Check out Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s hard iced tea and lemonade
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg introduced a line of canned hard iced teas and lemonades.
Gin and Juice became more than a song for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
The new Dre and Snoop hard iced tea and lemonade can cocktails, the latest collaboration between the newly minted billionaire producer and the rapper and television personality, are now hitting shelves nationwide.
The still cocktails (5.9% ABV made with gin and juice) come in eight packs of 12-ounce cans, including two cans each of Iced Tea, Peach Iced Tea, Iced Tea & Lemonade, and Pink Lemonade.
It’s the latest expansion of the duo’s spirits line, which includes Gin & Juice Bydre & Snoop’s ready-to-drink cocktails (flavors include honey apricot, citrus, melon and passionfruit) and Still Gin Bydre & Snoop’s Ultra Premium Gin, both launched in 2024. New tallboy versions of Dre & Snoop’s Hard Peach Iced Tea and Hard Pink Lemonade, as well as Gin & Snoop Juice by Dre and Snoop Mango (19.2 oz each), will also be introduced to the market.
Snoop has already established itself in other beverage categories, including THC and CBD drinks and wine. “I’ve put my name on a lot of things over the years. This is different. This is me and Dre’s company. We built this,” Snoop said in a statement to USA TODAY.
“Gin is a lane that doesn’t do very well compared to vodka or tequila, so we thought we had a chance to come in and do it better than everyone else,” he wrote. “We chose a lane where we could stand out and build something that would last.”
How did Dr. Dre and Snoop start their gin brand?
Just as Dre ventured into headphones with Beats Electronics, Jimmy Iovine, who founded Interscope Records, played a big role. When Dre was considering a line of sneakers, his label Iovine, which released Dre’s 1992 album The Chronic, suggested he make speakers instead.
This led to the sale of millions of Beats By Dre headphones, and Dre and Iovine sold the company, including the Beats Music streaming service, to Apple for $3 billion in May 2014.
After Dre and Snoop performed at the 2022 Super Bowl with Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, Iovine asked them why they didn’t base their work on their 1994 hit “Gin and Juice,” which appeared on Snoop’s 1993 debut album Doggystyle, which Dre produced. Gin and Juice has been a part of us for over 30 years. People have been asking us for years why we haven’t changed our lifestyle, our culture authentically,” Dre said in a statement to USA TODAY.
“That’s what we were drinking every day in the studio,” Snoop said. “After all these years, it finally made sense to build something together.”
For Dre, “the timing had to be right. I don’t do anything unless I’m convinced we can do it at the highest level. When we finally decided to do it, we brought in people who knew how to elevate the vision. We’ve made great records, but this is the first product Snoop and I have actually made together. It means something.”
Dre and Snoop’s team approached Patrick Hulbert, Andrew Gill, and Rocco Milano, who ran the ready-to-drink cocktail company On the Rocks. The company, founded in 2015 and sold to Beam Suntory in 2020, has a portfolio of spirits that includes Jim Beam, the Maker’s Mark bourbon brand and Sauza Tequila.
Hulbert “received an email asking if I wanted to talk to Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine (brand partner), and Snoop Dogg,” Gill told USA TODAY. “We thought it was spam. … And then, before we knew it, boom, almost the next day, we were on Zoom with them, and at that moment everyone was on board.”
What they learned was that this wasn’t a situation where artists were trying to espouse celebrity mentality. There are many such artists, but “sometimes it’s hit and miss. This was completely different. It was a really organic, authentic company,” said Hulbert, who is now CEO of all three brands. Milano has been named chief revenue officer and Gil has been named chief strategy officer. “We thought we could build a whole portfolio of gins.”
As for Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop’s ready-to-drink cocktail, “We wanted something refreshing, something that tasted like a new version of what me and Snoop have been drinking for 30 years. We grew up on gin and juice, and this is just that, but now it’s appropriate for everyone,” Dre said.
Dre specifically asked for Still GIN
“I told the team I wasn’t going to serve this until it replaced Hendrix (gin) as my drink,” he said. “It took me 15 iterations before I was happy with it, but thankfully I got there, otherwise I never would have finished it.”
Industrial designer and artist Ini Archibong helped create the look of cocktail cans, still gin bottles and limited edition Hexclad cocktail shakers, which were unveiled in a commercial with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
Dr. Dre and Snoop’s gin brand attracts attention
Shortly after the Gin & Juice can cocktail hit the market, the brand became the headline sponsor of Kendrick Lamar’s “The Pop Out: Ken & Friends” concert in June 2024 in Inglewood, California. After the song “Gin & Juice” played on the Kia Forum’s sound system, Dr. Dre appeared on stage and performed “Still DRE.”
In the Still GIN commercial, Dre and Snoop met Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. With these family blessings and the use of advanced digital technology, including artificial intelligence, Liverpool FC’s Virgil van Dijk joined as a partner when the brand launched in the UK. Martha Stewart, who joined Snoop at the Olympics, created cocktail recipes using still gin
“I’ve always loved vodka cocktails, so I wanted to try working with clear liquor from time to time. Then I tasted still gin, and it changed the way I make cocktails,” Stewart said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Water Mary was the first drink I made with gin and it was so great that I now think of still gin as the new vodka.”
The team’s newest brand partner is Grammy Award winner Yungblud. He happened to join Iovine and Dre at a tasting of Gin & Juice canned cocktails and was recruited to help launch the brand in the UK. “He had a great personality and was interested in liquids in cans from the beginning,” Gill said.
Restaurants are interested in getting their products on the shelves. Among them is Applebee’s, which started offering Still Gin cocktail specials in February. Meanwhile, more supermarkets and retailers are adding canned cocktails to their shelves.
“We’re here to offer something unique and innovative in this space. This is more than just a celebrity endorsement deal,” Hulbert said. “I’m really excited to see where these brands go.”
Dre and Snoop have been “involved in this development from the ground up, being involved every step of the way, from the production of the gin to the selection of gin and juice flavors,” Snoop said. “This is the only business that I run with my brother. I get to watch this business grow with him.”
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
