This summer, cocktail hour comes in a can
Ready-to-drink beverages perfect for hanging out at a safe social distance
We’re calling it: Canned cocktails are the official drink of this summer.
Despite the fact that a lot of people are brushing up on their home bartending skills, it’s hard to beat the convenience of BYOB-ing an RTD (ready-todrink) for safely distanced gettogethers.
Whether it’s on a porch or in a backyard, small gatherings of people who want to have a quick catch-up over a drink — two metres apart, of course — will turn to single-servings, since they bypass the awkwardness of serving a cocktail without touching it. Plus, guests can take their cans with them to recycle at home.
White Claw, a flavoured vodka soda that’s reportedly already doing booming sales in Ontario this spring, will surely be the main beneficiary of this trend, but the Claw isn’t likely to satisfy the legions of tequila, rum, whisky and gin fans. Lucky for these, there’s an unprecedented number of interesting new canned cocktails on offer at the LCBO this summer. Here are a few we’ve tried, many of which are locally made:
Aperitivo hour
The drinks that populate happy hour in Italy are not all that hard to make at home, but, all the same, popping open a bottle of Dillon’s The Professor’s Negroni or the new Amalfi aperitivo spritz (LCBO 14515; $12.95; 4x355 mL) is even easier than making your own.
The deliciously bittersweet and adorably packaged singleserve Negroni has been around for a while, but it’s finally being sold at the LCBO (11423; $20.05; 4x150mL), so we can get it without having to drive to Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers in Beamsville, Ont. The Amalfi aperitivo spritz is also a local hero, made in Vaughan by folks who were inspired to bottle up the flavours of the Amalfi coast. It’s a dry and punchy bottled spritz that, with a splash of fresh lemon, is a great answer to a muggy summer afternoon.
Gin craze G&J Greenall’s Sicilian lemon (LCBO 649368; $9.95; 4x355mL) bills itself as the “perfect mix” of London dry gin and sparkling lemonade and, well, I kind of have to agree. It’s refreshing, dry and tastes like actual lemons from the Italian coast, a refreshing change from the “natural flavours” in a lot of RTDs that rarely taste quite right to me. The gin is subtle and it’s seriously drinkable which, at six per cent alcohol, might make this drink ever so slightly dangerous.
Known for its low-calorie vodka sodas, Canadian upstart Social Lite has moved into gin with its new lime gin soda (LCBO 14478; $2.70; 355mL), a happy development from my point of view. It’s clean-tasting, with just a slight hint of lime. Perfect for the vodka lover who wants to wade slowly into gin.
Collective Arts artisanal gin lemon & thyme soda (LCBO 14481; $2.95; 355 mL) wins for being the “ginniest” of the gin cocktails. That makes sense, given that this Hamilton brewery is expanding into distilling and has recently launched three new gins. It’s a good long drink for a summer evening, especially with a splash of lemon added.
Whisky, tequila and more Toronto’s own Founder’s Original is venturing into whisky and tequila cocktails: a bourbon sour, a Thai pomelo rye and ginger and a tequila Paloma. All come in 473-mL cans, a format that by definition limits the booziness of these drinks. Consider that your average classic cocktail like a whisky sour is around 25 per cent alcohol. If you tried to replicate that in a 16-ounce can it would be four ounces of alcohol — dangerously strong.
So if you’re looking for the sweet burn of a spirit-forward cocktail, you won’t get it here (or in any RTD, really). If, however, you’re looking for a surprisingly complex and spicy ginger cooler, the Thai pomelo rye and ginger (LCBO 649517; $2.50) is really delicious. The bourbon sour (LCBO 568337; $3.40) is also a really pleasant drink, with natural lemon flavours, and the tequila Paloma (LCBO 649509; $3.35) tastes like Ting, my favourite grapefruit soda.
And speaking of tart and refreshing flavours, Pombucha (LCBO 131649; $3.50; 473 mL), a blend of Ontario apple cider and kombucha made by Drinklab, a Toronto company, is a great alternative to a can of cider, which is often quite high in alcohol. At four per cent alcohol, it’s what they call “sessionable” — light enough that you can enjoy a break without writing off the rest of the day.
Vodka soda, now with real fruit! Most of the flavoured vodka sodas on the market do well, in part because they’re low-carb, low-cal and low-sugar. Those virtues aren’t of interest to those of us who prefer natural flavours balanced with a little sugar.
Ace Hill saw that nobody was servicing that market and, this summer, launched two new vodka sodas made with natural fresh juices: lemon and raspberry. Ace Hill’s lemon vodka soda (LCBO 14485; $2.75; 355mL) is dry, refreshing and well worth the 90-calorie tradeoff. The raspberry version (100 calories) is downright delicious, the perfect amount of fruit. (LCBO 14483; $2.75)