The On The Rocks Cocktail We're Too Excited To Drink Again
Ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, bottled or canned, represent an exploding market. New brands pop up constantly, offering fresh flavors and classic recipes built around different spirits. The appeal is undeniable: You can drink one of your favorite cocktails as if a bartender just handed it to you, right in your own home, and you don't need to spend money on individual ingredients or time mixing it all together. However, that only works if the RTD cocktail is actually good. If it tastes like a bartender just handed it to you, you want that imaginary bartender to be great, right? With so many options out there, it helps to cut through the noise and find the best RTD cocktails available. We ranked 28 popular store-bought canned cocktails, focusing on flavor, ingredients, and overall experience.
We then turned our attention to one of the most popular brands and tasted through its many offerings to find a reliably excellent variety you can count on for instant deliciousness. When we ranked seven On the Rocks bottled cocktails, our number-one pick was The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour. On the Rocks' limited-release The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour is beautifully balanced between sweet pear, baking spices, and warming whiskey — this 20% ABV cocktail uses Old Overholt Rye Whiskey. The entire On the Rocks repertoire is solid, but some flavors, such as the strawberry in The Strawberry Daiquiri, taste a bit fake and cloying, while others, like those in The Margarita, are a little bland. But The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour tastes like autumn in a bottle, with a flavor profile that gives the impression of a pie that was freshly baked using real fruit.
What people are saying about On the Rocks' The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour
On the Rocks was founded in 2015 and was acquired by Beam Suntory, the owner of brands including Maker's Mark and Jim Beam, in 2020. This has helped On the Rocks grow its presence, which is built on a foundation of cocktail flagships including various martinis, margaritas, and daiquiris, as well as The Cosmopolitan, The Old Fashioned, The Mai Tai, The Manhattan, and The Aviation. The brand's limited releases, meanwhile, shake things up by playing with the main spirits of or adding novel flavors to classics, as evidenced by The Yuzu Matcha Martini, The White Negroni, and, our favorite, The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour.
On Total Wine, where a 375-milliliter bottle (about five 2½-ounce servings) of The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour costs about $9.99 depending on your location, shopper DaCrabDiva4Lyfe raves, "I'm not a big fan of pears, but this adult beverage is TOTALLY DELICIOUS and tastes better than I expected. I'm a little upset that I didn't purchase two of them. Gives a balanced combination of sweet and spicy but not overwhelming."
Other reviewers call it perfect, smooth, and tasty, and appreciate that it has just the right amount of sweetness and whiskey present. On Fine Wine & Good Spirits, customers say The Spiced Pear Whiskey Sour is phenomenal, well-balanced, and tastes like an artisanal cocktail. And on On the Rocks' own website, shoppers note that the pear really shines through, the drink has a nice warmth, and that they only wished it came in a larger size.