April 24, 2017 | By Kyle Swartz

The annual Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of American conference gives opportunity for producers to show their lineups and innovations to wholesalers and distributors. Walking around the exhibition halls on day 2 of the WSWA2017, here are a dozen innovative products that caught our eye:


Novo Fogo Sparkling Caipirinha

This brand of Brazilian spirit has invented a new strategy to educate consumers about its category: cachaça in a can.

Novo Fogo CEO Dragos Axinte has come out with numerous ways to encourage consumers to make cocktails with Brazil’s national spirit. (Cachaça is distilled from fermented sugarcane juice.) He’s launched mixing kits. He has a line of little cocktail kits that require no more than a few steps.

But those required work, and Axinte wanted another option that immediately brought cachaça to consumers’ lips. Hence his new pre-made cocktails in a can: Novo Fogo Sparkling Caipirinha.

“It’s an opportunity to let anyone come into the category. It takes the work and the jitters away from them,” he explains. “If consumers start here then they might work their way up the chain.”

12 Innovative Products at WSWA 2017
Cheers, April 24, 2017