What we’re drinking: Four expressions of DRNXMYTH, a new ready-to-drink cocktail brand.
Where it’s from: The California startup is the brainchild of longtime friends Brandon Schwartz and Lawrence Cisneros. Working with local bartenders, they’ve crafted a range of cocktails that hope to solve the issue of getting fresh ingredients into your canned — well, bottled — drink. All it took was coming up with proprietary bottle tech, navigating the alcohol industry’s three-tier system and competing against the nine billion other RTDs that hit the market in the last few years.
“We thought it would be easy,” says Schwartz, laughing. “But we had to deal with manufacturing, licensing and distribution licenses. And the bottles took a few years to design.”
Why we’re drinking this: The tech. The fresh, local ingredients with a long shelf life. The solid price point (it works out to about $6 per drink). Working with local drinks pros and utilizing social media. There are a lot of “new” ideas here we like. Even the gold-colored cap on top and the textured base of the bottle have an aesthetic appeal — these look like bar products, not cans you buy in a supermarket aisle.
As for that tech: The bottle compartmentalizes your fresh ingredients, placing them on the bottom. Thanks to cold pressurization, that citrus will still taste good for up to five months if the bottle is refrigerated. When you’re ready to drink, simply twist the bottom, shake and you’ll supposedly get something close to the artisanal tipple you order from a bar.
“You’re rotating the bottle on an X axis, but inside it’s moving a plug vertically,” as Cisneros explains. “Just think of it like pulling up a bath plug.”
How it tastes: In all the drinks we tried, the citrus was front and center in the mix. Everything tasted bright and fresh.
It’s hard to pick a standout, because the four we tried (bourbon sour, Eastside, strawberry mojito, rum punch) weren’t necessarily four drinks we would typically order in a bar. The rum punch had a very nice balance of pineapple, banana, lime, coconut and mint with just enough kick to remind you to slow down.
I mention that because each 200ml drink is really the equivalent of two drinks. Be careful or share. A 750ml bottle is on the way that will also definitely not be for one person.
I’d suggest serving these over ice, but they’re fine if you keep ‘em very cold. I’d place them well above the everyday canned RTD and slightly below a solid cocktail bar’s freshly-made concoction.
Fun fact: The company partners with local bartenders and then places their Instagram handle and a representative drawing of the drink creator on the side. Starting soon, mixologists from all over the country can submit a recipe and DRNXMYTH will place it on the site so fans can vote for a new cocktail.
That social media feedback loop has been important to the drink’s launch. “We did recipes from bartenders who were influencers, people who had 20,000 or even 200,000 followers on Instagram,” says Cisneros. “And I think there’s a personal feel here, having the bartender’s image and IG handle on the bottle.”
Where to buy ‘em: You can order DRNXMTYH directly here, with prices working out to roughly $6 per drink.
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