I drank Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice canned cocktails for his Arizona Bowl. Here's how they taste

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.

There was no more natural fit for the world of celebrity branded booze than Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Gin and Juice was the second single off Snoop's zeitgeist-storming Doggystyle, a collaboration with the former N.W.A. member who'd taken him under his wing to help redefine West Coast rap. It hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, tied for his highest-charting hit before his 2000s revival and was inescapable on MTV.

Leafs by Snoop was founded in 2015, giving him the chance to bring his endo to the masses as marijuana began regulation across America. That makes it at least a little surprising it took until 2024 to launch Gin & Juice. His first canned cocktail came out the same year he and Martha Stewart went to Paris to thoroughly enjoy the Summer Olympics for NBC. Thirty-one years after his debut album came out.

What a time to be alive.

Because Snoop is a generation's renaissance man, he's not limited himself to merely championing archery and fancy horse dancing. He's long been a patron of the gridiron, coaching youth teams and even helping his son land a roster spot at UCLA. In 2024 -- a busy year, no doubt -- he's extended that to a sponsor role at the Arizona Bowl.

The bowl isn't merely an altruistic exercise to ensure Colorado State and Miami of Ohio have a place to play. It's also a chance to push his new signature beverage. Which makes it the perfect time to crack a few cans and figure out if they're worth drinking for Saturday's 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

Melon: B-

Let's start with the most interesting flavor in the group. You don't see the lesser used melons utilized often. Cantaloupe was a Gatorade flavor for a minute there, but since you can't have a cantaloupe sports drink it was "FIERCE Melon." I'm not sure where it stood in the pecking order with Arctic Freeze, but I always liked it until it disappeared from shelves.

This pours an effervescent clear, which is pretty aggressively what I would not expect from juice. A look at the can promises real gin, however, which is a decent starting point. And hibiscus, which... well, let's hope it's handled delicately or this is gonna feel like drinking a florist's cash register.

It smells light and floral, owing to the juniper and that hibiscus inside. The first sip is surprisingly tart up front, leaning a bit into the botanical roots before a watermelon candy flavor rolls in. That's a little bit of a bummer, since my brain automatically associated "melon" with cantaloupe (or, perhaps one day, honeydew), but it's not a problem. I love a good, not-at-all-true-to-its-actual-flavor watermelon. The more it tastes like Sour Patch candies, the better.

The gin barely registers. When it does it's a minor, slightly perfumy note that shows up toward the end of the sip with that watermelon. It recedes, leaving you with a sweet/tart/flowery aftertaste that isn't a problem but is noticeable.

Apricot: B+

Another clear, carbonated pour. It's not a problem, just a quirk. It smells like a mix of perfume and a fuzzy navel. The apricot comes off more as peach, which might be more an indictment of my fuzzy fruit palette than any real flaw.

This brings a little heavier fruit flavor that works better with the gin underneath. You still get some of that botanical essence, but it weaves into the apricot rather than working parallel with the watermelon. There's a minor tartness that gives way to sweet fruit, heightened by a little bit of honey that helps the whole thing go down smoothly.

The aftertaste lingers since you don't get a dry finish. It's not a problem. The combination of flavors here creates a pleasant sip that doesn't feel like it clocks in at 5.9 percent alcohol. It's easy to drink while bringing a little complexity with it. Not bad.

Citrus: C

On to the most basic of the Gin & Juice flavors. This isn't lime or orange; just a nebulous "citrus." The ingredients just say "real juice, citrus." That's troubling!

It smells like a basic orange/lemon/lime mix. Like someone dropped a shot of orange juice into a can of Sprite. The first sip backs that up. There's more grapefruit here than I expected, but you get tangy sour, a little sweet and a fairly generic experience. That grapefruit gives the whole thing a chewable vitamin vibe, leaving a dry finish that's familiar but not entirely enjoyable.

On the plus side, this erases any hint of alcohol in the proceedings. Of course, this is a trade off because this tastes like powdered nutrients, stamped together in the form of Fred Flintstone. There's nothing subtle or complex here. It's just grapefruit, maybe a little bit of lime and that orange smell.

It's drinkable in a boring way. You could easily finish one if you pulled it from a tailgate cooler. You wouldn't grab another.

Passionfruit: B

Oooof. Speaking of stale flavors from my childhood. Passionfruit isn't something I like when it's fresh. In its artificial or rushed form for canned cocktails, it effectively makes everything taste like old rubber. I'm not expecting much here.

To Gin & Juice's credit this smells much better than expected. The passionfruit is vibrant. There's ginger and pineapple as well, which promises a sweet and spicy blend. That sounds great!

The taste is a little all over the place. The passion fruit avoids the trap of tasting like old Now n' Later candies, which is great. The pineapple creates a sweet, tart backdrop and that ginger adds just a little spice. There's a lot of flavor packed into a short sip, all exploding onto your palette in a split second.

It's a lot, but after seeing how basic the citrus was it's a nice change. There's a certain tang that comes with this blend that makes you want to keep coming back to it. It's not overpowering in any one direction. Instead, it's a well balanced sip that, like the other drinks in Snoop and Dre's catalogue, don't actually taste like the booze on the label.

That's a bummer if you're looking for clean juniper flavors. But if you're looking for an easy sipper that's a little weird but ultimately rewarding, passionfruit fits the bill.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?

This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Gin & Juice over a cold can of Hamm’s?

The benefit is a lighter drink that still packs a decent punch at 5.9 percent ABV. Some of the flavors are a little boring, but Gin & Juice took some swings that worked. I think I'd still rather have a Hamm's, but Snoop gave me a passionfruit drink I actually like and that's pretty notable.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: I drank Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice canned cocktails for his Arizona Bowl. Here's how they taste