Matte, as if glowing from the inside, the bottle of Malibu liqueur with the invariable image of two palm trees against the backdrop of sunset is familiar to cocktail lovers on all continents. Pernod Ricard exports the drink to 150 countries. Malibu is the most popular of the rum-based liqueurs.
Historical reference. After the Pina Colada cocktail was invented in Puerto Rico in the middle of the 1979th century, the fashion for it spread throughout the world. The peak of the popularity of the drink came in XNUMX, when the voice of Rupert Holmes, who performed the song The Piña Colada Song, sounded from every radio. The bartenders did not have enough time to quickly serve everyone who wanted to taste a thick aromatic cocktail with coconut milk, pineapple juice and light rum: according to the preparation technology, the mixture had to be filtered.
Malibu liqueur was created in 1980 in a small distillery in Curaçao as a semi-finished product for Pina Colada. Now the bartenders didn’t have to strain anything, just mix the rum and coconut milk liquor with the pineapple juice.
But suddenly it turned out that there are no less sweet teeth and gourmets in the world than convinced gourmets savoring every sip of premium rum. Rum liqueur with a strength of 21% began to be in great demand. Soon, the brand’s owners moved production to one of the best distilleries in Barbados – West Indies Rum Distillery Ltd.
Here the technology of making liquor was brought to perfection. Carefully filtered light molasses light rum is blended with coconut milk and other natural ingredients. The strongest of the liqueurs, Malibu Black, contains dark rum.
Competitors did not doze off either: Seagram immediately released Parrot Bay liqueur similar to Malibu (based on Captain Morgan rum). The “liqueur race” began: after all, by that time, in addition to the classic Pina Colada cocktail, strawberry, peach, banana and other variations had appeared, so liqueurs with different flavors were also needed.
In 1997, Guinness, which owned the Malibu trademark, became part of the world’s largest producer of alcoholic beverages, the Diageo concern. In 2002, the brand was sold to Allied Domecq, and three years later this company was acquired by the French company Pernod Ricard (it ranks second in terms of production after Diageo).
However, due to the 2008 crisis, Malibu sales began to decline. Little by little, by only 2-3% per year, but the fall could not be stopped, profits were decreasing, and the French corporation had not yet paid the banks $ 14 billion invested in the purchase of Allied Domecq.
The situation improved significantly when Alexandre Ricard took over as CEO in 2015. Monsieur Ricard believes that it is not enough for the modern public to simply have a quality product – they need a game, entertainment. Not for nothing that Paul Ricard, who founded the family company Ricard in 1932, chose the motto for it: Createurs de convivialité (“Creators of holidays”).
In the summer of 2016, 40000 Europeans took part in testing a new application for mobile devices. Each user receives information about where Malibu liqueur is sold, which bar makes the best cocktails. Competitions and quizzes with valuable prizes are constantly held.
Buyers are happy to join the game. A new surge in the popularity of Malibu was facilitated by the release of ready-made cocktails in convenient plastic packaging, as well as the Malibu Sparkler series – carbonated drinks based on rum (11% alcohol), similar in taste and consistency to sparkling wines. In one of his interviews, Alexandre Ricard brought out the formula for the success of the XNUMXst century: perfect, time-tested product quality combined with the latest technology.
Types of Malibu liqueur
14 varieties of Malibu liqueur are produced:
- Malibu Original – colorless transparent liqueur (21%) with coconut flavor, the very first product in the Malibu line;
- Malibu Black – coconut liqueur (35%) based on fragrant dark rum;
- Malibu Island Spiced – coconut liqueur (30%) with toasted vanilla, cinnamon and Truvia® natural sweetener, which makes the drink low in calories;
- Malibu Red – coconut liqueur (35%) with rum and tequila;
- Malibu Orange Float – orange cream liqueur (21%) with coconut milk;
- Malibu Sunshine – citrus-coconut liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Sundae – chocolate-coconut liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Swirl – strawberry creamy coconut liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Mango – mango liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Tropical Banana – banana liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Pineapple – pineapple liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Passion Fruit – liqueur with maraca (21%);
- Malibu Island Melon – coconut-melon liqueur (21%);
- Malibu Pineapple Upside Down Cake – coconut liqueur (21%) with pineapple dessert flavor.
Malibu Sparkler carbonated drinks with a strength of 11%:
- Malibu Rum Sparkler – rum drink with coconut water;
- Malibu Peach Sparkler is a rum drink with coconut water and peach juice.
Ready-made cocktails based on Malibu liqueur:
- Malibu Rum Caribbean Cosmo;
- Malibu Rum Punch;
- Malibu Rum Tropical Mojito.
