With warmer weather comes the occasion to be festive and the desire to make socializing as easy and carefree as possible. For those who wish to ditch the making of cocktails and just get to popping open a ready-made party in a can, we sample Svedka’s new ready-to-drink cocktail offering in the form of a kind of hard sweet-tea-seltzer mashup. Svedka says it hopes to offer “a depth of flavor and a unique taste experience that sets it apart from other sweet tea vodka offerings in the ready-to-drink aisle.”

Let’s see what kind of impression these make.

Svedka Tropics Vodka Tea Spritz Pineapple Guava – The vodka is evident and bold, met in equal measure by outsized tropical notes of the pineapple and guava. The concentration of flavors actually works well given the balanced profile of the pineapple and guava, and can handle being poured over ice and let sit a while without tasting overly diluted. There is the faintest medicinal hint in the aftertaste, but a sprig of basil and/or a lime slice really livens things up and boosts the sparkle in the carbonation. The tea is not obvious, although if you search hard enough, you get the added grit and dryness in the mouthfeel that might account for the added boldness in the vodka. (I could be stretching here.) A- [BUY IT NOW FROM TOTAL WINE]

Svedka Tropics Vodka Tea Spritz Orange Mango – In a nutshell, this drink is a carbonated creamcicle in a glass. The orange is evident, the mango less so, and is the driver of that lingering creaminess on the tongue and mouthfeel. This comes off slightly more medicinal than the Pineapple Guava, and less universally appealing as a flavor, but it is still an enjoyable drink. I’d recommend throwing this over ice and perhaps adorning with citrus fruit slices of your choosing, along with some berries. B+

Svedka Tropics Vodka Tea Spritz Raspberry Kiwi – This expression again has a medicinal hint which I have found is hard to shed in raspberry flavored drinks. The kiwi does a nice job of adding more body to the bright berry flavoring. It’s a lighter and more refreshing flavor, and for this I recommend some mint to cut through the medicinal weight. B+ [BUY IT NOW FROM TOTAL WINE]

The tea is not obvious in any of these, but there is a heftiness and body to these canned cocktails which may be where the tea factor resides. All are fun to drink, carrying more depth of flavor than standard hard seltzers. That makes me feel they are best suited in a party setting, with a jovial crowd under the stars and loud music wafting through the neighborhood. It may be too soon to dream of summer but then again, Tropics is in the name.

Each is 5% abv.

$20 per 8-pack variety pack of 355 ml cans / svedka.com

Svedka Tropics Vodka Tea Spritz Pineapple Guava

$20

8.5

Rating

8.5/10

BUY IT NOW