Food & Drink
The Best Hard Seltzers and Canned Cocktails to Drink This Summer
Canned drinks are the fast track to a low-effort happy hour.
This long weekend, convenient drinking is key. Whether you’re stuck in the city, or spending the weekend by a lake, the thought of lugging around a bar’s worth of bottles and garnishes on a hot day is, well, unappealing.
Thankfully, there is a range of creative companies that are perfecting the canned drinks – no squeezing limes or muddling mint needed. These brands have crafted something for every drinker, from refreshing hard seltzers, sophisticated coolers; even boozy bottled Old Fashioneds. Simply throw a few of the following options in your bag, pop the tab, and sip the long weekend away.
Best Throwback Option: Arizona Hard Tea
The breezy iced tea of our youth is growing up with us – Arizona has just released a take on its original iced green tea but this time, spiked with vodka. This version is a bit more expensive than the 99 cent price tag of the non-alc version, but the Hard Tea boasts Arizona’s signature 100% brewed green tea with ginseng, a touch of honey, and a splash of vodka. Each can is 5% ABV.
Best Hard Seltzer: White Claw
You simply can’t mention canned beverages without crediting the king of the movement: White Claw. The infamous hard seltzer has taken over the shelves of our liquor stores, become the subject of GIFs, memes, and snuck its way into our generational lexicon (Ain’t no laws when you’re drinking claws!).
What’s the big draw? The hard seltzer was the first of the cooler category to skip the usual overt sugary flavours and opt for a fresher, natural flavour profile. It also boasts all the qualities health-conscious drinkers love: it’s sugar-free, gluten-free, and uses natural ingredients. Thanks to its recent Canadian launch, four flavours are now available across the country: Ruby Grapefruit, Natural Lime, Mango, and Black Cherry.
Best Vodka Option: SoCIAL Lite
SoCIAL Lite offers many of the same draws as White Claw: the cans of Vodka Soda are crips, clean, gluten-free, and free of artificial sugars and sweeteners. But SoCIAL Lite is 100% Canadian, started by a group of friends out of a kitchen in Whitby, Ontario.
One of the big successes of this brand is they opt for more out-of-the-box flavours. There’s a vodka lime soda with a kick of ginger, and a blood orange version with vodka. All flavourings are made using natural juice concentrate.
Best Flavours: Collective Arts Artisanal Gin Lemon Thyme
The Hamilton brewery-slash-distillery has been making some of the most creative craft brews in the country. Their newly-launched canned cocktails channel that same artistic energy, riffing on classic cocktails with quirky, unconventional ingredients. Think a bitter orange and raspberry gin cocktail, made with Collective Arts’ rhubarb and hibiscus gin.
There’s also a sparkling gin and soda made with grapefruit, lemon, and thyme with additional notes of lavender and cardamom. Each can uses real fruit flavours over artificial sugars, helping you skip any incoming hangovers.
Best Gin Cocktail: Gin Smash
Georgian Bay’s idyllic lakes are the go-to destination for Ontario’s summer vacationers. For those of us less-fortunate city-dwellers, they’ve managed to bottle this off-duty lakeside energy in the form of a minty gin smash. It’s crisp and super refreshing, with big bubbles and a bit of sweetness from the addition of natural tangerine flavours.
All of the company’s flavourings, from the juniper in the gin to the cranberries and mint in the canned cocktails, are foraged in the Georgian Bay area. Water used in the distilling process comes from a local spring.
Best Cooler Alternative: Crazy Uncle
We all remember the overtly sugary coolers of our college years (and subsequently, the hangovers that came with them). Crazy Uncle creates adult versions of our favourite sodas and coolers – alcohol-spiked ginger lemonades, orange sodas and root beers. They are less saccharine than, say, a Mike’s Hard Lemonade, with natural flavourings and pure cane sugar sweetener. At 5% ABV, the breezy drinks will sneak up on you.
Best Craft Cocktail: BarChef Late Harvest Vesper
Summer calls for laidback drinking, and that certainly doesn’t include bringing an armful of shakers, stirrers, and glassware to wherever you’re headed. Luckily, experimental Toronto cocktail spot BarChef has bottled a few of classic cocktails, taking the work out of drink making. The newest iteration is the Late Harvest Vesper, a Martini riff made with spruce tip-infused gin, Niagara Vidal fortified wine, and bitters made from bay leaves and lavender. It’s lovely over ice, or sip it with a splash of soda.
Best Vacation Drink: Distillerie de Montreal Rosemont Mojito
Quebec residents will be familiar with Distillerie de Montreal’s inventive craft spirits, like an electric orange aperitivo, bright white rums, and local apple brandies. The Montreal distillery has poured said rum into a new canned take on a spicy mint mojito. Expect all the flavours of the classic beach drink, but sans the muddling.
Most Refreshing: Romeo’s Cucumber Gin Fizz
Also out of the Quebec camp: craft gin brand Romeo’s Gin is making the boozy version of spa water, with a cucumber-spiked gin fizz. It’s uber-refreshing thanks to the addition of lemon, cane sugar, and cucumber. All recipes are made with 100% organic ingredients.
Best Bourbon Option: Founder’s Bourbon Smash
Founder’s has focused their full efforts on canning cocktails, with options for every type of drinker. There are chuggable, picnic-ready cocktails, like a Bourbon Sour (at 5%ABV – far more sippable than a normal bourbon cocktail) and Tequila Palomas with agave nectar and Himalayan Salt.
For those who love a rye & ginger, the Rye and Thai calls for top-shelf Rye Whisky, Thai pomelo fruit, lime juice, and craft ginger ale. If you prefer your drinks a little stronger, Founder’s also offers bottled Old Fashioneds that clock in at 40% ABV. All cocktails are crafted in small batches to maintain quality.
Best Boozy Option: Dillon’s Negronis
Niagara’s craft gin sweetheart (the rose gin is a particular knockout) is now whipping up no-brainer negronis, in petite little single-serve 475mL bottles. Each blends equal parts Dillon’s Dry Gin 7, sweet vermouth, and the distillery’s own aperitivo liqueur.
Pouring it over rocks and throwing in an orange slice would be ideal, but you can’t go wrong by popping the top and sipping it straight.
Best for Aperol Spritz Fans: Amalfi Aperitivo Spritz
One of the newer pre-mixed options to hit the shelves is a riff on a bottled Aperol Spritz. The hand-crafted aperitivo is mixed with sparkling wine, burnt orange, and a mix of bitters to replicate the bright flavours of a citrusy Aperol Spritz. It could use an extra splash of bubbles, but pour it over ice and it’s an effortless summer cocktail.
Best for the Health Conscious: Aquarelle
For the health-conscious drinker, Aquarelle specializes in light, carb- and sugar-free vodka sodas and vodka water. Think of the soda like a boozy San Pellegrino: there’s delicate bubbles and clean vodka flavour. It comes in a rainbow of flavours, including lemon-lime, pomegranate, and passionfruit. The super chuggable sodas are the ideal sip after a tough workout but at 5% ABV, they came to play.
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