Ready-to-Drink/Premixed Cocktails
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
According to White Mule Farms, the company behind the oddball Spodee, this, er, drinkable was a Depression-era concoction of wine mixed with herbs, spices, and moonshine. Sort of a ghetto version of Port, perhaps, from the sound of it. Spodee today seems to be perhaps a simpler product: Wine fortified with white whiskey, with chocolate…
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Summer is in full swing, and that means sangria season is here. We’ve looked at Senor Sangria’s original red sangria in the past, now the company’s back with a white sangria. Also on tap: Red sangria from Eppa with a health-conscious spin. Here’s how these offerings from Senor Sangria (made in Washingtonville, New York) and…
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I’ve written about the Aperol Spritz — often just the Spritz — before. It’s a refreshing and tasty cocktail that’s incredibly easy to make. Along with the Bellini, it’s pretty much the official cocktail of Venice, and many Italian restaurants here and abroad have adopted the Spritz in their own menus. In Italy, you can…
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Pre-mixed cocktails continue to grow in popularity. VnC, which is based in New Zealand, takes it to the ultimate conclusion: The cocktails not only have the alcohol already in them (in addition to natural juices), they’re packaged both in party size bottlings and in single serve versions, which we reviewed. Each 200ml cocktail comes in…
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Few cocktails in the panopticon of chain restaurant beverages imbue the spirit — the very heart — of panty peeler so thoroughly as the Mudslide. A chocolate, creamy, boozy frozen concoction, this is dessert — and usually drunkenness — in a glass. Now Baileys brings the Mudslide to ready-made status, or as near as is…
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If a cocktail requires no fresh juices or other highly perishable ingredients, why not just bottle it outright? That’s the idea behind High West’s Barreled Manhattan: It’s a Manhattan cocktail pre-bottled and ready to go. Now this isn’t some rotgut nonsense, 10 percent alcohol bullshit in a single-serve bottle. It’s the real deal, and top…
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Lately a backlash has been brewing (no pun intended) against pre-mixed, ready-to-drink cocktails, cocktails which actually have nothing to do with the products advertised on the label — whether it’s vodka, rum, whiskey, or something else — and are in fact simply flavored malt liquor pawned off to an unsuspecting audience. Now some savvy drinkmakers…
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Is this sangria-flavored vodka? Or vodka-infused sangria? The world may well debate it forever, but while you noodle over that one, we turn our attention not to Vodgria’s name but its very essence. At 30 proof, it’s a touch stronger than most wines (and considerably stronger than most sangria, which is wine cut with fruit…
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The mercury has topped 90 in San Francisco today, and in a city with no air conditioning, that means retreating to whatever means necessary one can dig up to stay cool. Cordina’s goofily-named Mar-Go-Rita has been in my freezer for weeks, so what better time than now to bust it out. What is it? Imagine…
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Most of us know red sangria — with fruit a-bobbing in the pitcher — all too well. Reál Sangria is now offering a pre-mixed white sangria, a relatively obscure spin on the classic, which uses white wine instead of red to achieve a lighter, fruitier taste. This white sangria is relatively simple, but quite refreshing.…
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