Ready-to-drink or RTD cocktails got their start as so-called “alcopop” beverages, such as Smirnoff Ice, which are malt liquor-based beverages that approximated a cocktail experience through the addition of different flavorings, generally sugar- and fruit-heavy, plus a healthy amount of carbonation. As with most alcoholic beverages, RTD products have moved upscale in recent years, with numerous craft distillers producing genuine cocktails ready to drink out of the can or bottle. These are often made with the identical ingredients you’d get if you made the cocktail from scratch, though quality tends to vary considerably.
Top Ready-to-Drink Cocktail Posts:
Zima
Cutwater Spirits Whiskey Highball and Whiskey Lemon Tea
Truly Spiked & Sparkling Water
I may be one of the few people who remembers High West’s first pair of barrel-aged, bottled cocktails, The Barreled Boulevardier and The 36th Vote, both of which have been off the market for years ...
In 2019, we reviewed ‘Merican Mule*’s flagship brand of pre-made cocktails in can, along with Tropical and Mexican style iterations. Now the gang has returned straight outta Long Beach with impeccable timing and a winter ...
Five Drinks Co. (aka F!ve Drinks) is part of Bend, Oregon’s 10 Barrel Brewing, and it produces a range of ready-to-drink cocktails, all made from real ingredients and packaged in tiny 200ml silver cans. We ...
In the fast-growing wine spritzer category, there’s another new kid on the block, Cool Cat. How cool you can actually look drinking it is a question I’ll let you, dear reader, answer on your own ...
We reviewed most of the varietals from Mighty Swell last year when we first took a deep dive into the Austin, Texas-based spiked spritzer producer. This fall, the company shook things up with new “innovative” ...
Cachaca producer Novo Fogo recently “rebranded, repackaged, and refined” its line of canned sparkling caipirinhas, which now includes three flavors, now featuring less sugar in the mix. The company’s silver Brazilian cachaca is the base ...
Looking for something lighter? Try these libations from Bend, Oregon’s 10 Barrel — a fruit-heavy beer and a hard seltzer. 10 Barrel Brewing Smash – A slightly sour wheat ale, this passionfruit-infused beer hits up ...
What’s trendier than spiked seltzers right now? Tequila-based spiked seltzers. And here’s one of the newest to flood the shelves this summer. Volley is made using just three ingredients: 100% blue agave tequila, sparkling water, ...
What’s coquito? In a nutshell, it’s Puerto Rico’s answer to eggnog, and Bacardi offers this limited edition bottling of the stuff as a ready-to-drink holiday tipple. (Believe it or not, the holidays are nigh.) “Following ...
Square One is now officially making a little bit of everything to satisfy the cocktail thirsty consumer. They remain best-known for a line of high quality straight and infused vodkas, and earlier this year, the ...