CLEVELAND — Spiked seltzers are taking the alcohol aisles by storm. Sales have surpassed those of craft beer. And they've made converts of wine and vodka drinkers.
But is there a big difference between the brands? Consumer Investigator Danielle Serino held a blind taste test to see where your mouth should put its money!
It's the drink that seemed to be in everybody's hands and on everyone's lips this summer...
"It's amazing. It's refreshing."
"You're talking minimal calories, minimal sugar."
"It doesn't fill you up."
Shoppers we talked with say there's no reason to drink anything else now that these spiked seltzers have hit store shelves. And proof is in the profits, according to managers at World Wines & Liquor in Mentor, who say it's flying off the shelves.
"As of January this year," we're told, "White Claw has out sold any beer skew in our store."
With so many brands, in more flavors than Baskin Robins, we wanted to know which one would win a blind taste test. We had a round of the grapefruit and blackberry flavors of three brands:
White Claw - which not only has plenty of memes, but it's own catch phrase: "Ain't no laws when you're drinkin' the Claws".
"I can see how this one could sneak up on you," said one taster. "Because I feel like I'm drinking water!"
We toasted to Truly - also a big seller.
And Platform, from the Cleveland based brewery which was just bought by Anheuser-Busch.
The token male we dragged into the drink-off liked it. "It actually has a little more flavor. Natural flavor," he said. However the women weren't as keen on what they said was a 'heavy' taste.
"It has more substance," says one. "I can't say I prefer it though."
As for Truly, it wasn't the toast of the town either.
"This one tastes more chemically made," said one tester. "It does have that weird aftertaste."
For last call? It was White Claw.
"It's just a lighter, crisper, flavor to me," said one sipper. "It doesn't taste as artificial"
In the end, the now iconic can clawed it's way to the Top Shelf.
"We call them little bastards," chuckled one woman. "Because you can drink four without even knowing that you drank them."
In fact, most of our seltzer sommeliers were able to tell which brand we gave them simply by the tip of their tongue. But this is no girlie drink. In fact, a national poll of millennials shows guys are guzzling hard seltzers equally.
"I see a lot of guys coming in and buying it," the store manager told us. "I don't ask. We don't judge. We are a non-judging store."
And for the serious seltzer drinkers... this is not just an alcohol alternative.
It's the new additive! Not enough punch? Just add a little booze!
"If you are going somewhere and you know you only have time for one drink before you go," one tester told us. "You're going to add a vodka shot to it so you can get that extra bump!"
Now, some are saying this is just a summer fad. But if you listen to our test panel, they feel it'll last well through the year. When we asked World Wine about it they said sales haven't slowed down. In fact, in the last four weeks of July hard seltzer sales grew by 164%.
Depending on the brand, one of hard seltzer's selling points is that they come in with a count as low as 100 calories and about 2 grams of carbs. Combined with 5% alcohol that puts it in the same liquid lounge as beer... just without the bloat. Millions of women (and men) are saying "cheers" to that.