Summer is my all-time favorite season for alcoholic beverages. Even if winter seems prime for drinking (is there even anything else to do?), summer is when you can enjoy drinking—you get a lot more out of sipping tasty cocktails and fizzy grapefruit brews when you're not specifically trying to get rid of snow with wine. Enter, then, the newest sun-ready libation: rose seltzer by Nauti, now available for purchase through the company's online store.
Nauti, which is owned by the Westminster, Massachusetts-based Craft Cocktail Company, specializes in hard seltzers, and though I hesitate to jump at "hard [insert nonalcoholic product now drizzled with booze here]" thanks to a few too many unfortunate experiences with Mike's Hard Lemonade, Nauti's wares are far more refined and refreshing than the saccharine stuff I swilled in my youth. Its collection of flavored malt beverages include cranberry, lemon lime, raspberry, grapefruit, and blueberry lemonade, all of which clock in at an admirable 5 percent alcohol by volume (for comparison's sake, the average ABV for beer is 4.5 percent, and 11.6 percent for wine). The drinks are also notably low in gluten content, which is good for folks who can't digest typically gluten-heavy brews.
But according to Elite Daily, Nauti's ready to break into the wine (ish) game. They're launching something called Nauti Rosé, which is reportedly more than just your run-of-the-mill spritzer. Indeed, it's actually regular hard seltzer mixed with rosé flavors, i.e., mandarin orange, raspberry, peach, and cherry. Like the rest of its hard drinks, the Nauti Rosé has a 5 percent ABV, so at least one of these will get you buzzed (and have me under the table eating old bits of cheeseball off the ground like the mess of a lightweight human that I am).
Rosé is a fairly trendy wine these days, hence why Nauti hopped on the millennial pink bandwagon. "The rosé wine category has been on an unprecedented 5-year run," Christian McMahan, who is president of Craft Cocktail Company, said in a statement. "It has transcended the wine category and has become a cultural icon of fun. We wanted to offer a new, convenient alternative for rosé drinkers to extend those occasions where they can enjoy the flavor of rosé."
Since Craft Cocktail Company is Massachusetts-based, most of the Nauti Rosé is concentrated in the New England area, which is a bummer for those of us further south. Still, there's a handy online store locator on Nauti's website that'll show you if and where the Powers That Be are holding the Nauti Rosé hostage—for instance, you can score Nauti Rosé at the Whole Foods on East Houston and the Bowery in Manhattan, if you're me and located in La Belle En Why See.
Nauti Rosé isn't the only specialty rosé drink on the market these days. Angry Orchard just released a line of rosé hard cider, which is as picturesque as it is tasty; Strongbow's added rosé to its hard cider repertoire; Cripsin put rosé hard cider on their list in December, and Wölffer's been hawking a Dry Rosé Cider for years.
Rosé is, obviously, delicious in cider, but my preferred form of rosé consumption, save for, you know, actual rosé, is in candy form. A friend of mine sent me a small jar of Sugarfina's famed rosé gummy bears when she asked me to be her bridesmaid, and I ate all of them in like fifteen minutes (then promptly texted her back to say yes, like a good bridesmaid does). Gummies = good. Rosé = also good. Put them together, and you've got a tasty dessert that will definitely give you cavities, but, hey, fight your battles later.
