The Category is Loaded With Flavor, Color and Profitability

    Perhaps never in the history of flavored alcohol has the launch of a single fruit flavor had so much influence on the evolution and growth of a spirit.
    Before DeKuyper introduced Peachtree (Peach) Schnapps back in the era of Disco, schnapps still pretty much belonged to Europe and to Germany in particular and to a generation of consumers who enjoyed it primarily as an after-dinner drink or as a beer or whiskey chaser. From Prohibition until the 1970s, schnapps was all about the Snakebite and the Snow Shoe, a popular shot consisting of bourbon and peppermint schnapps.
    Now thanks to Beam’s extensive DeKuyper and Pucker lines and
other great American schnapps brands such as Barton’s Mr. Boston and the
99 line — and interesting new products such as Barton’s Wide Eye caffeinated schnapps —  and Pernod Ricard’s Hiram Walker flavors, schnapps has a much broader definition for both bartender and consumer.
    To veteran mixologist and Beam Global Brands Ambassador Bobby Gleason, schnapps is now more of an American spirit, reinvented and reinvigorated around its modifying function in myriad popular cocktails, both new and classic, from the Martini to the Margarita.
    “Schnapps is more about flavor behind the bar (in contemporary on-premise cocktail settings),” says Gleason, a former star bartender at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas,  where he worked with Master Mixologist Tony Abu Ganim and then studied under Francesco LaFranconi, another well-known bartender and spirits educator.
    Gleason says you can blame it all on Disco. What was once just a shot experience morphed into something more shaking in the time of Disco, when the Fuzzy Navel first made its debut in bar, club and lounge settings around the United States, Gleason says.
    And Peachtree Schnapps has been a star international performer for DeKuyper ever since, leading a line that now includes DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple, Pucker Watermelon, Pucker Peach, Pucker Raspberry, Pucker Island Blue flavors, Pucker Strawberry Passion and Red Apple, the newest extension of the DeKuyper Pucker lineup.
    Later on, DeKuyper Apple Pucker was credited with starting the Apple Martini craze on-premise, and to this day, it and many other flavors and brands lend color and subtlety to the back bar as never before.
    Most recently, Gleason himself got behind the bar again for a group of bartenders and demonstrated the transforming powers of schnapps by creating a cocktail made with DeKuyper Peachtree, Absolut Mandarin and fresh orange juice. After straining the mix into a Martini glass, Gleason drizzled in DeKuyper Pomegranate, which sank to the bottom of the glass and added a whole new visual level and flavor to the drink.

Soda Pop Generation
    In the United States at least, the sweeter American-style schnapps has won over bartenders and managers in bars and clubs that cater to younger patrons ages 21-30.
    “A lot of old-school mixologists will never touch a Pucker brand,” Gleason says. “They would rather muddle in or use apple puree, but college bars and night clubs, they need to pop out the cocktails fast. That is why they reach for them.”
If the schnapps category began with peppermint, it has grown  to include everything from root beer to butterscotch to cinnamon.
    Where is the schnapps category today? For patrons looking for a quick hit, Gleason says classics such as the Prairie Fire, hot shots of cinnamon and vodka and Peppermint Patties remain viable. “You can serve it as a layered shot — a grown-up, after-dinner cocktail,” he says. “I think (the trend is) going to stay in the fresh fruit. I would never say (all) the flavors are out there. Someone is always going to come up with something different.”           NCB