We taste-test canned cocktails from 4 Bay Area distillers
Gordon Ramsay has them, with names like “Knicker Twist” and “That’s Forked.” Coca-Cola just announced one with Jack Daniel’s whiskey, and Monster Energy is planning its own with “The Beast Unleashed.”
It’s a boom time for ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, which are experiencing immense popularity partly due to pandemic lockdowns. (The fact that a lot of people are too lazy to mix their own cocktails also helps.) Malt-based drinks like White Claw and hard tea still dominate the market. But there’s a growing category that uses spirits like vodka and tequila, produced by giants like Absolut and small-batch distillers alike.
Seeing as it’s summer and the perfect time to crack open a can at the beach or campsite, we decided to sample premade cocktails and seltzers from four Bay Area distillers. In general we were pleased with the results, though we noted all the drinks benefited from a little massaging. They were best when poured over ice; sipping from a cold can was just OK (and for the love of god, don’t consume them unrefrigerated unless you love the bracing taste of warm vodka). Adding a squeeze of citrus or fresh herbs also enhanced the experience; some brands even suggest preparations, such as rimming a Collins glass with salt and cayenne.
It should be mentioned these are often powerful beverages with ABVs as high as 10.5 percent. They’re easy to quaff but don’t treat a can like a regular beer, lest you wind up howling at the moon.
Griffo Distillery
10.5% ABV / $20.38 for four 8.5-ounce cans, visit griffodistillery.com
The husband-wife owners of this Petaluma operation started canning spritzers during the pandemic for those who didn’t want to make cocktails at home. Their claim to fame is using flavored syrups from Sonoma’s FloraLuna Apothecary and recipes from local “mixologist extraordinaire” Danny Ojinaga. Despite the cute little cans, these were the highest-proof beverages we sampled – one is more than enough to make for a relaxing afternoon.
We tried: A “Tomales Collins” with gin, fresh lemon and blood-orange juice and cardamom-clove syrup, and a “Whole Lotta Sunshine” with vodka and Amaro, fresh grapefruit juice and wildflower syrup.
Sample market copy (for “Whole Lotta Sunshine”): “This drink is like running through a field of wildflowers into a citrus grove directly followed by a spontaneous splash in the Pacific Ocean.”
Tasting notes: “Sunshine” was not like running into the ocean – more like chilling out at an Italian sidewalk cafe given the sweet-bitter notes of Amaro. Unlike many canned cocktails, it wasn’t too sugary. It had pleasant notes of citrus, but it’s the herbal digestif that finishes each sip so you’d better enjoy that flavor. The “Tomales Collins” was less assertive with a citrus perfume and hint of sweetness without being toothachey. Noted a taster: “It’s something I would order at a bar. It’s more like a cocktail and very bubbly, which makes it refreshing.” Griffo also got high praise for its floral package design with fruits and birds, which we agreed was “very feminine.”
Salt Point
10% ABV / $17.99 for four 12-ounce cans, visit saltpoint.co
Heather Wyatt got in early on the canned-cocktail trend in 2013 with Mill Valley’s Salt Point, named for a craggy Pacific park she loves up in Jenner. The brand has a wide range of cocktails, the newest being a Cape Cod and a margarita, and features fun marine-themed packaging, like a woman with a seashell in her hair and a pipe-gnawing sea captain. Heed the warning on the label that there are two cocktails per can.
We tried: A greyhound with vodka, grapefruit and lime; a margarita with tequila, triple sec and lime; a Cape Cod with vodka, cranberry and lime.
Sample market copy (for the margarita): “Now there is no longer a need to buy premium tequila, triple sec and limes at an approximate cost of $80 and look for a place to store the sticky mess.”
Tasting notes: Salt Point’s variety of base spirits offers options for people who, say, love tequila but avoid gin. Our tasters raised eyebrows over some of the fruit flavorings. “The Moscow Mule was spicy and slightly refreshing at first. Now, though, my teeth feel like they are wearing a lime sweater,” one said. However, the two most recent offerings knocked it out of the park, suggesting Salt Point is nearing formula perfection. The Cape Cod brought us back to college in a pleasant way with a vodka-cranberry mix that avoided the syrupy quality of Ocean Spray. And the margarita was as tart and smoky as a bar-mixed drink, with a nostalgic surprise: “It smells like a shot everyone did 20 years ago. A kamikaze – that was it.”
Venus Spirits
8% ABV / $16 for a four-pack of 12-ounce cans, visit venusspirits.com
Sean Venus’ distillery in Santa Cruz is doing interesting things in the small-batch spirits world, including oak-aged gin and a California agave liquor made from plants pit-roasted over almond wood. It’s obviously doing something right, as the young operation has already opened two restaurant/cocktail bars to please ravenous beachgoers.
We tried: A “Venus Mule” with vodka, lime, lemon, ginger and natural flavors, and a “Venus Gimlet” with lime, cucumber, basil and natural flavors.
Sample market copy (for the distillery): “Our distillation takes place in hand-pounded copper Alembic stills imported from Spain. Each dimple hammered into the copper creates a location for the vapor to collect and drip back into the pot in a unique way, creating characteristics in the distillate that are unique to each still.”
Tasting notes: Sipping the mule made us realize, if you want an actual cocktail experience from a can, gin is the way to go; vodka-based ones can lack any liquor flavor. This mule was nice enough, smelling like ginger ale but tasting more like Sprite with its lemon-lime sweetness. Like some of the other beverages we tried, the gimlet suggests that industry R&D has a ways to go in canning vegetal flavors. “You can count me as a cucumber lover, and I don’t love this cucumber,” said one taster. “It’s artificial tasting, and artificial cucumber is weird.”
Hangar 1
3.5% ABV / roughly $15.99 for four 12.6-ounce bottles, visit hangarone.com
This distillery on an old Alameda naval base got into the ready-to-drink game last year with a line of low-alcohol “botanical seltzers.” Each is lightly spiked with Hangar 1’s signature vodkas, which tend to highlight citrus essences, although there’s also a version made with wine. The labeling pushes hard on the product’s lightness, with zero sugars and carbs and a waist-friendly 72 calories.
We tried: Buddha’s Hand Citron, Mandarin Blossom, Makrut Lime and Rosé.
Sample market copy: “Introducing Hangar 1 Botanical Seltzers — made with real ingredients and bottled in glass. They’re a grown-up and delicious way to seltzer.” (Merriam-Webster has yet to determine if “seltzer” is a verb.)
Tasting notes: Whatever “real ingredients” are in here must be on the subatomic level, because these look and taste like regular seltzer water with just a whiff of fruit. That actually made them quite refreshing – something delicate to sip with friends on an 80-degree day. “It’s a drink for those who don’t want to drink. It’s more color than flavor,” said one taster of the rosé. “I think if I was 21, I would be disappointed. It doesn’t pack a punch,” commented another about the Buddha’s Hand. “Remember Near Beer? It’s like that – you could drink it all day long and not be affected.”