Firebox adds new hybrid gin range

London-based online gift retailer Firebox.com has launched a range of hybrid wine and cocktail-flavoured gin liqueurs, that it says will tap into the growing trend for hybrid drinks.

The six-strong is part of a new alcohol range from the company under a new sub-brand, Uncommon Drinks, which it says will house its “disruptive spirits ideas”, starting with the hybrid, mash-up gin liqueurs, with “a steady release of innovative products ” to follow this year.

The range currently comprises white wine, red wine and rosé wine gin liqueurs, with a Classic Cosmo, Peach Bellini, and Mint Mojito gin liqueur set to be added.

The drinks have are 20% abv and come retail for £19.99 per 50cl bottle from Firebox.com

The company says the drinks embrace the growing trend for hybrid drink, and will boost the flavoured gin liqueur market.

Firebox’s managing director Kristian Bromley said customers often “agonised” over the choice between white wine or a G+T, and it was “excited to help solve this conundrum.”

Hybrid drinks have long been tipped for growth, and although they are more often found within the independent sector rather than in the mainstream retailers, there is evidence of growing cross-pollination. Meanwhile sales of gin in the UK totalled £2.5 billion in the year to June 2019, according to the WSTA, with flavoured gins performing strongly, accounting for a third of the overall gin sales and contributing to over 80% of the growth in gin sales in UK retail in the year to July 2019.

The new range builds on the launch of the company’s Mythical Spirits range in 2015, which includes its shimmering Unicorn Tears Gin. The company claimed this was the first gin to establish the shimmering gin sub-category. However the company is set to relaunch Unicorn Tears Gin, following criticism last March from The Portman Group, which oversees drinks producers in the UK, and the WSTA. The WSTA complained the that the original labelling on the Unicorn Tears Gin Liqueur, Unicorn Tears Raspberry Gin Liqueur and Unicorn Tears Raspberry Gin Liqueur Miniature was likely to appeal to children.

At the time, Bromley said the company had already planned to “change direction” for its Unicorn Tears Gin and Mythical Spirits range over the summer, and working with the Portman Group to amend the range was “an acceleration” of its existing plans.

The original drinks are still for sale on its website, but a spokesman for the company today the drinks business that “Unicorn Tears will be relaunching in the next few months, with a complete re-imagining of our design and new exotic botanicals.”