A vodka brand’s ready-to-drink, with a different recipe in America.

Smirnoff Ice is the ready-to-drink offshoot of Smirnoff, the vodka brand owned by Diageo. Diageo was formed in December 1997 from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan and is headquartered in London, according to English Wikipedia. Smirnoff itself began as a Moscow distillery founded by Pyotr Smirnov, but English Wikipedia traces its modern incarnation to the 1930s and the American company Heublein.

The lemon-flavoured Ice arrived in 1999, VinePair reported in an August 2023 history of the drink, one of a run of fruit-flavoured “coolers” of the late 1990s. In September 2024 Diageo marked 25 years of the brand in Britain, the trade paper Scottish Grocer reported.

The same name covers two different recipes. In December 2002 a Diageo spokesman told The Morning Advertiser that outside the United States, Smirnoff Ice was a blend of Smirnoff vodka and lemon flavouring, while in the United States it was a citrus-flavoured malt beverage, a fermented drink closer to beer than to vodka. The spokesman said the malt formula let the company sell it through more channels, including grocery and convenience stores that may not sell distilled spirits. English Wikipedia, citing the brand’s US website, says the American Smirnoff Ice contains no vodka, and lists France as another market for the malt version.

The difference drew official attention early. The Morning Advertiser reported in December 2002 that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was reviewing how flavoured malt drinks were branded; Diageo’s chief executive, Paul Walsh, said, “We don’t see this as a problem.”

Slogans, a darker sibling and a 2023 glow-up.

The early advertising sold a mood rather than a recipe. VinePair recalled the slogans “As Clear As Your Conscience” and “Intelligent Nightlife,” and reported that a stronger, less sweet Smirnoff Black Ice followed in 2002, aimed at male drinkers. A decade later the brand became the prop in an online prank known as “icing.” VinePair reported that it spread in the spring of 2010, and that in June 2010 Diageo said through Ad Age that the trend “was not created or promoted by Diageo.”

In the United States the brand was given a full redesign in 2023. Brewbound reported on 19 April 2023 that the entire core Smirnoff Ice range had received updated packaging, with brighter colours and fruit imagery to stress flavour, while the recipes stayed the same apart from small tweaks to two flavours. In-store displays called it a “glow-up” under the line “same swig, new swag,” according to brand director Lisa Lee, who told Brewbound: “We like to say we are one of the O.G.s.” The zero-sugar line moved entirely into cans, with a new variety 12-pack of Original, Raspberry, Pink Lemonade and Red, White and Berry.

Brewbound reported that Diageo had first teased the change in September 2022 at its annual Golden Bars Awards and Leadership Summit, and that with so many products in the range the new packs would roll out gradually, with “fully dressed shelves” expected in May. Lee described two groups the redesign had to serve: a new generation of legal-drinking-age consumers “leaning into flavor,” and a loyal base of “flavor enthusiasts” to whom the brand wanted to pay homage.

Diageo’s North American arm backed the refresh with a campaign fronted by the comedian Trevor Noah. Global Drinks Intel reported on 24 April 2023 that seven television ads were made, also featuring the creators LeJuan James, Kayla Simone and Erika Kullberg, and that the campaign played on the drink’s popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all ready-to-drink names: Vizzy, Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezer, Cutwater, Kirin Hyoketsu, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Twisted Tea. Several of them come from companies better known for beer or wine. The Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, first sold its hard iced tea in 2000 as BoDean’s Twisted Tea and renamed it Twisted Tea in 2001, the company says; Molson Coors launched Vizzy nationally in the United States in April 2020. Kirin Brewery launched Hyoketsu in Japan in 2001, according to a Kirin release of April 2016. Mike’s Hard Lemonade comes from the family-owned Mark Anthony group founded by Anthony von Mandl, which says it began in 1972 as a one-person wine importer.

Others sit inside spirits houses or were bought by one. Smirnoff Ice belongs to Diageo, and English Wikipedia notes that in the United States it is a malt beverage, while in many other markets it is made with Smirnoff vodka. Bacardi Breezer, which English Wikipedia describes as a premix of Bacardi rum, was launched in Britain in 1993, the same article says, citing the BBC. Cutwater was founded in San Diego in 2016 by former Ballast Point executives, FoodBev reported, and in February 2019 The Whiskey Wash reported its purchase by Anheuser-Busch.

A ready-to-drink brand’s identity is carried largely by a can, a name and a flavour list, and the same name can cover different recipes in different countries. Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — who launched it, who owns it now and how its packs have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A British relaunch and an American bottling line.

Britain had its own makeover a year later. Scottish Grocer reported on 16 September 2024 that Diageo GB was relaunching Smirnoff Ice for its 25th anniversary with a new pack design and a new 250ml can, sold singly and in four-packs, for drinkers buying on the go. The liquid was unchanged. Jessica Lace, head of marketing for Smirnoff at Diageo GB, said that “the modern makeover brings a vibrant energy to the product,” highlighting the drink’s citrus notes.

The American version is made in the Midwest. Announcing an upgrade of its bottling plant at Plainfield, Illinois, in August 2013, Diageo said the site packaged Smirnoff No. 21, Smirnoff flavoured vodkas and Smirnoff Ice, FoodIngredientsFirst reported.

The flavour range has kept growing around the original lemon. English Wikipedia lists a long run of Smirnoff Ice flavours and the darker Black Ice and Double Black variants across markets, and records a sugar-free Smirnoff Ice launched in the United States in 2020.

In the United States, Smirnoff Ice sits in the flavoured-malt-beverage aisle beside rivals such as Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

For a design guide, Smirnoff Ice shows how a ready-to-drink can borrow the authority of a parent vodka brand while changing colour, flavour cues and even its recipe from market to market. Compare Mike’s Hard Lemonade, the malt-based lemonade from Mark Anthony Brands, and Bacardi Breezer, a fellow spirit brand’s ready-to-drink. For this guide we use ice blue, vodka red and frost silver with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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