Some people say we’re kicking off a “Hot Vax Summer.” (Not me — I will not say that, not ever.) It’s true that our emergence from the pandemic cocoon will probably lead to many festive gatherings as the days get hotter, but since glass is verboten around pools and on boats, you need to seek out other alternatives for anything that traditionally comes in a bottle.
Besides, who wants to schlep all the accoutrements to assemble a proper cocktail into the great outdoors or poolside? That’s where the recent surge of actually palatable canned cocktails comes in handy. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to find most of these options at your local grocery. But that’s a good thing, because it means they are made using real spirits and thus prohibited from grocery sales. Did you ever wonder why you could buy a Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler at the grocery store in the 1980s long before you could legally purchase wine there? That’s because they were made with malt liquor instead of actual wine. And, you know, ew.
Luckily, Nashville is awash with local and regional canned cocktails that actually deserve some room in your cooler, so they’re ready to be served over ice in a Solo cup or straight out of the can. Here are some of our favorites.
Nashville’s Pennington Distilling Co. produces the popular Pickers Vodka brand, an excellent spirit in its own right and the base for a series of canned cocktails and premade vodka-soda drinks. Four different canned cocktails each showcase a distinct flavor of the base Pickers Vodka. The original unflavored Pickers is blended with real lime and fresh ginger root to create the zingy Music City Mule. A tart Lemon and Blues option features Pickers Blueberry and lemonade, while those who prefer sweeter cocktails can opt for a Porch Picker or a Honky Tonk Hurricane made with Pickers Blood Orange and Pineapple, respectively. For a lighter option, Pickers has capitalized on the vodka-soda craze with four canned drinks with only 96 calories apiece and no sugar. Choose from Raspberry, Tangerine, Grapefruit or Cranberry Lime for an alternative to LaCroix that packs just a little bit of a punch but doesn’t veer into the crowded hard-seltzer market.
Speaking of the ubiquitous White Claw and its clones, if you’re going that route, at least consider a local option. Diskin Cider is best known for its fermented apple drinks, but Diskin has also created an offshoot brand of what they’re calling “cider spritzers” under the Lola brand. Instead of starting with a fermented sugar malt base like most drinks in the category, Diskin starts with fresh-pressed juice bases, just like with its ciders. The resulting Berry, Citrus and Peach varieties of Lola feature the flavors of real juices like strawberry, blackberry, blueberry and tart cherry, instead of whatever the hell is being added at those huge industrial seltzer factories.
Ole Smoky takes advantage of the moonshine made in its East Tennessee distilleries and small still downtown at 6th & Peabody for a line of canned cocktails, so they’re pretty much vodka drinks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Look for the Blackberry Lemonade, Apple Pie Ginger, Mountain Mule and Mountain ’Rita flavors in four-packs of 12-ounce cans at the distillery’s gift shops and at liquor stores.
Regional favorite Cathead Distillery in Jackson, Miss., has jumped into the ready-to-drink cocktail party locally with the release of four Cathead Sparkling flavors available in slim 12-ounce cans. The vodka-based soda drinks are available in Cranberry, Limeade, Satsuma Mandarin and Strawberry Lemonade and in a convenient eight-can sampler pack, just in case you can’t make up your mind.
While most of these canned cocktails are about as strong as your average light beer, Post Meridiem Spirit Co. out of Atlanta comes much closer to putting an actual full-strength cocktail in a can. These potent potables range from 23.5 percent alcohol by volume for the 1944 Mai Tai up to a knee-buckling 37 percent for the Double Old Fashioned. In between are a Real Lime Juice Margarita, a Lemongrass Vodka Gimlet and a No. 4 Daiquiri that is an ode to the classic Hemingway version of the tropical treat. Because of their higher proof levels, these drinks come in precious 100-milliliter cans (which is about 3.4 ounces for those of you who never caught on to the metric system). Made from authentic recipes using real juices, syrups and premium spirits, these are the easiest solution to offering a mess of premium cocktail options to a crowd. Just add ice and stir!
