The Launch
De La Calle, the tepache brand affiliated with LOAF Brands, is deploying a Spiced Pineapple limited-time offering timed to Día de los Muertos across its full national retail footprint of more than 8,000 doors — including Whole Foods Market — as well as direct-to-consumer online channels. The SKU is available now and will remain on shelves for a limited run through the holiday window.
The LTO uses De La Calle's traditional fermentation process to produce a tangy, effervescent spiced pineapple profile. It arrives packaged in a Día de los Muertos-themed can developed as part of a broader seasonal marketing campaign that the company says will include community and cultural programming across the United States.
Seasonal Strategy
Flavored LTOs tied to cultural moments have become a proven volume driver in the better-for-you beverage segment, helping brands compete for attention on crowded shelves without committing to permanent SKU expansion. For De La Calle, which occupies a narrow but fast-growing niche in the fermented non-alcoholic beverage category, the Día de los Muertos activation reinforces the brand's positioning around Mexican heritage — a differentiator that carries increasing weight as tepache moves from specialty retail into mainstream grocery.
The choice to anchor the launch at Whole Foods Market alongside independent and regional chains signals confidence in category awareness. Tepache, once confined to Mexican street markets and niche natural-food retailers, has gained meaningful shelf velocity since De La Calle's national rollout, benefiting from consumer appetite for functional fermented drinks and low- or no-alcohol alternatives. The brand's fermentation-forward credentials align with the same tailwinds that have expanded the craft non-alcoholic beverage market over the past three years.
Cultural Programming
"Día de los Muertos is about remembrance, celebration, and community, and that's exactly what we wanted this can to hold," said Alex Matthews, Co-Founder of De La Calle. "Spiced Pineapple Tepache is a tribute to where the brand comes from, brewed the traditional way and made to be shared at the ofrenda, the block party, and everywhere in between."
Beyond the can itself, De La Calle has flagged unspecified community events and cultural programming as part of the campaign infrastructure — a strategy increasingly common among emerging beverage brands seeking to build brand equity through experiential engagement rather than paid media alone. The move mirrors tactics used by other culturally rooted limited-edition beverage launches targeting Hispanic consumers ahead of significant calendar dates. Whether the LTO translates into sustained velocity gains or serves primarily as a brand-building exercise will depend on execution at the retail level and the depth of the associated programming.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
