Doug McWhorter

Founder and CEO Coastal Beverages

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

Doug McWhorter is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Coastal Beverages, a Destin, Florida company that produces the Taste of Florida line of real-juice cocktail and beverage mixers. The business is a study in slow, distributor-led growth rather than capital-led growth. The Taste of Florida brand launched in 1993 and was built up one account at a time across Florida, and only after roughly twelve years, when a Budweiser wholesaler offered a way out of the state, did it begin to move nationally. It is now sold in around 40 states, carried by beer and beverage wholesalers who already service the bars, restaurants and retailers that use mixers. The product line’s best-known recognition came in 2006, when the Taste of Florida Pina Colada mix was given a Best Buy award with a score of 88 points at the Beverage Testing Institute competition.

Career Highlights

• Founder and CEO of Coastal Beverages in Destin, Florida, the producer of the Taste of Florida mixer brand.
• Grew the Taste of Florida brand from its 1993 launch through account-by-account selling across Florida.
• Expanded the brand beyond Florida after about twelve years, when a Budweiser wholesaler opened out-of-state distribution.
• Reached distribution in approximately 40 states through beer and beverage wholesalers including Zink Distributing, Grey Eagle Distributors, Romer Beverage, Calumet Breweries and LaMonica Beverages.
• Won a Best Buy award, at 88 points, for the Taste of Florida Pina Colada mix at the 2006 Beverage Testing Institute competition.
• Positioned the range as real-juice mixers, covering pina colada, strawberry, lime and related flavours.

Professional Journey

McWhorter runs Coastal Beverages from Destin, on the Florida panhandle, and has built the company entirely around a single brand. Taste of Florida launched in 1993, and the company’s own account of its early years describes exactly the kind of growth that characterises a regional beverage business without outside capital: filling orders, spreading the word, and adding customers one at a time across the state.

The turning point came after roughly twelve years of Florida-only trade, when a Budweiser wholesaler offered Taste of Florida the chance to move beyond the state. That decision determined the company’s distribution model. Rather than build a direct sales force, Coastal Beverages placed the brand with beer and beverage wholesalers who already called on the bars, restaurants and retailers that buy mixers, and the brand now appears in the portfolios of distributors including Zink Distributing, Grey Eagle Distributors, Romer Beverage, Calumet Breweries and LaMonica Beverages. Distribution now reaches approximately 40 states.

External recognition arrived in 2006 when the Beverage Testing Institute gave the Taste of Florida Pina Colada mix a Best Buy award with a score of 88 points, a result that pairs quality with value and fits a brand sold on real juice content at a wholesale price point. Customers and distributors describe McWhorter as a hands-on owner who knows the mixer trade in detail and who has personally visited distributors to launch product lines and support them afterwards.

What McWhorter did before Coastal Beverages is not documented in any public source reviewed for this profile, nor is it established whether he founded the company at the 1993 brand launch or took it over later. Those gaps are recorded here rather than filled by inference.

Education

Florida State University, College of Business

Bachelor of Science, Marketing and Sales Management, 1988 to 1990. This is drawn from a contact-data aggregator rather than an institutional record and should be treated as unconfirmed.