Vodka lemonade in a can? An Asheville soda company dives into cocktails
ASHEVILLE - Nix the martini shaker: A new, local, ready-to-drink cocktail brand is coming to take the pressure of bartending off imbibers.
Devil’s Foot Beverage has mastered the art of natural craft sodas since the company launched in Asheville in 2017.
Now, founders Jacob Baumann and Ben Colvin are primed to serve a spirited version of their lemonade and ginger beer called Friend of the Devil.
“It’s finding this void in the market and this niche that we are able to fulfill,” Colvin said. “There are plenty of people who do drink but don’t want to drink beer or are gluten-intolerant or are looking for something cleaner or fresher.”
Individual customers have reached out to the soda company asking for alcohol-based drink alternatives, too, he said.
For several years, local concert venues and other large accounts have requested Devil’s Foot to supply kegs of cocktails mixed with its sodas, as they are a hit with their audiences.
It inspired the entrepreneurs to consider canning mixed beverages as individual servings.
Friend of the Devil cocktails
Friend of the Devil will debut this fall with two flavors, Vodka Lemonade and Carolina Mule, made with spirits of distillery friends.
Vodka Lemonade is made with Nippitaty Botanica vodka, a distillery in Charleston, South Carolina, with fresh-squeezed organic lemons and lemon zest, organic cane sugar and a touch of honey that work together to provide a crisp taste and depth of flavor. It has 7.6% ABV.
Carolina Mule is made with Cultivated Cocktails vodka, an Asheville distillery, with Devil’s Foot’s Fuego Ginger Beer, fresh-squeezed organic limes, organic cane sugar and bit of honey. It has an 8% ABV.
“The Carolina Mule is what you’d consider your classic mule, but it uses our ginger beer recipe, so fresh, organic ginger off of the fields in Peru so it’s that green ginger – it’s a lot more heat in it and flavor to it,” Colvin said.
The lime juice brightens the flavor and local honey and organic cane sugar are blended to sweeten the drink. The result is layers of sweet and spicy.
More cocktail flavors will be released later.
What’s inside the can
Devil’s Foot was created “to create a craft healthier, cleaner nonalcoholic product,” Colvin said.
Like the sodas, the crafted cocktails maintain the business’s farm-to-can model, using cane sugar and locally sourced natural ingredients from local farms and apiaries.
It’s a product devised to challenge other canned cocktails on the market.
“A lot of those out there say, ‘We use natural flavors’ or there’s no ingredients disclosed and it’s a little creepy,” Colvin said. “You don’t know what’s in that or what you’re drinking.”
Colvin said he and Baumann decided to stick with what they do well – make sodas – and showcase local and regional distillers with similar philosophies.
“In the end, consumers are getting a product where they can see the ingredients, they can see that we’re blending farm-to-can products with high-premium craft distilling products and giving something fresh and clean,” Colvin said.
The cocktails' alcohol by volume percentage is kept to about 8% for easy consumption.
“We wanted to make it palatable right out of the can so that if you’re at the lake or the beach or the park or backpacking, it’s something you can pack in, pack out and it’s not going to be overwhelming,” Colvin said.
How to buy
On Sept. 29, Friend of the Devil, a canned cocktail brand, will be released for retail sale and distribution at Devil’s Foot’s warehouse taproom, The Mule, at 131 Sweeten Creek Road. The cost will be $20, plus tax, for a four-pack.
The public, ages 21 and up, is welcome to attend the tasting event, which begins at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Friend of the Devil samples and light bites will be served. And the launch party will include music and other surprises.
In 2024, the cocktails will be released for distribution at ABC stores, restaurants, bars and more.
Devil’s Foot Beverage distributes across the Carolinas and in Alabama, Georgia and middle Tennessee.
Friend of the Devil
Where: The Mule, 131 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville.
Releasing: Sept. 29.
Info: For more, visit devilsfootbrew.com and follow on Instagram at @friendofthedevilcocktails.
Stories you may have missed:
Inside Devil's Foot Beverage's new taproom room, opening soon in Asheville
A West Asheville lounge expands with second location downtown
Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Friend of the Devil canned cocktails made in Asheville, available soon
