Summer is a festive season and it encourages me to try cocktails using different products with original and traditional flavours. To guide my latest quest, I got the idea to look for products with shrink sleeve packaging.
More and more products are hitting the market with really clever uses of shrink sleeve to help them stand out, introduce something new, something bold or something original. Here are a few I found at SAQ recently and that I’ve added to my cocktail bar.
An Italian classic signed Roberto Cavalli and Versace
Disaronno is a well-known Italian almond-nut liqueur. It recently introduced a celebration of Italian fashion with limited editions of its world-famous drink sleeved by Roberto Cavalli and another by Versace. Yours to collect, mix or drink on the rocks.
Absolut Mix
Absolut has used the sleeves on other products before. This time, their iconic bottle is proudly dressed in Pride flag stripes. Available in limited quantities, it was created in collaboration with Gilbert Baker, the originator of the famous Pride flag. An invitation for all to celebrate a colourful, respectful and diversified world!
Cocktail Pink!
Summer often is associated with flashy colours. You can’t get flashier than this! This French lichy-raspberry vodka-cognac mix doesn’t need any more to make your mouth experience summer! The bottle is different, details of the sleeve are nicely designed and even though the drink is called Girl Pink with a mention “For women only”, guys, you can have a drink too.
Coconut!
What would summer be without coconut! Malibu Black has always been associated with summer cocktails and the sleeve displays the well know island and palm trees on it. But what’s this? There is a coconut, strawberries and whipped cream version of this Ontarian liqueur called Berrylicious! The transparency of the bottle shows a glimpse of this special berry tasting liquid. A must try!
Cream!
To complete my cocktail ingredients for my summer bar, some creamy textures would be welcome and decoratively tasty. How about some St-Rémy À La Crème by the famous French Remy Cointreau house. The well-known Cointreau bottle is recognizable but sleeved with some humour adding some lightness while asserting its origins.
Desert!
Finally, why not have some desert and top it off with whipped cream. Tempérance Distilling, from United States, offers Caramel or Chocolate whipped cream liqueur to add some texture, visual effect and taste to a Decadent Pear cocktail drink. Decadent is absolutely the right term to use here. This original product is sleeved over a plastic bottle often used in the dairy products for regular whipped cream. Looks great on a white cake for sure!
Conclusion
There are many ways to discover new liqueurs, drinks, cocktails and beverages. I hope that my using shrink sleeve as a criteria helped you discover some new products and that you will be inspired by them in your next cocktail preparations.
Cheers!