White Claw Goes Non-Alcoholic
Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw is getting in on the non-alcoholic beverage wave with the launch of a new category at the hard seltzer beverage company: White Claw 0% Alcohol.
The product line will debut just in time for Dry January on Jan. 1, 2024 in the U.S. with four flavors: Black Cherry Cranberry, Lime Yuzu, Peach Orange Blossom and Mango Passion Fruit. The cans look like regular White Claw hard seltzers, with a slightly different design and deeper colors. They will be available in variety 12-packs and single flavor six-packs.
Created with ultra-refined seltzer, White Claw 0% Alcohol combines its most popular flavors with “elevated” new secondary Bev/Alc drink notes and added electrolytes with 2 grams of sugar and 15 calories per 12 oz. can, according to a media release.
White Claw says unlike other non-alcoholic beverages on the market (e.g., beer), its new line offers the same “taste and complexity” people expect in an alcoholic beverage, according to the release. The brand says it spent years researching how taste and alcohol work together, including patents and developing its proprietary plant-based sweetener technology, before landing on its current way to make beverages, non-alcoholic from the start.
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Market Position, Growth
While non-alcoholic wines, beers and seltzers aren’t a new concept, the small category has grown substantially in recent years, mainly due to wellness and moderation trends and production innovation. Plenty of recent research points to Gen Z consumers drinking less alcohol compared to Millennials, not only for physical health reasons, but also for their mental wellbeing.
White Claw’s own research shows that most people who drink alcohol (69%), Gen Z (81%), and Millennials (78%) are interested in exploring a "sober curious" or "damp" lifestyle, based on a November survey.
"The industry is ripe for disruption as demand for flavorful, non-alcoholic drinks is on the rise, but current options like excessively sweet mocktails, bland waters, and near-beers are disconnected from what today's adult drinkers want.” Phil Rosse, president, Mark Anthony Brands, said in the release. “White Claw 0% Alcohol paves the way for an entirely new adult beverage.”
Moreover, 94% of alcoholic beverage consumers are also purchasers of non-alcoholic alternatives, according to off-premise data from Nielsen IQ.
And on Drizly, an online delivery platform like Instacart only for alcohol, the company says the non-alcoholic category experienced a 62% increase in 2023 over 2022, making it among the fastest-growing subcategories across the marketplace. However, the category remains small overall, accounting for just .42% of total share, but the company says the rapid growth of alcohol-free alternatives is noteworthy, according to a recent 2024 forecast article from the company’s website.
“Each time we do more research in the space we see more and more consumers aware of and interested in trying non-alcoholic products across categories,” Liz Paquette, Drizly’s head of consumer insights, said in the article. “While the growth has been very strong in the past year, these categories remain a really small piece of the total sales on Drizly, so there is certainly lots of room for continued growth.”
The survey by White Claw found that the majority (64%) of consumers wish there were better non-alcoholic options available. Respondents said they would be more likely to choose non-alcoholic drinks if they have flavors they like (83%), were from brands they know (72%), had electrolytes (72%), and were low in sugar (71%).