The Position
Everyone else is selling you bubbles. We took them out and found there was nothing left to hide behind.
Bubbles bloat
Carbonation causes bloating and gas. It is the single most common complaint people have about the category, and nobody building in it seems to want to hear it.
Bubbles fill you up
Sparkling drinks are more filling, so people stop after one or two. That is a ceiling on the occasion, not just on the volume.
Bubbles hide sugar
Carbonation is a mask. It reads as sharp on the tongue and covers how sweet the thing underneath actually is. Flat is an honest format: whatever is in the can has to stand up on its own.
4%, not 8%
Low enough to have two. The category has spent years selling strength as value, which is how you end up with a drink nobody finishes.
Three things at once
Real 100% agave tequila. Still, with no carbonation. Clean and light enough to matter. Pick any two of those and the shelf is full of options. Ask for all three and it empties out.
That is not a marketing claim, it is just what happens when you read the panels. The agave brands are mostly sparkling. The still cocktails are heavy. The light cans got light by removing the flavor. Sitting in the middle of all three is the entire reason this exists.
The gap nobody mentions
Every other can under 100 calories got there by taking the flavor out. Every real-juice cocktail on the shelf starts at 160 and climbs from there. Ours is 90, with up to 4g of sugar and none of it added.
That is not a rounding difference. It is two or three times over, and most of what you are drinking in the difference is sugar somebody put there on purpose.
People are not drinking less because they stopped enjoying it. They are drinking better, and they would like the can to meet them halfway.
Read the Panels
Same shelf, different drinks. No brands named; check any can against its column.
| Sora Mesa | Hard seltzer | Canned margarita | Tequila soda | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 100% agave blanco | Usually malt or cane | Tequila | Tequila |
| ABV | 4% | Around 5% | Often 10% and up | 4.5–5% |
| Calories | 90 | About 100 | 160–360 | About 100 |
| Flavor from | Real fruit juice | Natural flavors | Juice plus added sugar | Little or none |
| Added sugar | None | Usually none | Usually yes | None |
| Carbonation | None. Still. | Carbonated | Carbonated | Carbonated |
The pattern is the whole argument. The light cans are light because they are flavorless. The flavorful cans are heavy because sugar carries them. The still can with real juice and nothing added is a column of one.
Nothing in here to blame.
Where this sits
Going still moves us out of hard seltzer entirely and into still cocktail RTDs. That is a different shelf, a different occasion, and a set we can actually win. The seltzer aisle is a knife fight over carbonation and price. We are not in it.
None of this came from a manufacturing constraint. It came out of asking drinkers what they did not like about what they were already buying. Nobody said more bubbles.
Why the category is open
Agua fresca is a familiar format almost everywhere in the country. Nobody has put it in a can with tequila and treated it seriously. The shelf is crowded with seltzers and margaritas, and empty here.
Eight flavors, still, 4%. Coming 2026.