Ready-to-go drinks fit for a scorching summer

It’s mid-July, I’m just back from a little holiday and if I’m being totally honest, am suffering from a touch of post-vacay brain fog. It’s supposed to be scorching hot for the next few days. The Free Press arts and life crew is mainly tied up with attending and covering the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and prepping for Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival coverage as well.

In other words, rather than some educational deep dive into a grape variety or wine region for this week’s Uncorked, we’re keeping it simple. To that end, this week I tasted six drinks that fall into the ready-to-drink (RTD) category — think hard seltzers, coolers, pre-mixed cocktails and the like — selected mostly at random (although I made sure not to duplicate any particular flavour).

For the most part, the wildly popular RTD category offers boozy drinks that don’t taste like alcohol, often offering nostalgic flavours for drinkers of my particular vintage. It’s one of the only categories of alcohol that’s actually seeing a growth in sales.

Now, are these companies trying to appeal to us more seasoned imbibers looking for a taste of nostalgia, or are these flavoured RTD beverages meant to appeal to younger (and potentially underage) drinkers? That’s a debate/discussion for another time.

And while these products fall into the RTD category, I’d argue they’re not truly ready to drink until poured into a glass and served with ice to temper the sweetness of some of these drinks.

Anyway, in no particular order…

The Popsicle Grape Vodka Soda (“Blended in Canada” — $31.99/12x355ml cans, Liquor Marts) is a sugar-free vodka-based cooler (sweetened with Stevia extract) that comes as part of the 12-can mixed pack (which also contains orange and cherry).

It has that textbook grape-freezie colour, and aroma-wise is quite simply just … grape popsicle.

On the medium-sweet, light-bodied and carbonated palate the artificial grape flavour comes through in spades, with 4.5 per cent alcohol and (if it matters) 100 calories per 355 ml can.

The nostalgia level is off the charts, and this offering doesn’t come with raging sweetness, which is nice.

The mix pack is on sale until the end of the month (regular $34.99). 3/5

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Much, much sweeter is the Beatbox Fruit Punch (Toronto — $4.99/500ml Tetra Pak, Liquor Marts and beyond), one of five flavours of this tiki-inspired drink available in our market.

It’s bright cherry red and aromatically is a juicy wallop of fruit punch. It’s light-plus bodied, with no carbonation but plenty of sweetness, and flavour-wise captures the ultra-sweet fruit punch notes accurately.

Made of “grape spirit” and “orange pulp wine” (whatever that is) as well as containing sugar, sucralose, “Allura red” and other ingredients, it’s punchy at 7.1 per cent alcohol and is likely best served with ice and soda water. 2/5

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Fort Garry Brewing Co. has shifted a fair bit of its focus to its Hector’s Hard line of coolers; the Hector’s Hard Peach Punch (Winnipeg — $3.99/473ml can, Liquor Marts and beer vendors) is a vodka-based drink that’s pale orange in appearance and aromatically brings decent peach candy and sweet citrus notes.

It’s medium-sweet and fizzy, and the sweetness of the peach and the carbonation combine to deliver those peach candy flavours nicely, while the seven per cent alcohol provides a relatively nuanced kick. Also available in a 1.75 litre bottle. 2.5/5

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The Snapple Spiked Raspcherry (sic) Tea (Mississauga, Ont. — $3.24/458ml can, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) is dubbed as “naturally flavoured” and is thankfully devoid of a long list of questionable ingredients.

It’s pale gold in appearance and in addition to the tea notes, aromatically it brings ample raspberry and cherry candy aromas. Light-plus bodied, medium-sweet and still (not carbonated), the red berry candy flavours and tea notes work well together, the latter bringing modest tannin like you’d get in regular iced tea.

The 5.5 per cent alcohol works well here, and things thankfully don’t get too sweet. Currently on sale (regular $3.69). 3/5

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The Jameson Ginger & Lime (Toronto — $4.39/473ml can, Liquor Marts) is medium gold in appearance, with the whiskey and ginger aromas bolstered by a secondary citrus rind note.

Light-plus-bodied and just off-dry, big gingery spice flavours come with the slightly woody whiskey flavours, a subtle citrus note, decent carbonation and, at six per cent alcohol, a modestly warm finish.

There’s a little more going on here than many of the other (faux) fruit-forward RTDs tasted this week — this tastes like the actual booze from which it’s made, isn’t overly sweet and would be delightful on a hot day. 3.5/5

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The White Claw Surge Blood Orange (Toronto — $4.19/473ml can, Liquor Marts, beer vendors) is devoid of colour and offers aromas of ripe citrus, lemon-lime soda and subtle candied peach notes.

It’s quite light-bodied, with just a touch of sweetness that comes with the ripe orange and lemon-lime flavours, fizzy effervescence and, at seven per cent alcohol, a punchy kick on the finish.

The more modest sweetness here also makes this a prime candidate to help beat the heat. 3/5

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