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Feature
The big interview: Mike and Brian Love, Club Kokomo
Club Kokomo founders, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love and his son, Brian Love, tell us about going up against big brands, and why they got into the industry.
*This feature was first published in the December issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Founded by Mike Love, co‐founder and lead vocalist of The Beach Boys, and his son Brian Love (who is the head of brand development), Club Kokomo is a family affair. Mike is the “promotion”, and Brian deals in the “consumption, or flavour formulation”, they joke, going on to talk about why they entered the spirits industry.
“I went out to a great restaurant with my wife, Jacqueline, some time ago, and they made the best Mojito, and it inspired me to come up with my own, so we could share that experience with other people,” Mike says about the origins of Club Kokomo.
Launched in 2022, Club Kokomo debuted with a range of rum‐based and gin‐based ready‐to‐drink (RTD) cocktails, and has since also released three premium rums. Its operations are headed by Geoff Longenecker, founder and owner of Seven Caves Spirits, which is based in San Diego, California – a city with deep Beach Boys connections.
The brand started with a Kokomojito RTD, based on the rum cocktail, as Mike claims to be a big Mojito man, and also because of the old Beach Boys song, Kokomo. “The name Kokomojito just sounded so perfect,” he says.
Making a name in RTDs
The RTD space is crowded and is only growing in popularity in the US. The Loves are well aware of this. However, they’ve found a space to play in through natural flavours, unique ingredients and flavour combinations.
“Obviously, you’re battling brands that have a lot more advertising dollars, but we do everything naturally,” says Brian. “The spirits that we distil are additive free, all natural colours, and they’re a true cocktail experience. They’re very different from your seltzer. They actually have colour, they have body. In some of them we’re also using agave instead of sweetener.”
The brand’s RTD range consists of: Kokomojito, Mystique, Afternoon Delight, and Excitation.
The Kokomojito is made with the addition of lemongrass, something nobody else is doing in the Mojito world, Brian claims. “They are all inspired by existing cocktails, we just put a twist on them,” he explains. When we’re talking about colour, we’re actually using vegetable colour, not fake colour.
“So, in the instance of Mystique and Afternoon Delight, we’re actually using turmeric to colour it orange or pink. Then we’re using agave, instead of just sugars or any syrups, so it’s much lower on the glycaemic index. It costs us more money, and it’s expensive in bulk, but it adds a nice refined flavour to the cocktails themselves.”
Mike adds: “We have Mystique, which is guava, lychee, lemon and jasmine, that’s very delicious as well. Excitation is gin, black cherry, citrus and passion fruit. We’ve laboured over these, and they have tremendous flavours. We have to be quality first, so everything is natural and beautiful.”
The RTDs also sit at 10% ABV, which is designed to juggle being adequately strong – like a bar‐quality drink, rather than a seltzer – but also being at a level where you can opt for a second or third can without already feeling too woozy, the pair say.
On the thinking behind having the drinks at 10% ABV, Brian says the decision was to “initially launch it at 13% ABV”, but they quickly found that was a little too strong.
He says: “We were on a cruise in the Caribbean when we soft launched this product with 2,400 people, just to taste test, at 13% ABV. We realised pretty quickly that two of those would get you pretty toasted. We’re never going to be a session drink, like a White Claw or a Truly [hard seltzer], because that’s not what we want, but we want people to be able to enjoy more than one safely. So we landed on 10% [ABV]. You do definitely get the rum, so you know it’s a cocktail.”
Jumping in, Mike adds: “Actually our motto is ‘get there fast and take it slow’, which comes from the song Kokomo, so with that 10% ABV, you can get there fast, but then you have to take it slow.”
Quality-first approach
The brand’s quality‐first approach to its RTDs carries over to its line of rums, which debuted with three expressions in May: a white rum, a barrel‐finished rum, and a Tahitian Vanilla Rum. The rums range in price between US$30 and US$55, a conscious decision to make sure that it is “one of the top rums in the market, but at a price point that is fair”, Brian says.
On moving into pure spirits, he says: “In the US there’s been a resurgence in craft brands, and the same thing is happening with rum, which we’re trying to take advantage of – this premiumisation of rum and gins and lesser‐ known spirits.” While the distillery is capable of making small batch whisky and gin, rum is the focus and the Loves want to participate in the premium segment.
California calling
Brian notes he and the team “feel like there’s a really great opportunity to gain a foothold, certainly starting and stemming from California, to really elevate the rum category in general”. He says the rums have been enthusiastically received. For instance, the Tahitian Vanilla is made with whole sourced Tahitian vanilla beans without any fake vanilla flavouring. “It’s more subtle,” Brian says of its flavours, “it’s not going to hit you in the face like a Malibu would with a coconut flavour, and the bartenders really gravitate towards our rums because oftentimes they haven’t tasted rum like this before. It’s very surprising.”
It is the same with the barrel‐aged rum, where any colouring comes from the barrels. “There’s no tricks or gimmicks. The sweetness that’s derived, there’s no added sugar, so we’re very much purist in that sense,” Brian makes clear.
Additionally, the rum world can be tricky to operate in, which is another reason why the brand took the stance of “if we’re going to do anything, we’re going to do it all additive‐ free”, says Brian.
On the whole, though, rum’s rulebook is perhaps a less strict rulebook than in other spirits categories, meaning that distillers can be extra creative with innovation and alcohol strengths. “You can see anything ranging from 35% [ABV] all the way up to 70% alcohol,” says Mike.
Brian continues: “Right now, the only rum that we have at 40% ABV is our Tahitian Vanilla, and that’s kind of the baseline. We purposely chose [to bottle] the Artisanal White at a little higher proof (45% ABV) just because it goes back to Caribbean tradition. A lot of those Caribbean rums are 45%‐60% ABV, and 45% on a white hit the nail right on the head. It’s perfect, and you can properly taste the rum. It makes an amazing Daiquiri. It shines through in tiki cocktails. You can make rum Martinis. We found that it’s a pretty good proof point.”
While Barbados and the Dominican Republic inspire Club Kokomo, Brian says that the brand primarily chose the Jamaican route “because of the fruit, the funk and the flavour”.
Premium plans
Future variations will be focused on premium versions of the brand’s aged rums, in the US$150‐US$200 range. Brian says they will be expressions “where our distiller [Geoff Longenecker] can just go absolutely crazy and come up with something really clever”.
There may be additional spin‐offs of flavoured rums, without additives, but the Loves contend that they have their hands full with the core three variants for now.
Club Kokomo’s roots are as a local San Diego brand that gets the word mainly out through taste testing against competitors such as Bacardí. “Listen, we’re never going to be able to compete with US$5 a litre,” says Brian. “We really are making the stance that we have to be product first. Our products have got to be good. That’s the only way you stand a chance against people who have more money and have a cheaper product.”
The overall vision, though, is still to get as big as they can get it. Brian says: “We want to get to a point where we’re very happy in the US, then expand into territories where rum is more appreciated – in the UK and Europe. We’d certainly also like to have our rums available in the Caribbean and Asia. Part of the brand’s goal of premiumising rum is showing people how to use it, and showing them how it’s different.
“The reality is, we have no big drinks brand behind us, its between friends and family, self‐funding and small investments. But there’s a beauty in that, in that we don’t have a big brand or money over our head telling us what to do, or telling us to cheapen the quality of our products and get our margins up. We really just do what we like to do, and that’s why the product is so great.”
Of course, The Beach Boys connection should help as well. Mike notes a lot of curiosity at the band’s concerts, which they perform all over the US, and Mike says the band is even “contemplating going to Europe next summer”.
He adds: “Look, I love a Mojito, and the potential is huge worldwide. In fact, after our shows, I often have a Kokomojito, and sometimes we do VIP meet‐and‐greets, where people get to sample the bottled rums and the RTDs. “That’s a lot of fun. I get to interact with people and they tell me what their favourite is, and they’ll ask me all kinds of questions. And so it’s a nice little way for us to display, while promoting in a very natural way, our love of our cocktails and bottles.”
When asked about what simply makes a good rum, Mike says it’s the purity.
“The ingredients starting from the sugar that we use, the sugarcane, the specific plantation that gives us the best possible basis from which you distil your rum. “We’re completely obsessed about doing the best rum we possibly can, with fascinating flavours that can be enjoyed by a multitude of people.”
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