How pre-made cocktails changed the way we drink
RTD, RTS, RTE, RTS, PPPM, PB, BTCBQ and SSC are all part of modern R&R. The latest drinks trend is Ready-To-Drink, Ready-ToServe, Ready-To-Enjoy, Ready-To-Savour, Premium Perfectly Pre-Mixed, Pre-Bottled, Bar-Tender Cocktail Bar Quality, Superior Serve cocktails.
They come in a bottle, a can or even a box. But should you be stocking up?
Xhulio Sina used to manage the bars at Sketch, the Royal Opera House and the South Bank Centre. He now makes his own passion fruit daiquiri and other classic cocktails from his Catford-based “Bottle Shop and Bar”.
They are far from alone – takeaway alcohol sales have risen by a third during Covid and the home delivery subscription industry has sky-rocketed. In the UK, Porn Stars now come bottled and batched courtesy of Nick Wall’s Tails; Sloe Sex on the Beach is available from Essex’s Tapp’d Cocktails; Zombies can be ordered from Karl Wozny’s Cocktail in a Bottle in Kent; while Jen Wright’s West Yorkshire company The Cocktail Pickers Club delivers classics including a bramble hedgerow gin straight to your door.
You can even pick up pre-mixed cocktails in the local supermarket – Shake Baby Shake offers a new Watermelon Daiquiri in a can, while 15 servings of Hawaiian Daiquiri will set you back just £12.
The way we drink is also changing, with a huge increase in the popularity of virtual events. Evolving from the landscape of virtual birthdays, work events, conferences, and similar corporate shindigs, many companies are now organising exclusive online events. And guess what those events need… Booze.
“Lockdown has boosted sales significantly,” says The Bottled Bartender’s Chris Murnaghan. “Events organisers have switched from in-person to virtual events. We get more enquiries every day, to the same tune: ‘We can’t hold our event or party, could you provide drinks for 100 people at different addresses?’ Yes. We can arrange that.”
You can see the appeal of this new brand of cocktail: you don’t have to buy an entire bottle of Campari to make a Negroni, or make your own syrup for an Old Fashioned. Canned cocktails are easy to add to your shopping trolley or online cart.
And you don’t just have to go for the classics. Aske Stephenson makes a Cigar and Coffee Manhattan while Liquid Intellect offers a Banana Bread Manhattan as well as a Jam Doughnut Negroni.
And if you were still on the fence, one of the best Negronis in the world now comes pre-made.
Tasmania-born Matthew Smallbone, who has worked at the award-winning Oak Bistro in Cambridge and Soho’s Quo Vadis, now shakes cocktails for Fatman & Friends. His hand-crafted Negroni, made with Bombay Sapphire Gin, Martini Rosso martini and Campari, won the 2020 “Best Classical Cocktail” at The World Pre-Mix awards.
“It took eighteen months of work to perfect my Negroni. Eighteen months of tweaking, experimentation and tasting. No corners were cut. It’s not an ‘instant’ cocktail. Every drop is aged for two months. Take the philosophy of the Slow Food Movement, and apply it to an instant cocktail and you get Fatman.”