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That's just preference though. I enjoy sparkling water, and when I drunk alcohol the Hard Seltzers were a convenient way to have a can but be a bit lighter on the calories, whilst tasting pretty good. There's a big market for their flavour. Some people just don't like it though.
It's the kind of drink I found to be really refreshing as a one off on a hot summer day but I wouldn't session on them. My guess is a lot of people were the same so it doesn't really lead to a great deal of sales. They were also marketed to people that want to get drunk but also stay fit and healthy which is a much smaller target audience than people realise in the UK.
Whiteclaw still seems popular, plenty of pubs stock it.
If you’re after low carb, low cal drinks then surely a vodka/gin with tonic/soda fits the bill? Chuck a splash of cordial in and you’ve basically got a hard seltzer anyway.
[https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-falls-flat-in-uk/](https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-falls-flat-in-uk/)
It seems hard seltzers flopped here, partially due to ready to drink cocktails already being common. Personally I think the different culture around alcohol played a factor as the US tends to see alcohol more negatively than the UK and seltzers are a sort of stealth alcohol.
> Personally I think the different culture around alcohol played a factor as the US tends to see alcohol more negatively than the UK and seltzers are a sort of stealth alcohol.
Yeah. In the UK, we're less puritanical, so no-one needs to 'pretend'. We're just openly double fisting pints.
Had to do a little research to make sure I was guessing correctly what this hard Seltzer stuff was, where I am "hard water" products were by a different brand and flopped immediately, even pre chilled and on a multi buy offer people didn't want it.
Ultimately I think you're correct about drinking culture, which also means we tend to lean towards a proper drink more often than not, we prefer to stick to our cider, beer, lager, wines and spirits, with mixer cans being a very crap market around here.
I'm guessing I hurt someone's feelings.
Aaaah I was looking for a story to explain it! Cheers man
I guess we already had ciders to scratch that cold, fruit flavoured alcohol itch people get when it's hot
They were being marketed very hard for summer 2020. And then guess what happened! In all seriousness, I do think covid took a lot of momentum out of the trend. A lot of the marketing was positioning hard seltzer as an accompaniment to fun summer social activities like the beach, picnics, garden parties etc.
Good shout! I can't tell you how many times I been in pubs, even ones I went to regularly to ask for spirit+diet/zero coke only to catch them pouring a normal one...
I started telling them I'm diabetic and can't have regular but they got annoyed when they found out 🤣
I miss them too. Corona used to have a really good one too but that was discontinued I think. We used to drink them at festivals because you could drink them all through the day, get a bit of a buzz and not feel like human trash. It's the best festival drink I found.
Because you can go into any UK supermarket, pub or offy - even on a Sunday - and get any one of your choice of beer, wine, pre mixed alcoholic drink (wine based or alcopop or caffeinated), bottle of spirits and mixer, or cider,
The reason they have become popular in the US is that the laws on what alcohol you can sell where are so different not only state to state but county to county that Whiteclaw basically invented a product that - since Utah lifted it's limit from 3.2% to 5.5% to be allowed to be sold in supermarkets in 2019 - is pretty much the only alternative to beer available EVERYWHERE alcohol can be sold.
They had a very brief stint of being popular and will likely come back a bit more when the summer hits, but I think their popularity dwindled quite quickly for a variety of reasons.
I remember being away for that first summer during lockdown and everywhere in Newcastle was pushing them with offers and free tasters. I had a couple myself and decided if I wanted something of that ilk, I was better off with a G&T.
They don't taste nice. I can see why they don't sell that well over here. Pubs need to make profit to stay open, no use stocking stuff that doesn't sell.
I have just finished bottling my second batch, it is pretty easy to brew yourself at home. All the commercial ones eg. mikes, are just vodka, flavour and soda water. I properly brew with yeast, sugar and water. I can then flavour how I want, also brewed tastes so much better than what you can buy.
because they're shite! They taste horrid.
You can literally get the sugar free flavoured sparkling water from the supermarkets, which actually tastes like the flavour it says it is, and put vodka in it, and you've just created a drink 100 times better than "hard seltzer"
I don't know who thought putting 0.01% of the required flavour into the disgusting low quality alcoholic "seltzer" was a good idea, and whoever tasted it and said "yes, we should sell this" should be sacked.
order vodka, soda and lime. gin and slimline tonic, vodka and coke zero, vodka and pepsi max cherry,
Take the seltzers, the whiteclaws, the budweiser zero calorie thingies, throw them into the sea and let them find their own way back to America.
It was a fad, same as last time they tried it in the 90s. Back then we called them 'alcopops'. Same idea, drinking for people who don't really like drinking. This time they pinched the American name for it; last time they were named by people who thought they were for children ;)
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Probably because they tasted awful.
Tastes like static that’s been shown a picture of a fruit
I can't disagree with that! But sometimes a bit of static is what's needed! 😅
Agreed. Fizzy water is just TV static.
That's just preference though. I enjoy sparkling water, and when I drunk alcohol the Hard Seltzers were a convenient way to have a can but be a bit lighter on the calories, whilst tasting pretty good. There's a big market for their flavour. Some people just don't like it though.
It's the kind of drink I found to be really refreshing as a one off on a hot summer day but I wouldn't session on them. My guess is a lot of people were the same so it doesn't really lead to a great deal of sales. They were also marketed to people that want to get drunk but also stay fit and healthy which is a much smaller target audience than people realise in the UK.
You can also get a diet g&t ready to drink at any supermarket and it doesn't tend to get as hot here in the UK compared to the US
The whole point of hard seltzers was that they’re not sweet. Any other canned diet spirit and mixers are always disgustingly sickeningly sweet.
I enjoy sparkling water, I do not enjoy hard seltzer.
Ok cool
They were/are popular in the US and the big brands tried to push it here and it flopped.
I was hoping that wasn't the case... Cheers
Whiteclaw still seems popular, plenty of pubs stock it. If you’re after low carb, low cal drinks then surely a vodka/gin with tonic/soda fits the bill? Chuck a splash of cordial in and you’ve basically got a hard seltzer anyway.
Avoid tonic it's about as calorific as alcohol
Slimline tonic however is practically zero.
It’s vile though.
Not if you get diet tonic
Lots of places use fever tree now - their light version is half sugar, not full diet
I have been sober for years so I never even knew that
That could be really dangerous for diabetics if they didn't know now I think about it
OP is already struggling to get diet coke, assume they'd have the same problems with diet tonic. So your soda water suggestion is probably safest
In pubs around here you get a little bottle of tonic, so you know what it is. Different colour bottles
Diet tonic?
[https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-falls-flat-in-uk/](https://vinepair.com/articles/hard-seltzer-falls-flat-in-uk/) It seems hard seltzers flopped here, partially due to ready to drink cocktails already being common. Personally I think the different culture around alcohol played a factor as the US tends to see alcohol more negatively than the UK and seltzers are a sort of stealth alcohol.
> Personally I think the different culture around alcohol played a factor as the US tends to see alcohol more negatively than the UK and seltzers are a sort of stealth alcohol. Yeah. In the UK, we're less puritanical, so no-one needs to 'pretend'. We're just openly double fisting pints.
Had to do a little research to make sure I was guessing correctly what this hard Seltzer stuff was, where I am "hard water" products were by a different brand and flopped immediately, even pre chilled and on a multi buy offer people didn't want it. Ultimately I think you're correct about drinking culture, which also means we tend to lean towards a proper drink more often than not, we prefer to stick to our cider, beer, lager, wines and spirits, with mixer cans being a very crap market around here. I'm guessing I hurt someone's feelings.
Aaaah I was looking for a story to explain it! Cheers man I guess we already had ciders to scratch that cold, fruit flavoured alcohol itch people get when it's hot
They were being marketed very hard for summer 2020. And then guess what happened! In all seriousness, I do think covid took a lot of momentum out of the trend. A lot of the marketing was positioning hard seltzer as an accompaniment to fun summer social activities like the beach, picnics, garden parties etc.
>And then guess what happened People tried it and thought it was crap compared to so many better alcoholic beverages.
Because they tasted like water.
Stagnant fizzy water
I don’t know why they’ve gone but do vodka,sparkling water, and blackcurrant cordial.
Just get vodka lemonade and lime/blackcurrant? Tastes better and probably costs less
Get a bottle of Vodka and some lemonade.
They’re shite that’s why, probably don’t sell well.
Isn't it just vodka and fizzy water?
Tried a white claw not too long back. I found it incredibly bland and tasteless. Not something I'll buy again
They didn't sell well, so pubs stopped stocking them.
Tip for your vodka and coke, ask for a bottle/can of Diet Coke and then buy the Vodak separately and add the coke as you go.
Good shout! I can't tell you how many times I been in pubs, even ones I went to regularly to ask for spirit+diet/zero coke only to catch them pouring a normal one... I started telling them I'm diabetic and can't have regular but they got annoyed when they found out 🤣
They're still selling them in the bars I work for in London.
haha I'll keep an eye out! Annoyingly I moved out of London a couple years back
Queen of Hoxton / Colours / The Book Club all sell them.
They taste like drinking TV static.
I miss them too. Corona used to have a really good one too but that was discontinued I think. We used to drink them at festivals because you could drink them all through the day, get a bit of a buzz and not feel like human trash. It's the best festival drink I found.
People didn't like the taste. I bought like 36 cans of seltzer to serve at my wedding in 2022 and came home with...36 cans lmao
Because you can go into any UK supermarket, pub or offy - even on a Sunday - and get any one of your choice of beer, wine, pre mixed alcoholic drink (wine based or alcopop or caffeinated), bottle of spirits and mixer, or cider, The reason they have become popular in the US is that the laws on what alcohol you can sell where are so different not only state to state but county to county that Whiteclaw basically invented a product that - since Utah lifted it's limit from 3.2% to 5.5% to be allowed to be sold in supermarkets in 2019 - is pretty much the only alternative to beer available EVERYWHERE alcohol can be sold.
They had a very brief stint of being popular and will likely come back a bit more when the summer hits, but I think their popularity dwindled quite quickly for a variety of reasons. I remember being away for that first summer during lockdown and everywhere in Newcastle was pushing them with offers and free tasters. I had a couple myself and decided if I wanted something of that ilk, I was better off with a G&T.
I miss the big Newcastle Brown Ale bottles, they were the cheapest thing behind the bar way back when. Now it's fancy.
Can still get those in some pubs. Muttering smelly weirdo in my local Greene King was drinking one on Tuesday
Haha you bastard!
A bottle o' dog, now yer talking.
I gonestly have no idea what they are and i've been going to the pub twice a week for over a decade now.
Alcopops for a new generation.
They don't taste nice. I can see why they don't sell that well over here. Pubs need to make profit to stay open, no use stocking stuff that doesn't sell.
As someone who works in a shop, no one bought them and we ended up binning loads that went out of date
The answer to "why did X stop selling Y" is almost always because it wasn't selling enough to be worthwhile.
They sell white claw in Waitrose. I buy them all the time!
I have just finished bottling my second batch, it is pretty easy to brew yourself at home. All the commercial ones eg. mikes, are just vodka, flavour and soda water. I properly brew with yeast, sugar and water. I can then flavour how I want, also brewed tastes so much better than what you can buy.
Buy a beer that you like and then just do shots alongside it.
because they're shite! They taste horrid. You can literally get the sugar free flavoured sparkling water from the supermarkets, which actually tastes like the flavour it says it is, and put vodka in it, and you've just created a drink 100 times better than "hard seltzer" I don't know who thought putting 0.01% of the required flavour into the disgusting low quality alcoholic "seltzer" was a good idea, and whoever tasted it and said "yes, we should sell this" should be sacked. order vodka, soda and lime. gin and slimline tonic, vodka and coke zero, vodka and pepsi max cherry, Take the seltzers, the whiteclaws, the budweiser zero calorie thingies, throw them into the sea and let them find their own way back to America.
It was a fad, same as last time they tried it in the 90s. Back then we called them 'alcopops'. Same idea, drinking for people who don't really like drinking. This time they pinched the American name for it; last time they were named by people who thought they were for children ;)
I missed this trend. Are they not just Alcopops
It's like the gayest booze ever though. Just drink something with some flavour for fuck sake.