The spiked seltzer industry generated about $3 million in 2015. By 2018, that value had risen to $550 million. Now, in 2021, some analysts have projected the spiked seltzer industry to reach $2.5 billion.
This kind of explosion is rare for any new product, let alone an alcoholic beverage. What is even more peculiar is that about half of those sales have come from just one brand: White Claw. Another 35% of those sales are dominated by Truly.
The popularity of these drinks has been spurred on by the use of hashtags and memes on social media. Both brands have been able to go viral online, getting thousands of people to share their products.
White Claw is owned by Mark Anthony Brands, the owner of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, while Truly is owned by the Boston Beer Company. Even before these brands had released their wildly successful seltzers, they were both established names in the alcohol industry.
Even beer is starting to lose market share to healthier, less alcoholic options like seltzer. As a result, nearly every major beer brand in 2021 has put out at least one hard seltzer on its product line.
A Brief History Lesson on Seltzers
The first major hard seltzer appeared on the scene in 1993, when Coors introduced a new drink called Zima. At the time, Coors was trying to compete with a budding wine cooler industry.
The drink was actually pretty successful, raking in high sales and making its way to major distributors around America.
Coors spent about $50 million in its first year marketing Zima. Their campaigns had persuaded nearly half of all American alcoholic drinkers to try the drink.
However, it was also met with criticism. Old-school drinkers laughed at the idea of drinking seltzer with alcohol in it. Many people viewed it as a drink for younger people who didn’t have much experience drinking. Even David Letterman ridiculed Zima, using it in parody skits as a drink designed for feminine men.
The widespread mockery of this drink was enough to plummet its sales. Zima was discontinued in 2008. Despite a brief comeback in 2017, the drink isn’t in production anymore. You can still buy it in Japan, however.
A new wave of hard seltzers appeared in 2013, led by the Boston-based brand, SpikedSeltzer. This company was started by two men who were inspired by their wives’ affinity for sparkling water.
SpikedSeltzer sold over 250,000 cases of their hard seltzers in 2015. By the following year, it had been bought out by Anheuser-Busch. Since then, the company has been rebranded as Bon & Viv.
Health Benefits of Seltzer
There has been a shift in the food and drink industry toward more health-conscious products. In the past few years, you’ve probably noticed tons of new low-calorie drinks on the shelves of your local grocery store.
Every year, more Americans are letting go of sugary soft drinks like soda, and many of them are going to be looking for a healthy alternative. This is where seltzer comes in.
From 2012-2017, seltzer sales had risen 42%, and it only keeps growing. This rise in popularity has been driven by increased media attention, especially in food and drink publications.
Seltzer has become a favorite in offices, so much so that it has almost become a stereotype that office workers always keep the fridge stocked with La Croix. It tastes better than water. And it has almost the same amount of calories, with little to no sugar. As an everyday drink, seltzer isn’t a bad option.
The nutritional profile of seltzer is what has allowed brands to market their products adjacent to wellness drinks. Millennials are a major segment of wellness consumers, which explains why so many young people are drinking seltzer nowadays.
Other Brands to Try
With how many brands are getting in on the seltzer craze, it can be overwhelming to try and pick one.
Obviously, Truly and White Claw make some of the best hard seltzers in the world, but there are also other brands that offer quality seltzers.
Smirnoff makes the best-selling vodka in the whole world. But what do they know about making seltzer? Apparently, a lot! The company jumped into the hard seltzer industry in 2016, branding their drink as Smirnoff Seltzer. They offer several different flavors, including orange mango, raspberry rosé, and berry lemonade.
Henry’s Hard Sparkling Water has been one of the most prominent hard soda brands in the market for many years. Their sparkling water is a lightly flavored drink with subtle fruit notes and strong acidity. The product is created by MillerCoors.
The brand carries a variety of fruit flavors like strawberry kiwi, blueberry lemon, lemon-lime. Their sparkling waters are made with barley malt liquor, as well as corn syrup. Keep in mind that these drinks are not gluten-free.
Other notable brands include Cape Line, Pura Still, Seekout, and Oskar Blues Brewery. And there seems to be a new hard seltzer beverage company every day.
Recently, PBR announced its Stronger Seltzer, an 8% ABV drink. Four Loko also announced their own spiked carbonated drink, called the Sour Blue Razz.
Natural Light even got in on the action, with a seltzer that has its own GIFs on Instagram Stories. One of them hilariously displays a White Claw pouring itself into a dumpster. Bud Light and Corona also have released lighter, fruitier versions of their flagship drinks; Bud Light with their Ritas Spritz and Corona with their Refrescas.
There are also plenty of lesser-known brands, like Crook & Marker, which makes a coconut-pineapple flavor, and
Takeaway
Long gone are the days of hard seltzers being laughed at. Nowadays, you might even find yourself judged for drinking something other than a Truly or White Claw. Hard seltzers are truly a one-of-a-kind drink. They’re easy to consume, very tasty, and most importantly, somewhat healthy; emphasis on the “somewhat.”
All jokes aside, hard seltzers are a much more viable option as an everyday drink than any other drink. A hard seltzer a day may not keep the doctor away, but it’s certainly better for you than religiously guzzling down beers.
Don’t be surprised if hard seltzer sales one day overtake the beer industry. The growth of this market is absolutely insane. Don’t get left behind!
If you’re looking for some quality hard seltzers, take a trip over to the Saucey site! We carry hundreds of different hard seltzers from a ton of different brands. And we deliver it straight to you.
Published on 8/14/2020 at 3:31 PM
Before 2019, seltzer didn’t get much respect on the drink circuit. There’s just nothing that special about it. At least, there wasn’t until White Claw started infusing the stuff with booze. Since then, it’s been “no laws when you’re drinking claws,” which may not be true, but is nonetheless fun to say. White Claw added a little fun to summer 2019 and continues to help spice up self-isolation for a lot of people these days. And while it’s had a huge impact on our society, it hasn’t even been around that long.
Technically, White Claw’s origins date back to the 18th Century, when chemist Joseph Priestly first infused water with CO2. His invention saw him dubbed “the father of the soft drink,” but a title is all his invention ever got him. Priestly never enjoyed financial gain or notoriety (not much anyway) from his creation. Apparently, the bubbly water was popular though because in 1799, Thwaites’ Soda Water opened in Dublin, where the product was manufactured for the masses.
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By 1865, suppliers started advertising different flavors of the carbonated beverage. Because who wants to drink bland soda water? The first flavors were pineapple, orange, lemon, apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, grape, cherry, black cherry, strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, and melon... which is quite a range. Maybe even more than White Claw offers right now.
Anyway, in the 1950s people decided that soda water wasn’t all that good, but sparkling water and seltzer were. Seltzer was especially popular at the time. So much so that New Yorkers started hiring delivery guys just to drop seltzer at their door. Sounds like Uber Eats before it was Uber Eats, but that’s a The History Of episode for another time.
A decade later, vodka soda became more popular than ever. JFK is president and the people loved him. So much that a vodka soda spinoff was named after his mother, Rose Kennedy. The drink contains vodka, seltzer, and a splash of cranberry juice. People still drink it today, though they typically just call it by its ingredients. In the 1970s, there was a shift in what people want to drink. Anthony von Mandl, an entrepreneur fresh out of college, started selling imported wines from his car in Canada.
He was surprisingly successful in this venture and was able to buy a vineyard, later known as Mission Hill Winery. Von Mandl earned the nickname Tony Baloney because he was a bit of a bullshit artist and a master salesman. Meanwhile his competition started to sling sugary wine coolers to thirsty masses. Creators like Mandl realized they can do something similar, but with a twist by using malt, and flavored malt beverages are born.
Coors unveiled its version, Zima, to little fanfare. People didn’t like it and for whatever reason, David Letterman spent a lot of time making fun of it on The Late Show. For von Mandl, this was a learning opportunity. He saw the innovations and failures and combined them with some statistics.
The booze purveyor learned that about 25% of men don’t actually like beer, but don’t want to be seen drinking something else. Toxic masculinity -- it transcends time and trends. To appeal to male beer-haters, von Mandl created a malt beverage in a beer-shaped bottle and named it Mike’s Hard Lemonade. In 1999, he started a new company called Mark Anthony Group and unleashed Mike’s Hard Lemonade on the United States and, unknowingly, on high school party goers everywhere. Thanks, von Mandl.
Anyway, where were we? Right, the road to White Claw. So in 2013, Bon & Viv launched SpikedSeltzer. They alleged that they’re the first hard seltzer brand, but that has been somewhat contested. In the years to come, the spiked seltzer market was absolutely flooded. Not only were the resulting drinks tasty, they were low in calories which gets fitness enthusiasts buzzing. And it’s not only boozy seltzers that started flying off the shelves. Drinks like LaCroix saw a 42% increase in sales, despite no one knowing for sure how to say the brand’s name.
While the seltzer boom unfolded, von Mandl decided to throw his hat in the ring. Mike’s Hard Lemonade may not have gotten the respect he thought it deserved, but White Claw? That may be his greatest innovation. He released the product in 2016 in Natural Lime, Black Cherry, Ruby Grapefruit, Raspberry, and Mango flavors. At the same time, Truly Hard Seltzer hit store shelves, but patience, persistence, and a social media shtick ultimately helped White Claw prevail.
In 2018, the hashtag #ClawLife took social media by storm. People were curious about Claws and boom: the following summer was a lawless smorgasbord of ever-so-slightly flavored booze-filled seltzers. Truly and other brands continued to try to compete, and did see success, but none will ever reach the level of notoriety of White Claw.
Bros, basic bitches, wine moms, party dads, and college kids alike have all agreed: White Claw is the one. Everyone spent the summer of 2019 drinking it like it was going out of style, unknowingly threatening their supply. By September of that year, there was a shortage, which was a huge bummer, but didn’t last too long. Fast forward to March 2020, when the pandemic ended the party. But White Claw returned with even more flavors, including lemon, tangerine, and watermelon.
Who knew booze would be what put seltzer on the map? Well, von Mandl I guess, but certainly not us. Tonight, as you crack open your first Claw, be sure to say cheers to him and his innovation.
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Caitlyn Hitt is Daria IRL. Don't take our word for it -- find her on Twitter @nyltiaccc.