Heineken has unveiled two new concepts from Desperados through the flavoured beer brand’s ‘La Fábrica’ innovation platform.
La Fábrica, which translates into English as ‘the factory’, has been created as an “open-sourced” concept to “bring together brewers, creators and communities to reimagine nights out for a new era of socialising”. Coinciding with its unveiling, Heineken has launched Freeze and Pico from Desperados.
Freeze (above) is a 5.9%-ABV ‘slushy’ that comes in four flavours – Original, Mojito, Tropical Daiquiri and Red Caipirinha. Pico (below), meanwhile, is a 12%-ABV mix of Desperados with an unspecified “Latin spirit” and fruit flavours. The SKUs three variants, all of which are packaged in 3cl bottles, are Cactus & Lime, Hibiscus & Pomegranate and Mango & Passionfruit.
Both Freeze and Pico will be available to attendees of the Elrow festival in the Madrid suburb of Torrejón de Ardoz on Friday (1 May). Further details about the two concepts were not immediately available
“[La Fábrica] is our playground for experimentation – where we create bold new experiences for a new generation of consumers,” said Heineken’s global head of Desperados, Ligia Patrocino. “They expect brands to collaborate and La Fábrica brings the audience inside ‘the factory’.
“Some ideas will scale, others will stay exclusive to the moment – but all of them are about pushing boundaries and helping people let loose, free from judgement.”
Speaking exclusively to Global Drinks Intel a year ago, Patrocino said the brand sells around 4.5m hectolitres in volumes per year worldwide. “The biggest market is France, where it was launched in 1995, second is Poland, and third is Nigeria, where we only launched three years ago,” she said. “The other two in the top five are Germany and the UK.”
