Italian espresso liqueur Borghetti is leaning into the holiday selling season with a cross-category collaboration that pairs the brand's signature 30-Second Espresso Martini positioning with Chillhouse, the design-driven nail care brand stocked at Target, Walmart, and CVS. The limited-edition "Espresso After Hours" Chill Tips kit, priced at $16, is available now on Chillhouse.com and at the brand's SoHo flagship at 75 Varick St. in Manhattan — a timely activation as spirits brands compete for share-of-stomach and share-of-mind during the highest-velocity weeks of the beverage alcohol calendar.
Retail Footprint & Distribution
For Borghetti, the collab functions as a brand-awareness driver layered on top of an already broad national footprint. The Branca USA-imported liqueur is currently on-shelf at major grocery and specialty retailers including Kroger, Total Wine & More, and Binny's Beverage Depot, and is accessible through on-demand delivery platforms DoorDash and Instacart — a dual-channel distribution posture increasingly standard for premium spirits seeking both planned and impulse purchase occasions. The Chillhouse Chill Tips kit itself is not a grocery SKU, but the activation puts Borghetti's name in front of a highly engaged, style-forward consumer segment that over-indexes for premium cocktail consumption.
Category Context
The espresso martini's ascent from bar-menu staple to mainstream grocery staple has been one of the more striking velocity stories in the beverage alcohol set over the past three years. Espresso-flavored and coffee liqueur segments have benefited directly, with retailers expanding facings and allocating incremental planogram space to meet sustained scan-data demand. Borghetti, positioned as the leading Italian espresso liqueur in the Branca USA portfolio — a roster that also includes Fernet-Branca (the category's top-selling Amaro) and Antica Formula vermouth — is well placed to convert seasonal cocktail interest into trial and repeat at retail.
The Chillhouse partnership is a classic lifestyle adjacency play: rather than competing for display on a crowded spirits end-cap, Borghetti extends its "effortless occasion" messaging into the beauty and self-care aisle's cultural conversation. Chillhouse has demonstrated real mass-channel pull, with placement across Target, Walmart, CVS, Urban Outfitters, and Amazon alongside hundreds of specialty independents, giving the collab organic reach beyond the liqueur's core off-premise doors.
"With Borghetti, we believe that the best experiences don't have to be complicated," said Heidi Chen, VP of Marketing at Branca USA. "The espresso martini has become a go-to part of a night out, whether it's at a bar or before you even leave the house. Ours comes together in just 30 seconds, and partnering with Chillhouse is a fun way to bring that same simplicity to another part of the getting-ready ritual."
Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, Founder & CEO of Chillhouse, framed the tie-up as a natural extension of the brand's attainable self-care ethos, noting that the holiday season's packed social calendar makes quick-prep rituals — press-on nails included — especially resonant with its core shopper. For grocery and off-premise buyers, collaborations like this one signal how spirits brands are increasingly investing in cultural marketing to drive unaided awareness and velocity at shelf without relying solely on TPR events or MCB programs. As the spirits and beer category heads into its peak holiday lift period, expect similar cross-category activations from competitors looking to own the "pre-game" occasion. Coverage of related seasonal CPG launches and limited-edition retail programs continues across the Food & Beverage Magazine network at Food & Beverage Magazine.
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.
