Leocorno Enterprises has introduced the Peer luxury tonic water brand. The company was founded by Anant Jangwal in 2016 and offers consumer brands in India, the UAE, and the UK.
Peer’s current range comprises the regular Indian Tonic, Mint Tonic, Bitter Lemon Tonic, and a zero-calorie and zero sugar tonic variant. It is launching four additional flavours in the coming months and plans to venture into other beverage segments that offer healthy options.
A low-calorie tonic water brand, Peer has no artificial sweeteners, preservatives or flavouring, and all-natural imported quinine. Available across retail stores in Delhi NCR, and Punjab, it will also be available in Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal and Goa by Q1 2022. Since its inception, the brand has sold 26,000 units of tonic water.
To fill the premium low-calorie, low-sugar tonic water gap, Anant Jangwal and his team initiated the R&D process to craft contemporary tonic waters. Regular tonic water typically contains as much sugar as soft drinks, 8-9 gms per 100ml. Such a high dosage of sugar is added to mask the bitterness of quinine.
However, Peer wanted to create a tonic with superior taste but without the extra sugar and calories. This is one reason why it took Jangwal close to two years and more than 20 blind tasting focus group sessions, with numerous ingredient combinations to perfect the flavour profiles. His objective was to develop a beverage that contained 50% less sugar than other tonics. He then went a step further and created a zero sugar and zero-calorie tonic variant for health-conscious consumers.
In addition to having the lowest sugar and calories, PEER’s R&D team wanted to craft tonic flavours without artificial preservatives, colours, and sweeteners, which is often not the case with other commercial tonics. The team was finally able to create an innovative formula that balances the bitterness of quinine with top quality ingredients and flavours without adding anything artificial. “Getting the right taste without adding excessive sugar, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and sweeteners was tricky, but the key to getting the product right!” claimed Jangwal, Founder and CEO of Peer.
Lavanya Anand, Co-founder and COO of PEER, added, “We wanted to create a tonic water range that perfectly enhances the fine spirit it is added to, but which can be enjoyed by itself too. This segment of consumers who enjoy tonic water by itself is also an important target market.”
PEER tonic water also has 15% extra fizz than the average of others, resulting in high effervescence made possible due to thicker glass bottles custom designed for PEER. The brand’s tonic flavours are receiving widespread appreciation from top mixologists and f&b critics.
An estimated 75% of gin drinkers consume it with tonic water and vice versa. The reverse also holds true. As the world witnessed an increased demand for premium gins starting around 2016, the demand for premium tonic water has also increased.
As per WSR Drinks Market Analysis, the global gin sales value grew by 10.7% in 2019. Gin was the second-fastest-growing spirits segment in 2019 after non‐alcoholic spirits. According to another study, the Indian mixer category is currently worth INR 200 crores, projected to grow to a massive INR 7,000 crores by 2030.
“Globally, people care about the gin that goes with their tonic, but now people are also caring about the tonic that goes with their gin! There is demand for tonics that are not overly sweet, and which when added enhance their drink rather than overpowering it.”, says Anant. “The response from customers in retail outlets has been tremendous! Our 0 Cal. Indian Tonic is turning out to be the top-selling SKU, followed by Bitter Lemon Tonic and Mint Tonic. In select modern trade stores, we are present in, PEER has already captured a 10% share of the sales volume in the premium tonic water category.”
