Recently I was carded for trying to buy a lemonade. I thought the cashier was joking. Then she pointed to the label reading “spiked.” I laughed and opted for a regular lemonade instead, since it was 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. It’s an easy mistake to make these days when just about every non-alcoholic drink has an alcohol-infused, or spiked, twin. Coconut water, cold brew, Mountain Dew, Fresca, AriZona Iced Tea and even SunnyD are just a sample of the spiked beverages being sold across the country.
Coca-Cola took advantage of the trend and created its own hard seltzer version of Topo Chico in partnership with Coors, which hit shelves in 2021. It’s been one of Coca-Cola’s most successful hard beverage launches to date, Dan White, chief of new revenue streams at Coca-Cola, told CNN. When more beer brands started to see that hard seltzers were taking a bite out of their market shares, they began producing their own alcoholic seltzers.