I mean, there's more to it than that. A friend of mine is a prominent head brewer in the Denver area, and a couple weekends ago we cranked the numbers and figured out that the cans for hard seltzer are more expensive than the contents (aka the actual drink) from a BoM perspective. A labeled can is something like 14 cents, and the contents were something 10 cents. For a can of beer, the contents are closer to 50 cents.<p>The margins are just stupid good. Apparently Upslope brewing here already makes more profit on their seltzer than all of their beer.
> Because White Claw is brewed like beer, it’s taxed like beer, which is important because beer is taxed in the U.S. at a much lower rate than spirits. If you made a product similar to White Claw by mixing vodka with seltzer and putting it in a can, a six-pack would be subject to almost $2 in additional taxes when sold in New York City.<p>Important takeaway from the article. This also answers my own question as to why drinks like Mike's Hard, Smirnoff Ice, etc are malt beverages. Hopefully the sugar base instead of a grain base catches on for new drinks.
> A problem with malternatives has been the need to find ways to mask the beer-like flavor that results from brewing. To that end, these drinks have added sugar and strong citrus flavors, which a lot of consumers like.<p>Nice! Our tax laws encourage companies to make less palatable goods that then require more added sugar to compensate thus upping everyone's carbohydrate intake without it actually tasting as good as those carbs would be in a cake or some such. How wonderful! /s
Not just taxes, but being "beer" allows it to be sold in grocery stores and corner stores where a drink made from distilled spirits(even if watered down to the 5% alcohol) would have to be sold in a liquor stores in many states.
Amusingly tax policy also allegedly gave us brandy. When you're taxed by volume (such as by the cask or barrel of wine) you may wish to dodge some taxes by distilling your wine product into brandy ("burned wine") to concentrate the volume, with the aim of re-constituting it with water for consumption, later.<p>Then of course you find out the reconstitution tastes nothing like the original wine, and you also may discover that leaving it in the wooden casks makes a pleasant drink on its own...
>As a gay man in New York with a well-stocked bar, I am used to my friends coming to my apartment and asking for vodka sodas.<p>meh. As a gay man in a midwestern rust belt town with a used fridge that makes exorcist noises, I am used to my friends assuming I drink vodka soda. I got a six pack of "white claws" from a female friend and couldnt choke down more than a few sips.<p>If youre going to drink a vodka soda, for god sake avoid this landfill fodder and pour one yourself. vodka comes everything from cotton candy to bacon, so theres really no excuse.<p>TL;DR: White Claw is the Keurig of mixed drinks.
Finland has a huge culture for drinking Lonkero or Long Drink - very similar to this and for the same reason.<p>Fermented beverages there are taxed like beer so these long drinks are made as such.<p>These are on tap in all the bars. It seems to have less of a stigma there than drinking malt beverages in the states.<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonkero" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonkero</a>
In addition to the taxes mentioned in the article, It's also important to note that in many states in the US distilled beverages are only permitted to be sold in certain licensed stores. (Oregon for example has liquor stores, and you can't buy distilled things at a regular grocery store)
In Japan, the tax for beer is insanely high. "Free beer" doesn't happen in Japan because beer is expensive. It makes most major beer companies R&D beer-taste products which is by definition of the tax law, not a beer. On the other hand, the canned vodka soda so cheap.
"It doesn’t contain vodka or any other distilled spirits. Instead it is made through fermentation, like beer, but starting from a base of sugar instead of cereal grains like barley."<p>This is a roundabout way of saying it's undistilled vodka. All spirits are fermented before distillation (or else what is there to distill?), and some vodkas already start with pure sugar instead of grains, potatoes, or fruit.
* waves magic wand *<p>* poof! - Constitutional amendments are passed in every state requiring sales tax to apply to all items at an equal rate. Politicians suddenly have less power to punish or privilege individual sectors and industries, and so there is less reason to lobby and corrupt them. Sin taxes go away, so constituents are nudged and nannied and pandered to less. Much labor to track and charge differential taxes is disappeared. *<p>* wakes up *<p>Damn.
Barro means that it gave us White Claw in the sense that we don't instead have canned vodka tonics (in effect: alcoholic seltzer), because vodka is distilled, and White Claw's cane-sugar-brewed alcohol is a tax workaround.<p>We have the product category itself --- alcoholic seltzer --- on its own merits, according to Barro. There's no escaping it.
Slightly related: I tried to buy an expensive used camera from one of my favorite online retailers from New York and discovered that used electronics were now being taxed. They lost a big sale yesterday.
I've been mixing a shot of whiskey, bitters, and club soda with a splash to a few glugs of ginger ale/beer, still playing with the mix. Would be nice to start seeing better ready-to-drink options.
There are some interesting tidbits (tax laws between beer vs distilled spirits), the reason everyone I know drinks it is it's a low carb alcoholic beverage. You can bring it ready made to a party, which is easier than mixing a drink of seltzer and vodka at your friends house.
Personally I've just started drinking (very occasionally) low calorie beer. My favorite is Corona Premier. 90 calories + 2.6g carbs (4% ABV) vs 100 calories + 2g for a White Claw (5% ABV).<p>Less alcohol, more refreshing, tastes pretty much like regular Corona, and something about drinking Mexican beer always reminds me of sitting on a beach.