There are just two days left until the official start of the summer. We should plan to remedy what is expected to be one of the hottest summers in recent history with hot afternoons in the park and sweaty rooftop sunsets. But when it comes to outdoor drinking, glassware, straws, mixers, and ice can be massively inconvenient. This summer is going to be too hot to care about all of that. Priorities are changing and no-muss, no-fuss canned drinks are in.
Trader Joe’s is kicking the season off with its new Campanology Lemon Peal (no, that’s not misspelled). It’s a delicate malt beverage flavored with lemon juice and cane sugar in a can that hisses open with a delicate fizz. As for of alcohol content, Trader Joe’s describes this hard lemonade’s 5.7% ABV as, “vodka but from malt.”
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And while a six pack goes for $7.99, Lemon Peal is not your 2012-backyard-frat-party’s hard lemonade. With a thoughtfully designed can, Lemon Peal is part of a new wave of stylish canned beverages – canned alcohol, but make it fashion. If Trader Joe’s has yet to come to a town near you, might we suggest Narragansett Del’s Shandy – the perfect New England crossover.
Perhaps not since Britney Spears’s Pepsi partnership, have canned beverages been so cool and au courant. If you’re the type of person to have a linen blanket and proper picnic basket on standby, fear not, today’s breed is well-designed and packs elevated flavor profiles like pink peppercorn and hibiscus.
Why worry ourselves with packing the perfect combination of alcohol and mixers to satisfy a whole rooftop party or beach getaway, when you can carry a six pack of canned rosé and another of spiked seltzers? Everyone, from the picky drinker to gluten-averse, has something cool and tasty to sip on at the cookout.