Mix It: Wicked Hard

Colorado-brand Wicked Hard is breaking into a new market for alcoholic beverages—the cocktail-in-a-can.

The product is part of a growing trend of ready-to-drink, pre-packaged mixed drinks. Unlike some of the gas station bought brands of malt-based alcoholic soft drinks (think: Sparks or Mike’s Hard Lemonade), Wicked Hard is made with a neutral grain spirit-base diluted with purified water, is gluten-free, and contains no artificial colors.

The brand, which boasts “the only clear and carbonated cocktail in a can,” comes in four flavors: berry, orange, lemon, and peach. While it tastes perfectly fine on its own Wicked Hard is also a great baseboard for mixing cocktails at home. (Or bring a few cans along on a hut trip.)

Be warned: Wicked Hard goes down smooth, but the content of the cans alone are nine percent alcohol, the equivalent of a double mixed drink.

Make it at Home: The Love It!

Ingredients: Whiskey (go local with Leopold Bros) or Grand Marnier, Wicked Hard Lemon, and fresh lemons.

Mix It: Fill standard cocktail glass full of ice with Wicked Hard Lemon. Float half an ounce of either whiskey or Grand Marnier on top of the drink, and garnish with a lemon peel.

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Make it at Home: Sex on the Peach

Ingredients: White rum (go local with Downslope Distilling), your choice of sweet-and-sour, tonic water, and Wicked Hard Peach.

Mix It: Add three-quarters of an ounce of white rum, one and half ounces of sweet-and-sour, and 1 ounce of tonic into 16 ounce tall glass with ice. Fill the rest of the way with Wicked Hard Peach. Stir and garnish with a peach or lime slice.

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Find it: Wicked Hard can be found at these Denver metro locations.

—Recipes courtesy of Wicked Hard

Follow digital assistant editor Jerilyn Forsythe on Twitter at @jlforsyt.