Hispanics consume alcoholic beverages mainly for social purposes. They enjoy drinking them at gatherings with friends and family or when they are celebrating an important event such as a birthday, a first communion, or a promotion at work. While Hispanics have access to a wide variety of alcoholic beverages, they tend to purchase from a list of brands that they know. As they become more acculturated or more affluent, they tend to become more sophisticated drinkers and open to trying new varieties or brands.

The Hispanic Consumers and Alcoholic Beverages – US, December 2014 report offers an overview of the Hispanic alcoholic beverages market, including beer, spirits, and wine. For each of the three, the report covers consumption, change in consumption compared with a year ago, reasons to drink, and where alcoholic beverages are consumed. It also reviews what is important for Hispanics at the moment of deciding which alcoholic beverages to purchase and where they are typically purchased.

For each of the three main categories – beer, spirits, and wine – the report also includes specific types that are consumed.

This report compares findings by key demographics including age, gender, household income, language spoken at home, level of acculturation, and region, where applicable.

In addition to this report, readers may find more information about alcoholic beverages in the following reports produced by Mintel:

• Black Consumers and Alcoholic Beverages – US, December 2014

• Alcoholic Beverage Drinking Occasions – US, May 2014

• On-premise Alcohol Consumption Trends – US, May 2014

• Alcohol Consumption at Home – US, May 2013

• Hispanics and Alcohol Beverages – US, January 2012

Value figures throughout this report are at rsp (retail selling prices) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI in partnership with Offerwise to explore Hispanic consumers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward alcoholic beverages. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in August 2014 among a sample of 895 Hispanic adults aged 22+ with access to the internet.

Please note that our surveys are conducted online in the participant’s language of choice (ie, English or Spanish). Hispanics who are not online are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Marketing Services, using the Simmons NHCS (National Hispanic Consumer Study). The Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NHCS was carried out during April 2013-June 2014, and the results are based on the sample of 23,133 adults aged 21+, including 7,024 Hispanics, with results weighted to represent the US adult population/US adult Hispanic population.

Note: When Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NHCS results are presented by language spoken at home, the sum of the subsegments may not add to the total, due to the fact that some respondents answered “some other language.”

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

Expenditure estimates are derived from the CEX (Consumer Expenditure Survey), which is conducted annually by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The estimates are calculated using three-year rolling averages to reduce the volatility that can result from relatively small subsamples and items that are infrequently purchased.

• Market size estimates in this report are based on consumer data (estimated average expenditures aggregated to the total market), and may not be comparable to estimates in other reports that are based on point-of-sale data or retailer revenues.

• Note that the CEX measures spending by “consumer units” rather than households or individuals. See the Terms section for a definition of “consumer unit.”

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* Also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers.

Consumer unit (CU): The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey measures spending by consumer units rather than households. A consumer unit is all related members of a household, or financially independent members of a household. A household may include more than one consumer unit. A consumer unit may comprise (1) all members of a household related by blood or by a legal arrangement such as marriage or adoption; (2) a financially independent individual living alone, sharing a house, as a roomer in a private home, or in living quarters of a hotel or motel; or (3) two or more individuals living together, pooling their income, and jointly making expenditure decisions. There are slightly more CUs than there are households in the US.

In this report Mintel includes analyses of the consumer data by level of acculturation. As defined by Merriam-Webster, acculturation is the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. In other words, it is the process whereby Latinos learn about and embrace the mainstream culture while also maintaining their culture of origin. The acculturation algorithm developed by Mintel is based on 1) the language Hispanics speak at home and 2) the culture Hispanics consider that is most dominant in their lives – the American or the Hispanic culture. Results of the algorithm indicate that the bicultural segment is the largest segment, followed by the unacculturated segment. The smallest of all three is the acculturated segment. The following outlines some demographic information that helps put the acculturation groups in context.

• Unacculturated Hispanics (~30%) skew female and tend to have a lower household income. While they are distributed across all ages, they are more likely to be in the 25-34 age range. The majority are foreign-born. They tend to live in an urban setting.

• Bicultural Hispanics (~50%) skew toward males and tend to be younger. Bicultural Hispanics are distributed across all ages. They skew slightly US-born. They live primarily in urban settings. This is the segment that is projected to grow the most as the market as a whole becomes more bicultural.

• Acculturated Hispanics (~20%) tend to be young, over indexing among Hispanics aged 21-24. They tend to live in households with higher household incomes and are almost equally likely to be male or female. The majority are US-born. They are more likely than any of the other groups to live in the suburbs.

For further information about acculturation, please refer to the Acculturation section of this report.