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The Best Locally-Made Drinks to Keep by Your Side This Summer

Christine Peddie

8 months ago

The Best Locally-Made Drinks to Keep by Your Side This Summer

Beyond ice cream and a cool body of water, the best summertime refresher is a well-chilled bevvy at the ready. This season, reach for the best locally-made drinks, with alcohol or without, and discover something beyond your usual beer or wine. Fruity and fresh, vibrant and juicy, these are the drinks that will see you through afternoons by the pool, sweltering city weekdays, park picnics, patio hangs, and every seasonal moment in between. From ready-to-drink cocktails and mocktails, to zhuzhed up waters, hard seltzers, and more, the best locally-made drinks to enjoy this summer will help you keep your cool all season long.

Willibald Farm Distillery & Brewery

Ayr, Ontario (plus, the LCBO and Willibald's website) is where you'll find satisfaction for all of your warm-weather beverage needs. Not only does the team produce a number of all-natural hard seltzers infused with summer's bounty, it has also recently released canned versions of its most popular cocktails. Crisp, bright, and pleasingly pink, the Hibiscus Limeade is the type of drink you'll crave whether you're working up a sweat or working on your tan.

Wellington Brewery

Up your hydration game with Wellington Brewery's sparkling hop waters. Available in two flavours, Chinook and Cascade, each delivers crisp, lively refreshment with subtle citrus notes.

SIP Botanical Hard Seltzer

With yuzu and a hint of cherry blossom, newcomer SIP Botanical Hard Seltzer is a vodka-based beverage with a revitalizing effect. Made by Bench Brewing Company, in Beamsville, Ontario, SIP is like a breath of fresh air in a can.

Side Launch Brewing Company

Trust the good folks at Side Launch to create a bevy of drinks for everyone, even the beer-averse. Released this spring, the brewery's Raspberry, Lemon Refresher and Goji, Ginger, Lime Seltzer both make us feel like kids weighing our options at the ice cream truck. Luckily, being an adult has its perks and, in this case, we can have it all.

Sapsucker

In mocktails, cocktails or straight out of the can, Sapsucker is a deliciously refreshing addition to any summertime activity. Available in four fruit flavours plus original, which is subtly sweet with gentle bubbles, there's a Sapsucker for every moment of the day.

Sandbagger Hard Seltzer

Released in 2020, Sandbagger now offers three flavours in its lineup — Lemon Lime, Boysenberry and Pink Grapefruit. Made with craft distilled gin, cane sugar and natural flavours, you'll want to make room in the fridge for a three-flavour mixed pack of these brisk bevvies.

Muskoka Brewery

There are enough beverages in Muskoka Brewery's roster to keep you buzzed, hydrated, and refreshed all season long. Whether you generally reach for beer, non-alcoholic sparkling drinks, hard sparkling water or hard seltzer, there's something for every type of thirst. In four flavours, the company's new 100-calorie Squeeze The Day hard seltzers pack a bushel of juicy brilliance into each can.

Matt & Steve's Caesar

Available in original and hot and spicy, Matt & Steve's canned Caesar is the perfect accompaniment to the team's Extreme Bean and Extreme Pickle Spear garnishes. Savoury, spicy, with a splash of bean brine, this breezy, bright refresher is the most traditional way to embrace a classic Canadian summer.

Georgian Bay Spirit Co

The newest addition to Georgian Bay Spirit Co.'s Tequila Smash line-up is mango forward with a hint of lime. Serve on the rocks or chilled, and feel like you're on a tropical getaway.

Founder's Original

Toronto-based Founder's Original currently sells four varieties of bar-quality, ready-to-drink cocktails (with Pineapple Ginger Vodka Mule on the way this fall!). Choose your faves — from Tequila Paloma, Bourbon Sour, Gin Bramble, or Vodka Fizz — and settle in for lazy summer afternoons and evenings to remember.

Fizz by Aloette

Created by the Alo Food Group, Fizz by Aloette is a pre-made version of the city's current cocktail du jour. Boasting rich coffee and cacao notes, smooth toffee, vanilla, and a hit of effervescence, this is a drink you can enjoy at home, over ice, or at the park, straight out of the can, and is sure to energize you for whatever the night brings your way.

Dynamite Kid

You'll find a satisfying collection of classic cocktails at Pinkerton's Snack Bar, in Leslieville. Dynamite Kid, the team's house brand, now includes five essential sippers you can tote to picnics, keep on hand for impromptu fêtes, or stash away as little midweek luxuries.

DRINKLAB

Released earlier this year, DRINKLAB's Pearbucha finds Ontario Bartlett pear and Honeycrisp apple cider harmoniously blended with kombucha for a wildly invigorating drink. Part of a growing number of hard booch bevvies, this small batch offering is tart, lively, locally-made and low sugar, meaning you'll want to reach for it all summer long.

Dillon's Small Batch Distillers

Introduced this spring, Dillon's new gin-forward cocktails combine Dillon's small batch gin with soda and flavours that scream summer. Opt for Tangerine, Lemon & A Hint of Mint, Black Cherry & A Touch of Cranberry or Blackberry, Lemon & A Dash of Elderflower. Whichever you choose as your companion on sweltering days is guaranteed to refresh and revive.

Darling Mimosa

Now available in orange and grapefruit flavours, this sparkling beverage combines Ontario wine with real fruit juice for a sunny sipper you'll want nearby all season long. Poolside or on patios, at barbecues, picnics or the cottage, Darling is sure to add a splash of elegance to all of your summer plans.

Collective Arts

Known for its ever-growing collection of intriguing beers, Collective Arts is also the place to find creative canned cocktails, non-alcoholic sippers, and hard teas. When the sun's out, few things refresh quite like the team's Pink Gin & Soda with Raspberry and Bitter Orange. Fruity and floral, it's as tart, sweet and juicy as summer should be.

City Seltzer

A perennial favourite, City Seltzer is wowing fans with its seasonal Piña Colada flavour. Turn anywhere — your backyard, Muskoka, your car — into a slice of paradise, with a sip of this coconut, lime and pineapple refresher. Lighter and infinitely more thirst-quenching than the original, these can be happily sipped all day without any ill effects.

Cameron's Brewing

Newly released, Cameron's Grapefruit Hard Seltzer is a malt-based bevvy with a burst of fresh fruity flavour. Best enjoyed chilled, this bubbly refresher is the one you'll reach for when Spikeball at the park gets particularly zesty.

Barbet

Sparkling water infused with grown-up flavours, Barbet is the perfect zero-alcohol companion to all of your summer activities. In intriguing flavours, such as grapefruit with ginger and juniper and cucumber with pineapple and lavender, Barbet delights at every turn.

Ace Hill

The potable equivalent of being drenched with a hose in a heat wave, Ace Hill's new Cucumber Lemon Vodka Water is your new picnic bestie. Each 1-litre Tetra Pak holds enough vodka water to keep you and your crew refreshed, and can be resealed if you need to relocate to another patch of grass.