White Claw has made a name by selling hard seltzer to the masses since its 2016 inception. Now, the beverage behemoth is forging a new, sober path.
On Dec. 5, White Claw introduced a new category for the beverage company: White Claw 0% Alcohol. The Mark Anthony Group-owned brand says that this new alcohol-free line, White Claw 0% Non-Alcoholic Premium Seltzer, is a fancier seltzer specifically made for adults.
“Alcohol gives adult drinks a distinct taste and flavor complexity that no one has been able to replicate — until now,” reads a press release from White Claw.
Many other nonalcoholic drinks are made by first brewing then stripping the alcohol out of them. To make some nonalcoholic beers and wines, a common method is dealcoholization, in which the liquid is often heated up and/or separated mechanically to remove the alcohol.
“When alcohol is stripped out of alcoholic beverages, like with non- alcoholic beer, then taste, flavor, and the complexity that alcohol provides goes with it,” White Claw said in the release. “For adults seeking the same depth of flavor that they get in alcoholic drinks, still or sparkling seltzers with added flavor are no substitute—they’re bland liquids that fall flat by comparison to real drinks.”
White Claw 0% Alcohol will begin rolling out in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2024 in 12-ounce cans with electrolytes, 2 grams of sugar and 15 calories. It will be available in variety 12 packs and single-flavor six packs in four flavors:
- Black Cherry Cranberry features natural black cherry and a touch of cranberry flavor.
- Mango Passion Fruit features natural mango with a touch of passion fruit flavor.
- Peach Orange Blossom is made to taste just like “a ripe peach picked off a tree,” according the brand, and features notes of floral orange blossom.
- Lime Yuzu has lime as the lead flavor with notes of yuzu, an East Asian citrus fruit which has a tart, tangy, bitter and sweet flavor.
Skepticism on social media
Over the summer, when rumors of White Claw’s new product came out, social media users expressed confusion about it.
Many wondered why the brand is specifically calling it “non-alcoholic seltzer” when seltzer is inherently nonalcoholic. In other words, it could just be called “seltzer.”
“We follow what people want to do, and in this case, people wanted choices, so we decided to create something that would have all of the depth of flavor and look and feel of an alcoholic drink, but without the alcohol,” Tyler Gray, Mark Anthony Group’s chief story officer, tells TODAY.com.
How does it taste?
I can honestly say I’ve never tasted seltzer like it before.
Let’s start with the odor: Open the can of any of a number of seltzer brands and you either smell nothing or you smell the licorice notes of artificial sweeteners. When you open a can of White Claw 0% Non-Alcoholic Premium Seltzer, all you smell is fruit.
I tried all four flavors, and while the Black Cherry Cranberry flavor was my least favorite, it tasted better than the comparison beverages from competitors that White Claw provided for the tasting.
All three other flavors really hit it out of the park, however — particularly the Lime Yuzu flavor, which tasted like I always want a lime-flavored seltzer to taste but never does. I mean, it tasted like real fruit and bubbly water and that's it — which seems to be exceedingly hard to do for most seltzer brands.
Gray reiterated that this drink line is meant for folks who are out at the bar or with friends who want to keep it sober that night. But, even after the tasting, I’ve been sipping on these seltzers off the clock, alone, because they’re so much better than the seltzer I had stocked in my fridge.
