Cocktails in a can are all the rage lately. And while Hard Seltzer seems to dominate the market there are plenty of other options if you want to stay cool this summer, get a little buzz on, and don’t love bubbles. Enter Sun Cruiser, a hard iced tea beverage spiked with vodka.
Versus your usual malt-based beverages, this one is iced tea, vodka, and that’s pretty much it - which means you’re really, actually getting a cocktail instead of something that tastes more processed. Sure, you could add a nip of the old potato alcohol into some iced tea you’ve made yourself, but why not cut out the middle-man?
That said, there are a million ways this sort of thing could go wrong… Weak iced tea, too strong on the vodka, or too much of a metallic taste from the can. Luckily, Sun Cruiser has none of those issues. And of the four flavors provided to Guilty Eats for review – Classic Iced Tea, Lemonade + Iced Tea, Raspberry and Peach – they’re all pretty good, and a worthy addition to your cooler this summer.
To get a few pieces of business out of the way, each can has 4.5% ABV, meaning it’s probably a little less strong than that healthy pour of vodka you added to your iced tea at home. It also has 100 calories, so it’s not going to break the bank, and 1 gram of sugar. The lack of carbonation is not my personal preference, but nothing will stop you from adding a dash of club soda in there.
But how does it taste, aka the most important metric? The Classic Iced Tea is extremely solid, not too sweet, not too astringent from the tea flavor. The Lemonade + Iced Tea perhaps goes in the other direction, getting a little too sweet for my taste, and not quite hitting that perfect tang of a really good Arnold Palmer.
The Raspberry, for my tasting party, was the bottom of the bunch. It’s not bad, but the berry flavor was overwhelmed by the stronger tea (and perhaps we were developing a slight buzz by this point). But most surprising for me, a peach hater, was the Peach was the best of the bunch. If you also are not a fan of the stone fruit, give this a try anyway. The bright sweetness of the peach perfectly balances the taste of the tea, and gives it the best overall flavor.
Your mileage may vary as well depending on how much you like vodka. It’s definitely not my go-to spirit, but here it worked nicely to not overwhelm the generally flavorful drink.
Overall, Sun Cruiser may not be my personal drink of the summer – that honor goes to Truly Tequila Soda – but if you like vodka, and like tea, this is a great choice to reach for.