The range
Cocktails made by bartenders and bottled properly. Curatif cans their negroni, espresso martini and margarita at full strength using named spirits rather than a flavour base. Maybe Sammy, from the Sydney bar of the same name, bottle theirs in 100mL and 500mL. Starward bottle a whisky negroni, and Brookie's and Four Pillars do gin long drinks.
Non-alcoholic is here too, from Naked Life. Everything is ready to pour over ice — nothing needs measuring, and nothing needs a second bottle to finish it.
25bottles. Every one with a reason written against it.
New Norfolk, Tasmania
We stock it because it is the line that settles the argument about pre-made cocktails being the cheap end of a shop, and because it is made at a scale where the blend was a decision somebody made rather than a specification somebody met.
700 mL23.0%12.7 std
$92.99
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because this is the one people ask for by name, and because the zero-alcohol version of a sweet drink has to work hardest of all - there is no spirit underneath to carry it, so the fruit has to be real.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because the Paloma is the drink this shelf has most to say about - Karu's smoked chipotle version sits a few tiles away - and because somebody who is not drinking should be able to have the same drink as everyone else rather than a different and lesser one.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because a bottle shop that sells only alcohol has nothing to offer the person at the table who is not drinking tonight, and because handing them a soft drink is not the same gesture. This is recognisably the drink everyone else is having.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria
We stock it because a distillery canning its own drink is rarer than it sounds - most cans in this category are made under contract for a brand that owns no still - and because which of the two you are holding is worth being able to tell.
250 mL8.0%1.6 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because Maybe Sammy make it from the fruit, and because a drink carrying that reputation is worth one bottle on the shelf arguing the reputation is out of date. Ingredients: 42 Below Vodka, Lemon Myrtle, Lychee, Supasawa
100 mL24.0%1.9 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the only coffee cocktail here built on rum rather than vodka, and the gap between those two is most of the argument for buying a drink somebody made instead of the bottles to make it. Ingredients Bacardi Oro, Mr Black, Pineapple, Almond
100 mL22.0%1.7 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because the aperitivo is the one drink on this shelf with an actual job to do, and because most bottled versions are a spritz with the bubbles taken out. This one holds together poured over ice on its own.
100 mL18.0%1.4 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the one bottle here that could not have been made anywhere else, and because it answers a question worth asking: what the classic cocktails would look like if they had been written in this country.
100 mL26.0%2.1 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the one in this range we would hand somebody who says they do not like Martinis, and because it usually turns out that what they did not like was the gin rather than the drink.
100 mL26.0%2.1 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it was built by a bar that has to defend it to customers every night, and because the small bottle lets you put it beside the canned Margaritas on this shelf and taste what the difference between the two formats actually amounts to.
100 mL22.0%1.7 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it takes a drink people order out of habit and gives them a reason to notice it again, and because Maybe Sammy have the standing to change a Martini without it reading as a gimmick. Ingredients 42 Below Vodka, Olive Brine, Oregano, Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth, Grapefruit Bitters
100 mL28.0%2.2 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because the Old Fashioned is the drink most often ruined by pre-mixing - too sweet, too dilute, or both - and this one is neither. It also travels, which matters when the alternative is carrying three bottles and a jigger to someone else's kitchen.
100 mL30.0%2.4 std
Yarra Valley, Victoria
We stock it because it is the Four Pillars can that tastes least like everything else in the fridge, and because the bottle it is built from is on our gin shelf, so you can find out whether you like the idea before committing to one.
250 mL5.5%1.1 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it comes from a working Sydney bar rather than a contract bottler, and because 100 mL is one drink. You are buying a single Negroni made by the people who built their name on it, not a bottle you have to commit to.
100 mL24.0%1.9 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is the least obvious can in the range and the one most likely to change someone's mind about what a canned cocktail can be.
130 mL20.0%2.1 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is the version people ask for, and because the heat is built in rather than sitting on the rim as a gimmick.
130 mL22.0%2.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because Mr Black is made an hour up the coast and sits on our own shelf, and because most canned versions of this drink are sugar and coffee flavouring.
120 mL20.0%1.9 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because the drink has spent forty years being made badly and this is what it is supposed to taste like.
130 mL17.0%1.7 std
Byron Bay, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the same gin we sell by the bottle four tiles away, and because a canned G&T that tastes of juniper rather than of sweetened citrus is rarer than the shelf space this category gets would suggest.
275 mL6.0%1.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because Starward's Two-Fold is on our whisky shelf and this is what the distillery does with it, and because at 500 mL it is the pouring format of a drink we otherwise only sell one can at a time.
500 mL32.0%12.6 std
$64.99
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because a Margarita made properly is three ingredients and no sugar syrup, and this is the only canned one on our shelf that reads that way.
130 mL22.0%2.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is built from spirits we sell separately, so you can taste the parts against the whole, and because the strength is on the front of the can rather than buried.
140 mL24.0%2.7 std
Richmond, New South Wales
We stock it because most canned drinks are sugar with a spirit somewhere behind it, and this one is recognisably made from something we already sell. One can is about 1.2 standard drinks.
250 mL6.0%1.2 std
$7.00
Richmond, New South Wales
We stock it because it does what a bottled cocktail should do: pour over a big cube, add a twist, and it holds up. No measuring, no bitters hunt.
500 mL31.0%12.2 std
$69.00
