Hard Seltzers hitting Hard!
My intro to Spiked Seltzer:
The year was 2016, I was at a women's golf tournament (for charity obviously, as I am not a proficient golf player what so ever) when a coworker handed me a seltzer in a long white can with mermaids on it. Needing a cold drink on a warm spring day, I cracked that baby open and enjoyed some sweet sips of lemon seltzer. After about 20 min or so, I felt a little different, a little happy, more giggly, and after another 20 min I finally got the courage to ask my co-worker, "was there booze in that?" Which she laughed and said "Yes! it's a Spiked Seltzer!" I had just been introduced to one of the newest and most growing products in the alcohol industry. That weekend, I had to pick up a box for myself and for my friends to try and a new GO-TO beverage emerged. 
The History
Spiked Seltzer was created by Nick Sheilds, a beer company owner in CT who was trying to figure out the solution to his decreasing market share as a result of people who prefer lighter drinks over beer and sometimes wine. He decided to use the beer making process to create a new "light" beverage and named it SpikedSeltzer. In 2016, this beverage was distributed to the public and the world has not been the same.
Now every major beer/alcohol company has their own version of Seltzer. Truly from Boston Beer Company, White Claw from Marc Anthony Brand and even Bud light just came out with their own version in 2020. On a side note: I am not sure of the process and how easy it is to duplicate, but I feel that Spiked Seltzer miss a great opportunity to patent/trademark their product as they were the first to create this beverage. They could have been the only ones in the market with their unique product but did nothing to monopolize.
Why do companies want their own seltzer?
There is a growing trend for "healthy" drinks and hard seltzers are usually under 100 calories, making it the perfect light drink. Also, it eliminates the "sweet" complaint most malt beverages get such as Smirnoff ice and wine coolers. In addition, hard seltzers are not seen as being women dominated as the market share is 53/47. So there is a lot of opportunity to sell to both genders as opposed to beer which has been predominately male or wine- women. Lastly, with the increase in popularity and increase of social media presence such as “There ain’t no laws when you’re drinking Claws” from Rock Band singer Mark Leach and "Bro's" in college tweeting about the beverage constantly, the market share has grown from .85% of the beer/malt/cider industry last year to 2.6% this year. They not only took market share from this category, but they also took market share from the wine and spirits categories too. Hard seltzers are hitting this market HARD.
But is it a fad?
There is no way to completely tell if hard seltzers are a fad or will be here to stay, but I think they will have a lot more growth in the next few years as it reaches other parts of the country and world. The biggest issue is that there are currently so many brands to choose from and there are new ones popping up left and right. White Claw and Truly definitely have the most brand recognition of all, so the other brands people are more hesitant to try. Even the companies that have a brand association like Bud Light Seltzer, still very hesitant to try as it sounds weird that they would associate a type of beer with hard seltzer. So maybe the decline in hard seltzer popularity has already begun as there are too many options. I personally am over the trend. No longer are the days when I will religiously buy a pack for a cookout. The seltzer's bubbles are too rigorous and the flavors are too dull. I am already ready for something else. I think i'll like the new trendy drink coming out even better which I hear are Wine spritzers!
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