The sales data for the alcohol industry is almost universally bad right now. Beer and wine are struggling like never before while even spirits sales are lagging. One of the few bright spots has been ready-to-drink cocktails (RTDs), an admittedly nebulous category that encompasses everything from spirit-based hard seltzers like High Noon to canned versions of classic cocktails. While canned cocktails have been on the scene for quite some time, their ascent was at least in part jumpstarted by the Covid-19 pandemic and some critical changes to drinking norms and occasions. With a nearly 23 percent increase in sales volume in 2024 among the top 27 spirits-based RTD brands and more growth projected through 2025, the category is adding new brands and new offerings at a rapid pace.
Yet with the broader industry in at least some degree of turmoil, what does the future hold for this beacon of hope? Can strategic partnerships, ambitious placements, and novel offerings continue to boost the category, or will the increasingly saturated market plateau?
Connecting With Customers
For brands like Straightaway Cocktails and Tip Top Canned Cocktails, partnerships with airlines like Alaska and Delta, respectively, have helped not just provide an outlet for product, but a critical marketing opportunity. “What was so beautiful about the Delta partnership was that 6 million people trialed [Tip Top] in three years,” says founder Neal Cohen, who started the Atlanta-based brand back in 2018 with co-founder Yoni Reisman. “Even more starkly than that, I think anyone can understand the value-add [of canned cocktails], because every single person, myself included, has tried to turn an airline bottle, a plastic cup, and some shitty ice into a cocktail.”
Prevailing trends in the cocktail industry have also created a certain momentum that brands can draft off of. With many of the top bars in the world relying at least to some extent on pre-batched cocktails, the idea of a ready-to-drink cocktail feels less alien to many consumers, whether or not they’ve entered the canned cocktail space before. “At the highest levels of cocktail culture, the world’s top 50 bars, they’re batching cocktails in a huge way,” says Straightaway founder Cy Cain. “It’s now not only acceptable, it’s very smart to build cocktails ahead of time, and that’s going to filter down into everyday rank-and-file food service at stadiums and venues at some point in time.” Straightaway, for example, has seen revenue roughly double in 2025, with strong growth anticipated in 2026 as well, while Tip Top has seen over 80 percent growth in retail sales this year.
Product innovation is a crucial component for every brand in the space, as consumers these days demand novelty alongside familiar favorites. For Gwen Conley, head of innovation at San Diego-based Cutwater Spirits, that process begins “by asking ourselves, ‘what’s trending in the cocktail space, what’s missing in our portfolio, what are consumers asking for, [and] what is the occasion or season we want to celebrate?”
To expand its product line, which started with just three SKUs and sits at 12 in 2025, Tip Top turned to famous bartenders like Sam Ross and Joaquín Simó in order to bring canned versions of their most acclaimed inventions — the Penicillin and Paper Plane for Ross, the Naked and Famous for Simó — to life, while Stamford, Conn.-based Owl’s Brew co-founder Jennie Ripps relies on her own background as a tea sommelier. “I’ve been creating tea programs for iced tea, hot tea, or tea cocktails over the last 15 years,” says Ripps. “So I really understand what consumers respond to from a flavor standpoint.” Being responsive to changing consumer demand and maintaining a balance between new offerings and a core identity will continue to create challenges and opportunities as the canned cocktail space matures.
The Package Is the Product
The packaging itself is crucial to convey necessary or desirable information to the would-be drinker, whether or not they do anything with that information. Every can from Straightaway has instructions around a proper serve. “We go out of our way on our exterior packaging to say ‘here’s the best way to enjoy this drink: Chill it, don’t chill it, ice, don’t put ice in, be that chip ice, pebble ice, or a nice big cube,” says Cain. “At the end of the day though, once someone has grabbed it, you get back to ‘drink your drink.’ We even have people on our team that drink it straight out of the can.”
Labels can do more than just catch the eye — they can help connect a product with like-minded consumers. “I think we may be the only canned cocktail brand in the market with a full nutritional panel on our packaging,” says Ripps. “Actually, the TTB wouldn’t allow us to do it. If you look at our cans, you actually can see that sugar is listed in a different place because they said we couldn’t put sugar where we have the rest of the nutritional panel.” Similarly, Cutwater redesigned its packaging in 2023 to include ingredient ratios, with the idea of communicating quality through that transparency, according to Conley.
The cans themselves have been both a boon and, at times, a challenge, most especially in correctly matching format and venue. As Ripps notes, “We initially launched at venues and stadiums in the 12-ounce can and it didn’t really work. Then we tried again with the 19.2 [-ounce can] and we’re now available at lots of venues. It didn’t matter how good the packaging or what was inside was, if it wasn’t the format that our consumer wanted.” Yet even at the same venue, a single format size doesn’t always meet all needs, with Ripps highlighting that, while the larger format fits well at the concession stand, in clubs and lounges, the 12-ounce can performs far better.
Airport lounges, too, are areas of great interest, given their increasing prominence in travel and the fact that multiple founders recounted their frustration with trying to get a decent drink while waiting for a flight.
For brands like Straightaway and Tip Top that use 100-milliliter cans, getting the package size correct has also proven challenging. “When we first did a multi-serve pack, we did an 8-pack,” says Cohen. “Our 8-pack was hitting the shelf at $35 to $40, and the sticker shock just didn’t work. Our thinking was ‘$35 to $40 for eight servings, that could sit alongside a 750 milliliter of a spirit.’ That might work for a consumer, but the way that it was being retailed wasn’t alongside the spirit, so that didn’t work.” Instead, Tip Top shifted to 4-packs, which have been far more successful, and recently launched a whiskey-centric 6-pack that features its Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, and Paper Plane, offering cocktail variety but keeping the base spirit the same.
The Next Frontier
While in-flight service and event venues are already existing hot spots for canned cocktails, several other growth areas were mentioned as opportunities for the segment. Rooftop and pool bars, particularly at hotels and resorts, are one such spot. “Anywhere where there might be glass breaking is a good place for us,” says Ripps. “Seasonal destinations as well, places where maybe turnover is high or you have not as highly trained staff but you still want to elevate the cocktails.”
Airport lounges, too, are areas of great interest, given their increasing prominence in travel and the fact that multiple founders recounted their frustration with trying to get a decent drink while waiting for a flight. While none were willing to speak openly about plans, more than one hinted that further collaborations might be in store through existing airline partnerships.
In fact, the current labor crisis facing the hospitality industry continues to create opportunities for canned cocktail brands at a host of different outlets. While cocktail-focused bars will presumably always have a clientele that expects a drink to be made to order by a human being in front of them, many other settings might call for a cocktail but not necessitate a skilled bartender to make them.
Lastly, there’s just the undeniable appeal of convenience, especially for people in harried or otherwise stressful situations. “Many hotels are phasing out their bars,” says Cohen. “Of course there are hotels that pride themselves on having a cool mini bar and in that case, we’re a great option. But the grab and go store in the lobby has been huge for us, too. Like at the Swan & Dolphin Resort at Disney World, you see parents with just armfuls of cocktails to take back to their room after a long day in the park.”
