Summer of Seltzer

THE

SELTZER

story by ALYSSA MERCANTE Design by OLIVIA BROWN

Just a few years ago, the very idea of drinking a vodka soda from a can was about as dubious as buying a bag of indica from a state-run weed dispensary. But suddenly this summer, a wave of alcoholic seltzers have arrived to claim their rightful chunk of the healthy drinking market.

noun: vodka press

Vodka and soda water with sprite or ginger ale and a lemon or lime garnish.

SO,

In 2015, PRESS premium seltzer’s owner and founder Amy Walberg wanted to make a splash on the adult beverage market with a low ABV drink that mimicked a vodka press. But, she says, the industry wasn’t having it. “Distributors, retailers said ‘we don’t see a future this, we don’t think there’s a market’,” she told us. “Obviously they were very wrong. The category exploded.” Explode it did, in a geyser of low-cal effervescence, with early entries like White Claw (which boasted a 320% leap in sales since last summer, pushing it into the list of Top-25 beer brands) spawning a waterfall of knock-offs. Nielsen reports that the hard seltzer industry has grown 193% in the last year, with the market accounting for $488 million in 2018 sales.

THE HISTORY OF HARD H2O

We’ve broken down the hottest spiked seltzers on the market, based on calories, flavors, and branding. In the battle of boozy, bubbly water, we’ll let you crown a winner.

In 2013, Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer (then known as just SpikedSeltzer) were the pioneers. There are now 32 brands of hard or spiked seltzer and plenty more contenders on the way.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

FLA VOR

BRAND ING

NUTRI TION

The boom in bubbles can likely be attributed to our increasing interest in being healthy, you know, within reason. We want to get drunk, but we want to stay in ketosis, ya know? After the success of low-carb and low-cal beers like Michelob Ultra Light, hard seltzer was a natural next step. It doesn’t hurt that the explosion of “soft” seltzers like Lacroix are also paving the way. Now if we can only tell apart. Almost every brand boasts calories between 80 and 100, a couple of grams of carbs and sugars apiece, and a variety of refreshing (but similar) flavors. So while the brand and marketing people duke it out for market share, we’re here to make sense of the striking uniformity of the hard seltzer roster.

BACK

Click through to become a boozy seltzer expert.

How did we get from banging Buds to shouting “Yeeclaw” while cracking open a White Claw? How many variations of the term “hard seltzer” can companies come up with? For all their straining for identity, seems like they’re remarkably similar in terms of branding, nutrition, and alcohol.

These seltzer brands have branding down to a science. Let's take a deeper dive into the visual identity of hard seltzer.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh

WHITE CAN

SPLASH OF COLOR

BLACK SANS SERIF TYPE

BRANDING

PURPLE RED BLUE YELLOW ORANGE GREEN BLACK PINK WHITE

We looked at the frequency of colors from every single flavor of every single brand. We broke it down by these hues:

Take a look at which shades seltzer brands are loving right now.

BRANDING - COLOR

SELTZER

SPIKED

HARD

SPARKLING

PREMIUM

WATER

FRESH ALCOHOL REFRESHER CRAFT BOOZY

Take a look at which brands stick to the language basics and which ones get savvy on us.

BRANDING - LANGUAGE

NUTRITION - CALORIES

When it comes to calories, sugar, and carbs, the hard seltzer brands are in a race to the bottom, leaving all but three safely in Michelob Ultra territory.

100

110

112

199

4.5%

4.2%

4.5%

What good is a refreshing low-cal, low-carb adult beverage that still treats you like a kid? Most hard seltzer brands strive for a happy medium occupied by your standard lager—between 4% and 5% ABV (except for when they don't).

NUTRITION - ABV

Here’s one of the few places where the hard seltzers vary: some boast zero grams of sugar, most allow one or two, and one brand has five grams per serving.

NUTRITION - SUGAR

GRAPE-FRUIT

LIME

CHERRY

MANGO

WATERMELON

MIXED BERRY

LEMON AGAVE HIBISCUS

KEY LIME MINT

Click through the flavors to see which brands carry your favorite.

Most brands mimic the typical flavors you’d find in non-alcoholic seltzers, but others are looking to stand out with funky flavors—like lemon agave hibiscus and key lime mint. Click through the flavors to see which brands carry your favorite.

FLAVORS

We've got these seltzer brands down to a science. Let's take a deeper dive into the visual identity of hard seltzer.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh

WHITE CAN

SPLASH OF COLOR

BLACK SANS SERIF TYPE

BRANDING

BRANDING - COLOR

PURPLE RED BLUE YELLOW ORANGE GREEN BLACK PINK WHITE

We broke down the colors from every single flavor of every single brand we looked at by these hues:

Every single brand but one used white as the main background color of their cans, making white our most popular color by a mile. Pinks were the next most popular hue, followed by black representing a lot of the bold typography you see on a most of the brands. Purple was the least represented color across the board, with only two appearances out of every single brand.

SELTZER

SPIKED

HARD

SPARKLING

PREMIUM

WATER

FRESH ALCOHOL REFRESHER CRAFT BOOZY

It seems that every brand has their own special way of feeding us the same information. Take a look at which brands stick to the basics and which ones get word savvy on us.

BRANDING - LANGUAGE

GRAPE- FRUIT

LIME

CHERRY

MANGO

WATER-MELON

MIXED BERRY

LEMON AGAVE HIBISCUS

KEY LIME MINT

FLAVORS

NUTRITION - CALORIES

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

190

200

Lite beer: 64 calories

IPA: 200 calories

Glass of wine: 125 calories

When it comes to calories, sugar, and carbs, the hard seltzer brands are in a race to the bottom, leaving all but three safely in Michelob Ultra territory. With close to 400 calories, Four Loko's seltzer couldn't quite fit on our graph.

NUTRITION - ABV

CROOK & MARKER

PRESS

FLORIDA

H2ROADS

WHITE CLAW

TRULY

WILD BASIN

VIVE

VISTA BAY

ARCTIC SUMMER

SAUZA

CLEAR COAST

SEEK OUT

NAUTI

CORONA

HENRY'S

BON & VIV

SMIRNOFF

4.5%

4.2%

4.5%

What good is a refreshing low-cal, low-carb adult beverage that still treats you like a kid? The hard seltzer brands strive for a happy medium occupied by you standard lager—between 4% and 5% ABV.

NUTRITION - SUGAR

Here’s one of the few places where the hard seltzers vary: some boast zero grams of sugar, most allow one or two, and one brand has five grams per serving.

NATTY LIGHT

PBR

FOUR LOKO

14%

With Four Loko coming in close to 400 cals, we couldn't exactly fit it on our graph.

133

228

14%