Brass Monkey (cocktail)
Brass Monkey is a brand name of pre-mixed
In the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, the
Steve Doniger, an advertising executive, named the brand after an alleged
In 1982, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company acquired Heublein Inc. for $1.4 billion. RJR Nabisco sold the division to Grand Metropolitan in 1987. Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form Diageo in 1997.
Sales and popularity of Heublein's Brass Monkey spirit cocktails increased in the 1980s after the release of the Beastie Boys' song of the same name. It was widely and incorrectly believed that the Beastie Boys were referring to a different drink made from a 40-ounce container of malt liquor mixed with orange juice ("forty" is mentioned in the lyrics); however, Mike D has publicly confirmed that the premixed Heublein cocktail was their inspiration.[2]
After several years of absence from the market, the Brass Monkey premixed cocktail reemerged in the late 2000s as The Club Brass Monkey as part of the Club Cocktails line of bottled mixed drinks produced by The Club Distilling Company (owned at the time by Diageo) but has since been discontinued.[citation needed]