Photo: White Claw

A tsunami of social media hype and celebratory trend pieces have already made White Claw a sensation in the United States. And so the hard seltzer's long-awaited Canadian debut this weekend comes with no shortage of expectations for similarly effervescent fortunes.

Its creator Anthony von Mandl, CEO of the Mark Anthony Group and proprietor of West Kelowna's Mission Hill Winery, says he's bewildered by the stunning rise of the low-cal drink previously only available to cross-border shoppers and tourists.

"This whole thing is an absolute dream," von Mandl says of the meteoric 2019 rise for the beverage, known for a sleek white can adorned with three cresting waves.

"This is a disruption very similar to what happened in the coffee business in 1994, when (former CEO) Howard Schultz launched Starbucks."

Trend-watchers and analysts, too, declared 2019 a breakout year for the low-carb, gluten-free drink, which debuted in 2016 but only caught fire last year when von Mandl says it captured 60 per cent of the rapidly growing hard-seltzer category.

At the forefront of its fanbase were ardent millennial and Gen Z champions whose Twitter and Instagram testimonials were an odd melange of apparently genuine devotion, ironic snark and comic click bait.

Von Mandl says about half of White Claw's "small" marketing budget is devoted to social media promotion but that it didn't fund the online fanbase, nor last summer's viral video by comedian Trevor Wallace which coined the phrase: "Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws."

Von Mandl credits much of his ability to grow White Claw into a sensation to the success of his other beverage blockbuster, Mike's Hard Lemonade. That sweet alcopop took off in the 1990s and is still around today.

Von Mandl sold the Canadian division in 2015 when Anheuser-Busch, which operates under Labatt's in Canada, made "an unbelievable offer."

Four flavours of White Claw hit shelves in Canada this weekend, including: natural lime, black cherry, mango and grapefruit. These distilled vodka-based concoctions will be made slightly differently than the malt-based U.S. versions, which von Mandl says is due to the setup at his two Canadian facilities — one in Toronto, another in Calgary.

Meanwhile, von Mandl is betting on continued U.S. growth in 2020 by building two more White Claw production facilities in New Jersey and Arizona at a cost of US$385 million. He expects output will more than triple once those operations start, bringing the total number of U.S. facilities to 13 by June.

The success of White Claw helps fund von Mandl's first passion — wine.

He recalls starting his business in 1972 as a wine importer out of a tiny office in the back of a Vancouver playhouse, where he spent early, "desperate" days selling European and California wines door-to-door to clubs and restaurants.

Mike's Hard Lemonade was really created to finance the Okanagan vineyards, he says, which today includes Mission Hill Family Estate, CedarCreek Estate Winery, Martin's Lane Winery and CheckMate Artisanal Winery.

"It's really the soul of everything we do and the soul of our company," von Mandl says of the wineries.

If there's a recipe for his success, he says it's an insatiable drive to find products people will love.

"What I do, and I love, is to always look ahead and look at what consumers don't know they want, as yet. To look around corners. And that's what we've done all along."