A new ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage could be joining the ever popular White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade in the Mark Anthony Brands family. In recent filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office the beverage alcohol company has indicated an intent to use two new trademarks, both for cocktails containing distilled blue agave spirits.

The trademark application for the tequila-based beverages identifies the hopeful new products as “Dia d’Oro” and “Santagave.” Dia d’Oro loosely translates as “Golden Day,” which is, perhaps, a nod to tequila’s golden hue. Santagave is a possible play on the name “Saint Agave.”

Mark Anthony Brands already knows a thing or two about blue agave, the Mexican plant that acts as the main ingredient in tequila. In addition to White Claw hard seltzer and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, the Canadian company is also home to Cayman Jack, a line of premium, premixed cocktails featuring four varieties including Moscow Mule, Cuban Mojito, Paloma, and Margarita. The Paloma and Margarita cocktails both feature pure blue agave nectar from Jalisco, Mexico.

Even though the beverages contain blue agave nectar, which gives them a tequila-adjacent flavor, they are not technically tequila-based. The entire Cayman Jack line of products, including its Paloma and Margarita drinks, are made with malt liquor.

Using agave nectar in malt-based RTD offerings is a popular way to avoid the added production costs and distribution regulations associated with utilizing real spirits. Many popular brands such as Travis Scott’s Cacti, which outpaced some of the biggest hard seltzers on the market including White Claw in its first weeks on shelves, also feature blue agave but do not contain real tequila.

However, the recent shift towards premiumization in the market has resulted in companies beginning to produce more real spirits-based canned cocktails and beverages in an effort to produce bartender quality RTD cocktails. Now, it appears as though Mark Anthony Brands will be entering the premium world of spirits-based RTD products.

It is worth noting that although Dia d’Oro and Santagave would be the company’s first RTD products featuring real spirits in the US, Mark Anthony is already using real spirits in the Canadian version of its most popular beverage. Unlike the malt version distributed in the US, Canadian White Claw contains real vodka everywhere in its home country except in Quebec where, due to restrictions, the beverage still contains a malt base.

Much like in Quebec, the decision to use a malt-base in the US was likely due to distribution restrictions. Mark Anthony’s founder and CEO, Anthony von Mandl, called the restrictions in Quebec “quite appalling.” Even without the vodka, White Claw remains the #1 hard seltzer by market share in the US, consistently controlling upwards of half the market.

Mark Anthony Brands currently produces a wide array of Canadian Whisky, Irish Whiskey and Gin via its Bearface and Glendalough distilleries, but as of right now the company does not distill a tequila. We wonder if the company’s new cocktails will inspire a tequila brand as well.

We are excited to learn more about Dia d’Oro and Santagave as details emerge. Initial attempts to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful.  Based on the success of Mark Anthony’s White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, we have high hopes for the new agave-based beverages.

Shirani Jayasuriya
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