The bartender quality cocktail in a can is a less ordinary take on the Margarita, featuring Zacal’s triple distilled Manso Sahuayo Mezcal, High Fidelity Triple Sec and Black Cardamom distillate.
Zacal, the award-winning Michoacán mezcal brand, has teamed up with the bartenders behind London’s Dram Bar to create the Zacalita, a genuine bartender-quality cocktail in a can.
The Zacalita [200ml, RRP £7, 7% ABV] was developed by a team whose reputation has been built behind some of Europe’s best bars. Dram founder Chris Tanner — also behind East London bar All My Gods — created the cocktail alongside Rory Shepherd, co-owner of Paris bar De Vie and the Avant agency.
The Zacalita is a lightly carbonated twist on the classic margarita, combining Zacal’s Manso Sahuayo mezcal with lime, High Fidelity Triple Sec, which was co-created by chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, co-founder of Soho’s The Devonshire, and a black cardamom distillate that gives the drink a lightly smoked, savoury, aromatic profile.
At a considered 7% ABV, Zacalita sits below much of the canned margarita category by design – a more refined, refreshing and easy-drinking serve that never compromises on flavour.
The release marks independent mezcal brand Zacal’s first entry into the ready-to-drink category, one of the fastest-growing categories in the drinks industry. As canned cocktails have evolved from convenience-led “train tinnies” to a serious format, bartender-led releases are raising the bar on what the canned format can deliver and bringing genuine bar-quality craft to the category.
“We’d always wanted to make a canned cocktail, but we imagined it as something a few years down the line,” said Phil Clayton, co-founder of Zacal. “Then we created the canned Zacalita for our Day After the Dead party with Dram and Avant Agency last November and the response completely caught us off guard – people couldn’t believe that the serve came from a can. That reaction moved the whole thing forward.
“The canned cocktail category has come a long way from train tinnies, drinkers now expect real quality and that’s exactly what Chris and Rory have put in the can.”
Chris Tanner, co-founder of Dram and All My Gods says, “We wanted to make something that tasted like it had come from behind the bar, not off a production line.
“The mezcal does a lot of the work; being triple-distilled, it’s smooth and complex enough to carry a cocktail in a way most mezcals aren’t. Every ingredient is there to elevate the serve – the triple sec was co-created by the acclaimed chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, and the black cardamom is the real point of difference, giving it a smoky, savoury lift you don’t expect from a can. Getting that level of detail into a format people can grab and go was the whole challenge and it’s what makes it genuinely less ordinary.”
The cocktail is built around Zacal’s multi-award-winning, triple-distilled mezcal, an unusual production method in a category where double distillation is standard. The brand is made in the volcanic highlands of Michoacán – rather than Oaxaca, the source of most mezcal – by four UK founders in partnership with third-generation mezcalero Milton Ochoa, a co-founder who distils each batch at his family’s vinata.
The can’s design takes inspiration from Michoacán’s Parícutin, which is the youngest volcano in the world. The cans were designed by Zacal’s creative director Aldo Álvarez Tostado and James Fleming of Gigantic Creative. The cans are fully recyclable.
The Zacalita can be ordered wholesale for the on- and off-trade directly from Zacal.
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