First Line Of Tequila-Filled Candies Unveiled In Time For Cinco De Mayo

Tequila and Cinco de Mayo celebrations go together like peanut butter and jelly, and usually the only question is do you take it straight or in a margarita, but now, you can get your tequila in a gummy candy.

Inspired by this fantastic pairing Emile Bernard, co-founder and head of innovation at United Kingdom-based Smith & Sinclair, decided to create a line of tequila-filled cocktail gummies. The Tequila Time Box of cocktail gummies just made their online debut in the United States this week.

“I’ve always wanted to make a tequila selection,” Bernard says. “I love the flavors that go with tequila, especially all of the Mexican flavors and traditions. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a tequila culture in the UK, but now that we have launched in the U.S., this is a great time to get these products to the market and to share the fun.”

The new box of cocktail gummies contains 10 cocktail gummies: four spicy margaritas, two tequila sunrises, two tequila slammers, and two palomas. Each gummy itself is infused with 40 percent tequila with a 5 percent Alcohol by Volume content, and the entire box sells for $24, us.smithandsinclair.com.

“When I come up with cocktail gummy flavors, the first thing I look at is the flavor profiles of the spirit, which in this case, is tequila,” says Bernard, who was a classically trained chef before he and Melanie Goldsmith launched Smith & Sinclair alcoholic confectionary in 2014. “I also will look at the taste and famous cocktails associated with a spirit.”

For the tequila gummies, Bernard wanted to make sure each gummy had a different taste profile and sugar coating. “Tequila is almost always paired with citrus fruit, and each of our tequila cocktail gummies has a different citrus profile form the last,” he says. “The margarita is paired with bitter orange, the tequila sunrise is paired with sweet orange, the slammer is paired with lime, and the paloma is paired with grapefruit.”

Bernard and Goldsmith decided to start their company after they served their handcrafted alcoholic confections during some adult board-game dating nights they had been hosting. They set up a stall at the Berwick Street Market, and their products sold so well, they formalized their company and their business of alcoholic gummies. “My main goal is that when a consumer eats each one of my confections is that it’s both a familiar and a new experience at the same time,” Bernard says.

Since quarantines and stay-at-home orders began, Smith & Sinclair has been experiencing an exponential direct to consumer growth. “We’re seeing triple digit month-on-month growth in our DTC business since the quarantines began,” he says. “It’s gradually rising as more and more customers learn about our products and realize what great products they are to have at home or for gifting.”

But though the company has positioned its alcoholic line of gummies – and its mocktails line – as a go-to gift, a lot of their customers aren’t giving them away – they’re hoarding them for themselves. “In a recent study we conducted with a sample of over 6,000 customers, we found when given the option, 60 percent opted to keep our alcoholic cocktail gummies for themselves, (thus) reinforcing our positioning as the ideal item for home entertaining,” Bernard says.

A lot of customers are saying the gummies are helping them through quarantining. One of Bernard’s favorite comments from a customer is “To me, they have a buzz that is their own…makes your body want to sink deliciously deeper into your loveseat and makes these hard times just a little better.”