Montecito's Favorite Can Gets a New Color

Ysidro Sake Spritz that turned a single can into a local fixture just gave fans what they've been asking for since 2021. Ysidro has just launched Cara Cara Orange, its first new flavor since the brand's founding, with the goal to solidify their standing in the elevated ready-to-drink industry.

One Can, One Idea

Ysidro made exactly one drink. The Grapefruit and Sea Salt Sake Spritz became a fixture around town: the pink can at the Miramar, in wine bar coolers, on shelves at local convenience stores. The founders made the drink they wanted to drink themselves, and it turned out plenty of other people wanted the same thing. Ask around today and people still call it the same thing: Montecito's drink.

That single-minded focus is exactly why a second flavor was never going to be easy. The founders spent months on one goal: to build on the brand's staying power without losing the elevated experience. Creating a second flavor was never about creating a flavor for the sake of it. It was about the opportunity to express Ysidro's point of view and define its own space, differentiated from the rest of the industry.

The timing helps. Ysidro focused first on dominating in their backyard of Santa Barbara, then found early traction in Northern California, including a placement at one of Thomas Keller's restaurants in Yountville. That momentum set up this year's expansion into Southern California through a new distribution partnership with Breakthru Beverage Group, one of the largest wine and spirits distributors in the country.

What Every Can Has in Common

Ysidro has earned some quiet industry validation along the way, including recognition at the Michelin level. Good company to keep, but not the pitch. The real pitch is simpler: Ysidro is a modern drink, not tied to any one culture or cuisine, built on high standards, local roots, and a good story. Every can is gluten free, sulfite free, non-GMO, low sugar, and 6.5% ABV, made with California citrus. That promise stays the same no matter which can is in hand.

A new flavor was always going to test that promise. Cara Cara Orange had to prove it could hold every one of those lines and still feel like a genuinely new drink, not a repackaged one.

Building Flavor in Layers

Co-founder Alex Dessouky came to Ysidro from the wine world, and it shows in how he talks about building a drink. "Taking a page from our experience in wine, where different varieties, lots, and barrels are assessed and blended to create the most balanced result, our approach is to build layers of flavor and complexity through a combination of ingredients," he says.

The foundation stays constant: Junmai sake, which gives the drink a subtle base of umami, fruit, and acid. "Sake is the ideal canvas from which to begin building flavors," Dessouky says. From there, citrus does the heavy lifting; a natural fit for a brand built in Santa Barbara, with citrus growing practically in its backyard. For the new flavor, that's Cara Cara orange: softer and sweeter than a navel, with a faint berry note.

The final layer is what Dessouky calls the spicebox, a rotating spice and herb component that gives each flavor its own identity. In Cara Cara Orange, that's black pepper and cardamom, warm and aromatic against the bright fruit. For the CEO, the spicebox is the whole thesis: spices and herbs aren't a garnish, they're what separates a real cocktail from a flavored seltzer. "Line expansion is a chance for us to express our own point of view on the category, rather than follow it," she says.

Keeping the Pink

Another challenge was how to approach the new can design. Ysidro's pink is the brand, an homage to the "pink moment," the short window at dusk when the setting sun casts a glow across the mountains above Santa Barbara and Ojai. A new flavor needed a new color. Losing the pink was never on the table.

"One of the challenges was how to introduce a new flavor using color and retaining our signature pink," says Seth, one of the founders and CMO who leads design. Inspired by color combinations found traveling abroad, his solution was restraint: the pink woven back in along the top and bottom bands of the can and behind the St. Isidore logo. "In many ways the color combination reflects the energy and spirit of Montecito and the South Coast, which pulls influence from the Mediterranean," he says.

The result looks new but is unmistakably Ysidro, orange and pink sharing the can the way they share one of those evening skies.

The Bigger Picture

Cara Cara Orange is out now across Ysidro's existing California markets, north and south, and online at ysidro.com, in the same 8.4 oz slim can as the original.

As the sophisticated ready-to-drink industry matures, a second flavor built to the same standard as the first is its own kind of milestone. Ysidro spent five years proving a single can could hold its own on the Central Coast, then in Northern California, then across the state through its Breakthru Beverage Group partnership. Cara Cara Orange shows the brand's core promise holds even as it grows, real staying power, not just a new can on shelves. It's the kind of consistency that keeps loyal fans coming back, and the kind that tends to catch the eye of bigger players in the beverage business.