Brass Monkey

Rum-and-vodka orange juice from a Heublein can — the Beastie Boys referencing it in their 1986 Licensed to Ill (the first rap album at No. 1 on the Billboard 200).

The Brass Monkey name refers first to a premixed cocktail produced by the Heublein Company of Stamford, Connecticut, and sold in cans and bottles throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Heublein, a spirits and beverage company whose American operations dated to the 19th century, produced a range of premixed cocktails and was best known at the time for its ownership of the A.1. Steak Sauce brand and its distribution of Smirnoff vodka, which it had acquired in 1939. The Brass Monkey can, whose exact formula Heublein never publicly disclosed — marketing it only as a secret combination of liquors — was a rum-and-vodka-based orange juice cocktail sold as a portable, ready-to-drink convenience product. It sat on the lower shelves of liquor stores and delis alongside cheap wine and malt liquor, which is where Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz first encountered it in 1984 when it was pointed out to him by DJ Jazzy Jay. The Beastie Boys referenced the drink on their 1986 debut album Licensed to Ill — the first rap album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart and the best-selling rap album of the decade — in the song Brass Monkey, produced by Rick Rubin. The song drove a measurable increase in Heublein's Brass Monkey sales. A popular misconception developed that the Beastie Boys were referencing a 40-ounce malt liquor bottle topped with orange juice, but the group confirmed in interviews that they meant the specific Heublein canned product.