The history of RTDs is much longer than it may appear
Ready for a Long Time
W R I T T E N BY R I CH M A N N I N G /// P H OTO S P R OV I D E D BY B O L S
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eady-to-drink beverages (RTDs) are a ubiquitous part of the adult beverage landscape. The data justifies its presence: DISCUS’ 2025 Economic Briefing notes cocktails/RTDs led categorical growth in both revenue and volume between 2023 and 2024. Such rising popularity begets plenty of chatter. In these discussions, RTDs tend to be positioned as the shiny new object because it made a disruptive splash in the years surrounding COVID. This makes for an easy narrative. It’s also not quite accurate. While RTDs’ ascension in the beverage ranks is a recent phenomenon, it took the category more than a hundred years to be an overnight sensation. Its pre-20th century history isn’t lost; it’s just not discussed all that much. But digging through its century-plus timeline can tell us a lot about RTDs today and where they may be headed.
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A Super-Brief Timeline of RTDs The beginning of the RTD timeline greatly depends on how one feels about Pimm’s. Released in 1840, the gin-based beverage is easily viewed as a liqueur or a modifier these days. Yet the bottle’s inclusion of fruit juices and spices certainly lends credence to it being the original RTD, especially considering Pimm’s released long-defunct versions with Scotch whisky and brandy in 1851. A more concrete plot point exists in 1892 when Gilbert and Louis Heublein trademarked Club Cocktails, a commercialized version of the bottled cocktails their father Andrew Heubelin offered guests at his fancy hotel in Hartford, Connecticut. The brand eventually evolved into the forerunner of the modern RTD.
In the 20th century, RTDs took on several forms. During Prohibition, European brands Bols and Gordon’s produced RTD cocktails presented in shaker-shaped packaging, while Campari sold glass bottles of their aperitivo mixed with soda water. In the “disco drink” era of the 1970s, competitors to Club Cocktails like Party Tyme and Duets emerged. One could argue the “alcopop” movement of the 1990s was a form of RTDs because they were pre-packaged alcoholic drinks, even though they were nothing like today’s malt- or spirits-based RTDs.The RTD market went kaput in the 1990s and remained buried until the category’s resurgence in the midto-late 2010s. When the category fell off, it seemingly took its history and record of existence with it (at least, to mainstream consumers). W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M