2024 is a great time to love beer. It’s also a great time to hate it.
Hard seltzer has evolved, spreading into beer’s empire after big brands like White Claw served as a battering ram for folks looking for fruit flavors and fewer calories. With the gates open, other brewers and brands have used the opportunity to go beyond basic mixes and into a wide world of tastes. Better yet, it’s seen a rapid rise of canned cocktails emerge in tune, making it easy than ever to bring something for everyone to your cookout, tailgate or occasion-free day drinking event.
I was ambivalent to these drinks when they first arrived — White Claw does nothing for me — but my capacity writing FTW’s Beverage of the Week series showcased how expansive the genre can be. I’ve had the chance to try smaller, regional offerings, big national brands and the pride of Finland. While they’ve mostly had their merits — not you, Bluebird Hardwater — a handful have risen above the rest.
This isn’t a comprehensive list. It’s just a lineup of the best canned seltzers and cocktails I’ve had the chance to review here. But with summer lurking and Memorial Day around the corner, it felt like as good a time as ever to dust off a hard seltzer and canned cocktail ranking.
Nutrl banks on basic, and that bet pays off. The three-ingredient vodka-seltzers add an extra kick to the mix in terms of tangy lemon and other natural flavors but still clock in at only 100 calories per can.
From an upcoming review of the strawberry lemonade:
It pours with a head that flares up and quickly fizzles into nothing. It smells sweet and tart and has a little cotton candy feel to it.
That fizz carries each sip from your lips to your throat. You don’t quite notice the vodka up front, but you do notice this isn’t quite a regular carbonated lemonade. There’s some light strawberry, light citrus and a lot of sugar-substitute sweetness. Fortunately, it finishes dry and clean, which makes it a poundable drink — particularly on a warm day.
Sipping from the can focuses those light flavors and makes it taste a bit more like a fountain lemonade… only, you know, with bubbles. It’s even more dangerous this way, crushable and with few hints there’s booze inside.
Look, the rollout may have been so flawed that it got Pepsi sued. But at the heart is an easy-to-drink malt beverage that stays true to its inspiration and delivers a ton of familiar flavor at only 100 calories per can, even if longtime Dew drinkers aren’t huge fans. If you can find it, that is.
From 2022’s rave review:
This pours like regular Baja Blast, fresh out of the Taco Bell tap but with (slightly) less carbonation. The smell is pure sugary Dew-y bliss. Once it’s in the glass, a lovely reverse rainstorm of CO2 floats its way to the top of the cup. It looks like a damn Willy Wonka drink, if Wonka wanted to get kids drunk instead of murder them.
It tastes almost like the real thing — a little more syrupy, but it’s sweet and there’s only a slight hint of the neutral spirits that give it its 5 percent ABV kick. Did I say sweet? Hooo boy, is it sweet.
The aftertaste is a fine layer of Splenda, but I actually am digging it. For a drink that clocks in with the same ABV (5 percent) and calories (100) of a White Claw, there’s a whole lot more flavor.
The best looking cans in the game have some of the best cocktails lurking inside. While Melograno’s lineup wasn’t an all-crunchberries mix of hits, the drinks the company did best were straight-up hits — and a wide array of flavors means there’s something for everyone at your cookout.
From 2024’s review of Melograno’s Pina Colada:
Again, no carbonation. That’s what you’d expect from pina colada, but the margarita had bubbles, so it’s worth noting. Hooo buddy, there’s a whole lot of coconut coming off this pour and, hell yeah, that’s great.
The taste itself is perhaps the most full bodied of the group — if not pina colada, then the award goes to the pomegranate cosmo. Again, there’s not much here to suggest there’s any alcohol involved. Instead you get a sweet beverage with a clean, almost watery finish that makes it easy to keep coming back for more.
We’re finishing a lot stronger than we started. I was concerned Melograno was a pretty can and nothing else. But there’s a lot of care put into these cocktails, which take full advantage of their 120 calories and bring full flavor amidst a landscape filled with forgettable brands. If you like any of the cocktails represented in Melograno’s lineup, you’re probably gonna like Melograno.
Betty Booze is a little more complex than most of the seltzers/cocktails on this list. Ingredients like shiso or oak smoked lemonade serve as a reminder this is a Hollywood cocktail curated by Blake Lively. But it doesn’t just stand on that endorsement; Betty Booze brings heaps of flavor, a decent amount of booze and 120 calories per can.
I’m assuming that’s what’s giving this glass a specific crispness beyond the agave and citrus. It’s sparkly and smells a little spicy — maybe bordering on a ginger type flavor. That comes out a little bit on the first sip, but the first thing you notice is a nearly creamy carbonation that reminds me of the best parts of Topo Chico’s canned cocktails. These bubbles carry a current of balanced flavor, ranging from sweet to sour to floral all in a short window.
I am very much into it. The herbal shiso is apparent and a nice twist on what could have been a very cliche cocktail. instead, I can safely say I haven’t had a canned drink like this before — it actually tastes like an artisanal cocktail you’d spend $17 on at a hotel bar because there weren’t a ton of other options and they don’t put the prices on the menu.
That’s how they get you.
Don’t overthink it. High Noon is available just about everywhere because there’s no one who doesn’t like it. When it’s at its weakest, it’s fine. But when you’ve got a good flavor, it’s wonderful.
Straightaway, this smells like candy. And tastes a hell of a lot like kiwi. For a flavor you don’t see that often, High Noon could have really half-assed this one. Instead they pretty clearly made an effort, and I appreciate it.
It’s sweeter than most hard seltzers but not overly so. It’s a lot more like a soda or cocktail than most of what you’re getting out of a can at this point.
The fact you can’t taste the alcohol in it whatsoever is either good or bad, considering your priorities for the day (at 4.5 percent ABV, it’s not going to be a major detriment either way). I’m bummed I’m drinking this inside on a 30-degree day with snow on the ground; this is the kind of beverage that goes down in about five minutes on a sunny summer day.
Simply knows lemonade, so the brand’s jump into the hard seltzer market wasn’t a stretch. While you’re dealing with 70 percent more calories per can (170 vs. 100), you’re also getting richer sweetness and the tartness of real lemon/lime, depending on your choice. It’s the best case scenario for the company’s foray into the boozy great wide open.
From my watermelon lemonade review from 2022:
Oh man, this first sip is great. The sweetness of the watermelon balances with the sour of the lemonade really well, making this less acidic than the straight-up version. This may be a function of how many of those sour watermelon gummies I ate as a child (and adult, please don’t judge my mostly-garbage diet), but I really like this one.
The neutral spirit undercurrent is much less apparent here. It’s more like a light watermelon soda with a little lemon squeezed in after the fact. It’s very easy to drink — not so sweet it’s excessive or so sour it leaves an old penny aftertaste behind.
I am a little concerned about the sugar content of these cans. Not for any caloric reason. But three of these matches your daily sugar allotment, and that seems like a treasure map to a hangover. Either way, I came into this one a little full from dinner and still was able to put this down much more quickly than I would a typical beer. The stale alcohol taste of most seltzers doesn’t show up until the end. Even then, it’s pretty minimal.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s canned cocktails lend proper care to its tequila drinks. While the Jamaica cocktail was a bit uneven, the margarita and paloma both bring big fruit flavors that work in concert with smooth, never-burning spirits.
Cracking the can unleashes a rush of bubbles and grapefruit flavor. It’s much heavier on the juice than the booze, at least from the smell. But it’s also inviting, like a fresh breakfast on a warm Saturday on vacation.
The can promises 5.5 percent alcohol but you barely notice it from the first sip. You get bubbly grapefruit soda up front, a sweeter version of the mixer you might get from Fever Tree. Drinks from the can or poured into a glass taste the same; sweet, effervescent and refreshing. It’d be a great tailgate drink, crushable but packing more of a punch than your typical canned cocktail or hard seltzer.
The citrus is crisp and ends each sip with just a hint of sourness that keeps the paloma from being cloyingly sweet. The tequila factors in only mildly, with no burn and just a touch of agave. It’s kinda great.
Much better than I’d expected. Hot damn.
Epic Western’s Chispa Rita is the best canned cocktail I’ve ever had. The ranch water was fine and the paloma was pretty good, but the company’s specialty margarita exists on a plane of crushable and flavorful that made it easy to rave about.
As an avowed not-tequila guy this … actually hits a lot of great notes. The booze itself is present throughout, but not overpowering. Unlike Spirited Hive, the process is straightforward. A little tequila, a little lime, and a little salt to leave a dry but satisfying finish. It’s not as sweet as a vodka-soda drink and packs way more flavor than a hard seltzer. While it clocks in at eight percent ABV, that added kick isn’t apparent.
Out of the can it’s dangerously easy to drink. I’m genuinely surprised by how much I like this, especially after seeing Epic Western’s tequila lineup, shrugging and telling myself “hell, I’ll give it a shot.” I know “crushable” is an adjective we mostly give to low-alcohol pale ales, but that’s exactly where I’ve landed with the Chispa Rita. I went in for a sip and want more. At a hot early October NFL game? Hoooo buddy, I could put down a couple of these in a quarter, no problem.
Fortunately, I tried this one around actual tequila drinkers who described it as “a pretty good margarita,” “extremely crisp” and “kinda crazy it came from a can.”
I feel the same way. Epic Western’s Chispa Rita rules.
Topo Chico brings a little extra booze to the conversation at 5.9 percent ABV. You won’t notice, however, since the thick, almost creamy carbonation makes this a nearly perfect summer drink.
Round two is a Chilton classic vodka and lemon — halfway to the vodka lemonade that we drank way too often in college. It smells heavily like citrus with a little bit of vodka right off the top. It’s not really overpowering, and you can definitely tell it’s a seltzer
The first sip is again defined by that meaty, almost creamy carbonation. This is like drinking from a water fountain in Rhode Island or Wisconsin because it’s a straight up bubbler. I’m a big fan of the texture. It does really work out well in that sense and almost makes the lemon and vodka an afterthought.
Ultimately the lemon does shine through. The vodka is there as well, but it’s very minimal. This is a very, very easy drinking cocktail and excellent for a hot sunny day. It doesn’t really change as you drink it, but that’s not something I’m looking for from a pool or cookout or tailgate beverage. It’s just a solid cocktail in a can that works out really well, thanks in large part to that Topo Chico carbonation.
Is this trading on nostalgia in hopes of selling alcohol? Oh, absolutely. Is it still pretty damn good? Undeniably. This feels like a tourist trap inside the mind of a millennial, but it’s absolutely worth it.
From a 2023 review:
The can suggests there’s some real juice in there — along with the nebulous “natural flavors” line, but since we’re looking at 95 calories, it’s gotta be pretty minimal.
You know what? That’s not a problem. The first sip is loaded with orange-adjacent flavor and not a single indication there’s alcohol involved. This tastes closer to a stevia-flavored orange soda — the kind you’d pay $8 for a six pack of — than a hard seltzer. And that carbonation lasts. Once you take a big sip you’re host to an array of tiny fireworks in your mouth. It’s like listening to a rocky beach as the tide goes out. Or, if you’re landlocked, a little bit of Pop Rocks snuck into a Pixy Sti(ck).
This is just stupidly easy to drink. It is, fortunately, not as thick as its namesake and the seltzer side of the bargain is doing a lot of heavy lifting with that effervescence. But the orange flavor is still much stronger than you’d get from a White Claw and even outshines High Noon, which had been my vodka-soda standard when I first had it (last year. I understand I am a seltzer neophyte).
From an upcoming review:
Oh dang. Crack this can open and you’re immediately confronted with memories of making greyhounds for retirees. And that makes sense, since Long Drink describes itself as gin with grapefruit and juniper berry flavors and, yep, that’s pretty much exactly what a greyhound is (or it’s vodka).
The difference here is the fizz, as a smooth, almost creamy carbonation refreshes that old classic. The bubbles are densely packed, creating a drink that slides past your tongue rather than snapping off sharply. The closest comparison I have for it is Topo Chico’s carbonation. It’s something that rises above to make this more than just the ingredients within.
But those ingredients are great, too! It’s a simple cocktail made with proven ingredients. The grapefruit is strong and the gin/juniper is never overpowering. It’s clean and easy to drink; a crushable summer cocktail if there ever was one.
Notably, that carbonation doesn’t hold up as well when poured into a glass with ice. But keep it in the can and, holy crap, I could get through nine of these in a round of golf, no problem. My short game would probably suffer and there’s no way in hell I’d be able to drive home, but I may have to give it a try.