Readyto-sip cocktails
UT students’ Beatbox Beverages jazz up boxed drinks industry.
When two UT business students were told they’d need $5 million to start a company selling boxed ready-to-drink cocktails, they were undaunted and “bootstrapped” the business together.
Now, after getting their products into local stores, Beatbox Beverages is preparing to launch on a larger scale. Justin Fenchel and Aimy Steadman have found a distributor, added two new flavors and are focused on spreading the word about Beatbox through music-based marketing events.
The two music lovers — Steadman was a college radio D J — got the idea for Beatbox while they were still in school and saw how popular boxed wine was with their peers. But they didn’t want to produce yet another bag-in-a-box wine and created three flavors closer to cocktails to go in the bright, boombox-shaped boxes: Cranberry Limeade, Box A’Rita and Blue Razzberry Lemonade.
“Boxed wines tend to taste bad and don’t cater to (the) millennial generation,” Fenchel said. “I thought a product that was just as inexpensive and convenient as traditional boxed wines but had flavors millennials enjoy and a great music-oriented brand would do well.”
The colorful 5 liter boxes are low-calorie and, as the Beatbox founders call them, “party-sized,” because they’re able to hold the equivalent of almost 7 bottles of wine. Each of the three flavors are made with orange wine and clock in at 11.1 percent ABV, an alcohol content that suggests each box should most definitely be shared.
This month, look for a new flavor, Texas Tea, to hit H-E-B shelves exclusively. Visit beatboxbeverages.com for more information.