SPECIALIZING IN

Ready-to-Drink Cocktails

Bar-quality balance, crafted formulation.

Hard Seltzers

Crisp, clean, and engineered for craveability.

Flavored Wine and Spirits

Flavor-forward, formula-perfect, shelf-ready.

What We Can Do for Your Beverage

  • Whether you bring a finished sample or just a description of the taste you’re after, we translate that into a precise flavor profile. Through structured tasting and analysis, we identify what’s working, what’s missing, and exactly how to adjust sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel, and aroma so the final drink lands perfectly with your ideal customer.

  • Once we know the direction, we tap our network to find the right suppliers for flavors, bases, sweeteners, acids, and functional ingredients. We vet vendors for quality, cost, lead times, and regulatory compliance so you’re not stuck guessing or overpaying.

  • With your goals and ingredients in place, we build the formula from the ground up: balancing taste, ABV, sugar, and cost targets while accounting for stability and keeping your brand story and market positioning in mind. The result is a recipe designed to work at commercial scale, not just on a bench.

  • We turn that formula into real, drinkable samples. You’ll receive three rounds of prototypes, with each round adjusted based on your feedback. Tasting notes and formulation tweaks vary from round to round, refining the drink until it truly feels like yours.

  • Already in production but not quite right? We evaluate your existing formula and process, identify off-notes, stability issues, or cost inefficiencies, then refine the recipe so it tastes better, performs more consistently, and fits your margin goals—without losing what makes it recognizable.

The Process

We’ve streamlined the entire development process. Here’s how it works:

1.

BEVERAGE IDEA

We’ll kick off the process with an initial brief.

2.

INGREDIENT SOURCING

We go straight to our contacts at respected ingredient vendors across the US.

3.

FORMULATION

When everything arrives, we start working our magic.

4.

PRODUCTION

Your packaging and labeling should reflect your one-of-a-kind beverage, so we’ll consider your formula and the entire process required.

MEET

Founder Jamie Arevalo perceives the world through flavors. For nearly two decades, she’s worked with some of the world’s largest beverage brands to create wines and spirits unlike any others. An artist at heart, Jamie sees beyond the technical details to the creative underpinnings of flavor development and botanical applications, translating emerging cocktail and flavor trends into award-winning beverages.

With an expansive career in R&D, winemaking, flavor application, and project leadership, Jamie has the expertise to bridge the gap between sensory science and technical feasibility. And she’s applied that acumen to wine and spirits innovation, TTB regulatory navigation, process optimization, and mentorship.

Drawing on connections to dozens of flavor houses, a highly trained palate, and a vivid imagination, Jamie creates one-of-a-kind flavor blends for wholly distinctive beverage brands.

It might look simple, but there’s a world of meaning behind the Saltwater logo:

Alchemy

Flavor development is like alchemy. It’s scientific, but also mystical—something that touches the spirit like a timeless painting or profound meal. The circle and triangle combine to create the alchemical symbol for saltwater, a simple notation for the complex combination of elements behind the depth and beauty of the Pacific.

Seaside Sunset

The Central Coast of California is my home, and also where I find my inspiration. There’s nothing that stokes the imagination like the beach at golden hour, when the sun throws its radiant light over the shimmering water. That’s the logo’s orange circle, cresting the blue triangle: the gorgeous and fleeting light of day.

Martini Glass

There are many specializations in flavor development, but mine is beverages. Spirits. Wine. You name it. The upturned and nested triangles represent a perfectly blended cocktail, the synthesis of alcohol, aromatics, and botanicals that creates an unforgettable sensory experience. 

Reach Out

To connect with Jamie, please fill out the form, and she will be in touch.