Hot Springs-based Origami Sake debuts 100-calorie Snow Monkey drinks in six states

While Arkansas is ranked 45th in the country for sake sales, Origami Sake is looking to change that with a new product, Snow Monkey Sake Remix.

The 100-calorie ready-to-drink carbonated beverages have been something the company has been pursuing for years, and the drink was finally released last week. Watch Full Video Here

 

"It's a fiercely competitive market, so first of all, you have to be price competitive," Matt Bell, Origami Sake's president and CEO, said, noting the brand was trademarked in 2022.

"A lot of the beverages out there that have sake as a base, that are lower ABV, have a formulation that's very costly to make, so we've figured out a way to make this sake base and the formulation to be cost competitive with all the other RTDs on the market," he said.

"We really had to have a good name and a good brand behind this, and the reason we called it snow monkey is snow monkeys are the Japanese primate, the macaque and then the northern-most primate in Japan, in the world actually. And they warm themselves in hot springs during the winter, so it's a tie to our sense of place here in Hot Springs, but also a nod to Japanese culture and the foundation for this beverage, which is sake."

Bell, who opened the brewery in 2023 with Ben Bell, no relation, said this is the first sake-based ready-to-drink beverage to be offered on a national scale.

"Sake in the U.S. is about a $800 million market," he said. "When you look at what's called the ready-to-drink category, which is flavored cocktails similar to White Claw, Truly, High Noons, it's about a $50 billion market, so it's a magnitude about 60 times bigger than the opportunity for sake.

"We're basically formulating an RTD with a base of sake. Most of those beverages are either malt-based or wine-based or spirit-based, and this is the first national-scale sake-based RTD, ready-to-drink, beverage in a can."

One of the key ideas for the new product is to make sure it hit a few specific targets, Bell said.

"The key for this beverage is to be under 100 calories, number one; have the benefits of sake, which is gluten-free, sulfite-free and use all natural ingredients," he said.

 

"We wanted to be a better-for-you drink, and also it has to taste incredible," he said. "We really have been working on this for about a year to get this right for our national launch. We knew the opportunity was huge, and so we've been preparing, and now we're ready to go show the world a sake-based RTD called Snow Monkey."

 

While the state ranks low in sake sales, Bell said the company's launch was a huge success, and it has become the top-selling sake brand in the state and fifth in the country.

 

"What we found is a lot of the placements we had that were non-Asian cuisine were making cocktails," he said. "As a base, sake is a great base to make a cocktail. You can make a margarita out of sake. You can make mojitos; you can make a mint julep, a lot of different things. Functionality and the versatility of sake is great as a base.

 

"So we started formulating, using sake as a base."

 

The idea was to make a sake "you can put in a cooler and go to the lake," Bell said.

 

"You really can't do that with sake, take a bottle out on the lake," he said. "You can, but usually the ABV is 12–15%, so it's not as sessionable. This is something you grab an eight-pack and enjoy it all day."

Bell said the company also wanted to remove some of the intimidation of sake.

 

"A lot of people don't understand sake," he said. "They only have that one experience of a sushi restaurant or hibachi. This is an introduction to exploratory consumers that are wanting to try something new ... looking for a better-for-you drink in a seltzer that's easy format and easy to grab and go. So that's what we wanted to create, also introducing people to sake for the first time, to start exploring sake as well, to bring awareness to the category."

 

Flavors for the initial release of the product are "an East-meets-West" flavor profile, Bell said. The initial four flavors are dragon fruit-key lime, mandarin orange-grapefruit, yuzu-hibscus and mango-guava.

 

"We'll have an Asian-inspired fruit, plus something people are familiar with. ... We're innovating," he said. "We're going to be creating a lot of different flavor packs. We've already started on the next round of these product launches."

 

The initial launch saw products in Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, Georgia, Ohio and Florida, but Bell said additional states will be added later this summer.