For RumChata, the Sweet Taste of Success

A decade ago marketing executive Tom Maas was working at distiller Jim Beam looking for ways to get Hispanics to drink more bourbon. That didn’t work out, but the effort introduced him to horchata, a traditional sweet-and-spicy nonalcoholic drink consumed across Central America. Luckily, he didn’t forget the milky concoction of crushed rice, almonds, cinnamon, and other spices when he went off on his own. Today his RumChata, a combination of the Latin favorite, dairy cream, and rum, sits in the profitable eye of a perfect trend storm: Hispanic flavors are hot; rum-infused tiki cocktails are in; and consumers are looking for simple yet novel drinks to mix for themselves at home.

That trifecta has helped RumChata grab one-fifth of the volume in the $1 billion U.S. market for cream-based liqueurs, according to data tracker Euromonitor International. The drink is outselling Diageo’s Baileys, the longtime leader in cream liqueurs, in parts of the U.S., including Wisconsin and Illinois. And it’s luring men to the traditionally female-dominated seasonal quaff; Maas says 47 percent of RumChata’s drinkers are male. These new acolytes are drawn by the drink’s flexibility: It blends with everything from coffee to root beer to whiskey—and even makes for an eye-opening French toast batter.