Quick Take
Less than three years since inspiration hit to concoct a better canned cocktail, Nick and Jamie Sanyal are winning awards for their West Peak sparkling spirits and expanding operations from their base in Santa Cruz's Sash Mill.
The market for ready-to-drink cocktails has grown substantially over the past few years, with a 61% increase in sales between 2020 and 2022. The trend gained significant traction during the pandemic, with more consumers looking for the taste of a craft cocktail, with the convenience of a can they can open and drink at home.
For Nick and Jamie Sanyal, that trend sparked an idea for their own line of canned craft cocktails. The pair got the idea for West Peak sparkling spirits in March 2021; by fall 2022, their drinks were officially on the market, and this past summer, they took home two awards from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition for their Buscadero Bay Punch (double gold) and Fathom Falls Cooler (bronze). The beverages contain no added sugar, and have just 2 grams of sugar per can that come from the natural juice concentrates West Peak uses. By contrast, some of the most popular brands of canned cocktails have 24 grams of sugar or more.
The company, headquartered in the Sash Mill in Santa Cruz, recently surpassed 7,000 cases (24 cans per case) sold and this year, it aims to sell 20,000. Including the Sanyals, West Peak now has nine full-time employees in addition to four part-timers in California and Colorado.
Nick Sanyal has drawn on his years of experience in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and natural foods space; Jamie Sanyal was able to put her marketing chops earned from roles at the likes of eBay and PayPal into practice. The pair has also used their personal connections with the surfing community and various nonprofits to build awareness and get more people trying their beverages.
“Being in CPG for so long, I’ve always been drawn to new food and beverage products, primarily in the natural space,” said Nick Sanyal. “I saw the rise of hard seltzers and beer alternatives, and I really wanted to like them. As a beverage geek, I tried everything from White Claw to Truly, everything that was available, but nothing really resonated with me.”
He says he was certain he could make a better product, one that was tasty, with no artificial ingredients or coloring.
“It was quite a while of formulating at the kitchen table and trying all kinds of recipes that mostly turned out badly. … I was trying to juice olives and trying crazy bitters,” he said. “The idea was, ‘Let’s approach this category from the perspective of a complex adult beverage and then make a seltzer-like, lighter offering version of it,’ rather than that kind of one-note flavor, like black cherry and mango, that was out there in the market.”
After months of trial and error, the Sanyals landed on a few flavors they liked and then worked with a team of experts to take their kitchen-table experiments and make them into something they could bring to a bigger market. That included partnering with a producer in Wisconsin to make the beverages.
By November 2022, they had a product they liked and they found a distribution company that could help them get their beverages into stores, starting with one of the Sanyals’ own local favorites, Shopper’s Corner. They started going to various local stores, introducing themselves to the owners or the person in charge of purchasing, and doing in-store demos. Trying to launch a cold beverage during a cold, rainy winter was no easy task, the Sanyals admit.
They also tapped into their connections with the local surfing community, and sponsored the O’Neill Cold Water Classic that fall.
“We were part of their first beer garden that they were able to do to benefit Save the Waves and we started to build the buzz with the local surf community, giving them drinks to try, passing them out and just rolling it out that way,” said Jamie Sanyal. “And any sort of event that needed some support, we were there either in person or donating products to support it and get awareness.”
That grassroots effort expanded down the coast, and West Peak sparkling beverages are now available from San Francisco to San Diego. The company recently expanded into Colorado with around 40 accounts, bringing its total number of accounts (retail stores, bars and restaurants) to around 200, with more on the way. Its product line features four flavors, including the rum-based, ume-plum-tinged Fathom Falls Cooler and the tequila-based Palo Madre Paloma, and additional flavors are in the works.
Also on the near horizon is moving production from the Midwest to the East Bay. All other operations, from research and development to marketing and finance, are done in Santa Cruz.
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