Memorial Day cookouts are over, and summer is here, even if the calendar has a little catching up to do. And honestly, though I often have a pour of bourbon in the summer, I tend to like cocktails just a bit more on a hot day, especially those that are served cold. Nothing beats an ice-cold drink on the deck with a little music playing while reading a book or visiting with friends.
That said, I’m a busy guy. I’m cleaning up after dogs, I’m designing junk mail for plumbers, I’m building things for my wife. I don’t always have the time or the energy to build a cocktail. Even an easy one. This is why we continually take a look at the ever-increasing selection of ready-to-drink cocktails on the market. Sure, they aren’t usually as good as the ones you make at home, but they sure are easy. Open the fridge, pour a little in a glass, and add ice. Couldn’t be simpler.
Tonight, we are looking at a pair of ready-to-drink cocktails from Sazerac’s 1792 brand—oddly, not including a Sazerac cocktail. I mean, maybe Sazerac makes a ready-to-drink version of a Sazerac cocktail, but I didn’t see one on the shelf, and I can’t find a website for these to find out more information. Aside from what I can find during some internet sleuthing, I know next to nothing about them. In fact, I only know for sure that tonight’s bottles come from Sazerac because I did a trademark search for Heublein, and they came up as the owner.
Heublin is an old name in the cocktail game. According to Wikipedia:
Heublein began as a restaurant founded in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, by Andrew Heublein, a German American entrepreneur. His two sons, Gilbert F. and Louis, soon joined the business. In 1875 they accepted a large order for pre-mixed martini and Manhattan cocktails for the annual picnic of the Governor's Foot Guard. Rain forced the event's cancellation. When a restaurant employee whom the brothers had instructed to dispose of the canceled cocktails several days later determined them to have withstood shelf storage safely, they began selling the pre-mixed cocktails from the restaurant. So popular were the ready-made cocktails that Heublein built a distillery just to satisfy the demand. When the focus of Andrew Heublein's business turned more heavily toward its lucrative line of ready-made cocktails in 1890, he transferred the business to his sons, and it became Gilbert F. Heublein and Bro. In 1892 they introduced their brand of “Club Cocktails” pre-mixed cocktails, an early form of ready to drink (RTD) cocktails.
When your name has been associated with something for over 130 years, that’s a trademark worth holding on to. And boy, have a lot of folks held onto this name. After a series of acquisitions over the course of a half-century (including Grey Poupon, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the US rights to Smirnoff’s Vodka, and others), the Heublein company was purchased by RJ Reynolds in 1982. After corporate mergers caused some divestiture, the name was sold to a company that would go on to become Diageo. I’m not feeling the need to go any further on the topic of corporate history, but suffice it to say that “Original Cocktails by Heublin” is currently a trademark held by Sazerac.
So now that we’ve read a bit of history, let’s see if these are worthy additions to our arsenal of deck drinks, shall we?
Original Cocktails by Hueblein
Purchase Info: $11.99 each at Lakeville Liquors, Lakeville, MN
Price per Drink (50 mL): $1.60
Details: 35% ABV
Manhattan:
The nose has notes of baking spice and cherry. The mouth continues the theme with a good hit of sweetness, and cherry notes that play nicely with the baking spice. The finish is sweet and medium to long with the same notes as the mouth and nose. I know this says 1792 Bourbon on the label, but it tastes a lot like a bottle of Very Old Barton. Very tasty. I especially like that the Vermouth influence is pretty light, as I’m not a Vermouth fan.
Old Fashioned:
The nose has orange and baking spice notes, which continue into the mouth. The mouth also introduces notes of sweet vanilla to the mix. And I mean sweet. This is very sweet with a thick, syrupy mouthfeel, even after stirring with ice. The finish is of medium length and has notes of orange and baking spice. Personally, I find this too sweet for my tastes, but I almost always use way less sweetener than the recipe calls for when I make an old Fashioned at home. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, though.
Thoughts: I probably wouldn’t take the Old Fashioned camping with me like I would the Manhattan (a bitters bottle is easier to tuck in the bag along with the bourbon than a bottle of vermouth is). However for relaxing on the deck after a busy day, both of these are just fine. I prefer the Manhattan to the Old Fashioned mostly due to the intense sweetness of the Old Fashioned. You will probably enjoy the Old Fashioned more if you have a bigger sweet tooth than I do. But all in all, I like them.
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