03/03/21

MOD Announces New Brand, Company Cocktails

Next month, MOD Beverage will launch its newest brand, Company Cocktails, a line of original canned cocktails created by some of the world’s most distinguished bartenders.

Each new release will be designed by a different bartender, with new recipes slated for release every season. The idea is to offer a craft cocktail you’d find at a downtown bar, but accessible enough for people to take with them back home, to a park or to a party (if those ever happen again).

We’re kicking it all off Lucky You, a collaboration with Trevor Kallies, who’s considered one of the godfathers of modern Canadian cocktail culture. He’s the longtime president of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association (CPBA), and the longtime Bar and Beverage Director for the Donnelly Group, making him the perfect bartender to launch Company Cocktails with.

“I was excited about the idea,” Trevor says. “I’ve never had the opportunity to put something of my own creation on store shelves. This can hit such a larger and broader audience. It’s not just one bartender serving one cocktail to one guest. It’s an opportunity to put something delicious and amazing into a can that anyone can enjoy.”

Lucky You is a gin-based cocktail with turmeric, lemon and ginger. The recipe was specifically crafted around turmeric, which gives the cocktail its bright, almost neon yellow colour.

“The whole idea of the cocktail combination came from the idea of a juicer, which usually offer some kind of immune juice shots,” Trevor says, “These are based on some combination of high-level citrus, ginger and turmeric for the health and wellness.

“I thought this could be fun and a little bit cheeky to put it in an alcoholic beverage.”

Trevor Kallies posing with a glass of Lucky You.

Company Cocktails is also a collaboration between MOD and Super Collider, a creative agency founded by Damon Holowchak and Steve Cousins, who have designed all packaging and marketing efforts behind the brand and its upcoming releases.

Damon and Trevor are also old friends, having worked together at Donnelly for over a decade. In developing Company Cocktails, Damon says he saw an opportunity to make craft cocktails accessible to anybody, not just people living in downtown centres or highly urbanized areas.

“Canned cocktails are nothing new, but generally what you can get are more traditional cocktails, like an Old Fashioned or a Negroni. There aren’t many premium, original cocktails on the market,” Damon says.

“We also understand the bartending community enough to know there are extremely talented people out there who have great ideas that would work in this format. We wanted to open this up to the variety of amazing talents out there.”

Partial proceeds of Lucky You sales will go to support the CPBA Relief Fund, which was set up to assist bartenders financially during COVID-19. Cocktail Culture also has two more releases planned for 2021, partnering with two of the most celebrated bartenders in Canada.

Company Cocktails is the first in MOD’s Cocktail Culture lineup of canned cocktails and RTDs.  For more information about Company Cocktails, visit the website and follow @companycocktails on Instagram.