Papa Salt debuts RTD Paloma in GTR

Margot Robbie’s gin brand, Papa Salt, has teamed up with Virgin Australia to offer a ready-to-drink (RTD) Paloma on its inflight menu.

Canned at 5% ABV, the gin-based Paloma combines locally sourced cold-pressed grapefruit juice and a ‘hint’ of rosemary with Papa Salt to capture ‘the purest taste possible’. Speaking to The Spirits Business, Charlie Maas, co-founder and CEO of Papa Salt, said that creating a Paloma cocktail, which is traditionally made with a spirit base of Tequila, was not the brand’s idea. He explained: “When we launched Papa Salt in May of 2023, we were served this very drink over and over again. At the start of our launch events everyone would be trying Martinis and Negronis, and by the end of the night everyone had a Papa Salt Paloma in their hands. That was really eye opening to us – we had never mixed Papa Salt with grapefruit soda prior.” Maas noted that research and development for the RTD was “very quick”, with a final product ready in three months, despite the original intent being to “not put Papa Salt in a can at all”. However, he said: “Papa Salt was made for a can. We made Papa Salt to drink with friends out on a lovely sunny day. Consumers can do that now by bringing cans along – they aren’t bringing a full bottle with ice and mixers to a BBQ. When we thought about it that way, it became a no-brainer.” On why the brand opted to launch the brand into travel retail via the RTD, he said: “This can is our perfect serve on the go, and it doesn’t get much more ‘on the go’ than 35,000-feet high. We hope consumers love it and then come back down to the ground and try Papa Salt in one of their own favourite cocktails.” As well as being available on all domestic Australian flights, and all of Virgin Australia's short-haul international flights, the Papa Salt Paloma is also available across Australia at Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores. In addition, ALM and ILG will also be stocking the Paloma to allow independent and on-trade venues to order throughout the summer. There are no plans to create additional RTD flavours at this point, Maas confirmed. Global expansion Since debuting in Australia last May, Papa Salt has become one of Australia's best-selling gins, having initially sold out within 48 hours of launch. It is also available in New Zealand and the UK. “The response in New Zealand has been unbelievable – they’ve ordered way more Papa Salt than we ever imagined,” said Maas. “The UK response has also been great, and we’re continuously working to get the word out that we’re now available in the UK. We have just launched into more than 900 Tesco stores around the country.” Maas explained that the brand has ambitions to expand further in 2025, with more European countries marked as a priority. “We’re planning to cover as many beaches as we can: Spain, Italy, Greece,” he said. However, expansion into the US is still pending while the brand waits for approval to import wattle seed, a key botanical featured in the gin, into the country. “Apparently the FDA hasn’t heard of wattle seed,” he said.