Canned booze gets an upgrade
“Can the can” once sang rocker Suzi Quatro, way back in the 1970s. Back then canned alcoholic beverages consisted of beer and the awful “Club” canned cocktails, which might have done more to set back mixology than perhaps any other thing. It wasn't the enclosure that was the problem it was the product put in them. Those cocktails were awful.
It was several decades before craft beer resurrected the can, which as an anaerobic environment unreachable by light might be the absolute perfect environment for beer (beer kegs anyone?). Good for beer, even better for wine.
A change in consumer habits led to many wines (especially American ones) to ditch the strategy of aging wine after you buy it, to releasing wine that is already at peak drinkability upon release. So, wine that is also susceptible to light damage (like beer) and oxidation, which isn't helped much by a permeable cork, also finds an ideal storage environment in a hermetically sealed can.
A two-year quarantine and another change in drinking habits — portability and transport being especially important — and we now find ourselves not only in the realm of canned wine but also back in the realm of canned cocktails.
A two-year quarantine and another change in drinking habits — portability and transport being especially important — and we now find ourselves not only in the realm of canned wine but also back in the realm of canned cocktails. Only this time the product going into those cans is infinitely better, as are the cans themselves. Proving that one generation's pariah can be the next generation's pioneer. It certainly ain't the '70s anymore.
We've taken the liberty of gathering four of these pioneers — two cocktail makers, one wine maker and a wine cocktail maker — to help pop the tab on this subject, all localized of course, for your consumption:
Salt Point Canned Cocktails, Mill Valley, Gin Highball, 10%ABV, $17.99 (four 12-ounce cans)
The Mill Valley-based Salt Point canned cocktail company has been leading the canned cocktail charge since 2013. And while a traditionalist might question the addition of seltzer to a Margarita” or Greyhound or Cape Cod, when one is considering canned cocktails, traditionalists might not be the target demographic. Which, ironi