RIPE: Fresh Cocktail Mixers with Real, Pronounceable Ingredients

In a rush before a gaggle of guests were due to arrive at my house, I was staring at a shelf full of pre-made margarita mixers at my local liquor store. With no time to run to the grocery store, making my own was out, so I grabbed the first bottle I saw and dashed down the aisle, reading the ingredients as I walked. “Contains no juice. High fructose corn syrup… citric acid… polysorbate 60… umm, glycerol ester of wood rosin? Oh, hell no.” The bottle went back on the shelf. Tequila shots, anyone?

There’s no denying the convenience factor of pre-made mixers, especially for those of us who are a little too lazy or sloppy with a measuring spoon to play bartender. But should we have to settle for high fructose corn syrup and other less-than-healthy ingredients? The makers of RIPE Mixers don’t think so, and let me tell you, their products will blow that nasty stuff right out of your cocktail glasses.

Read my RIPE review

When a package of RIPE’s three offerings arrived at my doorstep, still chilled from its quick trip in a refrigerated box, you would have thought I was a kid waiting on a birthday present. I tore into that box and rushed into the kitchen so fast that it was literally about 60 seconds between the time the UPS guy dropped it off and that magical moment when I had a mixed margarita on the rocks in my hand.

I read off the ingredients with a blissful sigh: “Pure squeezed lime juice, reverse osmosis filtered water, 100% organic agave nectar, pure squeezed orange juice.” It doesn’t get any better than that – and it shows. I found my Holy Grail of cocktail mixers, and I’m never going back.

This stuff is special. It doesn’t last long, and that’s not only because it’s effing delicious, but because it’s so fresh and free of preservatives. It’s made with premium, all-natural ingredients in small batches and when you buy a bottle, it was just made a few weeks – not months – prior. In addition to margarita mix, RIPE offers San Marzano bloody mary mixer and sour mixer.

RIPE is available at Whole Foods locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island – or you can order online.