It’s like your everyday lemonade, except way better and with vodka
Last Monday, Fishers Island Lemonade hosted a beautiful event in celebration of National Lemonade Day. The event was held at Sea Wolf in Williamsburg, where guests were able to hang out by the water and sample some of the different Fishers Island Lemonade flavors available. Fishers Island Lemonade is a delicious canned cocktail that has been out for years. Blending together the perfect amount of vodka and barrel-aged whiskey spiked lemonade, this drink basically tastes like a smooth glass of lemonade, having equal amounts of sweetness and tartness that keep you refreshed with each sip. And to top it off, Fishers Island Lemonade boasts four different flavors, the flagship Fisher Island Lemonade, the Fishers Spiked Tea, the Fishers Pink Flamingo, and the Fishers Fizz. Fishers Island also has a delicious frozen popsicle spirit treat called the Fishers Frozen Spirit Pop.
Out of the four flavors, we loved the Fishers Spiked Tea and the Fishers Pink Flamingo the most. The spiked tea tasted like an adult Arnold Palmer, mixing the traditional lemonade flavors in the flagship with a bit of black tea. And the Pink Flamingo was a lovely homage to a pink lemonade, mixing the flagship lemonade flavors with a bit of cranberry juice, giving an extra bit of tartness and sourness that balances well with the spiked lemonade flavors.
And to make this event even better, Fishers Island Lemonade’s founder, Bronya Shillo, was there to greet every guest. Starting off as a bartender in her parent’s bar on Fishers Island, she eventually put the fan favorite cocktail at that bar into a can and started selling it everywhere. Having been doing this for many years, she is actually one of the first canned cocktail brands to ever exist. We got a chance to speak with her so check out what she had to say below:
The Knockturnal: So you are the OG lemonade queen and have been doing this for 7 years. What got you into this field and how has it been like so far for you?
Bronya Shillo: Oh man, getting dubbed the OG lemonade queen, that’s a new one I love that. So I got started 7 years ago in 2014. My family owns the only bar on Fishers Island. And this was actually our house recipe. So this is where I got my start bartending and being in the family business. And basically I saw a need for being efficient behind the bar and if I could go ahead and crack open a bottle or a can of beer, I wanted to be able to do that for our beverage that we are really well known for and we were going through at very high volumes. That’s the short end of it but essentially we were just also looking for a way to bring our delicious beverage outside of the bar too.
The Knockturnal: And I can’t help but notice the variety you have with this drink. What is the process like for you with making new flavors and new drinks?
Bronya Shillo: So first the lemonade is the base for all the drinks, from the original to the spirit pops, to the spiked tea, to the pink flamingo, to the Fishers Island Fizz. That is something that is rooted in our core. But, I really try to listen to the consumers, the bartenders, the partners, and everytime we are at events like this. People are like, oh my god what if you mixed this with a seltzer, what if you mixed this with an iced tea, it’s just a nice way to make sure people are comfortable with what we are extending. So in that case, it’s just one component of it. It’s just continuing to use real ingredients. We use real cranberry, we use real black tea, we use real lemon, we use real honey, and it really comes through.
