Have an upscale cocktail at home (sans a large inventory of spirits and mixers) with the lineup from On the Rocks Premium Cocktails…just add a glass
Make it for me, please
Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a personal mixologist at hand (or at least someone who knows their way around a cocktail, as I don’t). You know, someone that will make me a cocktail without me having to (a) keep a whole lot of specialty bottles of mixers and bitters at hand, and (b) make it myself. And make that drink from top quality spirits and ingredients (no artificial stuff, please!). Oh, and make that drink taste really yummy. Is that asking too much?
Apparently not, because recently I discovered a line of upscale (the rep called them “elevated”) pre-mixed cocktails at my local wine shop, Bauer’s Wine & Spirits called On the Rocks Premium Cocktails. Featuring Beam Suntory spirits (like Knob Creek Bourbon and Effen Vodka), these ready-to-serve cocktails met all my requirements above…all I had to do was add a glass (and maybe an ice cube or two). The full lineup had six varieties of cocktails from which to choose…I sampled four and took home two. This from someone who generally doesn’t drink cocktails at home (the occasional Margarita being the exception).
On to the tasting…tally ho!
On the Rocks Premium Cocktails
At Bauer’s Wine & Spirits, June 21, 2019
On the Rocks - The Aviation
Tasting Notes
- Nose: flowers, some lemon
- Taste: lavender, gin minimal, lemon
- Finish: sweet flowery nectar, lightly citrus
- Comments: very sweet, gin flavors are muted
On the Rocks - The Old Fashioned
Tasting Notes
- Nose: vanilla, cream, oak
- Taste: soft cinnamon, vanilla, rises to mocha
- Finish: soft baking spices with mocha fudge and lemons, leathery
- Comments: very nice and not too sweet, Knob Creek bourbon shines
On the Rocks - The Cosmopolitan
Tasting Notes
- Nose: cotton candy, pink lemonade
- Taste: lemon, lilacs, cotton candy
- Finish: fades quickly with citrus notes
- Comments very sweet, pleasant to sip, think hard pink lemonade
On the Rocks - The Margarita
Tasting Notes
- Nose: Lime, cotton, linen
- Taste: heavy lime, light citrus and salt in the background
- Finish: lots of limes (I’m sensing a theme here)
- Comments: not a lot of sweetness, rather it’s quite tart; lime dominates all
Final Thoughts
I will say that while some of these cocktails were a little too sweet for me, what I really liked about the whole line of On the Rocks Premium Cocktails was that there was no metallic or chemical taste in any of the samples I tried (and to me, that’s how pre-mixed cocktails always tasted). And while I still prefer having my scotch, whiskey, or bourbon neat, it’s nice to be able to mix it up a bit (pun intended) without having to stock the large inventory of mixers and bitters I mentioned before (and know how to use them). So while I wait for that personal mixologist to magically materialize at my door, I’ll just sip one of these cocktails…there’s no hurry…just please hand me a glass.
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy