Mellow yellow

The chill-out drink for a hot summer -- and a hotter economy

by Dorie Clark

SWEET TARTS: hard lemonade, with its summery alcohol kick, is to the New Economy what wine coolers were to the Reagan years.

Country-music heartbreak is inseparable from a cold
six-pack. Russian poverty and vodka go hand in hand. But what to quaff when times are good? In the heady '80s, Americans reached for wine coolers; Bartles & Jaymes's sales hit $700 million by 1988. Today's sizzling economy has spawned a new drink of choice: hard lemonade, the old front-porch favorite spruced up with five percent booze.

Mike's Hard Lemonade ($5.99 for a six-pack), made in San Francisco, was the first of the genre, hitting New England last year. Its hip marketing -- "Ten lemons go into a room, only three come out" -- and fizzy, light, barely alcoholic taste proved so popular that there were shortages. Other brands followed, staking out niches. Sublime offers a raspberry variety replete with real lemon pulp; the candylike flavor is reminiscent of Pez ($6.19). Jed's Hard Pink Lemonade ($5.99) emphasizes the alcohol taste and looks pink enough to pass as a fruity wine. The English brand Hooper's Hooch ($6.19) has a citrus pungency surprisingly reminiscent of A.1. steak sauce. Glacier Bay delivers a smooth vodka-and-lemonade mix ($7.25 per four-pack).

In the past few months, behemoth brewers Seagram and Anheuser-Busch have entered the fray, peddling Rick's Spiked Lemonade and "Doc" Otis' Hard Lemon Flavored Malt Beverage, respectively (both $6.49 per six-pack). Rick's is a dead ringer for Mike's in taste and packaging, and the "Doc" Otis seems to be striving for the old-time legitimacy of Jim Beam or Jack Daniel's, as well as a more pronounced alcohol flavor.

So far, Mike's early lead seems to be holding up locally. "People come in and ask for it by name," reports Desmond Rushe, manager of the Burren, in Davis Square. But a larger question looms: is hard lemonade itself just a fad? Russell Barnett, the vice-president of marketing for Mike's, doesn't think so: "People have been drinking lemonade forever," he says. "We came out of the womb drinking lemonade -- you think we're going to stop? It's a heritage product."

In case memories of roadside stands don't provide enough
nostalgia, you can now get your lemonade fix from an old friend: Bartles & Jaymes (a branch of the Gallo wine empire) is ringing in the new millennium with a new "Hard Lemonade Flavored Malt Cooler" ($3.79 for four).