Kyra Blackwell: I'm Kyra Blackwell.

Rosie Garen: I'm [music] Rosie Garen, and you're listening to the Wirecutter show.

Rosie Garen: Hi, Rosie.

Kyra Blackwell: Hey, Kyra. Are you excited? It's getting really hot outside.

Rosie Garen: Getting warm, and today we're talking cool, crisp, chilled canned cocktails.

Kyra Blackwell: I love it. Backyard barbecues, tailgates, picnics. Nothing is better than a chilled drink in the sun for these events and beyond. That's why I'm excited to really dig into the world of these new sophisticated canned cocktails. I'm not going to lie, like not that long ago, I was drinking White Claws at these kinds of events, and I don't think that's the move anymore.

Rosie Garen: It's a judgment-free zone, but I can understand if you are ready to elevate. Like you like a nice cocktail, so there's no reason I think you should have to build out a huge bar if you want to have a nice cocktail at home. There are a ton of great options.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, even when I go to more casual events now, there are so many of these more elevated canned cocktails that do have really nice drinks like espresso martinis, whiskey sours, negronis. So, you do have a lot of choices these days, and I love that.

Rosie Garen: I love it, too, and I am really excited that we're going to talk to Anna Thrash uh she's an associate staff writer on the kitchen team here at Wirecutter. We've had her on the show before. She's absolutely delightful, and she's going to talk about testing these canned cocktails, what she learned, what we can expect, and hopefully how to pick the right one to match your vibe.

Kyra Blackwell: Plus, we're going to do a little taste test live on the show. Anna Thrash, welcome to the show.

Anna Thrash: Thanks so much for having me.

Rosie Garen: Welcome back.

Anna Thrash: Thanks.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah. So, today we are talking about canned cocktails. I think a lot of people still might associate them with a hard seltzer or a drink that you bring to a tailgate or backyard barbecue, and it's something that you're just throwing back and kind of getting drunk. When I was reading your guide, I didn't recognize any of the brands that you recommend, and they look more elevated and sophisticated. So, it seems like something's changed. And you have nine picks in your guide. They range from anything from espresso martinis to margaritas to old-fashioned. So, what is the difference between these canned cocktails in your guide and other alcoholic beverages that you can get in a can?

Anna Thrash: Yeah, I think you really hit the nail on the head with how much the space has changed.

Kyra Blackwell: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: I think that a lot of people's introduction to canned alcoholic beverages is kind of of the tailgate, White Claw, High Noon variety.

Kyra Blackwell: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: And we've seen this huge boom in we can kind of say elevated, {quote} {unquote}, canned cocktails, especially during lockdown and COVID. The way that people have socialized really changed, and it still hasn't quite gone back to everyone being quite as out and about as they were before.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, I wondered whether it was connected around the pandemic, because that's when I started doing a little more searching and researching like good canned cocktails. Yeah, cuz I wanted to you know, like the kind that you would otherwise maybe get if you went to a cocktail bar.

Anna Thrash: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: Totally. And that's exactly the need that the industry kind of met the moment. These are the kind of drinks that you would sip at board game night, a dinner party. They're mixologist approved. They are touting high-end liquors. They're really carefully curated and packaged, and it's very different than a college tailgate experience.

Rosie Garen: [laughter] Even just thinking about White Claw, it's like, yeah, I I used to love a White Claw at a cookout, but that was only probably like 5% alcohol. It was akin to drinking a beer, and it seems like these canned cocktails are more heavy hitters, and that may be a big difference, too. Like, you shouldn't expect to be throwing these back the way you would a White Claw.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, you're not crushing seven of these over the span of an entire football game. Some of these are 40% alcohol. These are cocktails, capital C. They're not the sort of lower ABV, sippable, crushable drinks of 10 years prior.

Rosie Garen: [laughter]

Kyra Blackwell: My feeling is that at the price point I know that they vary in price, but at the price point, a good one is a good deal if you're not in a place to go out and have a drink.

Anna Thrash: That's exactly it. You know, we're based in New York City, where a cocktail can cost sometimes egregiously as high as $23 depending on where you're going. Yeah, easy. Absolutely. So, you know, a $6 canned cocktail made with high-end ingredients, and you don't have to stock up on liquor and ingredients the same way. You can have a variety of cocktails at one time. They are quite cost-efficient.

Rosie Garen: I remember saving up to buy a bottle of crème de cassis. You know, there's only one size, and the size is big.

Rosie Garen: [laughter]

Rosie Garen: I'm like, I'm going to have this for 27 years.

Anna Thrash: Not everyone wants to curate a bar cart. Not all of us have the space to. I don't want to keep a bottle of vodka in the freezer anymore. It's nice to have the option of you put them out for your guests, and they're gone with your guests, and this is it's met the moment. We also found that a lot of these brands, they really emphasize quality of ingredients in a way that, you know, maybe you wouldn't expect if the last time you had a canned cocktail was 5, 7, 10 years ago. So, they can get pretty close in quality to what you would get at a restaurant or a bar.

Kyra Blackwell: So, you ended up tasting 40 cocktails over multiple days for this guide, which sounds like a party at work. [laughter] What did the actual testing look like?

Anna Thrash: Yeah, it wasn't quite a party. If you were to be with us during our tasting and would be kind of gross cuz we all had our own personal spittoon in the process.

Rosie Garen: A spittoon?

Anna Thrash: You sip it and you spit it out because

Rosie Garen: spit.

Rosie Garen: [laughter]

Anna Thrash: You can kind of get the feel, get the taste, and then you don't have to worry about taking, you know, 23 sips of a cocktail at 3:00 p.m. on a workday.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, wow, what a drag.

Anna Thrash: It would be fun, but I feel like we would get less precise tasting notes as the evening went on.

Kyra Blackwell: [laughter]

Kyra Blackwell: The notes get a little squiggly.

Anna Thrash: Exactly. And we also kind of made an effort to group similar liquors, similar flavor profiles. It's really difficult on a cocktail to compare them one to one, like we can with a butter taste test or yogurt taste test.

Kyra Blackwell: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: So, this wasn't quite as brand concealed as some of our other taste tests may have been. You do want to know you're drinking a Negroni before you sip on a Negroni. If you're expecting a margarita, you're not going to have a favorable opinion of your Negroni.

Rosie Garen: But you guys like covered the label, but you just know like the category of drink you're trying.

Anna Thrash: Exactly. Yes. So, we made an effort to compare like to like, and we also took into account that everyone has very different preferences of their favorite drink, and we narrowed it down to something where there's a list where we hope no matter what your preference is, you can find a cocktail for you on the guide.

Kyra Blackwell: What is your guidance for how to pick the right canned cocktail for you? I mean, beyond if you don't like vodka, don't pick a vodka cocktail, or if you don't like something. I've I've noticed a lot of them are effervescent. Sometimes I don't like or want that. But beyond that, how do you suggest people think about it?

Anna Thrash: Actually, to your point, I think that what you said, if you don't like vodka or if you don't like whiskey, I think that canned cocktails are the best time to try drinks that you may not normally go for, just because it is a cheaper, lower commitment way to test out like, you know, do you like an espresso martini, but do you want to keep the necessary ingredients at home? Now's a chance to try it. But to look for a good canned cocktail, we found that we had the best luck with brands that were really specific with their ingredients and that's something that they were touting or bragging about intentionally.

Kyra Blackwell: So, what would be an example of that?

Anna Thrash: Yeah, so Tip Top, one of our picks, for example, we loved their espresso martini and it was actually one of the few coffee-based cocktails that we really enjoyed from the many that we tried and we found that they specifically mentioned, for example, that they were using Counter Culture Coffee, which is a brand that we also chat about on our coffee guides on the site. So, just that specificity, you know what to expect and you also know that they're not cutting corners and putting, you know, cheaper booze or cheaper ingredients because there is a lot of concealment that can happen in a can. And so, you really want to look for the specifics that the brand is touting. Usually, a lot of cocktails aren't too many ingredients, so you really taste each one, which is why that specificity is so important. Like, an old-fashioned is just whiskey, sugar, and bitters, so you want it to be a good quality whiskey. Some brands also even mention partnerships with certain mixologists and maybe you like a certain liquor specifically and if you see that it's touting a certain brand, you know, you're more likely to enjoy those than something that's like, "We're malt liquor at certain percentage and we have cherry natural flavoring." So, there's an audience for that, but read the ingredients.

Kyra Blackwell: Okay, Antara, we're going to talk about a few of your favorites from the guide and do a little taste test, yes, on a weekday at noon. But, before that, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

Rosie Garen: [music]

Kyra Blackwell: Welcome back. Today, we're talking about canned cocktails perfect for your summer gatherings with Wirecutter's Antara Sinha.

Rosie Garen: Antara, we know you brought some cocktails for us to taste. Let's, I think, take them one by one and we'll sip on them and you can tell us a little bit about what's going on, why you like them, how they ended up in the guide.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, okay. So, we have kind of an assortment of some trendy-ish drinks, some classic drinks, and some that may be newer to an American drinking culture. So, let's start with the Jumo. That's one that I'm most excited about. The primary base in Jumo is soju and this particular one is mango, yuzu, and citrus mint flavored. So, we know what mango is. Love a mango drink. This has yuzu and citrus mint, which is a variety of mint that has citrus notes. So, it's light, fruity, and sweet. So, if that's your kind of drink, this is the one to reach for.

Rosie Garen: That's right. Cheers.

Anna Thrash: Cheers.

Kyra Blackwell: Cheers.

Rosie Garen: That's refreshing.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, this was one of our favorites just cuz of how crisp and light it is.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, that's really nice.

Rosie Garen: There's like a lingering sweetness that's very distinctly soju and not just sweetener from the fruit flavoring.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah.

Anna Thrash: And we thought this was a good introduction to canned soju on the market, which is relatively new.

Rosie Garen: The mint really comes through, I think.

Anna Thrash: Yes. And the soju, the soju is pretty forward, but I like it.

Kyra Blackwell: And this is lower ABV, so I wouldn't recommend crushing that, but this is a nice, you know, sipper.

Rosie Garen: This tastes like juice. It does.

Kyra Blackwell: [laughter]

Rosie Garen: A little bit. Sometimes I do need a cocktail to taste like a cocktail.

Anna Thrash: Yes, you take a slow.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah.

Anna Thrash: Which is a probably a good segue into this next one. This is the Tip Top.

Rosie Garen: Yeah, this is a Tip Top Old Fashioned. Um, really simple, whiskey, sugar, bitters, like a classical fashioned.

Kyra Blackwell: It smells like straight whiskey.

Anna Thrash: And this is 37% ABV, so tread lightly.

Rosie Garen: [laughter]

Kyra Blackwell: I think yeah. Ooh, strong.

Anna Thrash: It is.

Rosie Garen: But this is Rosie's drink. She loves her like a dark liquor.

Kyra Blackwell: I do. This is not mine, but I can appreciate it.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, it's definitely one of the higher quality old-fashioned styled drinks that we had. Would you like a top-off?

Rosie Garen: Even for me, I'm good.

Anna Thrash: [laughter]

Kyra Blackwell: I don't know if it's cuz it's noon or or what, but this is hitting.

Anna Thrash: Yeah.

Kyra Blackwell: [laughter]

Rosie Garen: It definitely feels strong.

Anna Thrash: It is strong.

Rosie Garen: We really like there was like a lingering spiciness that we enjoyed in this.

Kyra Blackwell: the flavor's really deep and nice and feels tastes complex.

Anna Thrash: Yeah.

Rosie Garen: It doesn't taste like a cheap whiskey.

Kyra Blackwell: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: One of our tasters said that they wouldn't be disappointed if they were served this at a bar.

Rosie Garen: Yeah.

Anna Thrash: I think just broadly across the board, Tip Top was a really reliable brand and it's also one that you can find at a lot of liquor stores.

Rosie Garen: And it's pretty good price-wise.

Anna Thrash: Yes. It's usually like 20-ish dollars for a pack of four.

Rosie Garen: Okay.

Anna Thrash: Which, you know, is still cheaper than all the ingredients of like a high-quality whiskey and the necessary tools that you need to make one.

Rosie Garen: Yeah.

Anna Thrash: And again, cheaper than what you're going to one cocktail at a bar.

Rosie Garen: Yeah. [laughter] And like we're split we split this one can amongst the three of us and we feel like we're good. So, you know, you can probably stretch those four cans if you really wanted to.

Anna Thrash: That's true.

Rosie Garen: I think for a lot of these canned cocktails, we found that they all perform better when they were poured over ice and had kind of a second to mellow out a little bit.

Kyra Blackwell: Mhm. Shall we try What's this other one here?

Anna Thrash: This is actually called Southside. Gin base, this one is slightly effervescent. It's very bubbly and crisp and there's lemon and mint and this is another example of like more of a mature sipping like an alternative to a white claw that feels a little more mature and balanced.

Rosie Garen: Okay.

Kyra Blackwell: And this is like it's a gin cocktail, so it's kind of like a gin and tonic type vibe?

Anna Thrash: Sort of, yeah. The lemon and mint is the addition in this one.

Rosie Garen: Oh my days, that's nice.

Kyra Blackwell: Oh, I love that. It's very simple.

Rosie Garen: That's nice.

Anna Thrash: It's very simple.

Kyra Blackwell: It's very

Anna Thrash: simple, but we found that there was like a crispness to the gin flavor that came through. You're are getting little bits of juniper

Rosie Garen: and super nice.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, it's very refreshing. too sweet.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, and give it a sec over ice and it'll mellow out even more. This is dangerous. This is 10% alcohol.

Rosie Garen: Yeah, I'm going to finish this.

Kyra Blackwell: [laughter]

Anna Thrash: That's yours to keep.

Rosie Garen: I'll finish that off, Mike. Um, the last one

Kyra Blackwell: [sighs] [gasps]

Anna Thrash: Yeah, the last one is the Cutwater White Russian, which everyone in the city was making faces, but

Rosie Garen: Kira's been disqualified from drinking this cuz it has dairy, White Russian.

Anna Thrash: It does. It has Kahlua, it has vodka, and heavy cream. [snorts] Cutwater was I think one of the first canned cocktails on the market. I think that they weren't quite as reliable across their whole portfolio the way that Tip Top is. Tip Top is, you know, you pick it up, you're going to probably enjoy what you're drinking. Cutwater just kind of oscillated too much between quality of ingredients and even just how strong they were. Of the many that we tasted, the White Russian felt like the one that we were most excited to recommend just because it is something that feels special and not one you want to purchase some ingredients for and keep them on hand. Like, how often do you really have Kahlua on hand? And so, this was our favorite from the mix.

Rosie Garen: I see.

Anna Thrash: So, I will preface by saying that we are drinking this in the spring, but this is I think kind of like a holiday party sort of sipper. Totally you want to split a can with someone. This is a full soda can sized beverage. But, it is really rich. It's in the sort of vein of a milkshake, in the vein of like a mudslide. There are people who love this. What do you think?

Kyra Blackwell: Problem is this is delicious.

Rosie Garen: I love this. We found a convert.

Kyra Blackwell: Tell us more.

Rosie Garen: I mean, it tastes like a milkshake with vodka in it. It's sweet though, which is like always a little bit dangerous. Yum.

Anna Thrash: It is very sweet. It's very kind of vanilla cream forward. It is one of the outliers from our list of picks, but, you know, everyone needs their drink, and for people this is their drink.

Rosie Garen: [laughter]

Kyra Blackwell: [music]

Rosie Garen: So, Andrea, my final question to you, out of all of the canned cocktails you recommend in your guide, which one are you buying for yourself when you're hosting, when you're going to a picnic? What's your drink of choice?

Anna Thrash: Yeah, I'm actually torn between two that we've tasted right now, the Southside and the Jumo.

Rosie Garen: Mhm.

Anna Thrash: The Southside feels like the most sort of broadly crowd-pleasing. It's so crisp and light, and I can't imagine anyone being upset with a nice crisp gin cocktail.

Rosie Garen: Yeah.

Anna Thrash: And the Jumo was the most exciting to me just because I think in sort of American craft cocktail culture, soju is like an emerging sort of space for a lot of people, and it was really exciting to see this in a ready-to-drink can that's so accessible to people to try.

Rosie Garen: Yeah, I think those are my top two, but I would pick the Southside over the Jumo. It's like refreshing, it doesn't have a lot going on, and I could totally down that entire can yeah, by myself.

Kyra Blackwell: [laughter]

Rosie Garen: Same, really well-balanced.

Kyra Blackwell: Well, thank you so much for joining us today, and thank you for sharing a drink with us.

Anna Thrash: Yeah, thanks for having us, so much fun.

Rosie Garen: [music]

Kyra Blackwell: Andrea says that if you want to find these canned cocktails, they're available online. We've got [music] links, and of course at major alcohol retailers nationwide. [music] And I encourage you to check out Andrea's reporting. All of it is on our website. That's it for us. Thank you so much for listening. [music] Peace.

Rosie Garen: The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Garen and produced by Abigail Kiehl. Engineering support from Maddie Masiello and Nick Pittman. [music] Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alisha Beth [music] Ittupe, Catherine Anderson, Rowan Nemirow, and Diane Wong. Cliff Leavy is Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager. Ben Fruman [music] is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. I'm Kira Blackwell.

Kyra Blackwell: I'm Kira Blackwell.

Rosie Garen: And I'm Rosie Garen. [music] Thanks for listening.