What started as a social media gag in 2016 has become a family business celebrating one year for Bob Mckenzie and his son Shawn. Though the veteran commentator has no plans of retiring from his 40-year career as a face of Canadian hockey, he’s very much nurtured what he calls his ‘vacation persona’.
In our March/April issue interview, Bob explains the rise of his new Margarita Brand:
“It was mostly a social media gag I started in 2016 when I got a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville frozen concoction maker. When I fired it up for the first time on vacation that summer, I posted a pic or a video and changed my Twitter name to Bobby Margarita. It kind of took off a bit. Over the years, I leaned into that vacation persona and character, and so did a lot of other people.
Last March, my son Shawn was contacted by an old acquaintance, Brock James, who used to be a Molson rep in London when Shawn went to school there back in the day. He works for Ace Beverage Group now and was just reaching out to Shawn to get him to try some free beer (Ace Hill Mexican Lager) and tweet about it if he liked it. Shawn asked him about the idea of a Bobby Margarita ready-to-drink cocktail, and he said, let’s do it. That led to a partnership between Shawn and I and ABG, a big ready-to-drink cocktail maker in Ontario/Canada. They do Cottage Springs and Ace Hill. Fantastic partners. We worked together on everything from the taste of the liquid to can design, colours, branding, logos. It’s been an absolute blast.”
Bobby Margarita is currently available in Alberta and Nova Scotia, but it will be in the LCBO’s in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and PEI with widespread distribution in April.
“I can’t wait for it to be in Ontario. It’s very exciting.”
