The Canned Cocktail To Watch Out For During Spring And Summer

We should all take a moment and give thanks that innovation and the alcoholic beverages industry worked together to make cocktails and wine more portable.  However, what feels like a new product category has actually been around for over a century. Ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails can be traced back to the 1800s. 

In recent history, the bottled alcoholic beverage market experienced a boom in the 1950s and '60s as entertaining at home became popular. Brands like Club Cocktails and the Heublein Cocktails line sold whiskey sours and daiquiris, the trendy cocktails at the time. The beverages were marketed as "adventurous cocktails" at "full strength" that were better than anything you could mix at home, with celebrities at the time like Jack Palance singing their praises. 

But trends don't last forever; and, in the 1990s, when "Sex in the City" fans wanted Cosmopolitans, the industry slumped — until recently when the shuttered world began drinking more at home. Thanks to the pandemic, RTD canned cocktails are having a moment again. What a great time to be alive!

The canned alcoholic beverages industry was expected to reach $14.62 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2%, with the U.S. having the highest per capita can consumption. While high-end hard seltzers have driven the market globally over the past five years — and will continue to do so, thanks to millennials — in the U.S., Japan, and China, flavored-alcoholic beverages (FABs) from well-known producers like Jim Beam are an RTD subcategory gaining traction.

The whiskey highball is to the Japanese as the mint julep is to the fancy hat-wearing spectators at the Kentucky Derby; they go together. Mixologists have perfected the simple two-ingredient cocktail using Suntory Kakubin, a Japanese whisky unavailable in the U.S. Bartenders expertly wield a spoon to perform a "wiggle" and "swizzle" to create a frothy head from the seltzer, improving the drinking experience.

Although less dramatic, the canned version is just as popular, conveniently stocked in alcoholic vending machines (brilliant) and lining retail shelves throughout Japan, signaling that White Claw Hard Seltzer has had its moment, and whiskey lovers can now enjoy carbonated cocktails on the go too. Established brands like Jim Beam, Crown Royal, and Jack Daniels, masters in the field, compete with smaller manufacturers like Flaviar to get their RTD whiskey products in your hands. These blended cocktails offer notes of vanilla from bourbon, the spiciness of rye, or the smokiness of Scotch with a chaser — no ice required.

Consumers looking for something sweeter than a whiskey highball can find classic whiskey cocktails, like old fashioneds and Manhattans with 5% to 7% alcohol by volume, competing with hard seltzers for room in the beach cooler. The Tennessee distiller, Jack Daniel's, produces two canned cocktails: a fruity Apple Fizz and Jack, Honey & Lemonade. You'll find these 7% ABV craft cocktails beside several brands of whiskey and Coca-Cola and Fishers Island Lemonade, which makes whiskey and vodka cocktails that smell like rock candy.