Welcome back to the BevNET spirits newsletter! This week we’re looking at how two vodka companies on opposite ends of the spectrum are dealing with tariffs, and how much of a price increase would make customers ditch their favorite brands.

What insiders are reading: Check out how non-alc aperitif De Soi is going after the on-premise with its new margarita and how the queen of aperitifs, Campari, is now making moves into non-alc. It’s a topsy-turvey world!

Thanks for reading.

-BevNET spirits editor, Ferron Salniker

While some tariffs have been scrapped, spirits companies are still dealing with volatility – and reevaluating anything from pricing to supply chain to expansion. So how have two different vodka companies on the opposite end of the price spectrum navigated choppy waters, and how are they planning to eat the cost of tariffs or raise prices?

According to insights released yesterday from Zappi, 61% of consumers would stop buying their favorite alcohol brands by the time prices rose 10%. Only 15% would stick around at any price. 

That means spirits brands are grappling with how to keep their prices steady – or if they raise them, to see how much they can take things uphill before the boulder rolls back over them. 

Double Cross Vodka, an ultra premium vodka made in Slovakia, is enduring a 10% tariff, but that’s not the only pressing global economic issue for the company. The compounding effects of freight rates, the weakening of the dollar, European VAT taxes, and the exchange rate are long-term concerns for CEO Harry McKaig. To improve cashflow, the company has negotiated new terms with its distillery.

Higher end spirits (Double Cross is $35+) typically have a little more wiggle room as their consumers are less price sensitive –  but on the back of inflation, Double Cross isn’t planning to raise prices. Although McKaig is still watching out to see what major brands do – if Grey Goose, for example, goes up 10%, Double Cross “could be leaving money on the table” by not going higher too.

Meanwhile, before the truce on Chinese tariffs, pressure was on Andrew Friedman, CEO of Industry Spirits, to keep his value spirit prices down while dealing with higher glass and packaging costs. In the case of his Washington-made, well gin, vodka and rum, his previously-planned $2 per bottle price increase would’ve been a major blow to his mainly bar and restaurant customers, and that was still minimizing profit. 

But as we know, craft spirits entrepreneurs have always been scrappy and determined – and according to Friedman many of his peers have taken the opportunity to look at new bottle markets. 

We’ll have more about how each company is strategizing long-term on the site soon.

Like many people cooped up during the pandemic, Washington, D.C. resident Charles Everett spent much of his time on lockdown scrolling social media and building out his bar. But in the case of these quarantine hobbies, Everett’s quest to collect Black-owned spirits and share them on social media has turned into something bigger: the first bev-alc e-commerce site entirely devoted to Black-owned products. Read more.

Are Californians so over tequila? A new report indicates that Californians’ thirst for spirits has declined, fueled by a drop in core tequila volumes, such as blanco and gold. Known as a major market and a trendsetter for agave spirits, Californians are instead going after niche styles, including cristalino and flavoured tequilas, which are holding steady or outpacing the rest of the country’s growth trends. Read the full recap.

Consumers want more beverages delivered to their doorsteps – alcoholic and otherwise – according to a recent survey by food and beverage e-commerce delivery platform DoorDash. Nearly half of respondents (42%) said they are ordering bev-alc for delivery more often in 2025 than they did in 2024. Read more to learn more about how consumers are including NA and THC products in this act of “self care.”

This latest roundup of spring RTD releases includes canned and limited-edition debuts from premium cocktail brand On The Rocks, tropical refreshes from Coca-Cola’s Topo Chico and Simply Spiked, and a hard lemonade launched by RTD powerhouse Spirit of Gallo. Here are a few of the newest cocktails on the shelf.

Leaders from BeatBox Beverages, Boston Beer Company, Atomic Brands, and Columbia Distributing shared where their business is heading during last week’s Beer Marketer’s Insights Spring Conference in Chicago. Brewbound editor Justin Kendall has the recap here.

Only in “periods like the medieval plagues, when the sheer death toll may have been sufficient to reverse the unstoppable forward stagger of alcohol,” has drinking not grown every year, writes David Fickling for Bloomberg. The article takes a look at what happens when a habit goes out of fashion (although, no, we’re not there yet with drinking).