The Best Hard Seltzers

Top pick

Lone River Ranch Water Hard Seltzer Variety Pack

Balanced, refreshing, and fizzy until the last sip

These seltzers taste less artificial than any others we tried, and this variety pack offers four diverse flavors to please most crowds and preferences.

Buying Options

$18 from Total Wine & More

It’s a good thing Lone River’s Ranch Water Hard Seltzers are low in alcohol, because they’re almost too easy to drink. They’re light, refreshing, and pleasantly carbonated with bubbles that stay fizzy for hours after the can’s been opened. This variety pack includes one bright and mellow sipper, a citrus flavor that’s fresh and zesty, one sweet and fruity option, and a spicy zinger that singes your nose hairs in the best way possible.

Lone River’s hard seltzers borrow their name from the storied ranch water cocktail; a concoction of tequila, lime, and sparkling mineral water (chiefly, Topo Chico) that’s considered the unofficial drink of West Texas. These Lone River seltzers do not contain tequila, but are made instead with neutral alcohol, lime juice, and agave nectar, for a drink that tastes impressively fresh and natural.

Of the four flavors in this pack, three of them taste remarkably like real ingredients. The grapefruit seltzer has the tart, bitter quality of actual grapefruit juice, and the spicy seltzer tastes (and burns) just like jalapeño seeds. The original flavor reminds us of a proper tequila soda, with nice notes of pithy lime juice and caramelly agave syrup. Unlike many other seltzers we tried that tasted cloying and artificial, we found the agave used in Lone River’s lineup gives these drinks a round, pleasant, and balanced sweetness.

The only seltzer that tasted synthetic to our testers was the prickly pear, which erred on the sweeter side and had an off-putting perfume flavor we disliked.

Flavors: original (agave nectar and lime), spicy (agave nectar, lime, and jalapeño), Rio Red grapefruit, prickly pear
Servings: 12 fluid ounces per can; pack of 12
Price per can: about $1.66 each
Alcohol: neutral spirit, 4% ABV (alcohol by volume)

Top pick

High Noon Sun Sips Hard Seltzer Variety Pack

Fresh, fruity, and flavor-forward

These seltzers have robust fruit flavors that taste juicy, balanced, and clean. They also stay bubbly and refreshing for hours.

Buying Options

$25 from Walmart

May be out of stock

$25 from Total Wine & More

High Noon makes a number of fruity vodka- and tequila-based seltzers, and after tasting this flagship variety pack, we’re eager to try them all. The original collection is made with vodka, and compared with seltzers we tested that used no-name, clear alcohol, High Noon seltzers taste higher in quality and finish cleaner.

We tested the variety pack that comes with watermelon, black cherry, grapefruit, and pineapple flavors, and they’re all tasty and well balanced. The watermelon and black cherry seltzers taste more like candy than real fruit juice (even though they are made with real juice), but they’re not overly artificial or too sweet, and the flavors are pronounced without being thick or heavy on the palate.

High Noon’s pineapple seltzer was our favorite pineapple iteration of all the brands we tried. It tastes strongly of fresh pineapple juice, with a cake-like sweetness that’s soft and unobtrusive. The grapefruit flavor also tastes delightfully natural, with a subtle, tart bite and notes of fresh fruit peel. On a hot day, these would be the seltzers I’d reach for first.

Flavors: watermelon, black cherry, grapefruit, pineapple
Servings: 12 fluid ounces per can; pack of eight or 12
Price per can: About $2.50 each
Alcohol: vodka, 4.5% ABV

If you can’t find our picks where you shop: We almost included the White Claw Vodka + Soda Variety Pack as a pick, and if it’s more readily available in-store where you live, it’s a substantial upgrade from a pack of original White Claw seltzers. This drink is nicely carbonated, less cloying than the original, and it tastes and finishes cleaner than the competition. We suspect this is because the vodka used is higher in quality than the ambiguous neutral alcohol found in White Claw’s other seltzers.

Compared with our picks, though, the White Claw Vodka + Soda’s fruit flavors and sweeteners tasted a little more artificial.

A dangerously delicious wine-based option, if you can find it: The Cliché wine seltzers by E. & J. Gallo Winery (the same company behind High Noon) are some of the best hard seltzers we’ve tried, but they’re only available for sale in California and Texas. If you live in either of those states and you stumble upon them, they’re worth a try. These seltzers are pricier than our other picks, but the plum hibiscus and lemon blueberry flavors are dangerously good. They’re fresh and juicy, fizzy from start to finish, and rich enough to mask the taste of wine for those who don’t prefer it.

A fresh, full-bodied staff-favorite with limited regional availability: Of all the seltzers we tested, Spindrift Spiked Sparkling Waters were a favorite of kitchen editors Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston. They’re not yet available in every state, but we recommend them if you see them at your store, and you can use the company’s store locator to check if they’re sold in your region. Like our High Noon pick, Spindrift’s hard seltzers are made with real fruit juices, but they seemed to have a higher concentration of juice, and that juice tasted fresher. However, the malty flavor of the neutral alcohol came through more than we would have liked, while the High Noon hard seltzer’s vodka base tasted a little cleaner. Spindrift Spiked Sparkling Water may not be for you if you prefer light and refreshing drinks, but the flavors are lush in a way other hard seltzers we tasted didn’t quite hit. We found the mango and pineapple flavors especially enjoyable.

I’m an experienced craft cocktail mixologist, and I also wrote our guide to the best vodka. Even though I live for making drinks from scratch, I can’t help but love the convenience of canned seltzers. I’ve made it a point to try as many boozy seltzers as possible in the past few years to find the best additions to my fridge at home.

I organized brand-concealed tasting flights for this guide along with members of Wirecutter’s kitchen and appliance team: senior editor Marguerite Preston, senior staff writer Rachel Wharton, and supervising editor Marilyn Ong. For our final round of tasting, we were joined by editor Christina Colizza, a self-declared fan of hard seltzers.

New hard seltzer options show up all the time, especially as more craft breweries and distilleries adopt the style and bigger companies such as White Claw and Truly expand their lineups. For this guide, we focused on brands that are widely available at major retailers across the country, and we compiled our list of contenders by checking the stock at stores like Safeway, Target, Trader Joe’s, and Costco. We also referenced the top-selling hard seltzers listed on Drizly’s beverage insight report from 2022 to build our finalized list. From there, we chose one variety pack from each brand based on popularity and flavor selection.

We considered seltzers made with different base spirits such as tequila and rum, but our final selection included only variety packs using vodka or other neutral-tasting alcohol for the sake of uniformity. This left us with a final list of 12 contenders. We also tried an additional variety pack from Trader Joe’s own Shell House line, but our testers in New York and California found different flavors offered in our local stores, so we excluded it from the initial round and tasted it separately to keep our remote tests standard.

For our first round of testing, we tasted two flavors from each variety pack in a series of brand-concealed flights. We judged each seltzer based on its aroma, texture, taste, and whether or not it matched the flavor advertised on the can. We also cracked the seal of each seltzer only seconds before tasting to ensure that we could accurately evaluate the level of carbonation. If we disliked both flavors we tasted from the same brand, we dismissed it entirely because at least half of the variety pack should be worth recommending. From this initial panel, we eliminated all but the five most promising brands.

With our finalists, we conducted another round of tasting. This time, we exposed the brands, because we wanted to see how the flavors we didn’t test on the previous round stacked up with the ones we liked. We tested all four flavors from each variety pack side by side to see if the entire lineup was well rounded and consistent in quality. After landing on our picks, we tasted them again at different times while writing this guide to make sure our original notes matched up, since your perception of taste can change depending on factors like hormonal fluctuations and what you ate that day.

Certain companies offer hard seltzers made with spirits such as rum, tequila, and vodka, but most are made with neutral alcohol—listed vaguely as “alcohol” on an ingredients list. Neutral alcohol is the umbrella term that refers to spirits made from any material, and distilled to at least 95% alcohol by volume. It’s ubiquitously used as a starter for many other spirits and commodities, and usually, this distillate is made by a third-party company before it’s purchased, flavored, and diluted by a major hard seltzer brand. Because it’s not required that a brand disclose what the base alcohol actually is or where it came from, you can’t truly vet the quality of the spirits used in most hard seltzers.

The black cherry and lime seltzers from White Claw’s original variety pack taste like classic fountain drinks, but they taste more artificial than our picks—including the White Claw Vodka + Soda seltzers—and the texture is syrupy. They also leave an astringent aftertaste, and the bubbles turn flat as soon as they hit the palate.

The Truly strawberry lime and blueberry seltzers smell and taste more like candy than real fruit or juice. They’re also a bit too sweet then acrid on the finish. And the carbonation is underwhelming.

The Michelob Ultra variety pack as a whole ranged from strange to great. Certain flavors tasted funky and wrong, like the watermelon strawberry flavor, which reminded our testers of seaweed. But the cucumber lime flavor was one of our favorite seltzers of the bunch, because the cucumber notes are strong and aromatic, and it’s very light and refreshing. These are also some of the only seltzers we’ve found that don’t contain added sweetener of any kind—they actually taste like flavored seltzer.

The Corona hard seltzers are well carbonated, but they’re overly sweet and leave a saccharine coating on the tongue long after they’re gone.

We dismissed Kirkland’s hard seltzers because the black cherry and mango flavors had unpleasant aromas, tasted cloying and bitter, and left an unpleasant metallic aftertaste.

The Bud Light black cherry and mango seltzers tasted bitter, musky, and unbalanced, and the carbonation is almost nonexistent.

The pineapple mango and strawberry kiwi seltzers we tried from Vizzy had potent, skunky smells, and their soapy, synthetic flavors reminded us of the fragrances found in Bath & Body Works.

Nearly every aspect of the Press hard seltzers we tried was objectionable—they smelled and tasted rancid, the carbonation was weak, and they had a palpable, malty aftertaste.

We disliked the cloying mouthfeel and astringent aftertaste of the Topo Chico hard seltzers, and the lemon lime and strawberry guava flavors tasted downright off. Our testers compared the flavor to mop water, candy sprayed by a skunk, and three-hour-old strawberry chewing gum.

Trader Joe’s has its own line of hard seltzers under the name Shell House. Our testers in New York and California found different variety packs in stock at our local storefronts, and none of the flavors we tried were good. They had a fuzzy texture and tasted dusty.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.

Since our initial round of testing, new hard seltzers have hit the market. In 2024, Smirnoff launched a line of vodka sodas, and so did Kylie Jenner. For our next round of testing, we’re looking into these new options, as well as hard seltzers from other brands we excluded from our original tasting panels.