The flavored-alcohol empire behind White Claw, This “toaster on wheels” is valued at $5B. What's more, some devotees claim White Claw doesn't give them a hangover. FMBs are a category that has traditionally included such saccharine delights as Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, the latter being essentially White Claw’s sister beverage, as both are owned and produced by the Mark Anthony Group. White Claw is running out in America, and there are still plenty of people trying to figure out what it even is. However, unlike the brief fad for alcoholic sodas (remember the Not Your Father’s Root Beer craze? So, if you like what you’re reading, give the email a try. They were freely available and had the backing of national distribution from major companies. It’s this adoption of hard seltzer (especially White Claw, once again) by internet culture and unexpected subgroups that helped to push the entire category into the mainstream. The alcohol content is almost entirely ignored in this context—what matters is how many calories you’re not drinking, compared to beer, wine or more sugared FMBs. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874473711003020076, This article was originally published on Oct. 13, 2019. That would essentially make them canned mixed drinks. Some of the most expensive Supreme items on the marketplace Grailed. one of the most important products in the beer industry. This summer, it might well be the most popular and most commonly misunderstood beverage on the market. "Hard seltzers have a very low concentration of congeners, which are thought to contribute to hangover symptoms," Braunstein says. ; But my fiancé, the sort of anti-bro I last expected to jump on the Claw … 2020 Bustle Digital Group. And that hangover â especially compared to a beer or wine hangover â might make your stomach feel like it's inhabited by aliens. It contains 5% ABV, which the company says is a gluten free alcohol base. And why did they catch fire and become so incredibly popular, seemingly overnight, with sales that continue to surge even through the pandemic? There’s no way to spin ethanol itself into a health benefit, so its presence is minimized, despite the fact that standard strength hard seltzers contain significantly more alcohol than flagship domestic light beers. Why? When it hit the US in 1999, it sold 2m cases in its first year. This means, like any alcoholic beverage, they can definitely give you a hangover if you drink enough. July 24, … Ultimately, this is the main thing that sets a White Claw (100 calories, 2 g carbs) apart from a Mike’s Hard Lemonade (220 calories, 33 g carbs)—they’re both artificially flavored booze meant for mass consumption, but one is just a lot less sweet. White Claw hangover feels different than a beer or wine hangover, congeners, a byproduct of the fermentation process that produces chemicals. The flavored-alcohol empire behind White Claw The hard seltzers seemed to come out of nowhere. Hangovers are uniquely terrible, but are they all created equal? I know it doesn't have hops or anything like a beer, and that the alcohol … He called this new category of flavored spirits “progressive adult beverages.” As far back as 2006, he thought it was going to pop off. Privacy policy. I’m a staunch beer skeptic, so last summer felt like a miracle. ... © 2020, Hustle Con Media, Inc., All Rights Reserved. This allows their fruit flavors to come through, for a hit of epic refreshment. In the early 1970s, Anthony von Mandl started selling imported wines out of his car. Since White Claw launched in 2016, it has guzzled market share, accounting for 54% of total hard seltzer sales in 2019. The bottom line? Rohsenow, D. J., & Howland, J. One might expect this focus on calories, and the bevy of fruit flavors, to make hard seltzers popular exclusively with a female demographic, and not necessarily with men who are expected to shun products with the implication of “diet culture” written on them, but this is where our third bullet point comes into play: pop cultural appeal.