When Lemonade Met Rosé
Introducing Roseade, the best day drink ever.
When life gives you lemons, make, rosé lemonade? That’s what husband and wife and spirits industry veterans Victoria Ash and Karl Ziegler have been doing since 2021 – turning lemonade into a fresh, tart and juicy rosé spritz in a (very cute) can.
The couple — both certified sommeliers — met and married while working in the wine industry, and have 20+ years building brands for industry leaders like E&J Gallo, Bacardi & Allied Domecq. They also ran a small import company and explained that a chance DM led them to discover a cool new rosé lemonade created in Australia.
The story goes that a young guy named Lee Smallman was making rosé on the Mornington Peninsula at his family’s winery in Australia; he had overproduced rosé in response to the “rosé all day” craze and had too much wine to bottle. Lee started thinking about other ways to sell the excess rosé. He could have just sent it to me, but anyway, he was a regular at his local farmer’s market where folks would spend the afternoon listening to live music and drinking farmer-made sangria, when an idea was born. He went back home, mixed his leftover rosé (a phrase I’ve never before written) with lemonade he made from his family’s lemon trees, put it in a keg, brought it back to the farmer’s market, and sold out immediately. Lee began to produce more of it and launched and Instagram page.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Karl discovered the brand’s page through a rosé hashtag and sent the Roseade a DM to learn more. Lee and Karl started talking and never stopped. The three built the brand together, and Karl and Victoria began importing it and then launched it officially in the US in 2021, adding new strawberry and pineapple flavors and a cute line of merch.
Their Rosade Rosé Lemonade comes in a cheerful bubble gum pink can, like liquid sunshine, emblazoned with their adorable mascot Lenny the Lemon. It’s fabulous — what might come from a thrupple between a bottle of rosé, a magnum of bubbly, and pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade. The result is everything you want in a summer sipper: tart, fresh, bright, sunny, thirst-quenching, fizzy and delicious.
For every batch of Roseade Rosé Lemonade (8 percent ABV), Victoria blends just a few simple, high-quality ingredients. First, there’s premium rosé from Michael David winery in Lodi. “We are sommeliers,” she said. “If the wine isn’t delicious on its own we don’t put it in the can.” They source their lemons from trees in Bakersfield California, squeeze them, add a bit of cane sugar, filtered water and a little jolt of CO2, adding fresh strawberry or pineapple puree to their fruit-infused flavors.
You can stash a mixed pack in your cooler for a picnic or a day at the beach, tuck a few into your bag for al fresco post-work movies in Bryant Park, bring a case to your next dinner party or backyard barbecue, and prepare to become the most popular guest ever. This is the can you want on hand at the pool and the park, from day to night, and everywhere in between. Pro tip: if you want something really satisfying on a smoldering day, pour it into your blender with ice for a boozy slushie.
Roseade Rosé Lemonade is $30 for eight 8.4-ounce cans, there’s also a variety pack ($19.99 for 6 cans), which includes strawberry, pineapple and original) and a new Roseade wine bottle size ($19.99). Get yours online or in person at Williamsburg W&L, S&L Liquor Brooklyn, Mr. Wright’s Liquor Manhattan, Pinnacle Wines & Spirits Manhattan, and Total Wine.