Two founders who cut their teeth in supply chain and sustainability for fast-growing food companies have teamed up to launch a ready-to-drink cocktail, Anytime Spritz, available April 1 in California and New York.
The founders, Maddy Rotman and Taylor Lanzet, bring over fifteen years of combined experience at companies like Chipotle, Imperfect Foods, FreshDirect and Daily Harvest to the new venture. Rotman was most recently the head of sustainability at Imperfect Foods and Lanzet comes from D2C brand Daily Harvest where she was senior director of strategic sourcing. Now, the friends are applying their experience in sustainable and scalable supply chains to beverage alcohol.
“We’re food and agriculture people who want to build the farm-to-can RTD for American consumers,” Lanzet said. “Today’s $20 billion canned alcohol industry is missing that ethos.”
The spritz’s are made with vodka distilled in the U.S. with regenerative wheat. Regenerative has slowly become a buzz word in alcohol thanks to the rise of natural and biodynamic wine, but remain a small segment within spirits.
“Wheat is the third largest field crop planted in the U.S.; 38 million acres of wheat were cultivated here last year,” Rotman said. “Growing it regeneratively helps transform our soil health, sequester carbon, and improve biodiversity.”
Cocktail recipes were developed with other ingredients from family-owned farms and small-scale growers. Building a network of farmers developing regenerative and organic production systems, including grain growers across the country, will be a key factor to scaling the business, the founders said. Most of the winter wheat they are distilling is harvested annually, and 2024 crop planning is already underway.
Rotman and Lanzet have been friends since they met at Brown University, where they developed a college Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) focused on connecting the community with affordable weekly produce from local farmers. During the pandemic, the friends accidentally embarked on their current entrepreneurial venture while attempting to make Campari in their Brooklyn living room, and instead infused fresh fruit juices with herbs and botanicals. They’ve worked behind the scenes for three years to develop the formal iteration.
Cans will be sold in 4-packs with a suggested retail price of $14.99. Flavors include Herby Lime Fizz, Yuzu Ginger Punch, and Cranberry Amaro Splash. The latter is made with Fast Penny Spirits, a woman-owned and operated amaro distillery based in Seattle.
The company is partnering with FreshDirect in New York City for delivery, and is aiming to get on the shelves of major retailers, independent boutique shops and restaurants and bars.
Initial production was funded through friends and family, but the founders are planning for a Series A round in early 2024 to kick off new market expansion. As a queer and women-owned business, Rotman and Lanzet represent a small percentage of women who hold C-Suite positions in wine and spirits.
Anytime is not the first ready-to-drink brand to bring a farm-to-table ethos into the canned cocktail world. Los Angeles-based Vervet sources its sparkling cocktail ingredients from California farms. Other spirit brands have also gone beyond organic to develop sustainable sourcing and production practices. As Gen Z and millennials seek out products that share their social and environmental values, other food and beverage companies have also made recent commitments to regenerative agriculture.