Are there any drinkable canned cocktails?
ALL canned cocktails are drinkable, some only once.
Premix cocktails are disproportionately marketed to young drinkers – gateway booze, if you will, as the likes of Bacardi Breezer pineapple was for me – and often have a one-note, cloying taste.
My own favourites are Moth margaritas and M&S margaritas.
Perhaps more than any other theme, writing about premix cocktails has made me confront the very question of why we drink alcohol. Take me as an example.
Twenty-five years on, and my palate is a different place, and I welcome the notes and nuances of a well-mixed drink. I now drink alcohol to savour it, and I like what I’m drinking to give me pause; it doesn’t need to be hard work, but I do like it to make me think.
Why did you drink it before, then?
That’s not to say there aren’t premix cocktails out there that can do this, and I tasted several that I found interesting. The Reina Mezcalita in today’s pick, for instance, is delicious – smoky mezcal meets zippy lime soda – and I’d happily sip it from the can in the park or, even better, from a glass rimmed with Tajìn at home. Whitebox and Moth both produce good iterations of premix drinks (and in reassuringly small, potent formats) and are widely available in supermarkets; they feel a bit more grown up, too, both on the sugar front and because their ABVs skew higher, which you can taste (in the premix realm, quality seems to align with a higher ABV).
Must admit to always adding a little extra tequila to mine, so I guess it could be higher.
Marks & Spencer has the widest own-brand selection, some of them better than others, but, on the whole, its premium Served range has more character and acidity (a good thing) than you’ll find elsewhere – I enjoyed the mojito and the lychee martini especially.
Hmm, might try the martini, if I ever see it in my local branch.
