With summer around the corner, the founders of a new RTD brand are hitting the streets of Sydney to get word out about the fizz-free revolution, driven by Leuca – a vodka infused flavoured water now available in Apple Blackcurrant and Watermelon Mint Lime.
The Leuca journey began when brand co-founders Shaun May, Matt Gamerov, and Justin Klass were on an exchange trip to Florida. They noticed the latest drinking craze in America, known as BORG-ing (black out rage gallon), consisted of mixing water, vodka, and flavour drops or powders to create a non-carbonated cocktail, something rare in the Australian beverage alcohol space.
At the beginning of 2024, the trio started workshopping a similar product back home in Sydney – making home samples and testing flavours with friends, to strong positive feedback. Pooling their cash to bootstrap the business, Leuca was initially planning to launch at the end of 2024, but there were issues finding a manufacturer with a nitrogen dosing machine, important for strengthening the packaging of non-carbonated beverages.
The team landed on a local manufacturer in Rosebery at the beginning of the year, who does all of the mixing and production in-house.
May told Food & Drink Business one of the unexpected challenges when starting out was perfecting the formula.
“We thought it would only take a month – that we would tell the manufacturer what we wanted, fill out the recipe sheet, get the samples sent to us and boom, we can launch,” said May.
“But it took around five months just to perfect the recipe, going back and forth on flavour, texture, and mouthfeel. We were uncompromising on making it a clean drinking experience, just water with a bit of flavouring, but it took longer than expected to reach the end product.”
Designed with pure water, distilled vodka, and natural fruit flavouring, each 330ml can comes in at just 4% ABV and under 74 calories, with the company stating it’s one of the lowest-calorie alcoholic drinks on the market.
Gamerov said the flavours were a fifty-fifty split between playing it safe and leading the trend.
“If you look at the shelves in the RTD space, no-one is doing Apple Blackcurrant, but every single Australian kid had this juice box flavour when they were younger,” he said.
“It's nostalgic and it resonates with people, but it was a risk. People told us not to do it, saying we should pick flavours that are stats-based, but we knew Australia was going to love it. Watermelon Mint Lime was the safer decision, based on data and the flavours that are selling well in the RTD space.”
With an official launch taking place in August, Leuca rocketed onto the scene, with its entire first production run of 222 cases selling out within a month. Starting out with four liquor stockists in Bondi Beach, Leuca has since expanded to 22 stores across Sydney – all through word of mouth and boots on the ground.
“The beauty of having three co-founders is that we can do three separate tastings every Friday and Saturday, which is what we've done since launch,” said May.
“We have goals to get into 30-40 bottle stores and venues by the end of summer, but we’re not trying for any specific stores or venues. Wherever we are we want to keep pushing volume and getting our brand and name out there.
“Our distribution strategy is targeting certain suburbs at a time because we want everyone in Sydney to be seeing and talking about the brand by the end of February – becoming a household name would be really great for us,” he said.
The team is pushing Leuca from the socials side as well as in-person, with Klass leading the Instagram and TikTok content to build up an audience.
“Justin is killing it on the social media side. He’ll post videos of people following us to tastings, which are always super high energy and fun,” said Gamerov.
“We’ll split up to hit three venues in a day, so there’ll be clips of Shaun in Randwick, Justin in Bondi, and me in Newport having conversations with people. It’s not something people are doing as much, and we’re showing the world that it's not just about giving someone a product.
“It's creating a connection, understanding what they like, what they do, and seeing if Leuca is for them. It's an experience that we're creating and curating, and it’s beautiful,” he said.
The personal touch is also present in Leuca’s branding, designed by Christian Pandelides, who the team found from his work on another RTD brand – Barry.
“He posted a video of how he designed the can and I was absolutely obsessed with it, so I DM’d him on Instagram asking if we could work together,” said May.
“He was super in on the vision from the start. The name Leuca came from a sea goddess in Greek mythology, Leucothea, shortened so it was easier to pronounce.
“We wanted there to be a character element so people could better connect with the brand, which is where the cloud comes from. We have icons of the character running, surfing, skateboarding – with plans to keep building up the image for different launches and events,” he said.
With a focus on creating a product that people actually want, Leuca is set to flourish off the back of the surge in healthy lifestyles and nostalgia trends. As summer kicks off, the team is ready to take its consumer connection and genuine passion for the product to the rest of Sydney and beyond.
“We're planning quite a few events for summer, whether it's our own, or we're sponsoring events and working with event companies,” said Gamerov.
“Apart from just pushing for bottle stores and venues, we want to be inviting, and we want everyone to be a part of our events. It's not just a drinks brand – we want Leuca to build a community.”
