Cocktails That Travel

This summer, sip some ready-to-drink whiskey cocktails

May 29, 2025 –––––– Julia Higgins, , , ,

When the weather warms up and more of life’s pleasures take place outside, even enthusiastic home bartenders know that it’s not always practical to mix up cocktails to go. But nowadays, there are high-quality ready-to-drink (RTD) options that you can take almost anywhere.

In 2019, entrepreneurs Neal Cohen and Yoni Reisman were taking stock of the drinks landscape. At the time, these two ardent cocktail lovers were regularly working major outdoor festival events, and they noticed there were plenty of vodka lemonades, but no prepared drinks for cocktail aficionados. “We had such a love of cocktails and felt the accessibility was so limited,” says Cohen, noting you either had to head to a bar or make them at home. So Tip Top Proper Cocktails was born to fill the void.

Canned Classic Cocktails

Tip Top focuses on classic cocktails—Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Whiskey Sour, Paper Plane, Penicillin, and Boulevardier—with recipes developed by mixologist Miles Macquarrie, best known for his work as beverage director at Kimball House in Atlanta. For all but the Penicillin, which includes 3 year old blended scotch from Loch Lomond, Tip Top uses bourbon and rye from Indiana’s MGP. To drink a Tip Top cocktail is to experience the complexity and straight-up enjoyment you’d get from a solid restaurant cocktail, and, like any custom-mixed drink, they pack a heady punch, with ABV levels ranging from 23% to 37%. All you need aside from the can is ice; Macquarrie stresses that they’re best served ice cold and on the rocks.

On a similar path is New York City-based restaurant Via Carota, whose founders Jody Williams and Rita Sodi launched Via Carota Craft Cocktails in 2023. Via Carota currently makes two whiskey-based cocktails: Signature Manhattan, made with 4 year old high-rye bourbon from MGP, sweet vermouth, and a blend of bitters, and bottled at 27.5% ABV, and Old Fashioned, made from the same 4 year old whiskey, aromatic bitters, natural orange flavor, and brown sugar, and bottled at 28% ABV.

Familiar Faces of Ready-to-Drink

Some of the most recognizable names in American whiskey have their own spirit-forward cocktails. Among them are Old Forester, with a bottled 30% ABV Mint Julep that blends its flagship bourbon with mint flavor; Suntory Global Spirits-owned On the Rocks, which makes a Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour (20% ABV) that mixes Old Overholt rye with pear, citrus, and cinnamon flavors; and High West, with a 43% ABV Old Fashioned Barrel Finished, which is made from a blend of straight bourbon and straight rye with bitters, and finished in second-fill rye barrels. In all of these RTDs, the whiskey flavor is unmistakable and not masked, complemented by classic ingredients that play a supporting role.

Low ABV Options

While a canned or bottled cocktail with a double-digit ABV might be perfect for sipping during movie night at the park, it doesn’t necessarily have the same draw during hot days spent at the beach or a festival. That’s where the lower-ABV labels come in. Take actor Blake Lively’s Betty Booze brand, which launched in 2023 with a line of low-alcohol sparkling cocktails. Today, there are three sparkling bourbon options—peach, honey, and mint; oak-smoked lemonade; and apple, ginger, and sour cherry—that are just 4.5% ABV and superbly sessionable. Unsurprisingly, the whiskey’s flavors are harder to discern, but the drinks are refreshing and enjoyable all the same.

Another lower ABV brand is Gardenista, which offers its Bourbon Cocktail comprising bourbon, green herbs, lime juice, ginger, and jalapeño. Its green color might have you mistaking this for a green juice, and the cocktail’s flavors don’t dispel that notion, rich as it is with earthier, herbaceous notes. A plus for these lower ABV options is the versatility of their serves—Gardenista, for example, recommends its Bourbon Cocktail shaken and served straight up, over ice, or as a spritz.

As you head outside and enjoy the warm weather this summer, consider a whiskey-based RTD for refreshment.