Absolutely not, and if you have friends or guests who disagree, feel free to show them to the door. If you enjoy it, making cocktails is a great skill to have. But not everyone has the time to learn and perfect the entire classic cocktail canon. While you might make a great Negroni or Manhattan, the idea of making an Espresso Martini or Mai Tai might not only be daunting to you, it might also not be worth it. This is where the convenience of canned cocktails really shines.

Canned cocktails allow you to serve bartender-quality cocktails to your guests without worrying about whether or not you have all the right ingredients or tools needed to pull the cocktail off.

My only suggestion for serving canned cocktails is to pour them from the can into appropriate glassware. Don’t serve them from the can. And, if the cocktail is one that would benefit from a good shake before serving — such as an Espresso Martini that develops its quintessential foamy head from a good hard shake — then pour the can into a shaker and shake away before straining into the appropriate glass.

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