Across the spectrum of spirits, no feature is more important than flavor. That’s especially true for liqueurs that are most often consumed in shot form, with no embellishment or mixer.
Generational tastes being changeable, the most popular liqueurs have shifted over the years. For drinkers in the 1980s, sugary-sweet peach schnapps was all the rage. At the turn of the millennium, the herbaceous complexity of Jägermeister reigned. And as millennials came of age in the aughts and 2010s, cinnamon-hot Fireball assumed the top spot.
The last few years have seen a number of new contenders emerge, vying for a crown that can be worth tens of millions of dollars. There are peanut butter whiskeys, coffee liqueurs, and a small but growing subset of offerings with tropical flavors like mango, passion fruit, and yuzu. And there’s Gran Malo.
With a tequila base and flavors of tamarind and chile, the 30 percent-ABV Gran Malo hasn’t hit the mainstream yet, but it’s taken off with such velocity in its launch markets that it demands attention. Made in partnership with Casa Lumbre — which also produces Montelobos mezcal, Ancho Reyes liqueur, and more than a dozen other brands — the liqueur mimics the flavors of common Mexican candies. A few years ago, its cross-border popularity caught the attention of E&J Gallo, prompting the company to make a strategic investment.
“Given that I was seeing demand for it on our side of the border, it seemed like a natural partnership,” says Britt West, Gallo’s chief commercial officer. “People were going back to visit family in Mexico and bringing back bottles of Gran Malo to share in this country. Where we started to initially really see it was predominantly in places like El Paso and San Diego that are culturally intermixed with Juarez and Tijuana and other places across the border.”
“It feels approachable for younger customers who are just getting into tequila, but also has enough character for more seasoned drinkers.”
Gallo has focused Gran Malo’s marketing on the Mexican American and Hispanic demographic, and was met with instantaneous success that West says came as a surprise. “It might’ve been the easiest sell-in ever because there was already pent-up demand. When we first introduced it, they were limiting sales to one bottle per customer because they wanted to make sure everybody had access,” he notes. “Because we kept running out of product, the hardest piece was to get a true read on demand so that we could introduce other states.” After the initial launch in Southern California in 2024, this year Gallo rolled out Gran Malo to the rest of the state, as well as Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.
The initial data shows remarkable success in a short period of time. Gran Malo was the biggest new spirit brand by volume in California in 2024, according to IRI, and the No. 1 spirit brand in top Hispanic grocery chains in the state. Within multi-outlet chains in the Golden State, it was the No. 2 spirits growth item in the 52 and 26 weeks ending June 29, 2025. And in El Paso, Texas, in the year-to-date period ending March 31, 2025, Gran Malo outsold Tito’s in the 750-milliliter size by 50 percent.
A Retail Juggernaut
Retailers back up the numbers with their own experiences. Jesus Torres, director of Latin foods and liquor procurement at California’s 55-outlet Vallarta Supermarkets, says that customers have embraced Gran Malo for its authenticity and unique flavor profile. “It feels approachable for younger customers who are just getting into tequila, but also has enough character for more seasoned drinkers,” he says, adding that the appeal is cross-generational. “Gran Malo seems to be one of those products that everyone can enjoy.”
The Bottle Shoppe, a 3,000-square-foot retailer located in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles, has become one of Gran Malo’s top accounts. Co-owner George Younan says the store moves 30 cases a month — more than double its Fireball sales. He also cites Gran Malo’s flavor as a key driver of consumer demand.
“People from L.A. are familiar with that profile, they gravitate towards it. We’ve even had people order cases of shots to get shipped to them in other parts of the state,” he says. The Bottle Shoppe keeps a freezer stocked with Gran Malo, which Younan says has proven to be a huge hit as chilled shots are a preferred method of consumption.
“This is not about quarterly sales; this is about building an iconic brand that’s here for the future.”
But he also notes Gran Malo’s potential as a mixer, pointing to the fruit carts that are popular throughout Los Angeles as inspiration for consumers’ ad-hoc cocktails. “You go up to a fruit cart and get watermelon, mango, or cucumber with tamarind, lime, and salt,” Younan says. “Now think of Gran Malo’s tamarind flavoring with that sweetness — people add in a watermelon juice or watermelon- or mango-flavored AriZona iced tea. They’re very complementary flavors.” He adds that The Bottle Shop used to sell a lot of Smirnoff Spicy Tamarind vodka, but when Gran Malo debuted, “it wiped out the Smirnoff business because it’s a better mixer.”
Influencer Impact
Besides its flavor and value proposition — retailing for $20 to $25 a bottle, with a 50-milliliter size around $2 to $3 — Gran Malo has a secret weapon: the Mexican mega-influencer and brand co-founder Luisito Comunica, whom Younan calls “probably the biggest component in the success of the product.” With 45 million YouTube subscribers and 33.7 million followers on Instagram, Comunica is among the most popular personalities not just in Mexico, but across the Spanish-speaking world.
“His huge following in Mexico really connects with a lot of our customer base, and it shows,” Torres says. “He joined us for a special meet-and-greet at one of our San Diego locations. The event was a huge success, with a line of excited fans wrapping around the building to meet him. That kind of turnout speaks volumes about both the strength of the Gran Malo product and Comunica’s impact as the face of the brand.”
West affirms that Comunica’s influence is paramount to Gran Malo’s success. “If you do the old four Ps of marketing [product, price, place, and promotion], you cannot discount the promotion on this,” he says. “He is such a believable, authentic, wonderful individual that truly cares about sharing his love of Gran Malo with other people.”
Crossover Potential
It’s still early days for Gran Malo, but the brand has potential to make a national play. West notes that in-store tastings have been instrumental in driving sales, and Gallo plans to carry momentum from summer into the fall with targeted promotions — dubbed Maloween — around Día de Muertos.
Expansion into additional markets will come at a deliberate pace, as Gallo seeks to keep up with and accurately predict demand. Gran Malo offers additional variants in Mexico — the hibiscus-flavored Jamaica and creamy cinnamon-forward Horchata — which will likely make their way across the border at some point and add incremental sales. Younan says he knows of customers who travel to Mexico and bring back bottles on their return, just as they did with the core variant before its U.S. launch.
One wild card is the current administration’s hostility toward immigrants, which has dampened sales of beverage alcohol brands popular with Hispanic consumers, such as Modelo. However, West says that Gran Malo’s transnational popularity insulates it from some of the concerns other companies are facing.
“It’s something that we watch and monitor,” he acknowledges. “What is really different here compared to some of the other brands that are expressing concern about this is the authenticity of this brand that exists on both sides of the border. … We have such a good balance and mix between both that I think we’re less concerned.”
For Gallo, West says, Gran Malo is about “the long game. This is not about quarterly sales; this is about building an iconic brand that’s here for the future.” That would necessarily include consumers outside of Gran Malo’s current core demographic — including the Fireball drinker.
Whether the brand has a “crossover moment with mainstream consumers” like other Mexican beverages such as Topo Chico or Jarritos is an open question, West adds. “Will it be adopted and adapted? To date that has not been what we’ve been focused on, but that is certainly of interest.”
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