay pretty sessionable.

Next up in this line, Mighty Swell plans to release a flavor called Cherryosity™ around the holidays.

“It’s cherry and spice, a high rye bourbon, and a touch of brown sugar,” says Harrington. “We’re calling it a New Fashioned because it’s not quite an Old Fashioned.” Harrington and Clodfelter sourced Non-GMO bourbon barrels with a specific mash bill for this project, something few to no one else is doing. Cherryosity will roll out in 6 packs and a higher 5.9% ABV.

Building a Grammy-Winning Album for the Future

Photography courtesy of Lemonati

Whether you’re a fan of elevated grape sodas or classic strawberry lemonade, Mighty Swell has something for you across its spiked seltzers and spirits.

With each real-fruit-derived flavor and sessionable ABV, you’ll escape hard-beverage boredom, diving into new seltzer discoveries and getting your tastebuds dancing with nostalgic moments. All Mighty Swell products are also Certified gluten-free, OU Kosher, and made with real juice vs artificial sweeteners.

After crafting a twenty-one-flavor off-kilter brand, Harrington likens her team’s job as flavor pioneers to building an album. You can’t just drop one flavor and call it a day. You constantly need to find something fresh and catchy to grab people.

“This category will only be interesting and continue to grow, bringing in new drinkers and keeping existing drinkers, if people are more innovative and exciting,” she says. “That’s really what we’re trying to do.”

Ready to Ride the Mighty Swell?

You can find Mighty Swell in twenty-five US markets, Puerto Rico and six foreign countries, so track down a brand near you here.

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