No bartender required: Premixed Jack and Coke going on sale

It’s a Jack and Coke with no bartender required.

Coca-Cola Co. said Monday it’s partnering with Brown-Forman Corp., the maker of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, to sell premixed cocktails. The canned Jack and Coke will be sold globally after a launch in Mexico late this year. A zero-sugar version will also be available.

“This relationship brings together two classic American icons to deliver consumers a taste experience they love in a way that is consistent, convenient, and portable,” said Brown-Forman President and CEO Lawson Whiting.

The move comes amid strong global sales of ready-to-drink alcoholic blends, including hard seltzers like White Claw. Global consumption of ready-to-drink beverages jumped 26% in 2020 and 14% last year, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, an alcohol market research firm. For comparison, global consumption of all alcohols was up 3%.

Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman has been making ready-to-drink cocktails since 1994, when it launched spiked lemonade, cola and apple juice in Australia.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, by contrast, has been slower to add alcoholic drinks to its portfolio of 200 brands ever since selling off a California winery it owned in the early 1980s.

Coke launched Lemon-Dou, its first ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage, in 2018 in Japan. More recently, it has launched Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, Simply Spiked Lemonade and Fresca Mixed.

“We are strategically experimenting and learning in alcohol,” said Khalil Younes, Coke’s president of emerging categories. “We are excited about the opportunities, but we also know it will require effort and patience.”