Hard Seltzer

Hard Seltzer

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Updated Apr 03, 2024 at 04:32PM EDT by Don.

Added Aug 19, 2019 at 10:57AM EDT by Matt.

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About

Hard Seltzer refers to a canned alcoholic beverage meant to replicate vodka and seltzer water. The drink rose in popularity in summer 2019, inspiring a host of articles and memes about its commonality and mass appeal.

History

According to AdAge,[1] Nick Shields, then hard seltzer brand manager for the Haffenreffer beer brand, conceived of the alcoholic seltzer water product after seeing "five women order vodka sodas, one after the other" at a dive bar in Westport, Connecticut. Shortly after, he packaged a vodka seltzer-type drink in a can under the name SpikedSeltzer. In 2016, Shields sold the idea to Anheuser-Busch.

That year, competitor White Claw launched. Within three years, White Claw accounted for "over half of all total hard seltzer sales total."[2]

In 2019, the popularity of hard seltzer saw releases from various other alcoholic beverage brands, including Natural Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Four Loko and more.

Online Reaction

In 2019, as the popularity of drink exploded, fans and critics of the brand began posting ironic memes and parodies. Many of these tend to mock the perceived stereotype of the hard seltzer customer, which tend to be represented as white middle-class men and women in their 20s.

White Claw Memes

There are several Instagram accounts devoted to jokes about White Claw, such as whiteclawgang[6] and itsawhiteclawsummer[7] (examples below, left and center, respectively).


ECIALS NATURAL LME WARD WHIT oi 13247 Are you just gonna Scroll past me without Saying yee-claw SELT HARD RUBY GRAPEFRUIT OW CA StED SPARKLING AT White girls this summer W CLA ite Ct, HARD The clawwww

On June 25th, 2019, comedian Trevor Wallace released a parody video entitled "*drinks White Claw once*," mocking the common reactions to those that enjoy the drink. The post received more than 2 million views in less than three months (shown below).



Four Loko Hard Seltzer Memes

On August 13th, 2019, the alcoholic energy drink brand Four Loko announced a hard seltzer line. That day, they tweeted, [3] "Hard Seltzers ran so we could fly." Within one week, the tweet received more than 99,000 likes and 26,000 retweets (shown below).


Four Loko four @fourloko Hard Seltzers ran so we could fly ALCOHOL 14% CONTAINS AL LC/vOL SELTZER ELT S HARDEST SELTZER IN THE UNIVERSE 14% ALC/vOL 3:22 PM Aug 13, 2019 Sprout Social WITH A HINT OF BLUE RAZZ


Following the release, people joked about the intensity of the hard seltzer, which is 14% alcohol by volume compared to the other 5% alcohol by volume seltzers. That day, Twitter[4] user @SpenserHarvey tweeted, "Me: 'I mean it’s just a spiked seltzer right?' *buys two Four Loko Sour Seltzer with a Hint of Blue Razz* Me 48 hours later and in Panama." Within one week, the tweet received more than 3,000 likes and 600 retweets (shown below, left).

On August 14, Twitter[5] user @bvorwerk tweeted, "white claw: 'only 100 calories and 5% ABV hehe girls night!' four loko seltzer: '14% who’s ready to die.'" Within one week, the tweet received more than 187,000 likes and 24,000 retweets (shown below, right)).


Spenser Harvey @SpenserHarvey Me: "I mean it's just a spiked seltzer right?" buys two Four Loko Sour Seltzer with a Hint of Blue Razz* Me 48 hours later and in Panama: 7:44 PM Aug 13, 2019 Twitter for iPhone Benjamin A. Vorwerk @bvorwerk white claw: "only 100 calories and 5% ABV hehe girls night!" four loko seltzer: "14% who's ready to die" 12:56 PM Aug 14, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

Twitter user @glassofsapphire tweeted a video of a man laughing at the idea of a 14% ABV being too much. The tweet received more than 2 million views, 200,000 likes and 50,000 retweets in one week (shown below).

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