Almave, the non-alcoholic blue agave spirit co-founded by seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Mexico-based Casa Lumbre Master Distiller Dr. Iván Saldaña, is extending its portfolio into the canned RTD segment with two new zero-proof cocktails: the Almave Classic Margarita and Almave Paloma. Both SKUs launched exclusively at Target on November 10, marking the brand's first foray into the ready-to-drink channel and its most accessible off-premise price point to date.
Retail Footprint and Pricing
The RTDs are available in two configurations: a four-pack single-flavor format at $12.99 and a six-pack variety pack — three cans of each flavor — at $17.99. The Target exclusive positions Almave alongside the mass-channel RTD set at a price tier competitive with premium alcoholic alternatives, while targeting the growing non-alc shopper increasingly visible in the cold-box and planogram resets that major off-premise retailers have dedicated to the category over the past two years.
The move into RTD cans follows the brand's bottled spirits line — Almave Blanco, Ámbar, and Humo — which established the brand's on-premise and specialty off-premise credentials since launch. The RTD format significantly broadens the brand's route-to-market, reducing the barrier to trial that bottled non-alc spirits can face at shelf and enabling a convenience-driven purchase occasion ahead of the high-velocity holiday selling season.
Blue Agave as a Differentiator
Both cocktails are built on Almave's core non-alc spirit, produced from real blue agave harvested in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, using a distillation process developed under Dr. Saldaña's direction. That sourcing story — genuine agave input, not flavoring — is a meaningful point of differentiation in a canned non-alc RTD segment where ingredient authenticity is an increasingly contested claim. The Classic Margarita combines that agave character with citrus, while the Paloma leans into grapefruit for a crisp, sessionable profile.
"We started Almave to give people more choice in what they drink, whatever the moment," said Hamilton, Co-Founder of Almave. "With Almave Classic Margarita and Paloma launching at Target this holiday season, we're making that choice even easier."
Dr. Saldaña echoed the brand's authenticity brief: "The Margarita and Paloma are iconic expressions of Mexican cocktail culture, and it was important to us that these new offerings capture the flavor, complexity, and authenticity that make those drinks so special."
Non-Alc RTD Market Context
The non-alcoholic RTD segment has been among the fastest-growing pockets of the broader RTD and non-alc beverage space, with major distributors and retailers reporting accelerated shelf-space allocation as consumer moderation trends solidify into durable shopping behavior. For Casa Lumbre, the Target exclusive provides national planogram placement without the complexity of building a wholesale network for a nascent RTD sub-brand — a capital-efficient route-to-market strategy that trades some distributor depletion data for guaranteed retail velocity metrics through a single, high-traffic off-premise partner.
As the non-alc spirits and RTD category matures, brands that can demonstrate mainstream retail performance alongside on-premise credibility will be best positioned to negotiate broader distributor support in the three-tier system. The Target launch gives Almave a proof-of-concept data set to bring to those conversations heading into 2027.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
