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The move into flavours for Distell with Amarula is also showing the company that it can broaden its reach – not just across demographics, but also across different calendar occasions and situations. Distell International Managing Director Global Travel Retail Luke Maga commented: “With 55% of travellers now giving more consideration to naturally-sourced and health-conscious products and 86% saying they look favourably on a brand which has a greater focus on sustainability (m1nd-set), Amarula Vegan opens the brand up to a wider audience. The original Amarula is not a vegan product, but Amarula Plant Based is totally vegan. It’s perfect for anyone with dietary restrictions or preferences. It’s easy to drink, smooth, and incredibly versatile. There is a difference in taste from the original Amarula as the base of this product is coconut milk, but it has the same great mouth feel. What Does Amarula Taste Like? Bottles of Amarula always come decorated with a beautiful handmade tassel, and Amarula Plant Based is outfitted with a burgundy tassel. The tassels are made by the Handiwork Hub, a collaboration that empowers female entrepreneurs. This initiative successfully helps women and their families to prosper financially, socially, mentally, physically and spiritually. The ladies have created over 40 million tassels for Amarula over the years!
In terms of taste, nose and flavour profile in general, she identified how “the fruit actually has quite a zesty sweet and sour, citrusy flavour to it and it’s very high in vitamin C and antioxidants” and explained: “When we developed the gin, we paired it with orange blossom and peel that really bring out those citrus notes of the marula fruit. It also has a very tropical flavour to it which can be best described as a combination between guava and melon.” Taste and togetherness are core to the brand, and we wanted to make sure that everyone could experience the feel-good indulgence that our product offers, on any occasion, despite their dietary choices or restrictions,” Conning continues. We don’t want to just focus on what Amarula Plant Based doesn’t have when the list of what it does is so impressive. Made from Marula fruit spirit and blended with coconut milk, Amarula Plant Based delivers gentle notes of caramel, vanilla and creamy coconut finished with notes of marula fruit (think nutty, without a single legume in sight). That’s enough coconut to conjure mirages of swaying palm trees with every sip. Amarula Plant Based is a vegan version of Amarula cream liqueur that vegans and those opting to go dairy-free will love. You can enjoy all of the delicious flavours of the original Amarula in a coconut cream based offering. Distell reports that this is the ‘first, and only’, vegan cream liqueur to use real marula spirit as its base.Have you ever wanted to start eating more plant-based, but been concerned about giving up some of life’s potent pleasures? Amarula’s new vegan ‘cream’ liqueur is the antidote to your worries. Rich, warm and endlessly indulgent, it’s not a begrudging replacement for dairy — it’s a delight to seek out in its own right. Hawes highlighted how the “journey into flavour” has helped grow Amarula, which also recently launched a vegan variant last year that is outstripping expectations. She explained: “We don’t want to forget Amarula Vegan just because it was launched last year either. The brand is in growth again on a global level and some markets are stronger than others, but our innovation journey is really reigniting Amarula and bringing new consumers in”.
The product will also appeal to consumers who previously could not consume Amarula because of food intolerances.”Distell has launched a gin under its Amarula brand using wild, hand-harvested marula fruit as a key botanical.
The news follows the company releasing a vegan variant of its cream liqueur named Amarula Vegan that tapped into the trend for non-dairy and plant-based preferences for drinks. Speaking of this revelation, Charmelle Conning, global brand lead at Amarula told db: “What we’ve seen with our flavours is that it’s actually de-seasonalising the brand. For example, Raspberry Chocolate Baobab has more appeal during summer, whereas Vanilla Spice is seen as a very kind of festive serve.
Amarula Vegan Liqueur Details
Amarula is based in South Africa and they are inspired by the generosity of the marula tree. They are committed to social enterprises and sustainable partnerships to help people, wildlife, and the environment. Conning pointed out how many “other gins are made from a grain-based spirit” but described how Distell has “actually developed the base spirit for the gin from the marula fruit in a similar way to Amarula – we just don’t put Amarula cream in here and we don’t put it into French oak for two years”. Distell-owned marula-based cream liqueur Amarula has added new variant, Amarula Vegan, to its product range which the company insists does not ‘compromise on the unique taste that people love’. The bottle itself has been inspired by the shape of an elephant’s head, paying tribute to the inspiration behind the brand.
This latest edition to Amarula’s versatile range is said to be a plant-based, dairy free, ‘better-for-you’ alternative for conscious consumers. The product is also free from artificial colourants and flavourings, nuts and gluten. Conning said that the turning point came for the brand when Distell asked a few pertinent questions about its positioning and how it saw itself versus its potential. She said: “We had to ask ourselves a question: ‘Are we a cream liqueur brand, or are we a marula fruit brand?’ The answer was that ‘we’re a marula fruit brand’ and so what makes this gin so unique is that it is the only gin in the world that’s actually been distilled from marula fruit.”
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