Carib Brewery adds tonic wine to beverage line

Carib Brewery has launched its first tonic wine, Rockstone Tonic Wine, with hopes that it becomes the number-one seller on the market.

At the press launch on Thursday at the Queen's Park Oval, officials of Carib Brewery and Rockstone Tonic Wine introduced the product and revelled in the excitement of expanding beyond Carib beer.

Innovation project leader Cavinne Gooding said the recipe is world-class and includes the trademarked ingredient "Powaroots," made up of maca root, bois bande, sarsaparilla bark, horny goatweed, iron, vitamins B and C and 12 per cent alcohol. The tonic wine comes in a 200-millilitre bottle with the logo showing a crown and the name.

Given the design of the bottle, Ancil "Blaze" Isaac Jr joked, "The bottle is very comfortable to hold...ladies. It's even better to consume. Normally, if something is comfortable to hold, you would want to consume it, right?"

Before making his exit, Blaze prompted the crowd to respond with "Stone" after he said "Rock." He also added, "Rolling Rockstone gathers no moss."

Scott McSween, regional business manager, said since all the products are natural, the price range was set so they are easily accessible. He said the recommended retail price is $18.

After the presentation of the product, musical artiste Ziggy Rankin performed two of his popular songs, Wine For Your Lover and Love How Yuh Wining. He urged the crowd to sing along and then altered them to include the name of the product.

After the performance, samples of the tonic wine, snowcones and cupcakes infused with the tonic wine were shared.

Ziggy Rankin Carib Brewery's head of business development and innovation Adrian Sabga and Akash Ragbir, head of supply chain, commented on the product.

Ziggy Rankin, while drinking from the bottle, said the tonic wine tasted much better than the competition out now and he would easily gravitate towards to it. He complimented it on the balance of sweetness and natural flavours, none of which overpowered the others. Ragbir felt the same and said it could be a pre-gaming drink before heading out to a party or before hosting one. Sabga said he also enjoyed it, but couldn't have too much because of the fairly high alcohol content.

Riley said more on the product will be revealed soon and promised it would be worth the wait.