One of the hottest RTD product lineups right now is Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka and Vodka Lemonades from Stateside Vodka. The RTD Magazine team got the chance to chat with the brand's CEO, Clement Pappas, and ask him more about Surfside, how it got its start, and its ensuing meteoric rise to the top of the RTD charts.
RTD: Clem, we've been eager to conduct this interview for some time now and it's great to finally catch up with you. You've clearly been busy helming the white-hot growth of your brand, but now that we have a few moments to get your thoughts, please tell our readers a bit more about Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka and how it came to be.
CP: Surfside is a line of premium iced tea + vodka and lemonade + vodka canned cocktails recognized for its delicious full flavor taste and sunset stripes on the can, all symbolizing good vibes ahead. Surfside is 4.5% ABV and made with premium vodka and real tea with just 2g of sugar, 100 calories and 0 bubbles.
Our original varieties include Iced Tea + Vodka, Peach Tea + Vodka, Half & Half + Vodka and Lemonade + Vodka. And we've recently expanded our lineup to include Raspberry Tea + Vodka, Raspberry Lemonade + Vodka, Strawberry Lemonade + Vodka, Black Cherry Lemonade + Vodka and Green Tea + Vodka in the portfolio.
I am in one of two sets of brothers that founded the brand – we’re all Philadelphia natives: my brother Zach and myself, as well as Matt and Bryan Quigley.
Since launching in 2022, we’ve grown from a well-loved regional brand to surpassing the 1.3 million-case mark and achieving +563% growth in 2023. This year, we’ve gone national and expect the growth of Surfside to continue rocketing the RTD cocktail category forward. We recently passed 2 Million cases on a TTM (trailing 12 month) basis.
It has received beverage industry recognition as a 2024 3-time Gold Medal winner in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, a 2023 “Hot Brand” in Shanken’s IMPACT Magazine and a 2022 “Rising Star Award '' in Brewbound.
RTD: That is impressive growth to say the least and those flavors sound great, too! Speaking of which, thank you to you and your team for sending along samples for our panel to test, which we are very much looking forward to doing in the near future. So, in addition to the remarkable growth trajectory and full flavor lineup, what are some other things that set Surfside apart from your competitors?
CP: There are multiple factors that Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka hits on with consumers: Great tasting liquid WITH a nutrition panel that is lower in sugar; New-to-world branding that is elevated and has a cool factor; Business execution that is strong in supply, distribution and marketing.
Simply put, Surfside is set apart, and has taken off among consumers, because it has a great taste. Because we were able to become one of the only spirit-based hard tea and lemonade brands in the category, we have quickly established ourselves as the leader.
We worked really hard and spent over a year getting the flavor exactly right. We went through countless iterations before we settled on a formula and a process. And (all credit to my business Partner Matt Quigley), the branding and design has been a home run and has been very catchy and Instagrammable.
We find people gravitate toward the quality and taste of Surfside. At just 4.5% ABV, 100 calories, 2g of sugar & 0 bubbles, we are the perfect sessionable RTD.
The brand, designed by my partner Matt Quigley, has also been a key element. It has a really chill approachable retro surfer vibe that is almost universally appealing. (Who doesn’t like the beach and the ocean?) It’s also a “new to world” brand, meaning we didn’t borrow it from a non alc brand or a brand from a different category. I think that is a key factor. When you look at brands that are extended from other categories, they very rarely seem to find sustained success.
RTD: Most definitely. A new brand combined with strong branding is essential to success, especially in a space as competitive as ready-to-drink cocktails. Is the strong branding concept behind Surfside what motivated you to enter the relatively saturated and hyper-competitive RTD beverage business or was there more behind Surfside's creation and subsequent ascension?
CP: We first created Stateside Vodka Sodas under the Stateside brand, and those did extremely well. We figured there was potential for more RTD development. Iced tea is popular in many places, but in Philadelphia especially – alcoholic or nonalcoholic, it is everywhere. We noticed there was a space missing for a good-tasting and premium spiked tea, so we developed one that we would like to drink ourselves.
We knew Surfside would be good, or we wouldn’t have done it, but we weren’t expecting the incredible response we received. It inspired us to take the brand national, and we’ve seen overwhelmingly positive feedback so far.
RTD: Incredibly smart of you to identify the gaps in the hard iced tea segment and a move that has paid off in spades, to say the least. Before tea, what types of challenges did you face with your initial vodka soda RTDs and as you progressed towards launching the Surfside brand?
CP: Where to begin? When we started, you couldn’t even get cans or filling line time. We bought aluminum cans that had to be shipped all the way from India! That has since stabilized, but supply and forecasting continue to be very challenging, especially with our growth. But we have brought on a great team of supply chain professionals, and they have been doing an excellent job of meeting our demand.
Distribution was also a key challenge. We naturally gravitated towards wine and spirits distributors as we started out with just full proof vodka, but for our RTD brands, we eventually decided to mainly go through the beer wholesalers. Building out that network was a monumental task especially given how fragmented the beer landscape is. That said, we are thrilled with our partners and feel very well positioned to compete.
RTD: What would you consider Stateside's and Surfside's greatest triumphs to date?
CP: Our growth in 2023 was a huge breakout for us and really helped us cut through a lot of the noise and clutter in the trade. Last year, Surfside surpassed the 1.3 million-case mark, outpacing nationally-distributed competitors, and achieved +563% growth.
We’ve become a big part of the baseball experience and have a longtime partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies. We were the #1 selling spirits product at their stadium, Citizens Bank Park, last year. As a Philadelphia native, it was absolutely surreal to see Surfside in the hands of everyone at the stadium as the Phillies made their run to the World Series.
We’re excited to grow our baseball presence through MLB partnerships with the Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians and the Pittsburgh Pirates, as well as a partnership with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) as their official RTD Vodka Iced Tea and Vodka Lemonade.
RTD: Sounds like you've got some great partners that have really helped amplify the brand. Before you established the partnerships you currently enjoy, did you have any mentors in the RTD industry specifically?
CP: It’s not specific to RTD's, but I’ve been fortunate to be able to leverage the many years experience I had at my former family business, which was a private label juice company. Everything from sourcing materials to formulation to co-packing has been valuable to leverage.
RTD: You certainly can't put a price on experience, that's for sure. So, given your past experiences and the huge wave of momentum you're currently riding, is there anything else that excites you about the RTD industry and what do you feel its future holds?
CP: I think we are living through a once in a generation period of disruption in the bev alc industry, and that is a great opportunity for an upstart company like ours to come in and have an impact. The category has a very long runway and many legal age drinkers are likely to turn to RTDs rather than beer throughout their adulthood. I do think when the dust settles, there will likely be a few key winners and a “long tail” of brands that flame out. Our goal is to position ourselves to be one of the winners in the space.
RTD: As the ready-to-drink cocktail industry matures as you've described, what other trends do you think we'll see along the way?
CP: Non carbonated is definitely something that we are seeing a pent up consumer demand for. Not that carbonation is going away, but there is a significant space for still drinks.
We are also continuing to see a huge number of entrants from all over the place – beer companies, wine, spirits, non alc, celebrities, independents like us – it feels like a gold rush and everyone is jumping in.
Interest in vodka-based teas specifically is also really increasing – we see this with the response to Surfside but also similar formulas joining the category this summer. We feel we are leading the charge with teas, and with our launch of lemonades this year, we are staying ahead of the competition.
RTD: And an admirable job you've done of staying ahead of the competition. Very well done. And as Surfside continues to grow? What does the brand's future look like in your mind?
CP: Our goal is to make Surfside the leader for spirits based teas and lemonades across the country.
With the launch of our 5 new SKUs including three new lemonades (Black Cherry Lemonade + Vodka, Raspberry Lemonade + Vodka & Strawberry Lemonade + Vodka) and two teas (Green Tea + Vodka & Raspberry Tea + Vodka), we strongly believe we have the flavor profile to win the hearts and minds of consumers across the U.S. and cement our position as the leading spirits based Tea and Lemonade brand.
From there – the sky's the limit. We hope to see Surfside in the hands of as many people as possible and become a household name.
RTD: The sky does, indeed, appear to be the limit for Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka. Clem, thank you so much for finding time in your very busy schedule to talk with us today. And congratulations on what can only be described as an incredible success story to this point. Best of luck to you and Surfside going forward. Cheers!
