Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Bad Larry's Cold Hard Coffee
In case you haven’t heard, MillerCoors has resurrected Zima to try to pluck at your ’90s-loving heartstrings. For me, that malty citrus drink is inextricably tied to the night I watched the O.J. Simpson white Bronco chase live while stress-pounding Jolly Rancher–boosted Zima. Good times.
The return of this weird clear drink signals a boom in the market for coolers, hard sodas, and other beer and wine alternatives. Sure, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and those beer/margarita hybrids have been popular for a while, but the recent meteoric success of Not Your Father’s Root Beer really ignited things. Launched by an indie brewery in Illinois, the hard soda was eventually sold to Pabst, which took it national and moved nearly two million cases of the stuff in 2015. Other hard sodas have followed, along with hard seltzers like Truly.
So what’s the next big thing in this crowded category? I predict it’ll be locally made Bad Larry’s Cold Hard Coffee. While everyone else is putting alcohol in soda, the guys behind Bad Larry’s decided to give your cold press a bit more bite (4.5 percent ABV, to be exact). Local Matt McGinn of Black Eye Roasting consulted on the canned hard coffee, helping to create the flavor mix and branding. The result is a bit sweet but mostly bitter in that earthy cold press way. It’s the perfect answer to the late-afternoon slump, especially in August when the thought of brewing a pot seems ridiculous.
Bad Larry’s has already received a ton of national attention (including write-ups in Esquire and Cosmo),and I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually sell to AB InBev or one of the other biggies. Can a MochaZimabe far behind? For now, find Bad Larry’s in liquor stores metro-wide, as well as throughout the Midwest.
