Stock Spirits built a new Croatian bitters brand to win back young drinkers

Stock Spirits asked Thirst to disrupt and create fresh relevance in the Croatian Pelinkovac category: attract a new generation of drinkers, open up the drinking occasion, and drive reappraisal of a beloved national bitters stuck in formal family dinners and teen rites of passage.

A new-to-world brand, "ignite unexpected connections": pelin plus novi ("new" in Croatian), a citrus-lifted liquid, and a glowing sun evoking terrace culture.

Thirst built the brand around Croatia's sun-soaked terrace drinking culture: the name Pelinova plays on 'novi', the liquid was given a hint of citrus for the target palate, and the design offsets crafted botanical details with a contemporary shock of orange and bold typography, centred on a glowing sun emblem — a versatile kit of parts for touchpoints across the brand.

The Dieline featured the launch on 3 July 2024; no sales figures were published.

Pelinkovac is Croatia's beloved herbal bitters, but despite its rich history it had been relegated to a tipple for grandparents — a post-dinner digestif for formal family get-togethers, or a rite of passage for party-bound teens — with no defined occasion or role for anyone else.

Stock Spirits tasked Thirst with creating a new-to-world brand in the category, dusting off the national bitters to attract a new generation of drinkers whose drinking is all about the occasion and matching their mood and sense of style. The agency answered with the platform 'ignite unexpected connections'.

The name Pelinova plays on 'novi' — 'new' in Croatian — and the liquid was given a hint of citrus to suit the target palate while keeping its 30 hand-selected herbs. The design pairs crafted botanical detail with a contemporary shock of orange and bold typography, centred on a glowing sun that radiates the warm glow of golden-hour get-togethers. The Dieline featured the brand on 3 July 2024.

Heritage categories die by occasion, not recipe — Pelinova's job was to attach the bitters to sunny, social moments instead of formal dinners.

A new name built from the category's own vocabulary (pelin, novi) signals reinvention without abandoning the 30-herb craft story.

The shock-of-orange sun breaks the category's dark, apothecary visual code exactly where younger drinkers are scanning for mood.

A dormant heritage category is a brand-launch opportunity: keep the craft cues, re-engineer the liquid and code for the occasion the next generation actually drinks in.

The Dieline covered the launch on 3 July 2024; no commercial results were reported.