Bring Your Own Cocktail founders Amanda Sussex and Shaylin Hamlin. (Photo courtesy of BYOC)

In January, we hoped this year would bring cocktails to go to an already diverse drinking city. Less than six months in, the District has delivered.

Newly-launched Bring Your Own Cocktail is the first in D.C. to formally offer classic bar favorites in portable form. Each concoction revolves around a refreshing number of pronounceable ingredients (fresh-pressed juices from seasonal fruits, veggies, herbs, and simple syrup) and vodka, gin, and rum from District Distilling Co. At 15 percent ABV, one bottle is meant to serve two cocktails or pack one nice punch.

Founders Amanda Sussex and Shayla Hamlin, who met through their previous work in healthcare, mix every batch at Mess Hall by hand and deliver to liquor stores around D.C. Though they have always harbored a love for cocktails, they informally perfected their crafting skills in recent years by mixing drinks for family and friends, and were ready for a career switch. The real impetus was creating a product they wanted that wasn’t yet on the market.

“Although D.C. has an amazing happy hour scene, sometimes after a long day, you just want to retreat back home,” says Hamlin. “Not being a big beer and wine drinker, I would go to make myself a cocktail just to realize I didn’t have all the ingredients needed on hand.”

Because “ready to drink” cocktails are just beginning to take off, the process to become licensed as a certified distillery took nearly a year—even the regulators didn’t know how to categorize the company at first. BYOC soon hopes to be everywhere you’d want to be drinking a classic cocktail, including fast-casual restaurants like &Pizza, Nationals Park, and the 9:30 Club, and also available for events and catering.

All cocktails sell individually for $8 to $10 in stores, or in packs of four for $30 to $32. The summer line-up has five to choose from: a watermelon vodka with mint and lime, a rum-based pineapple and rosemary, a refreshing gin and cucumber smash, a District Mule , and a margarita made with Don Ciccio and Figili’s Mandarinetto liqueur.

The drinks are light on sugar, which gives a roundness and complexity to the flavors. Each recipe is crafted with the advice of several bartenders, then refined for taste and shelf life. In the fall, the line-up will boast a whiskey cocktail and a drink with apple brandy.

As BYOC branches into different cocktails, Sussex says they hope to collaborate with other local distillers and are excited about the growing number of women-owned businesses in the city.

“We make it accessible to people when they want to drink a cocktail from the comfort of the couch, but don’t have seven ingredients on hand and don’t want to commit to making a full batch,” says Sussex.

“It’s convenient, but still the same quality you get at your favorite cocktail bar,” she says.