18 February 2020, Austin, Texas: With our new weekly data service for the Texas on-premise, we thought we’d take a peak at what bars & restaurants purchased to prepare for that big restaurant holiday: the day of love.
Red Like My Heart
If you’ve read any Valentine drinks report before or have been fortunate to live on this Earth for a while you know people like to drink Wine on Valentine’s Day. We saw that in our data too. Shipments of Wine were up 14% last week over an average week. We also saw more Sparkling, +8% over a typical week, and still Rosé (+11%). But we also found a few things that weren’t so common:
Red Wine was up 21%; and for the most part, it didn’t matter the varietal or price point, Merlot, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, you name it, if the juice came out Red it was being brought in. Surprisingly even White (+10%) outperformed our classic Valentine’ darling the Sparkling category.
Beer, umm no Seltzer, you are my Valentine
Perhaps missing that romantic allure of other adult beverages, light American lager shipments eased-up the week before Valentine’s (-4.5%). And yes, Hard Seltzers, although nascent in the on-premise, did very well (+7.5%), although what this says about romance in our society today is beyond the scope of this report. In all, total Beer shipments were down 2% pre-Valentine’s week vs. an average week.
The Spirits of Love
Romantics also imbibed Spirits to get into the Spirit: we saw more orders both of Chocolate (+27%) and Coffee (+16%) Liqueurs. Aficionados used the occasion to express their love (or show off their knowledge to their partners) of some hip categories as well; Mezcal (+21.5%), Anejo Tequila (17%), and Asian Whiskey (19%) all moved well.
In terms of larger mainstay categories, Bourbon saw a particularly large lift (+10%). And of course, a great romantic meal wouldn’t be complete without a decedent calorie-rich desert with Brandy (+20%, mostly value and mid price points).
Premium (+7%) and Super Premium (10%) Spirits did particularly well last week, as Total Spirit shipments overall saw 5% more volume than an average week.
yDrink is an Austin based beverage data company that has been reporting the Texas beverage alcohol industry for 15 years. yDrink offers account level data for every outlet in Texas selling spirits with comprehensive shipment and market data for products and their competitive sets.