Hard seltzer, adult seltzer, mature seltzer, spiked seltzer and hard sparkling alcohol water is a type of

highball A highball is a mixed alcoholic drink composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer, often a carbonated beverage. Examples include the Seven and Seven, Scotch and soda, gin and tonic, screwdriver (a.k. ...

drink containing seltzer (carbonated water),

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

, and often fruit flavorings. In the US the alcohol is usually made by fermenting cane sugar; sometimes malted barley is used. Hard seltzer products outside of the US have been found to use either neutral spirit, or fermentation of fruit. The

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

is around 5% and the

calorie The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of ...

-content is relatively low.

History

The first widely available commercial example of the style was

Two Dogs Two Dogs was a ready-to-drink beverage that was first introduced in Australia in 1993 and went on to become available throughout the world. It was a lemon flavoured alcoholic beverage that is widely considered to have been the "world’s first ...

which was brewed from 1993 in Australia and was widely claimed to be the "world’s first brewed alcoholic lemonade" (despite the pre-existence of traditional drinks like sima), paving the way for similar commercial products such as

Hooper's Hooch Hooper's Hooch (often simply referred to as Hooch) is an alcopop that was most popular during the mid-1990s. The name ''Hoopers'' refers to William Hooper (chemist), William Hooper, inventor of the hot water bottle and manufacturer of lemonade in ...

and Mike's Hard Lemonade (known as alcopops in the United Kingdom and malternatives in America). Nick Shields developed the beverage branding and style with Spiked Seltzer, in Westport, Connecticut, brewing the first commercial batches in November 2013. The category saw a spike in popularity around 2018–2019 in the U.S. As of 2019, in the U.S. the most popular brand was White Claw. Hard seltzer is expected to generate $2.5 billion in sales in the US by 2021. Analysts attribute the success of White Claw and the appeal of hard seltzer in general to increased demand from health-conscious consumers. The rise of hard seltzers in the

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cer ...

category may also be seen as a reflection of the broader surge in popularity of non-alcoholic flavored seltzers evidenced by the sudden and massive popularity of brands like LaCroix and Spindrift. On the back of this popularity, hard seltzer brands have launched in numerous countries outside of the U.S., including in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, Australia,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

and the UK. In February 2020, White Claw launched in Canada and subsequently Australia and the UK.

References

Alcoholic drinks Carbonated drinks {{drink-stub

History

See also

References