Amanda Batula & Kyle Cooke Explain the High Price Point of Their New Loverboy Product

Summer House fans have seen the Loverboy flow at many a Hamptons party. (For the uninitiated: Loverboy is Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula's brand of sparkling hard tea, which comes in flavors such as peach and hibiscus.) Now, Loverboy is offering Loverboy Spritz, which Amanda billed in an April 16 Instagram post as: "My classier alternative to Kyle’s hard teas." 

The post went on to describe the blueberry-lemon beverage "a bubbly, wine-based craft cocktail [that] has more alcohol, more flavor and no added sugar. The combination of blueberries, lemon and basil will take you from your living room couch to the Amalfi Coast." But, it doesn't come cheap: Available for shipping on April 20, the drink sells for $23 per 4-pack, which makes a 12-pack $69. 

Amanda left a note on Instagram for any followers experiencing some sticker shock. "We wanted to give you a premium product that could be sold online and across the country, unlike our teas. Our solution: use a wine base that resembles a vodka, and create a canned cocktail that tastes like it was freshly crafted by a mixologist for $15. We totally get the price shock--but we would never overcharge you. Our Spritz uses high quality ingredients so that it taste amazing, but is expensive to produce. Selling and shipping wine online is also stupid expensive and we tried to cover some of that in the cost for you." She concluded by writing: "We understand the Spritz may not be for everyone, and we will continue expanding our sparkling hard tea state by state."

Kyle spoke to Page Six about the cost of the drink. “The goal was to launch it at some point while the show was airing. It had nothing to do with the pandemic,” he said on April 16. “Of course, being locked down … It’s like, ‘Wow, I’d love a $15 drink that my mixologist just whips up for me, but, A. I don’t drag myself to three different stores to get the ingredients and, B. I’m not going to spend 20 minutes making it. I’m just gonna crack open a beer, rose or even a sparkling hard tea.’ So it’s worked well that it kind of fell upon the lockdown.”

But, there's a downside. “A lot of people are like, ‘What the f--k? Like, I just got fired and you’re trying to charge almost six dollars a can?’ So that part of the timing sucks,” he admitted. 

And if you can't swing a spritz right now, there's always the other official drink of Summer House. Watch the clip above to learn how to make a "BBC." 

Want more Summer House? New episodes air every Wednesday at 9/8c or catch up on this season through the Bravo app.