Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Darren Rovell is — how do I put this diplomatically — a divisive figure in the sports landscape. He’s a comprehensive reporter whose hustle never ends and helped popularize the sports business beat. He also carries himself online as the living embodiment of #brands and once emailed the University of Michigan to complain about one of its graduate students mocking him online, only to later be mocked online by the University of Michigan.
But what’s undeniable is the former ESPN talking head and current Action Network reporter has an expansive reach and an battle-tested understanding of influence and monetization across athletics. You can find this out for yourself if you’re willing to drop $89 on a Cameo from him. Or you can be like me, write a booze column and wait for your interests to intersect.
This happened back in February, because Darren Rovell, a man who charges nearly four times more for a recorded video hello than Olympic gold medalist, American hero, Figure It Out host and woman who makes Sixpence None the Richer songs play in my head each time I see her, Summer Sanders, founded his own canned cocktail line. Then he sent me some to try for this review.
KickStand isn’t your regular vodka-soda slim can. The baseline flavors are mostly there — lime, pineapple, cucumber and peach — but the twist comes with an infusion of “artisanal spice” aimed at blending elements of hard seltzer and spicy margaritas together in one drink. At 5.5 percent ABV and 103 calories it packs more of a boozy punch than most seltzers or light beers, so we’re already winning in that regard.
Hell, I like a good habanero stout every now and then. Let’s see if the flavor can match the hype.