Kazimo launches to democratise flavours for bartenders
Veteran bartender Marcis Dzelzainis has unveiled Kazimo, a new range of cocktail mixers developed to make creative and high-quality flavour profiles easily accessible in high-volume environments.
Speaking exclusively to The Spirits Business, Dzelzainis explains that he drew on his experiences in the drinks industry to create the Kazimo line of mixers, having been influenced by disruptive products that have allowed bartenders to experiment with flavours in creative ways.
“I started bartending back in the early 2000s, when Funkin was a really disruptive product. If you think about accessibility to fresh fruit – especially tropical fruit at that time – it was really expensive, and you couldn’t really get hold of it.
“I remember having a Lychee Martini at Jake’s bar back in 2002, and having my mind blown. I used to work in a really high-volume bar called Prohibition, and having access to things like Funkin purée really allowed me as a bartender to start experimenting with stuff. It was a real gateway into a creative mixology.”
With this in mind, Kazimo has been developed to provide bartenders and consumers with convenient and flexible ‘building blocks’ for cocktails that are consistent, high-quality, and able to be made quickly without sacrificing on flavour.
“It’s just like an homage to when I started bartending. I thought to myself: ‘What kind of tools would I want to have at my disposal if I were just starting out at the moment?’ This is really something for high-volume bartenders to utilise in a really busy bar environment and have just really clean, well-pronounced flavour profiles with ingredients that feel relevant to a lot of modern bar menus.”
Kazimo launches this month (October) with four flavours – Passion Fruit, Rhubarb, Spicy Watermelon, and Yuzu – in 150ml cans. Each is carbonated and crafted with natural ingredients that offer ‘versatility and convenience without compromise’.
While Passion Fruit is said to be perfect for an Aperol or Campari Spritz, or mixed with any of the core spirits categories, the Rhubarb expression is recommended for adding a ‘British twist’ to a Paloma.
Spicy Watermelon is described as a vibrant base for those who like ‘a little heat’ in their cocktails, with the Spicy Margarita heralded as one of its intended serves. Meanwhile, the light, tangy and aromatic Yuzu, which combines yuzu, grapefruit, lemon, and mandarin with floral undertones, works well in a Gin Collins or as a lengthener for any spirit choice.
Dzelzainis explains that these flavours were selected to offer clear, natural, and flexible options that cater to both bartenders and consumers. The approach was to create flavours that are instantly recognisable, easily mixable, and suitable for a high-volume bar environment – making it straightforward for staff to identify and serve drinks, even in busy settings.
Each expression represents a unique, vibrant corner of the flavour spectrum and was influenced by practical experience, pairing well with a variety of spirits and allowing for creative, easy-to-make cocktails.
The aim, he says, was to have each flavour stand out on its own while also offering versatility and exciting possibilities for both professional bartenders and home cocktail makers.
Growth strategy
Dzelzainis has co-founded the brand with drinks industry newcomer Andy Sweerts, who serves as sales director for the company. Bringing an outside perspective, Sweerts’ aim is to drive the brand’s outreach and growth strategies.
“Andy’s got quite a diverse experience in terms of sales, but it was really important to have an outside perspective on this as well, because it is a product that’s for consumers, too,” says Dzelzainis.
Sweerts elaborates: “Marcis and I spoke quite a lot about [me not coming from a drinks background] before we decided to go into business together. We realised we actually complement each other in a lot of ways. He can obviously plug his head into the production and flavour profiles, and I can give honest, layman’s opinions on the drinks, because I have less exposure to it.
“On a Friday night after work, I would always either go for a glass of wine or a beer – that was just the limit of my brain, as I didn’t know exactly what to do with cocktails. Spirits just gathered dust on my shelf, but now I’m known as ‘the cocktail guy’ in my group. I love championing and experimenting with Kazimo, and it has given me real confidence in making delicious drinks and also trying things that may or may not work.”
One of the growth strategies Sweerts is keen to focus on is expanding the brand to UK festivals and live events. This follows Kazimo’s debut at Glastonbury Festival this summer.
The duo sees festivals as a key growth avenue, and they intend to build brand presence by showcasing Kazimo’s convenience and versatility in high-volume, dynamic settings.
“We’d love to do more festival stuff,” Dzelzainis confirms, explaining that one of the key issues the brand solves in terms of service is an increase in speed, which he says is “really important” for events such as these.
He adds: “It reduces wastage quite dramatically, because 150ml is perfect in a 12-ounce (350ml) glass. With 150ml, there’s no wastage whatsoever. It’s really quick and easy to execute. Also, from a stocktake perspective, it’s really easy to count how much stock you have afterwards. So once you’re doing the project reconciliation at the end, you want to know how much money you’ve made. It’s much easier to see effectively, and so it just has that flexibility.”
The product also lends itself to restaurants and pubs where order numbers are high and storage is limited. “The idea was really to democratise this, so you can have a decent cocktail in any kind of setting, whether that’s a festival, or just a really nice pub or restaurant.”
Spirits partnerships
While growth is a priority for the brand, Dzelzainis emphasises the importance of it being controlled. He is interested in finding spirits partners with similar philosophies and attitudes to Kazimo.
“One of the great things about sales and marketing in this modern era is it’s all about collaboration and finding spirits partners who have the same energy and ethos. We’re still a really small brand. We’ve got some really good contacts in the industry, but one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s worth taking your time growing a brand. A lot of business owners want to go from nought to 60 very quickly, and that’s where the wheels come off. We’re well aware of the pitfalls. We’re really lucky in terms of where we’re at with the business, having seeded at Glastonbury, having the Tate Modern as a key client, and we don’t want to rock the boat too much.”
That being said, he expresses excitement about bringing the brand to new people.
“I think a lot of bartending is quite daunting for the home consumer. Sometimes you need to be careful about not making it hard for people to get into. I think you need something accessible, and you need to have some key guiding principles. But you need to also just be quite flexible, let people do things their way and not try to be too restrictive.”
‘Old-school’ branding
The name Kazimo, Dzelzainis explains, is an homage to the European brands of the 1970s that he grew up drinking while growing up in France, such as Orangina. “I love that kind of era branding. So there’s a kind of a cheeky homage to those old-school sodas.”
To come up with the name, Dzelzainis enlisted the help of Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, who studies the sensory impact of phonetic sound on flavour perception. “A really good case study centres around breakfast cereals and why they’re called certain names,” he says. “So you think of like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, there’s a real kind of onomatopoeia to it. You feel like you’re crunching.
“In Japan, they’ve done a lot of academic research on what effect vowel sounds and hard consonants have on flavours.” As such, he explains that Kazimo has the “perfect balance of hard and soft, so it sounds slightly sweet and sour with a hint of bitterness. It was those kind of things I was thinking about. It’s a very disruptive new brand, so it’s not supposed to be rooted necessarily in any tradition.”
Kazimo Mixers are available online at www.kazimomixers.com in packs of eight, 12, and 24.
They are currently listed in the on-trade at London’s Tate Modern and Muse at RSA House, which opened in partnership with Dzelzainis and his brand Idyll Drinks last November.
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