I Tried a Hard Seltzer. It's... Alco-pop.
May. 25th, 2023 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerHard Seltzer is a new category of alcoholic drink that has emerged over the past several years. It's often associated with Millennials, the age group that have popularized it & to whom it is generally marketed. If you've heard Millennials talking about drink brands like White Claw, Topo Chico, and Truly— those are hard seltzers.
By the way, if you still think "Millennials" is a pejorative for "kids", you need to catch up with the times, Boomer. Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996. Even youngest Millennials have been old enough to buy drinks legally for 5+ years now, let along the older Millennials who are now in their 40s. That's why the market has been shifting around their preferences for several years.
While I enjoy many kinds of alcohol drinks I've resisted trying hard seltzers. For me it's two things. One, hard seltzers tout lots of strong fruit and/or sour flavors. Those aren't my taste in drinks. Two, I am skeptical of "alternative" malt beverages from awful products that alcohol companies foisted on the public in my formative years— crummy wine coolers and the total commercial flop named Zima. Yes, I tried Zima. Once. In the early '90s. I've been reluctant to try anything like it ever since.
Just recently, though, I gave in and tried a hard seltzer. It was High Noon Pineapple Vodka & Soda.
Why'd I do that? Well, I wanted to use one of my coupons for a free drink on my Southwest flight yesterday. A couple years ago they had a really good beer, Fat Tire, but they discontinued it. They even discontinued the one decent beer they used to carry, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy. After those my usual pick became Gin and Tonic, but now Southwest has discontinued even gin! So I decided to give this pineapple-vodka drink a try.
How did it taste? It tastes like a pineapple soda. It's like 1 part pineapple juice mixed with, say, 2 parts club soda or tonic water. I could imagine this being sold in non-alcoholic form as a refreshing fruit soda. But it's got 4.5% alcohol. Except the vodka it's spiked with is flavorless and almost impossible to detect. Basically the drink is alco-pop.
Would I drink it again? Not really. I mean, I might buy it aboard Southwest again— but that's mostly because their other choices are so weak. I don't care for fruit soda. I especially don't care for a boozy drink that tastes like a fruit soda. If I want something "light, refreshing, and fruit-flavored sweet", I'll drink an actually refreshing non-alcoholic drink. When I drink alcohol I want to appreciate the flavor of the alcohol, not have it completely hidden like someone's roofied my drink.
By the way, if you still think "Millennials" is a pejorative for "kids", you need to catch up with the times, Boomer. Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996. Even youngest Millennials have been old enough to buy drinks legally for 5+ years now, let along the older Millennials who are now in their 40s. That's why the market has been shifting around their preferences for several years.
While I enjoy many kinds of alcohol drinks I've resisted trying hard seltzers. For me it's two things. One, hard seltzers tout lots of strong fruit and/or sour flavors. Those aren't my taste in drinks. Two, I am skeptical of "alternative" malt beverages from awful products that alcohol companies foisted on the public in my formative years— crummy wine coolers and the total commercial flop named Zima. Yes, I tried Zima. Once. In the early '90s. I've been reluctant to try anything like it ever since.
Just recently, though, I gave in and tried a hard seltzer. It was High Noon Pineapple Vodka & Soda.Why'd I do that? Well, I wanted to use one of my coupons for a free drink on my Southwest flight yesterday. A couple years ago they had a really good beer, Fat Tire, but they discontinued it. They even discontinued the one decent beer they used to carry, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy. After those my usual pick became Gin and Tonic, but now Southwest has discontinued even gin! So I decided to give this pineapple-vodka drink a try.
How did it taste? It tastes like a pineapple soda. It's like 1 part pineapple juice mixed with, say, 2 parts club soda or tonic water. I could imagine this being sold in non-alcoholic form as a refreshing fruit soda. But it's got 4.5% alcohol. Except the vodka it's spiked with is flavorless and almost impossible to detect. Basically the drink is alco-pop.
Would I drink it again? Not really. I mean, I might buy it aboard Southwest again— but that's mostly because their other choices are so weak. I don't care for fruit soda. I especially don't care for a boozy drink that tastes like a fruit soda. If I want something "light, refreshing, and fruit-flavored sweet", I'll drink an actually refreshing non-alcoholic drink. When I drink alcohol I want to appreciate the flavor of the alcohol, not have it completely hidden like someone's roofied my drink.
