La Paz Products, Inc.

La Paz Products is a producer of cocktail mixes and beverage concentrates rooted in a family beverage business that traces back to 1968. The company's origins lie with L&H Products Company, founded in a small leased building in South East Fullerton, California, by Larry W. Casey, who acquired the Quickway brand of cocktail mix concentrates that year. Casey's background in the beverage industry ran deep: he began his career in 1957 as a production line worker with the Pacific Hawaiian Products Company, later playing a role in the growth of the Hawaiian Punch brand before that business was sold to R.J. Reynolds in 1962. Casey continued to work with the Quickway foodservice concentrate line under R.J. Reynolds ownership before eventually negotiating to purchase the Quickway brand outright in 1968, partnering with longtime friend Harold Brown to found L&H Products Company and open its first production line. Quickway began, and remains today, primarily a concentrate product supplied to the foodservice industry, used by restaurants and bars to prepare sweet-and-sour based cocktails such as margaritas. Recognizing the labor-intensive, multi-step process required to make a margarita from foodservice concentrate (reconstituting the mix, then separately adding lime juice, triple sec, tequila, and ice), the company's founder was inspired to develop a simplified, ready-to-use retail product that would let home consumers achieve a restaurant-style margarita by adding only tequila and ice. This consumer insight led to the development of a margarita mix formulated to replicate the foodservice-quality drink experience for the retail channel, and that innovation became the foundation of what is now marketed under the La Paz Products brand. Today, La Paz Products offers a line of cocktail mixes marketed under the La Paz name, with a product portfolio that includes margarita mixes as well as other cocktail formats such as whiskey sour mix. The company also promotes recipe variations built on its base products, including flavored margarita styles such as cranberry margarita and organic jalapeño cucumber margarita, indicating an emphasis on recipe development and consumer engagement around mixology use-occasions. The brand positions its products for both the retail grocery/liquor store channel, where consumers purchase ready-to-use mixers for at-home cocktail preparation, and the foodservice/bar channel through its legacy Quickway concentrate line supplied to restaurants and bars. The company markets itself with a lifestyle and social-engagement angle, encouraging consumers to share photos of their cocktails made with La Paz Products mixes using a branded hashtag, and it maintains an active presence built around recipes, blog content, and seasonal drink promotions. This suggests a marketing approach that blends product sales with content designed to inspire home bartending and entertaining occasions. While the available content does not detail specific manufacturing facilities, certifications, or third-party co-packing capabilities, the company's history as a vertically rooted beverage concentrate and mixer producer, spanning more than five decades of continuous operation from its founding in 1968 to the present, speaks to established production experience in the cocktail mixer category. Its dual-channel legacy, serving both foodservice/bar operators through concentrate products and retail consumers through ready-to-use bottled mixes, positions the company as a beverage manufacturer with experience across both B2B foodservice supply and consumer packaged goods retail distribution. The founding narrative, tied to key personnel who had direct experience with a major national juice brand before starting the business, also underscores a heritage of beverage formulation and brand-building expertise carried into the company's current product lines. Overall, La Paz Products presents itself as a heritage American beverage mixer company with roots in Southern California, built on a foodservice concentrate business and expanded into a retail cocktail mix line, with an emphasis on convenience, quality ingredients reminiscent of restaurant-style drinks, and an ongoing focus on recipe innovation for both classic and flavored cocktail variations.