Rodolfo Aldana

Rodolfo "Rudy" Aldana is a Colombian-Canadian beverage executive and the co-founder and CEO of Parch Spirits Co., a Tucson, Arizona-based company that produces non-alcoholic ready-to-drink cocktails made with organic blue weber agave and Sonoran Desert botanicals.^[2][18] Before founding PARCH in 2022, Aldana spent approximately 14 years at Diageo, the world's largest spirits company, where he rose to North American Marketing Director for Agave Spirits, overseeing the tequila and mezcal portfolio including Don Julio.^[1][7] His career in consumer goods also included roles at Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, and PepsiCo across Colombia, Canada, and the United States.^[12]

Aldana founded PARCH after a cancer diagnosis led him to stop drinking alcohol.^[1][7] Unable to find a non-alcoholic alternative with the complexity and craftsmanship of the spirits he had spent his career marketing, he partnered with former Diageo colleague Ila Byrne to create one.^[12][13] Within five months of its summer 2022 launch, PARCH won BevNET's Best New Product of 2022 award.^[10] In 2023, the brand was crowned champion of BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 25, a pitch competition whose past winners include Rise Brewing Co. and Health-Ade.^[2] That same year, PARCH won a $20,000 grant and six-month mentorship from PepsiCo's Greenhouse Accelerator program in its first year focused on Latino-owned businesses.^[1][4]

By early 2024, PARCH had expanded into The Vitamin Shoppe's approximately 700 stores and projected distribution across more than 2,000 retail doors by the end of summer 2024.^[3] The brand was also featured in a 500-store functional beverage endcap display at The Vitamin Shoppe alongside Kin Euphorics, De Soi, and Hiyo.^[8] VinePair named PARCH one of the best non-alcoholic drinks of 2024.^[5][15]

Aldana grew up in Colombia and studied industrial engineering at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, one of the country's most prominent private universities, graduating in 1996.^[12][18] He later completed the Reserve Luxury Programme at INSEAD in 2014, during his tenure at Diageo.^[18] As of 2024, he was enrolled as an Executive MBA candidate at Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada.^[18]

Early career: Unilever, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo (1996–2005)

Aldana began his career in consumer packaged goods at Unilever in Bogotá, where he worked as an Associate Brand Manager.^[12] He then moved to The Coca-Cola Company, also in Bogotá, as a Senior Brand Manager.^[12] Around 2001, he relocated to Canada to join PepsiCo, where he managed marketing for the Tropicana orange juice brand.^[12] The move marked his transition from the Latin American market to North America and gave him experience across both carbonated and non-carbonated beverage categories.^[18]

Diageo (2005–2019)

Aldana joined Diageo around 2005 and spent approximately 14 years at the company, rising through a series of marketing and commercial leadership positions.^[1][7] He began as Brand Manager for Guinness, then progressed through Director of Marketing for Brown Spirits and White Spirits, Director and General Manager of Diageo Reserve — the company's premium and luxury portfolio — and Director of American Marketing (North).^[12][18] He ultimately served as North American Marketing Director for Agave Spirits, based in New York City, overseeing the tequila and mezcal portfolio for the world's largest alcohol company.^[7][12] He also held a Global Director of Marketing title, giving him cross-geography oversight across multiple continents.^[18]

It was during his final years at Diageo, while driving the agave spirits portfolio across North America, that Aldana received a cancer diagnosis.^[1][7] He departed the company in 2019.^[7]

Cancer diagnosis and the path to PARCH (2019–2022)

After undergoing treatment and recovery, Aldana made the decision to remove alcohol from his life entirely.^[1][7] He worked as an independent marketing and commercial consultant in the beverage sector while developing the concept that would become PARCH.^[18] He found that the non-alcoholic market lacked what he described as "credible, well-crafted, complex-tasting alternatives" to the spirits he had spent his career building.^[12] He also perceived a social stigma attached to not drinking.^[12]

Aldana began conducting research and development at Mission Garden in Tucson, Arizona, a living agricultural museum of the Sonoran Desert, where he studied the region's native biodiversity — prickly pear cactus fruit, blue weber agave, and desert botanicals — as potential ingredients for a non-alcoholic spirit.^[1][18] He reached out to Ila Byrne, a former colleague from the alcohol industry who had created Ketel One Botanicals at Diageo, and asked her to help him build an agave-based alternative to the tequila and mezcal cocktails he had once loved.^[13][12]

Parch Spirits Co. (2022–present)

Aldana and Byrne co-founded Parch Spirits Co. in January 2022.^[2][18] The company launched in the summer of 2022 with two SKUs — Prickly Paloma and Spiced Piñarita — each built on organic blue weber agave, prickly pear cactus fruit, and more than ten Sonoran Desert botanicals.^[9][11] Instead of ethanol, each 8.4-ounce can contains 185 milligrams of a custom adaptogen blend — ashwagandha, L-theanine, and American ginseng — selected by a naturopathic doctor.^[17][4] The founders described their formulation philosophy as "if it grows together, it goes together," drawing directly from the Sonoran Desert's ecosystem.^[1][11] The brand name itself carried a double meaning: the dryness of the desert and the absence of alcohol.^[1] Branding and packaging were developed with Brooklyn-based studio The Young Jerks.^[18]

The brand gained traction quickly. Within five months of launch, PARCH won BevNET's Best New Product of 2022 award, competing against 216 nominees at the beverage industry awards in Los Angeles.^[10][18] Beverage Industry Magazine profiled the two launch SKUs.^[9] Mezcalistas, a trade publication covering the agave spirits category, reviewed the product and noted its roots in Aldana's deep agave expertise.^[11] BevNET's editorial review praised the brand's flavor complexity.^[16]

In June 2023, PARCH was crowned champion of BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 25, a bi-annual pitch competition judged by a panel that included BevNET CEO John Craven, a Whole Foods Global Category Merchant, and a Coca-Cola North America executive.^[2] Past champions of the competition include Rise Brewing Co. and Health-Ade.^[2] Dan White, Coca-Cola's Chief of New Revenue Streams and a Showdown judge, called PARCH "the most beautifully designed brand I've seen at BevNET Live."^[17] At the time of the competition, PARCH was available in 47 states and approximately 550 stores, including Bristol Farms, and was exporting to Canada.^[2] The product retailed at $40 per eight-pack.^[2]

In July 2023, PARCH won a $20,000 grant and six-month mentorship from PepsiCo's Greenhouse Accelerator program, in the program's first year focused on Latino-owned businesses.^[1][4] Finalists were eligible for an additional $100,000 grand prize and a continued working relationship with PepsiCo.^[1] The brand also received a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and a Gold at the Global Penta Awards for packaging design.^[18]

In early 2024, PARCH expanded into The Vitamin Shoppe's approximately 700 stores.^[3] The Vitamin Shoppe subsequently introduced a dedicated functional beverage endcap display in 500 stores featuring PARCH alongside Kin Euphorics, De Soi, and Hiyo.^[8] PARCH exhibited at Natural Products Expo West 2024, where the company also announced a seed investment round with beverage industry veteran Ken Sadowsky as a new investor.^[3][20] By the end of summer 2024, the brand projected distribution across more than 2,000 retail doors.^[3] In 2024, PARCH also launched a collaboration product — a non-alcoholic tea elixir — with Daybreaker, the global sober morning dance party brand.^[6] VinePair named PARCH one of the best non-alcoholic drinks of 2024, calling it "the first non-alcoholic, Blue Weber agave-based canned beverage to hit markets."^[5][15]

PARCH donates one percent of proceeds to the Sonoran Desert through Mission Garden in Tucson.^[7][18] The brand has activated at Coachella and the Country Music Awards.^[2]

PARCH won BevNET's Best New Product of 2022 award five months after launch, competing against 216 nominees.^[10] In 2023, the brand was crowned champion of BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 25.^[2] That same year, PARCH received a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and a Gold at the Global Penta Awards for packaging design.^[18] Also in 2023, the brand won a $20,000 grant and six-month mentorship from PepsiCo's Greenhouse Accelerator program in its inaugural year focused on Latino-owned businesses.^[1][4] In 2024, VinePair named PARCH one of the best non-alcoholic drinks of the year.^[5][15]

Aldana is a cancer survivor and a father of four.^[1] He has described his family as his primary motivation for changing his lifestyle after his diagnosis.^[1] He is of Colombian-Canadian background, having begun his career in Bogotá before relocating to Canada and later to New York City and Tucson.^[12][7] He conducts much of PARCH's product research and development at Mission Garden in Tucson, a living repository of Sonoran Desert plant biodiversity.^[1][18]