Ready to drink (often known as RTD) packaged

beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothie ...

s are those sold in a prepared form, ready for consumption. Examples include

iced tea Iced tea (or ice tea) is a form of cold tea. Though it is usually served in a glass with ice, it can refer to any tea that has been chilled or cooled. It may be sweetened with sugar or syrup, or remain unsweetened. Iced tea is also a popular pac ...

(prepared using

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

leaves and

fruit juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such ...

) and

alcopop An alcopop (or cooler) is a category of mixed alcoholic beverages with relatively low alcohol content (e.g., 3–7% alcohol by volume), including: # Malt beverages to which various fruit juices or other flavorings have been added # Wine coolers: ...

s (prepared by mixing alcoholic beverages with fruit juices or

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

s). There are different types of RTD beverages, each serving a different purpose. Here are the most notable ones:

RTD cocktails

RTD cocktails are cocktails that have been pre-batched and bottled or canned. The benefits of having such a drink is that the customer does not need to worry about balance, technique or having multiple ingredients at home. The idea is that the customer will open the cocktail and simply pour and serve. RTD cocktails date to the late 1800s, with

Heublein Heublein Inc. (also known as Heublein Spirits) was an American producer and distributor of alcoholic beverages and food throughout the 20th century. During the 1960s and 1970s its stock was regarded as one of the most stable financial investments ...

selling pre-mixed cocktails under the “Club Cocktails” brand since 1892. The popularity of the RTD category has varied significantly over the years and between markets, most recently growing significantly in the US from the 2010s with brands such as Seven Days Cocktail Co. and OTR: On The Rocks..

Alcopops

Alcopop An alcopop (or cooler) is a category of mixed alcoholic beverages with relatively low alcohol content (e.g., 3–7% alcohol by volume), including: # Malt beverages to which various fruit juices or other flavorings have been added # Wine coolers: ...

s are mainly ready made alcoholic cocktails that are carbonated and bottled under various brand names. Alcopops are the most commonly consumed type of RTD in the world after

. Alcopops are

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

in some countries due to religious and cultural prohibitions on the consumption of alcohol. A number of studies have linked the marketing of alcopops to increased occurrences of

underage drinking The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary betwee ...

. The industry term for this range of products is flavored malt beverages or progressive adult beverages. The majority sold in the United States are essentially flavored beer. Alcopops can be based on different types of spirits and liquors, such as vodka-based or rum-based. A notable type is

Lonkero In Finland, lonkero, also called long drink, refers to a ready mixed drink made from gin and, most commonly, grapefruit soft drink, soda, although other long drink flavours include cranberry, raspberry and lime (fruit), lime. In Finland, lonkero ...

, a Finnish mixed drink of grapefruit soda and gin, introduced as an RTD for the 1952 Olympics, which has continued to be popular in Finland.

Brands

Alcopop brands are numerous and their alcoholic base vary greatly. notable brands include: * WKD *

Smirnoff Ice Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898), but its modern incarnation traces back to the ...

* VK * Mike's Hard Lemonade *

Bacardi Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facund ...

Breezer * Skyy Blue * Bartender's Trading * Wild Leap Blueberry Vodka *

Jack Daniel's Jack Daniel's is a brand of Tennessee whiskey produced at Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, which has been owned by the Brown–Forman Corporation since 1956. Packaged in square bottles, Jack Daniel's "Black Label" Tennessee wh ...

mixed with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

* MG Spirits *

Vodka Cruiser Vodka Cruiser is a line of brightly coloured vodka-based alcoholic beverages primarily sold in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes described as an alcopop An alcopop (or cooler) is a category of mixed alcoholic beverages with relatively low al ...

* Truly * White Claw * Evolve HardPop * Doc Wylder's

Non-alcoholic beverages

Non-alcoholic RTDs can be further separated into dairy and non-dairy drinks. *

Flavoured milk Flavored milk is a sweetened dairy drink made with milk, sugar, flavorings, and sometimes food colorings. It may be sold as a pasteurized, refrigerated product, or as an ultra-high-temperature processing, ultra-high-temperature (UHT) treated produ ...

Iced coffee Iced coffee is a coffee beverage served cold. It may be prepared either by brewing coffee normally (i.e. carafe, French press, etc.) and then serving it over ice or in cold milk or by cold brew coffee, brewing the coffee cold. In hot brewing, sw ...

Chocolate milk Chocolate milk is a type of flavoured milk made by mixing cocoa solids with milk (either dairy or plant-based). It is a food pairing in which the milk's mouthfeel masks the dietary fibres of the cocoa solids. Types The liquid carbohy ...

Energy drinks An energy drink is a type of non-alcoholic psychoactive functional beverage containing stimulant compounds, usually caffeine (at a higher concentration than ordinary soda pop) and taurine, which is marketed as reducing tiredness and improving p ...

Iced tea Iced tea (or ice tea) is a form of cold tea. Though it is usually served in a glass with ice, it can refer to any tea that has been chilled or cooled. It may be sweetened with sugar or syrup, or remain unsweetened. Iced tea is also a popular pac ...

Hemp Derived Delta-9 THC drinks Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

References

Alcoholic drinks Drinks {{mixed-drink-stub

RTD cocktails

Alcopops

Brands

Non-alcoholic beverages

See also

References