Casamara Club is making non-alcoholic drinks for every kind of drinker

A conversation with co-founder Erica Johnson.

co-founders, Erica and Jason

Casamara Club is a non alcoholic beverage company making amaro-inspired sodas and cocktails. Co-founders Erica and Jason set out to make beverages for every kind of drinker, crafting sophisticated and complex flavors that stand alone or pair beautifully. I chatted with Erica Johnson about building a non alcoholic beverage business, flavor development, and where they fit in in an exploding market.

If you’re interested in trying out Casamara Club, you can use code ONHAND to get 15% off your order.

Brianna Plaza: How did you get into the non-alcoholic (N/A) drink business?

Erica Johnson: Casamara Club was founded in 2018 by my business partner, Jason. He, like all of us, at the end of the workday, wanted a little treat and the only real options were alcohol or LaCroix.

He was looking for something that would bridge the gap between a drink that felt special but wouldn't impact his next day. We've been friends for a really long time, and we both share a passion for Amaro. He took the tools of cocktail world and was able to balance bitter, sweet, tart, and savory and blended that into an Amaro-inspired N/A beverage. He sold our first case in 2018 and when he asked me to join him in 2019, I couldn’t say no.

I wouldn't say that we were complete early adopters, but obviously we've seen that space grown exponentially since we started. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and we're very fortunate to be still alive, thriving, and growing on this side of such a monumental, industry-impacting event.

Brianna Plaza: You call your products Leisure Sodas. What are they?

Erica Johnson: So for me, a leisure soda is both a practical thing and it's a state of mind. It rises to the festivity of an occasion so that when you're at a party or sharing with friends, you're drinking something that feels special. But they're also relatively low in sugar, which means you can have a few without feeling like you've overindulged in that regard. The leisure sodas are more like a soda water, so they’re very light and effervescent, but really still complex and flavorful. They really strike that balance.

And then our newest offering, Superclasico, we would classify more as an N/A cocktail-strength beverage option.

alta leisure soda

Brianna Plaza: Tell me more about why a cocktail-strength drink was next in the evolution of your business.

Erica Johnson: We think of ourselves as a beverage company, and we're constantly thinking about what's next. When we launched, we started with four that were Amaro inspired. We added two that expanded the geographic footprint of our inspiration with influences from the Caribbean and America.

We’ve always been a part of this really big tent of more complex adult N/A beverages, and it just felt like it was time for us to do something a bit more bold. We'd been hearing some feedback in the marketplace that people wanted something that was a little bit more concentrated. The timing for us to launch a new product was perfect.

Brianna Plaza: How do you think about flavor and recipe development?

Erica Johnson: We pride ourselves on doing our formulation in-house, rather than outsourcing it to a flavor house. Our first four were literally formulated by Jason. We use only real juice, sugar, and botanical extracts.

I think for us, especially because we're taking inspiration from cocktails, it was important for us to not ever be making something that would be a one-to-one comparison, because people can tell the difference.

Without booze, you're just dealing with just a different set of tools. So for us, we really want to tap into nostalgia — we want to tap into the memory of a really great flavor experience. We don’t want to make something N/A and have someone go, “Well, that just tastes like Amaro” because it’s a trap.

Jason developed the first four, and I did the following two pulling from foundational cocktail experiences. Isla is sort of our version of a Dark 'n' Stormy and Fora sort of pulls from the tradition of the red drink and what red drink means to me as a black woman. We're very lucky to be able to make the drinks that we want to see in the world.

superclassico

Brianna Plaza: How do you hope alcohol drinkers incorporate your products into their routines?

Erica Johnson: Anecdotally, we’ve found that most people who are seeking out these adult N/A beverages are people who drink alcohol regularly. It’s dry January, and something like a quarter of people who drink alcohol are interested or actually doing a version of abstaining in some way. And I would say that we see that in our business.

We think about inclusivity — you can come to us at whatever stage of drinking you’re in. We see people who are either taking time off, or it's the last drink of the night, or maybe you’re drinking Cascara Club where you would have had water. And if you want to use our beverages as a mixer, they're absolutely great as a cocktail ingredient.

Brianna Plaza: The market has exploded. Where do you think Casamara Club fits in and where do you want to be going?

Erica Johnson: That's a great question, and one that I think at this moment in time we are carefully considering. I am someone who believes that the rising tide lifts all boats. The more people we see enter the category, the more proof there is that there is a real demand for it. And although ultimately what we make is soda, we’ve been alongside this N/A movement basically since its inception.

I'm excited to see where it goes. We're seeing more and more restaurants and bars really giving careful attention to their N/A menus. And we’re seeing it trickle down to the mass market. At Target now they have a more carefully curated place for people to pick up their N/A options.

Where do we want to be in the future? We want to be everywhere. Because for us, that is the future that we want. The availability for people to purchase these beverages easily, and to see the market grow around that.