Volley Sharp Grapefruit Tequila Seltzer
Volley Sharp Grapefruit Tequila Seltzer is a winner. The complimentary flavors of grapefruit and tequila combine for a very favorable drinking experience. Combing excellent carbonation and the simple ingredients of agave tequila, sparking water, and real juice, this grapefruit hard seltzer is just right for playing games in the sun.
Cantina Grapefruit Paloma Tequila Soda
If youre looking for the feel of Mexico without crossing the border, look no further. CANTINA Grapefruit Paloma Tequila Soda takes you there. We enjoyed its great carbonation level and the authentic tastes of grapefruit, orange, and Tequila. Not boozy tasting at all, this well-balanced sparkling canned cocktail provides a fresh taste and clean finish.
Diy White Claw: How To Make Your Own Hard Seltzer
A READER ASKED me to write about the cocktail I most like to make for myself at home.
I considered lying.
After all, I am an alcohol columnist. I regularly scold you about the provenance of your absinthe, and wax novelistic about pre-Colombian hot chocolate. I should encourage you, the reader, to imagine me standing behind my encyclopedic bar of obscure Eastern European schnapps and Japanese whiskeys, adding a drip of this and a dab of that to a perfectly weighted snifter every time I want to relax in the tub with a drink after work.
But despite all my pointed opinions about gin, coffee-tasting notes and the merits of a bacon-scented rauchbier, I dont actually spend my evenings polishing my Vermouth bottles. Yes, I enjoy a nice aged Scotch on a winters evening bubble over a cocktail made with bubbly and, if Im trying to impress you when you come over, Ill craft something with bespoke bitters and homemade Falernum. But if Im just looking for a cocktail to sip while I make soup, binge-watch The Witcher or clean out my closet, my go-to cocktail recipe is:
1 glass of fizzy water, on the rocks
1 shot of vodka
Half a handful of berries
1/4 to 1/2 a limes worth of juice, depending on the size of the lime
DIRECTIONS: Place berries in an empty glass. Smoosh berries with a spoon, or similar implement. Add ice, vodka, fizzy water and a squeeze of lime. Hit play on Netflix.
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What Is Hard Seltzer And Why Is Everyone Freaking Out About It
At its most basic level, hard seltzer is seltzer with alcohol in it. What that alcohol is made out of can differ usually its just fermented cane sugar with added fruit flavors, but sometimes, like other flavored malt beverages such as Bud Lights Lime-A-Ritas, it uses malted barley. Most hard seltzers alcohol content hovers between 4 and 6 percent alcohol by volume , which is about the same as a light beer.
Hard seltzer is also not new. In fact, the first big hard seltzer brand arrived when many of todays hard seltzer drinkers werent even born yet. In 1993, Coors introduced a drink called Zima, as a response to popular similarly low-ABV beverages like wine coolers. Yet Zima, despite strong sales and nearly half of American alcohol drinkers having tried it, was met largely with ridicule: David Letterman, for instance, made a habit of parodying it as a drink for effeminate weirdos.
Zima left the shelves in 2008 and, despite a brief resurrection in 2017, is now no longer in production . The new class of hard seltzer arose in 2013 with a brand aptly named SpikedSeltzer, when two men in Boston, inspired by their wives love of sparkling water, decided to home-brew an alcoholic version. Though the founders told MarketWatch that when they originally tried to sell their product, retailers were in total confusion about what to do with it, they eventually sold more than a quarter-million cases in 2015, and by 2016, it had been acquired by Anheuser-Busch .
Basic Housemade Hard Seltzer Ingredient Ratios:
- 12 oz. of soda water: While traditional hard seltzers use seltzer water, you can use the soda water from your bars soda gun without noticeably altering the hard seltzer flavor profile guests expect.
- 1.78 oz.of 40 proof liquor: Vodka is an easily adaptable choice.
- Up to 1-2 drops of flavored extracts: Fruit flavors are popular.
- .25 oz of fruit juice.
- A tiny pinch of citric acid powder.
- Add cocktail bitters to enhance your hard seltzers flavor profile. Choose the appropriate quantity for achieving your desired flavor.
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Does White Claw Seltzer Have Vodka
Vodka and beer are not available in White Claw. It has nothing to do with either of these things. White Claw is a flavored malt beverage that is popular. According to VinePair, the product is made with seltzer water, gluten-free alcohol, and a hint of fruit flavor and is said to be made with a blend of seltzer water, gluten-free alcohol, and fruit flavor.
Hard Seltzer Ingredients: What Goes Into It
At the most basic level, hard seltzer is simply seltzer with alcohol in it .
The first ingredient is simple: purified carbonated water.
But when we start talking about the alcohol in hard sparkling water, the conversation becomes slightly more complicated. The alcohol type is different across each different hard seltzer brand:
Alcoholic seltzer One of the most popular alcoholic seltzer is considered a flavored malt beverage. That means the alcohol in the beverage is made by fermenting malted barley and hops.
Spiked seltzer Another fan favorite, spiked seltzer, doesnt include gluten, liquor or spirits, according to its ingredient list. Once again, liquor isnt added to the seltzer base rather, the alcohol is made through fermentation, but not of malted barley and hops. The alcohol in spiked seltzer comes from all-natural cane sugar. Many other brands alcohols are made in the same way.
Regardless of whether theyre fermenting malted barley or pure cane sugar, the result is largely similar. The remaining ingredients also tend to overlap:
Natural flavoring Hard seltzers are known for their subtle hints of flavor, which are usually derived from natural sources like fruits and juice concentrates.
Hard seltzers boast a low calorie count, which is a big part of their appeal. Most of these calories come from the alcohol itself with some derived from the other ingredients in hard seltzer, like sugars and other carbohydrates.
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Can You Drink Corona Hard Seltzer And Drive
The legal definition of being drunk is the same as the DUI level. If your blood alcohol concentration is higher than 0.08% then you are deemed drunk and not allowed to drive.
This means that it would on average take 4 Corona Hard Seltzers before you would blow a DUI on a breathalyser. This doesnt mean than drinking 3 Corona Hard Seltzers and driving is safe, it is not. There is no safe level of alcohol and driving as even small amounts can impair you.
These are the effects as your BAC rises but staying in the legal zone
- 0.02% Probably the lowest measurable BAC where you can track any brain issues. You may feel more relaxed and potentially make poorer decisions.
- 0.05%: When you hit this BAC, your behaviour will may become over exaggerated. Speak louder and gesturing more are common. You may also begin to lose control of small muscles like the ones that control your eyes leading to blurry vision.
Things You Should Know About Truly Hard Seltzer
When Truly Hard Seltzer debuted in 2016, its safe to say no one saw what was coming. The brand is a leader in the now-ubiquitous spiked seltzer category, with sales volumes tripling in 2018 and likely to triple again in 2019. The upward trajectory is expected to continue in 2020 and 2021.
Read on for 10 more things you should know about Truly Hard Seltzer.
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Henry’s Hard Sparkling Water
Henry’s Hard Soda has been one of the top hard soda brands for several years, but their venture into the hard seltzer realm has received mixed reviews. Created by MillerCoors, Henry’s Hard Sparkling Water is a lightly flavored drink that is fairly easy to sip at the club or pound on the sand.
But here’s the thing Henry’s is just not that good. Their flavor choices range from satisfactory to subpar and a bunch of other middle of the road options in between. There’s no real standout flavor and these beverages aren’t that refreshing. Maybe it’s because they use corn syrup, or maybe it’s something else. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because there are so many other better spiked seltzers to choose from that you don’t need to waste time pondering Henry’s shortcomings and inadequacies.
And another thing to note, while many other hard seltzers are gluten-free, Henry’s is not it’s made with barley malt. So, if you care about gluten, steer clear.
Best In Show: High Noon
brianna griepentrog/taste of homeScore: 9.6/10
While Truly and White Claw were definitely satisfying seltzers, High Noon soared above them both with a near-perfect score. This grapefruit spiked seltzer smelled absolutely mouthwatering. With the first sip, you got great fruit flavor that quickly dissipated to a nice, clean seltzer finish.
What really set High Noon apart from other spiked seltzers, though, was the alcohol itself. High Noon is a flavored seltzer blended with vodkanot malt liquor. That really gave this brand the cleanest, most refreshing taste that really helped accentuate the fruit flavor. Its definitely a hard seltzer we felt good about sipping. Plus, High Noon was the only brand that had testers asking where they could get a pack for themselves.
100 calories, 4 grams of sugar, 4.5% ABV
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Polar Seltzer Arctic Summer
Every company seems to be jumping into the fray when it comes to creating spiked seltzers. And early in 2019, an actual seltzer brand finally got into the mix Polar Seltzer. Polar teamed up with Boston’s Harpoon Brewery to create a new line of hard seltzer Arctic Summer.
Made with the same flavor essence of Polar’s non-alcoholic seltzers, Arctic Summer offers four spiked flavors: pineapple pomelo, ruby red grapefruit, raspberry lime, and black cherry. Their offerings are refreshing, crisp, and easy to drink, but not especially notable either positively or negatively.
If you love your seltzer extra bubbly, then Arctic Summer delivers the carbonation you crave. It’s definitely fizzy, so be forewarned prior to your first sip. Also, keep in mind that all those bubbles might slow you down, thus this one is better for slow sipping than hard pounding.
With Polar’s experience in the seltzer market, don’t be surprised if this brand of spiked seltzer improves dramatically over the next few years. There’s good reason they’re second when it comes to the best selling non-alcoholic seltzer brands in America.
Clean And Press Brewdog Distilling
Never one to miss a hot trend, this year the punks at Brewdog joined the seltzer market with the launch of its Clean and Press range. Developed by Brewdog Distilling, the Scottish brewers spirits arm, the Clean and Press range is made with its own Rogue Wave Vodka and is available in three flavours: Cactus and Lime, Crushed Black Cherry and White Peach and Mango. Each expression has an ABV of 5%, contains 90 calories and is made with no sugar.
At the time of its launch James Watt, co-founder of Brewdog, said: Rather than being fermented like other seltzers, our Clean and Press hard seltzer is quite simply sparkling Scottish water spiked with our exceptional single malt vodka, Rogue Wave. With Clean and Press were continuing to be uncompromising on flavour and quality, ideal for people wanting a lighter drink that still delivers attitude.
Clean and Press is priced at £2.50 per 200ml can and will be available to buy in packs of six or 12 from the Brewdog website and in select Tesco stores and online.
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How Is Hard Seltzer Made
As with any alcoholic beverage , the key to its boozy nature lies in the fermentation process. That’s when yeast consumes any sugars that are present and converts them into alcohol. In winemaking, those sugars come from harvested grapes. For hard seltzer, it typically comes from straight-up fermented cane sugar. It could also come from malted barley, although technically that would make it a flavored malt beverage like Smirnoff Ice.
Pro tip: Most alcohol seltzers are gluten-free, but if you see the words “malt,” “barley malt,” or “malted” anywhere on the label, it has gluten.
The alcohol content of most spiked seltzers falls in the range of 4-6% alcohol by volume about the same as light beer although some can be as high as 12% ABV, which is the same amount as the standard five-ounce serving of wine.
Lower alcohol also means fewer calories. Most hard seltzers come in 12-ounce cans and hover around the 100-calorie mark. The amount of sugar varies from brand to brand, but you’ll usually find the most popular hard seltzer brands touting their low-sugar content, which tends to be no more than 3 grams of sugar per serving.
Best With Vodka: High Noon Sun Sips Seltzer
Courtesy of minibar
Forget fermented sugarthe 100-calorie High Noon Sun Sips are made with vodka blended with sparkling water and fruit juice. This gives it a very different flavor from the majority of products on the market, says Kate Levenstien, the CEO and founder of Cannonball Productions, which produces the first nationally touring Seltzerland festivals. The crowd-pleasing flavors include Watermelon, Peach, Pineapple, Grapefruit and Lime.
No hard seltzers taste as close to the booze-free original as Arctic Chill. The collaboration between Mass Bay, the parent company of Harpoon, and the family-run Polar Seltzer company blends Polars popular flavors, such as Pineapple Pomelo and Ruby Red Grapefruit, with a 100-calorie alcohol base. The flavors are honed in just right and the carbonation is really on point, making them taste more like an earnest effort and less like a company chasing sales figures, says Mack. Levenstien is also a fan, adding that the hard seltzers are very drinkable without being too sweet.”
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Big Storm Grapefruit Vodka Soda
Drinking a can of Big Storm Grapefruit Vodka Soda is a minimalist experience in a maximum way. Grapefruit at times is the forgotten citrus fruit, but this vodka soda makes a good case as to why that shouldnt be. It offers a very subtle grapefruit flavor. And it is in that perfectly executed subtlety where this sparkling vodka canned cocktail really shines.
You Can Drink Truly At 35000 Feet
In November 2019, Truly and JetBlue announced the launch of Truly Hard Seltzer on select flights from the carrier. According to the companies, Truly Wild Berry was the first hard seltzer available in-flight. Likewise, JetBlue was the first and only commercial airline to serve the spiked sparkler. Incidentally, Truly Wild Berry was the preferred Truly flavor in a VinePair spiked seltzer ranking.
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Colorado Spiked Seltzer The Heart Distillery
The Heart Distillery in Colorado, US, launched its Colorado Spiked Seltzer in 2019 following the success of its own vodka, which is made using Rocky Mountain water from the Cache La Poudre River. Made using that same vodka, Colorado Spiked Seltzer is pitched as a canned cocktail made with real fruit and organic cane sugar, so is naturally gluten-free. Each 12oz can is 5% ABV, 150 calories and available in three flavours: Organic Lemon, Tangerine, and Key Lime.
Its creators, Pat and Amanda Weakland, encourage you to also use it as a mixer. The husband-and-wife team spent years cultivating a seasonal greenhouse, which soon evolved to brewing hops grown on site and then later opening a distillery in 2018.
Now, the pair operate both the High Hops Brewery and The Heart Distillery from Windsor in Colorado. The team produces gin, whisky, vodka and absinthe alongside its seltzers. Of its seltzers the team says they are made for you -ing moments. That means beach bumming, skiing, gardening, hiking, dog walking, camping and every ing in between.
Bud Light Is Known For Its Beer But Its Spiked Seltzers Come In Several Flavors
ABV: 5%
Bud Light may be known for its beer, but the brand has also thrown its hat in the hard-seltzer ring.
Bud Light Seltzer currently comes in four classic flavors: black cherry, watermelon, tangerine, and mango.
The brand also had “platinum seltzer” with 8% ABV, seltzer hard soda, “retro tie-dye” seltzer flavors, and seltzer “cocktail hour” flavors.
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Defining Alcohol Content Of Alcoholic Drinks
The alcohol content of a drink is typically measured through ABV or alcohol by volume. ABV is the volume of ethanol as a percentage of the overall volume of a beverage. For example, the average ABV for hard seltzer is 4-6 %, while it is 40% or even higher for Vodka. The alcohol level in a beverage depends on how it is made. Alcoholic drinks all rely on fermentation, which is a process that transforms sugars into alcohol using yeast. The fermentation process for wine is longer than that of beer as it takes longer for the yeast to break down the sugar in grapes to produce alcohol. The yeast determines the alcohol content, and for beer fermentation, the yeast usually becomes inactive once the alcohol content rises above 10 percent. Liquor or spirits go through an extra process to achieve their high alcohol content. After fermentation, they undergo distillation to separate the alcohol from the water, generating an alcohol content of at least 20 percent.
The proof of an alcoholic drink can also measure its alcohol content. The alcohol proof is a different unit of measurement from Alcohol By Volume or ABV, which quantifies the alcohol in a bottle compared to the overall volume of liquid. The proof is usually twice the ABV of an alcoholic drink. So if Vodka has an ABV of 40 percent, its proof is 80. US drinkers can also describe the potency of any liquor using the proof.