Santos Cocktail Mixes
Premium Blend, was founded in 1990 by brothers Orestes (Gino) Santos and Enrique (Henry) Santos. In 1989 Gino came across a product which enabled locations with limited licenses (beer & wine only) to serve cocktails just as if they had a full liquor license. With a background in the entertainment industry, Gino had experience with nightclubs and restaurants and he knew of the difficulty and expense in acquiring a full liquor license, so the value of this product became quickly evident to him.
Premium Blend® brand was launched in the spring of 1990 with rum, tequila and vodka flavors, respectively. The line quickly expanded and to date there are 18 different varieties of Premium Blend® wine-based liquors.
Along with the line of Premium Blend wine-based liquors, the Santos brothers quickly found that their customer base was in need of all items needed to prepare cocktails, so they formulated a line of cocktail mixes to complement their wine-based liquors. This offering started with featuring El Guitarron branded Margarita MIx and the primary flavors of Piña Colada, Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri, and now includes Bloody Mary, Michelada, Blue Cucacao and Melon amongst others. The cocktail mixes proved to be of such quality that they opened a new market segment for Premium Blend when they began selling the mixes to all types of establishments, with liquor licenses, with beer & wine licenses, and with no licenses to serve as non-alcoholic.