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It’s been a few years since White Claw took the world by storm with the alcoholic beverage that thrust hard seltzer into the spotlight, and now, the brand is branching out yet again with a new product—one that doesn’t contain any booze at all.
2019 marked The Summer of White Claw, which was largely responsible for successfully rebranding the classic vodka soda as a malt beverage that quickly became virtually impossible to ignore.
While it wasn’t the first hard seltzer to hit the market, it was easily the most popular, but White Claw soon found itself waging war against an increasingly crowded space of competitors that attempted to angle for the throne.
One of the ways the brands who got in on the action attempted to set themselves apart was by engaging in an arms race to see who could pack the most alcohol into a single can. Four Loko basically won that contest when it introduced a hard seltzer that boasted an ABV of 12%, although White Claw did what it could to compensate with Surge (which weighed in at 8% as opposed to the 5% of its flagship product).
When the hard seltzer hype started to die down, a number of producers (including White Claw) pivoted to mixed drinks made with hard alcohol as opposed to a malt-based formula, and now, the brand has decided to take a very unconventional new approach with the self-explanatory White Claw 0% Alcohol.
White Claw
When you consider there were already plenty of regular seltzer options to pick from before White Claw burst onto the scene, I’m not entirely sure what the target demographic here is—especially when you consider each can contains 15 calories and 2 grams of sugar (which means it’s not quite a soda but will also set you back a bit more than Spindrift or, you know, normal seltzer).
With that said, if this announcement piqued your interest, you’ll be able to get your hands on the new product when it starts hitting shelves at the start of 2024.