Lake Hour's canned cocktails are totally fine, which probably isn't enough in a crowded market
Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Wyatt Russell contains multitudes. He was wonderful as Dud in the tragically short run of Lodge 49. He's arguably the second-best fake Milwaukee Brewer behind Bernie Mac. He once saved Europe from Nazi mutant supermen!
This afforded him a level of fame to take on the next logical celebrity project; booze. Russell's Lake Hour canned cocktails put him alongside big name spirit hawkers like George Clooney, The Rock and Guy Fieri (all of whom are equally famous for equally good reasons, thank you). Instead of slapping his name on a tequila, however, Russell opted to dive into a different jam-packed marketplace: canned cocktails.
Lake Hour mixes vodka and tequila with artisanal-type ingredients in hopes of being the kind of can you'd crack open while wistfully watching the sun set over a body of water. Sounds great. Let's see if it can back up this promise.
Watermelon Cucumber: B
Let's start with the most appealing of the flavors. Honestly, the only appealing flavor at face value. Respectfully, yuzu, jasmine and honeysuckle sound like... a lot.
But watermelon and cucumber? That's double hydration and light, crisp flavors. A perfect backdrop for tequila. It smells great. The watermelon doesn't feel authentic but smells like sour candy. That's exactly what I'm looking for. There's a little light cucumber that adds to that crispness off the top of a pour over ice.
The taste is split between those two flavors. Not exceedingly watermelon or cucumber. It's light and an easy, summery sip. But the sweetness holds back until the end, where it lingers across a slightly too long aftertaste.
All and all, it's fine. It's drinkable but doesn't stand out. The combination of light flavors does a solid job of balancing between sweet and acidic. It's better out of the can than on ice, which is a point in its favor but slightly concerning. You don't get any of the tequila, which is a nice touch that makes it a bit more crushable on a warm day. Not bad, but not good enough to specifically seek out, either.
Honeysuckle Ginger: C
Let's move on to the second-most appealing flavor in the bunch. I don't know what honeysuckle is gonna bring to the table but ginger and vodka? Easy win.
It pours with moderate carbonation. It smells a little funky. Floral and a bit vinegar-y, leaving a minor "old socks" feel to it. That's not great.
It tastes better than it smells. The honey is the first thing you notice, but it's a thin veneer of sweetness that takes over the whole drink. The ginger is minimal. The vodka makes no impact at all. Like the Watermelon Cucumber, you're left with an easy to drink cocktail that doesn't stand out in any memorable way.
That's a bit of a bummer. Swap the intensity of the honey and ginger and this would be a crushable and better tasting, if predictable drink. Instead, it's a little weird in the wrong way. Ah, well. It's still OK.
Peach Jasmine: B+
Well, the honeysuckle makes me a bit concerned for this. If it's more jasmine than peach it's gonna be strange. But that could work in a good way!
It smells fruity and floral, balanced in a way the last can of Lake Hour was not. The peach and jasmine work together to create a bit of a bubble gum feel to the first sip. The peach is understated but clean, serving as the baseline for the entire drink. There's a hint of jasmine that keeps it from being too sweet or tasting like a gummy ring. All the while, a current of bubbles moves the whole thing along.
This is the fruit/flower mashup Lake Hour failed to perfect in the first two flavors. It's crisp and soft, creating a craft soda/seltzer vibe that never tips off the five percent alcohol by volume underneath.
Rosemary Yuzu: B
OK, let's get wild. I didn't think Peach Jasmine would work out and it was a standout. Rosemary Yuzu? No idea what that's gonna taste like, but Lake Hour has my attention.
It smells like bready citrus. The first sip is... weird. The yuzu brings a lime/orange/grapefruit feel that doesn't seem especially affected by the rosemary within. There's a minor savory feel to the proceedings, leaving this to feel like off-brand, slightly denser Sprite.
Like the rest of the Lake Hour offerings, it's easy to drink. The imagery and descriptions on the can paint the beverage as something sipped in pairs over an hour of dock time on a warm night. Sure, that makes sense. It's also a useful tailgate beverage and, at 109 calories per can, offers more than many hard seltzers.
But there's something just a little bit off about it. There's a recipe here that hasn't quite been perfected. Lake Hour has a solid base from which to build. There's an "A" grade canned cocktail lurking inside here. But this isn't it. It's good -- not great.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Lake Hour over a cold can of Hamm’s?
Honestly, a cold Hamm's on a dock or in a canoe is one of the purest pleasures I can imagine. Lake Hour isn't gonna be able to pry that from me. But they're perfectly cromulent drinks otherwise.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Lake Hour's canned cocktails are totally fine, which probably isn't enough in a crowded market
