Ranking Dogfish Head Canned Cocktails: From Worst to Best

There’s certainly no shortage of store-bought canned cocktails out there, so long gone are the days of having to order a cocktail at the bar or shake one up at home. Though no two canned cocktails are exactly alike, you’re likely to stumble across some with similar fruity flavors, ABVs, and liquor bases, like tequila or the ever-popular vodka-based canned cocktails.

One such brand to hop on the canned cocktail train is Dogfish Head. Though you may more so recognize Dogfish Head as being a beer brand — one with a less successful coffee-flavored beer and that even sold a beer made of crushed meteorites, if only for a day — canned cocktails are also in Dogfish Head’s lineup. I sampled four of the brand’s vodka-based, 7% ABV canned cocktails: a passion fruit citrus vodka mule, a blueberry citrus vodka lemon drop, a blood orange mango vodka crush, and a strawberry honeyberry vodka lemonade. 

When trying each canned cocktail, I paid close attention to any flavors that had a particularly tasty or standout flavor, as well as any whose flavors were super harsh, overly sweet, or had strange aftertastes. Ultimately, I determined my ranking based on which ones I found to be most refreshing, cohesive, balanced, and sweet without being too sweet.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

For full disclosure, I’ve never exactly been crazy about orange-flavored things, especially drinks. That said, I can still go into an orange-flavored beverage (especially a hard seltzer or cocktail) with an open mind. That’s what I attempted to do with this blood orange mango vodka crush canned cocktail, hoping that it might be a little more heavy on the mango. And, in some ways, my hopes were right — this cocktail was heavy on the mango, but it was just as heavy on the blood orange, making for an overbearing and almost perfume-tasting drink that I found a little hard to enjoy.

My biggest problem with this Dogfish Head cocktail is that it was just a bit too strong and artificial. That’s typically my complaint with orange-flavored drinks in general — I find that they tend to taste more artificial instead of like fresh orange juice, and that qualm was very much true here. Had this canned cocktail simply stuck to either blood orange or mango, I think it could have been more successful. Or, had it just subdued the overall flavor (in a La Croix sort of way), I think that it would have been more palatable all-around. Alas, as-is, this cocktail packs a lot of intense citrusy and vague tropical fruit flavors, neither of which taste very good or work particularly well together.

Passion fruit is a flavor that, at least in my humble book, can be very hit or miss. I was especially intrigued to see how such a flavor would work in a Moscow Mule-inspired canned cocktail, especially considering that spicy ginger beer is the dominant flavor in any good mule. To my relief, I did mostly enjoy the flavor of this cocktail, but I don’t know that I would say it tasted a whole lot like passion fruit. I can’t tell whether that’s ultimately a good or bad thing.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could taste the ginger beer in this canned cocktail, making for a flavor profile that I wasn’t really anticipating when sipping on something that’s supposed to be passion fruit-flavored. Overall, the passion fruit and citrus elements were sort of present in this cocktail, but they were pretty weak, a stark contrast from the overbearing blood orange mango flavor. There was a certain freshness to this can that I also enjoyed, one that almost tasted herbaceous, though I ultimately chalked that up once again to the ginger beer. This flavor was definitely a vast improvement over the last-place cocktail, but I do think that if you’re going to slap a passion fruit flavor profile onto a mule, you should probably try a little harder to make it taste like passion fruit.

Before diving into this strawberry honeyberry vodka lemonade, I didn’t know much about what a honeyberry even was, much less what it might taste like. After sipping on this canned cocktail, I wouldn’t say that I’m a honeyberry connoisseur, but I definitely enjoyed the flavors present in this take on a vodka lemonade. Subtly sweet with a nice hit of lemony tartness, I found this canned cocktail to be nicely balanced and a little too easy to sip on.

It’s reasonable to assume that any cocktail boasting lemonade might have a little sourness to it, and this canned cocktail was no exception. Just when I worried that it might taste too sour, I got a really nice, mellow sweetness that balanced the tart notes out very nicely. I’m not sure how much this cocktail specifically tasted like strawberry or honeyberry, but it definitely had a distinct berry-like sweetness to it that wasn’t too overpowering or artificial. This can really managed to strike a nice balance not only in flavor but in sweet-sourness as well, and that alone made it a (second place) winner in my book. 

Of all the fruity, vodka-based Dogfish Head cocktails on this list, I found the blueberry citrus vodka lemon drop to be the best one. I will say that this was a very close competition, and the second place strawberry honeyberry vodka lemonade definitely gave this can a run for its money. Ultimately, however, I found this canned cocktail to be incredibly balanced, with just the right amount of blueberry-forward sweetness to make for a beverage that tasted super summery and delicious.

Considering that fresh blueberries are pretty mild and not too sweet in flavor, I was worried that such mildness would translate into a dull flavor in this cocktail. Fortunately, I was proven very wrong, though I would argue that this cocktail does boast a pretty mild and mellow flavor profile. That subtlety worked very well, making for a cocktail that definitely tasted like blueberry (and that donned a bluish-purple hue to boot) but that also had a citrusy, slightly tart lemon flavor to back it up. Much like the strawberry honeyberry cocktail, I found this blueberry one really nailed the flavor profile it was meant to represent, without being overbearing like the blood orange drink. Light, refreshing, and perfectly sweet, the blueberry citrus vodka lemon drop is one canned cocktail that I would never get tired of sipping on. 

When sampling the four Dogfish Head canned cocktail flavors, I initially just paid attention to which ones grabbed my attention — in both good and bad ways — at first sip. From there, I discerned what particularly worked or didn’t work about a specific flavor, and it really just came down to certain flavors tasting too artificial, too strong (or not strong enough), or perhaps too sweet. On the contrary, more successful flavors struck a nice balance between sweetness and tartness, making for a cohesive and balanced sip that didn’t make me feel like I had to choke it down.

I only sampled four flavors, and of the four, there was only one that I objectively disliked. The blood orange flavor was a little too strong and intense in its artificial orange flavor, whereas the other three were much more mellow, less sweet, and overall just more enjoyable to sip on. Ultimately, I had to choose which flavor I liked the best to take the first place slot; however, I do think that anyone who enjoys a mellow, subtly sweet, and fruity canned cocktail would agree with my choice.