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Feature
The big interview: the founders of Gin & Juice
Hip hop heroes Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre brought their 1993 anthem Gin and Juice to life as an RTD earlier this year, swiftly followed by Still G.I.N. We spoke to the team behind the liquid to learn more.
Attending a west London roller disco that would see the first UK performance by Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre in more than 30 years – with a surprise set from Eminem – was not on my 2024 bingo card. And yet, it happened. In July the trio wowed star-struck fans with the unexpected appearance at Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace in Shepherd’s Bush, London, with hit after hit, including Still D.R.E., Drop It Like It’s Hot, and Nuthin’ But a G Thang.
‘Iconic’ barely does the night justice. It was a launch party and a half, curated to celebrate the UK debut of Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, the pair’s canned ready-to-drink (RTD) venture, which launched in the US this February. Inspired by and named after Snoop Dogg’s 1993 single Gin and Juice, which was produced by Dr Dre, the four-strong line-up has since been a huge talking point in the trade and, of course, for fans of the hip hop legends.
“Together, we always try to create magic,” said Dr Dre at the time of the launch. “We’re having fun being creative, and everything about this product is really us.”
“Look where we’re at in our careers,” added Snoop Dogg. “Look at our age and look at what we’ve done, and we still love each other, so why not do something together?”
Long history
To bring their Gin & Juice vision to life, the rappers partnered with the co-founders of pre-mixed brand On The Rocks Cocktails – Patrick Halbert, Andrew Gill, and Rocco Milano – which was bought by Suntory Global Spirits in 2020. The trio have a long history. Halbert and Milano were business partners and owned a restaurant together. Gill also has close ties as his wife is Halbert’s cousin: “We’ve been buddies forever,” Gill says.
“We had the vision of trying to bottle one of our delicious drinks into a pre-packaged, ready-to-serve, ready-to-pour over ice cocktail in a bottle,” Halbert recalls about the start of On the Rocks.
“Rocco and I and Andrew got together to figure out how to do that,” Halbert continues. “We took some educated food scientists to teach us the ropes of how to do food science, and a way to make a cocktail last in a bottle. We launched in a few states in the US, and inevitably, partnered with Beam Suntory.”
It was just a four-year journey between founding On the Rocks and selling it to one of the world’s biggest beverage firms. In that time, the brand had grown to around 250,000 cases. Milano stayed with the brand after the acquisition and was instrumental in helping it surpass the one million-case mark. “It was a great entrepreneurial moment for us three,” says Halbert. “Within a couple of years, we got a call from Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. So that kicked off our next career venture.”
Milano says he had a “tremendous amount of fun” working on R&D, drinks development, and strategy at On the Rocks after the acquisition, and says the brand was at the forefront of today’s RTD/pre-mixed movement. Halbert interjects: “A bottled or pre-mixed cocktail, ready to pour over ice seems like a simple idea. But in real life, we were very cutting edge. It was very innovative in this alcohol space – that category didn’t really exist. There wasn’t much of an ultra-premium, ready-to-serve, ready-to-pour cocktail, and we single-handedly, in my opinion, created that category.”
A few strategically shared Snoop Dogg memes, Milano says, persuaded him to resign from Beam Suntory and, once his non-compete, non-solicit agreement ended, he jumped heart-first into Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop with Gill and Halbert. “I have the greatest job in the world,” Milano enthuses. “I get to run the sales team here in the US. Being in the field, getting in front of buyers in the on-trade and off-trade, you name it, and getting to engage with them and watch them light up as I walk them through the tasting, and realise, ‘Oh my God, I did not know this could be this good,’ is phenomenal to see.”
Cultural influence
While Milano leads sales, Halbert is CEO of Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, and Gill is the company’s chief strategy officer. Bringing invaluable lessons from the spirits industry and combining them with the cultural influence and likeminded business acumen of Snoop and Dre, the product and the vision were able to become a reality this year.
A key learning, Gill explains, was creating products that had “refinement and complexity”. “Before we started, most of that RTD space was just sugar bombs,” Gill continues, “just ridiculousness and foolishness, and we wanted to bring refinement and complexity. And that is really what the takeaway from On the Rocks was, and it goes directly into Gin & Juice.”
He references a recent time when he and Halbert were in Puerto Rico. “We were talking to some great people, and someone came up to me and asked, ‘How come you didn’t do black cherry?’,” querying the four flavour choices for Gin & Juice: citrus, melon, passionfruit, and apricot. “I was like bro, everybody’s doing black cherry. Why are we going to do the exact same thing everyone else is? Besides, that’s one note.
“Our apricot, that is apricot, that is honey, that is bergamot – there are all these complex flavours going on. I’m enjoying what I’m drinking but at the same time, I’m not just getting hit over the head with ‘sweet’ in one note, but I’m getting that beautiful cacophony of flavours.”
Milano matches Gill’s enthusiasm here, and notes how he has, on multiple occasions, successfully converted self-declared non-gin-drinkers with Gin & Juice. “If you tell me, ‘No, I don’t like RTDs’, you’re my favourite person to talk to,” Milano laughs. “I was at a show in Florida and I was 45 for 45 for people who said, ‘I did not know I like gin,’ until they tried Gin & Juice. And it was all because they just hadn’t been exposed to the right gin – but there are so many variations. When you have that premium quality throughout, and a balance of flavour, it creates the wonderful experience that people are after.”
From song to product
It all started with an email from Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre, the trio explain. Their goal was simple: to turn Gin and Juice from an iconic song into a quality product. “They said: we don’t come from the beverage space, we need help from someone from the alcohol beverage space to come in; let’s work together on making ‘gin and juice’ a reality,” explains Halbert.
The intricacies of creating a brand were discussed in detail, from branding, production and liquid formulation to sales and strategy. From the early discussions, Gin & Juice was destined to be a canned product, meaning it had some very specific needs.
“We collectively spoke about formula and liquid development around a can because you don’t want to put too much alcohol and too much sugar in a canned product, as most people are consuming cans on the go or in higher-volume consumption,” Halbert says. Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre were “absolutely involved” in every aspect of the R&D stages. “What type of flavours? Do you want it to be natural and refreshing, or thick and more fruit-forward? Because historically, from the song 30-something years ago, it was orange juice and gin,” Halbert continues.
He notes how the team would regroup with the rappers about once a week to hash out the details. The trio would even fly to Dre’s house to taste test the latest product developments, before flying back to Dallas, Texas, to make any necessary amendments.
“We’d go back and rework some things, keep tweaking, and come back with a new set until Dre was finally happy, and we were happy,” Gill says. “Dre really cares about the product that’s going out there with his name on it; he’s a very refined person with every single thing he does. He’s not going to release the song if he doesn’t think it’s perfect – he’s not even releasing albums prolifically. He’s a perfectionist.”
How to drink gin
“Snoop is just one of those people who is super insightful,” Milano adds. “I’ll never forget I was on a call with him and he’s like, ‘We need to teach people how to drink gin.’ And I thought – yes, that’s exactly it. That’s exactly what we need to do. He sees what needs to be done with education. And both Snoop and Dre, they want Gin & Juice to lead the way and change how people drink.”
Gin and Tonics are ubiquitous in established markets like the UK and Spain – but the US has not cottoned on to this popular European serve with quite the same vigour. But Milano raises an interesting point – why should they?
“We want to transcend the gin and tonic,” Milano says. “We want to show people how to enjoy gin outside of that serve. Hit it with some lemonade, hit it with something you like, and make that magical experience. Let those botanicals come in, let all that flavour come through. We are capable of so much more than just gin and tonics.”
Gill returns back to the flavour profiles of the final Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop line-up. He notes the Gin & Juice Citrus variant has myriad layers to it, not just one citrus fruit: tangerine, lemon, grapefruit, “but also rose”, he adds. With Melon, hibiscus brings “tartness”, with “naturally, slightly earthy watermelon”. Apricot “is something to skew away from those other drinks with a unique, softer flavour”. And last, but not least, “Passionfruit was a no-brainer”.
“It was beautiful to see Snoop Dogg grab the Passionfruit and see his face just light up. Dre was the same with the Apricot, and they were like, ‘We’re done,’” says Halbert.
Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre spearheaded the look and feel of Gin & Juice, the co-founders explain. “They knew we had the expertise to work on the juice, and they knew they could start working on the brand identity,” says Gill. Dr Dre connected with an industrial-glass artist in Switzerland, Ini Archibong. “The low rider is iconic, not only to the song and the music video, but also to Dre and Snoop in West Coast culture,” notes Gill, referencing the car that adorns the cans and packs of Gin & Juice. “We’ve got a lot of white space. We have the parental advisory mark on there, and we have the car in different colours for different flavours, which leaves us open to future product expansions.”
While the four core flavours have not been extended yet, the team has moved quickly. In October, they unveiled Still G.I.N. – a new gin by Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. The ultra-premium gin is available in the US for RRP US$34.99. It is described as a citrus-led gin with subtle floral and spice notes, which are distilled using vapour distillation in a copper pot still. Bottled at 42.5% ABV, the gin comes in a honeycomb-inspired bottle – which was also designed by Archibong.
Speaking at the launch, Snoop Dogg said: “Every day in the studio when Dre and I were trying to make the dopest music, we were drinking gin and just having fun. We’ve been a part of the evolution of this gin – and it’s just so good. Dre’s a perfectionist: he wants to make sure it’s not just good but great. Together, we ain’t gonna do nothing regular.”
“This gin is going to be a game changer when more people try it,” Milano raves about Still G.I.N. “People are going to really start waking up to gin specifically because of what we’re about to do.”
Interest for Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, the trio explain, continues to pour in from around the world. It seems inevitable the addition of a gin will heighten the excitement for what the brand is offering. Outside of the US and the UK, the cans are already set to expand in the Caribbean, in additional European markets, Benelux, Nordic countries, Latin America, and Canada. Eventually, Gin & Juice will also head east, and the group already have South Korea and Australia on their list of new markets. But importantly: “Right will always trump ‘fast’,” assures Gill.
“My job is CEO of the company, so I have to be confident in everything we’re doing,” says Halbert. “If I’m not, we have to collectively figure out ways to be proactive to make sure we are in a position to be successful. Working with Dre and Snoop, and with Andrew and Rocco, I feel we are in a position to be successful. What we’ve accomplished so far has been nothing but extraordinary, and we are excited about what’s next and what we’re going to do together.”
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