Iced coffee or beer is great in the summer, but what if you want something with a bit
more kick? Canned cocktails offer taste, convenience, plus an alcoholic punch. They're definitely
having a moment in the sun, so what do you need to know about them?
The canned cocktails available on grocery and liquor store shelves today are a different
species than the overly sweet, malt-based canned cocktails that you may have sipped
or poured out a decade or more ago. Today, the best contemporary canned cocktails rely
on superior ingredients, with real, top-shelf spirits lending the canned concoction the
taste of freshly mixed cocktails. And sometimes they're even dreamt up by professional bartenders.
Manufacturers take it seriously: many makers of canned cocktails try dozens of formulations,
experimenting with different levels of sweetness, acidity, flavor, and alcohol, before putting
the winning recipe into production. The canned cocktails we're now popping and sipping are
created with top-quality spirits, sometimes distilled in-house, and food-grade ingredients,
including house-made cocktail bases. And the ingredients that go into canned cocktails
impact more than just taste. They also play a role in how long they will last on the shelf,
how carbonated they will be, plus how high or low the alcohol content will be.
The explosive craft cocktail scene has certainly fanned the fires of innovation, only these
delicious canned tipples are oftentimes sipped far away from the bar.
First came flavored seltzers. Then, in 2016, the makers of Mike's Hard Lemonade launched
White Claw, a hard seltzer that became a game-changer. Today, White Claw comes in flavors such as
ruby grapefruit, mango, and black cherry, and clocks in at just 70 to 100 calories each.
No surprise, the category has become one of the biggest beverage trends to emerge in the
last few years.
"Ah, I was wondering what was taking so long to stack a few cans."
But hard seltzers don't contain any distilled spirits. Instead, they're made in a similar
fashion to beer. Sugar is combined with carbonated water, then it's fermented with the introduction
of yeast, so that sugars transform into alcohol. Depending on the maker, some are dolled up
with natural or artificial flavors and some use other fermentable bases, like barley or
rice. The end result is a low calorie, low-carb, usually low-alcohol carbonated drink that
has one or two grams of sugar per serving or no sugar at all.
And while a hard seltzer can certainly be enjoyed alone, it can also be a great base
for experimentation, and that's slightly different from your cocktail-in-a-can.
Let's say you've invited your closest friends to a picnic in the park. You want something
to keep that party going, right? As you pack up the sandwiches and salads and reach for
the thermos of lemonade and a bottle of vodka, a light bulb goes off. Why lug all the fixings
for drinks when you can just grab something far more convenient, say, a few four-packs
of your favorite cocktail?
"To us!"
Accessibility and portability are some of the most appealing things about beer, and
the same thing has contributed to the popularity of canned cocktails. You don't have to sidle
up to a pedigreed mixologist at your favorite watering hole to enjoy a sophisticated, booze-laced
cocktail, or rely on your own subpar shake-and-stir skills. Whether you're at the beach or at
a backyard barbecue, all you have to do is reach into that cooler and zip open a cold
one. A glass with ice is optional. And no bar cart necessary.
If the choice of canned cocktails seems to grow every time you duck into the liquor or
grocery store, it's not your imagination: varieties are multiplying by leaps and bounds.
The freedom to enjoy cocktails in as many settings as beer drinkers, plus the convenience
and portability of cans have contributed to rising sales in the ready-to-drink arena of
adult beverages, according to a report in Forbes. Spirit- and wine-based ready-to-drink
cocktails, usually sold in smaller size packages, engender larger sales, with $62 million in
annual sales for spirit-based cocktails, and $83 million for wine-based concoctions. And
in 2019, both types achieved sales that were almost 40 percent higher than the previous
year.
Nielsen also notes that single-serve canned cocktails are hitting the spot for people
doing any number of activities, from cooking on their backyard grill to chilling at the
pool, hanging out at a music festival, or exploring the sights on vacation. Young companies
are introducing new brands, longtime brands venturing into new directions, and they're
all fueling the category with innovative, standout concoctions that were once only available
at the bar, but are now the drivers behind a brand's success.
With novel combinations piquing consumers' interest, creative companies are raising the
bar for both innovation and the caliber of ingredients. Now that most everyone's tasted
a perfectly made craft cocktail, there's no point in taking shortcuts.
When it comes to unprecedented ingredients, the Copenhagen-based distiller, Empirical
Spirits, just might take the cake. The Danish company sells one lightly carbonated iteration,
called Can 01, based on a spirit made from beet molasses and Belgian saison yeast, and
flavored with a host of ingredients: milk oolong cold brew tea, toasted birch tea, gooseberry
spirit, douglas fir spirit, and pomelo zest spirit. Can 02 uses the same spirit base,
adding flavors of cold-infused sour cherry juice, sour cherry spirit, keemun black tea
cold brew, blackcurrant bud spirit, walnut wood tea, walnut wood spirit, and pine cone
kombucha. Pushing the boundaries? That may be an understatement.
On the other end of the spectrum, some makers, like the Michigan-based Virtue Cider, use
minimal ingredients for maximum taste. For its Mezzo Spritz, inspired by classic aperitif
spritzes, it mixes together hard cider, sparkling water, and botanicals, for a gluten-free,
vegan, and low-calorie refresher.
"I'm in love with you."
Whether jazzing up drinks with herby flavors like elderflower or infusing cocktails with
nitrogen to yield a smoother finish, cocktail makers are expanding the canned category exponentially.
And the variety is nothing short of mind-boggling. Whether you're craving a bartender classic
or a brand new combo, today's crop of imaginative distillers and liquor brands have you covered.
Post Meridiem Spirits, for instance, blends its Mai Tai with a healthy helping of an almond
syrup called orgeat. And small-batch maker Cocktail Squad flavors its complex Bourbon
Smash with blackberries, mint, rosemary, and lemon.
If it's a coffee with a kick that makes your pulse race, the options are also plentiful.
Even Pabst Blue Ribbon makes a hard coffee, and seriously, it might just change your mind
about reaching for some PBR.
Sometimes you want a drink that packs a wallop. Sometimes you want the adult flavor, but without
alcohol. And sometimes you want a drink that quenches your thirst while delivering a tiny
buzz. Single-serve canned cocktails truly go the gamut, covering all manner of alcohol
content, including no alcohol at all.
Curious Elixirs, a Hudson Valley, New York maker, specializes in booze-free, single-serve
bottled cocktails inspired by classics like the Negroni, French 75, Cucumber Collins,
and an Aperol Spritz, all perfectly suited to any cocktail hour. Made with organic juices,
spices, herbs, roots, barks, and botanicals, the flavors are tart and complex.
And, of course, the alcohol content only goes up from there. Some of the tastiest canned
cocktails around range from low to high ABV, or alcohol by volume, starting with Bravazzi
Hard Italian soda, available in flavors including Clementina and Limonita, and Miami Cocktail
Co.'s Margarita Spritz, with hints of elderflower and ginger, which clocks in at 4.2 percent
ABV. On the other hand, F!ve Drinks' Margarita, mixed with hibiscus and habanero agave syrup,
hits the middle ground at 10 percent. Slow & Low Rock and Rye doesn't mess around with
its high-proof concoction, delivering an Old Fashioned-esque drink that's 42 percent ABV,
in a small 100-milliliter can.
You may remember the artificial-tasting canned cocktails from the 1980s or 1990s? Or perhaps
you were an early adopter of single-serve wine coolers way back when. Canned cocktails,
it turns out, reach back way farther than the last few decades.
The first pre-made cocktails were sold in the late 1800s, when the original cocktail
boom was in its infancy. And like any legacy, the origin stories tend to differ, but we
do know that the Heublein brothers launched their own line of packaged drinks in 1892.
It's unclear if they were the first because apparently, news reports of bottled cocktails
had begun to appear a decade earlier.
The 1960s also proved a fruitful time for the canned cocktail. Many liquor companies
back then jumped into the ready-mixed pool. Jim Beam, for instance, sold a bottled Manhattan,
Whiskey Sour, and Old-Fashioned while Bacardi created a canned daiquiri. While those iterations
faded into the sunset, the 1990s brought malt-based options to the market, like Budweiser's Lime-A-Rita.
With their colorful cans, some boasting cool artwork, and their sublime ingredients, from
organic, fresh-squeezed juices to unusual herbs and spices, it's little wonder that
canned cocktails appeal to the millennial market. The Atlantic reveals that many millennials
are currently experiencing an aha moment while gazing at the refrigerator cases of their
local grocery stores. The choice seems limitless.
More sophisticated and discerning than older generations, millennials have been schooled
on social media, so they know what to aspire to, plus they're no strangers to canned wine
and craft beer, so canned cocktails aren't much of a leap. The Atlantic also says that
these young adults are more drawn to low-alcohol drinks and healthier options. Check and check.
Lower alcohol levels mean that canned-cocktail brands can offer drinks with little or no
sugar. What's more, millennials also prefer experiences, in this instance, drinking top-notch
cocktails, without the hefty bar tab. In other words, canned cocktails are a natural for
the millennial market.
These days, smaller and emerging producers have earned a toehold in the canned cocktail
sector, and they're gaining momentum thanks to their arsenal of innovative products. In
some cases the upstarts are hyper-local, making use of regional ingredients, and they may
have even earned their experience in the craft beer business, equipping them with the cans
and apparatus to make a move into other ready to drink categories. Many of these independent
makers and entrepreneurs paved the way, leading a movement that has had a major impact on
the beverage industry. Some makers were inspired by the popularity of drinks like the Aperol
Spritz, while others were acutely attuned to changing tastes.
While a handcrafted cocktail served at a swanky bar could run you anywhere from $15 to a whopping
$25 for just one meticulously prepared drink, canned cocktails cost a pittance in comparison,
plus they're often sold in handy packs of four or more. Party perfect cocktails on a
budget, you might say.
Look at it this way: a four-pack of You & Yours' cranberry vodka soda (plus gin and tonic and
vodka mule options) goes for about $13.99, while Cutwater Spirits' four-pack of canned
gin and tonics sell for around $12.99 (with other varieties, like the Tequila Paloma and
Bloody Mary, coming in a tiny bit higher). And a six-pack of Austin Eastciders canned
ciders, available in flavors such as Blood Orange, Rosé, Lemon Ginger, and Pear Rosemary,
will set you back a mere $9.99.
LiveWire's collection of bartender-concocted canned cocktails, retail for around $5.50
each, and The Finnish Long Drink, a sparkling gin and grapefruit combo, is priced at around
$17 for a six-pack, while Siponey's offering, made with whiskey, locally sourced honey,
and lemon juice, costs around $9 a can. You're not going to be able to hit the bar for those
prices!
Cans are certainly convenient and lightweight, and plenty of them are made from recycled
materials so they can live many lives after you've sipped your French 75, G&T, or Mai
Tai, whatever the cocktail case may be. Plus, they get nice and cold, and they don't break.
But they're not the only ready-to-drink container around.
Bottled cocktails are also gaining traction in the ready to drink realm, with newly minted
bottled cocktail producers aiming to bring the bar experience to your living room, not
to mention venues like hotel minibars, sports arenas, airline lounges, and theaters. Many
of the bottled offerings, like Austin Cocktails' Bergamot Orange Margarita and Cucumber Vodka
Mojito come in different sizes, in this case, 750-milliliter bottles as well as 200-milliliter
flasks. Crafthouse Cocktails also offers options, including Gold Rush, a bourbon whiskey sour,
that comes in both 750-milliliter glass bottles or 200-milliliter cans, both 100 percent recyclable.
Meanwhile, St. Agrestis, an amaro producer, goes the single-serve route, selling four-packs
of 100-milliliter bottles.
Bottle or can? At the end of the day, it's a matter of preference.
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