Blithe Spirits for the Sober Set

The liquor industry woos consumers with lighter, sweeter drinks

Thirsty for the latest, coolest thing? Something fruity and fizzy, with only a playful amount of kick? The alcoholic-beverage industry has plenty of new suggestions: a picnic cooler full of concoctions freshly invented for the moderate but merry '80s. Here is an upscale-looking bottle of Seagram's Golden Spirits in a flavor called "mandarin vodka"; it tastes like a spritzy cocktail but contains little more alcohol than a beer. How about a Wineberry Sausalito Sling, with a flavor suggestive of ginger ale and bubble gum, or a Calvin Cooler in citrus flavor, with real fruit pulp floating in it?

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