Ready-to-drink cocktails are a hit with millennials and Gen Z. Can brands make them taste better?

With alcohol sales flat, companies from Suntory to Diageo are investing heavily in flavor innovation to boost a growing segment that young drinkers are embracing.

At the corporate office of Suntory Global Spirits in New York’s Flatiron District, I visited the liquor giant’s research and development lab, where I sipped on cocktails including an Old Overholt whiskey sour and two libations made with Cruzan rum.