The Ready-to-Drink Cocktail Edit

No matter how much time you’ve spent in the Big Apple, chances are you’ve heard of Via Carota. It’s not just where Taylor Swift was spotted dining with Jack Antonoff days after the breakup heard ‘round the world; it’s the Italian restaurant where tourists and locals alike queue up at 5pm in the hopes of rubbing elbows with those elevated circles. I scored a table last winter and found the cocktails as fantastic as the food, which is why I was so thrilled to hear VC was putting out a line of bottled cocktails.

It’s also why I was so disappointed in the end product. Each drink was more watery than the next, with the Signature Martini particularly weak, and only the Manhattan making much of an impression. It’s a puzzling misfire for an institution that manages to live up to bigger hype IRL, and an indication of just how tricky it is to translate great cocktails into ready-to-drink products.

You know who absolutely nails it, though? The good people at Campari. Admittedly it would be a huge miss if they screwed up the Negroni, considering ⅓ of the recipe is Campari itself, where they could have skimped on the gin and vermouth they decidedly did not. The (unnamed) London dry gin they use gives some great herbaceous, juniper notes and the vermouth is as complex as it should be; it’s much more than a sweetener. The Campari Negroni is the platonic ideal of a spirit-forward cocktail: strong enough to be sippable while still going down smooth. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better one at a bar, let alone your fridge.

Some brands have a celebrity founder; Thomas Ashbourne has about ten of them. With each of their cocktails branded by a famous face — the After Hours Espresso Martini courtesy of Neil Patrick Harris; the Margalicious Margarita by Ashley Benson, Rosario Dawson, and Vanessa Hudgens — the brand certainly signals that the beverage market has become a go-to side hustle for Hollywood’s buzziest names. But while most of their product line missed the mark (the margaritas were too sweet, the Old Fashioneds too thin), I did have a blast drinking the Perfect Cosmo from none other than Sarah Jessica Parker. Especially with And Just Like That back on the streaming airwaves, it’s possibly the perfect drink to cozy up with while you wonder how the hell Che made it in comedy.

Before I get you all excited about NIO, a disclaimer: they currently only ship to California. But for us West Coast residents, I’m crowning the RTD MVP. NIO doesn’t just use premium-quality, transparent ingredients like Cocchi Vermouth, Bulleit, and Tanqueray, it’s also got an impressively wide product line. They had my heart as soon as I saw that they offered a Milano Torino, my favorite two-ingredient, lower-ABV cocktail I discovered on my last trip to Rome. In fact all of their cocktails are Italian-made and sport a totally unique tear-and-pour envelope design that makes them stand out amidst the sea of bottles and cans. Here’s hoping they expand nationally soon so they can get the exposure they deserve.

When it comes to the world of canned cocktails, Cutwater’s drinks are a little bit like High Noons: they’re everywhere, they’re in-demand, but they’re honestly just not good. Where many RTD cocktails taste like a weaker version of their un-bottled or un-canned counterparts, Cutwater’s products taste so synthetic that they often have no relationship to the namesake cocktail at all. Drinks like the Mango Margarita or Rum Mint Mojito taste like 100% pre-made mix (even though there’s real alcohol by volume) and just aren’t worth the purchase even for convenience’s sake. 

Part of the problem with single-serving canned cocktails is portioning: to fill a standard can calls for more volume than a bar pour, so the product ends up diluted as a result. Hochstadter worked around this beautifully by releasing truly fantastic Old Fashioneds in mini cans, the kind you can easily throw in a weekend bag instead of lugging around a six-pack. These Slow & Low cocktails taste of high-quality ingredients – good bourbon, honey, navel orange, Angostura bitters – and are my first go-to for long evenings once the fall temperatures start to drop. Unlike some of the other ~5% ABV options on this list, it clocks in at 84 proof, making these Old Fashioneds very much the real deal.

Moving from grain spirit to agave, Onda makes a pretty on-point tequila seltzer in a variety of sharp flavors. Blood Orange and Grapefruit are addictive if you’re a fan of tart citrus, but Watermelon plays perfectly off of tequila’s natural botanicals. After spotting these at a pool party, they’ve become my go-to for summer days, hitting the spot particularly right when I’m posted up on the beach. And to be honest, I notice a slightly synthetic taste when I’m drinking them elsewhere that just doesn’t seem to bother me (or anyone I share with) when we’re soaking up sun. They’re also one of the few canned cocktails to get the sweetness level right – ie. they keep it very low – and with only 1g carbs and 100 calories per can, they’re exceedingly crushable and repeatable. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.