Malternatives: I Know A Hard Refresher When I See One

Refreshers are like opinions – no one’s the same, but everyone’s got one.

Numerous fruity and colorful hard beverages have hit the shelves in the past two years, labeled as “refreshers,” but that is about where their similarities end.

Some are spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails (RTDs), others are flavored malt beverages (FMBs). Some are carbonated, akin to more of a hard seltzer, while others tout being “bubble free.” And some target sessionable alcohol levels (think 4% to 5% ABV), while others target the double-digit ABV range.

All of these offerings are targeting the coveted legal-drinking-age (LDA) Gen Z consumer, who is constantly looking for new bev-alc offerings to try and add to their repertoire.

“Consumers are gravitating towards what I call unique beverage types,” said Wayne Scheck, senior innovation brand manager for SixSip, a new offering from Philip’s Distilling Co. (more on that later).

“Specifically, we saw people going to what I describe as vibrant and fruit-forward and refreshing drinks,” he continued. “[Toward] a beverage that looked good – color is so important – that was refreshing from a flavor perspective, and one that helps facilitate conversations and facilitate social events for folks.”

For many, the first refresher spotted in the wild was Molson Coors’ Happy Thursday, announced in late 2023. The 4.4% ABV sugar-based offering, which later launched in March 2024, was first available in four flavors – Passionfruit Mango, Black Cherry, Strawberry and Pineapple Starfruit – packaged in colorful slim cans and an equally colorful variety pack, which highlighted the product as a “spiked refresher” and “bubble free.”

Happy Thursday was created with direct feedback from LDA Gen Z consumers, who shared their desire for “balanced, bright, noncarbonated options” with no “bloating and burning,” Molson Coors shared at the time.

“Together we’ve taken everything the newest legal drinking age consumers love – smooth, flavorful refreshers – and made them spiked, paving the way for a whole new category of alcoholic beverage,” Molson Coors VP of innovation Jamie Wideman-Rotnicki said.

Now more than a year past its national launch, Happy Thursday is continuing to deepen its distribution presence, helping sustain substantial growth in scans. Year-to-date (YTD) through April 19, Happy Thursday has increased dollar sales and volume triple-digits (up 354.8% and 304.7%, respectively) in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels, according to data shared by 3 Tier Beverages. In the last four weeks, dollar sales have increased 54.7% year-over-year (YoY) and volume, measured in case sales, grew 39.4%.

The brand family was also a top-15 growth brand in beer for the 13 weeks ending April 19, 3 Tier consultant Danelle Kosmal shared.

This May, Molson Coors announced another addition to its Happy Thursday flavor lineup, Raspberry Dragonfruit. But in a notable shift from the initial Happy Thursday launch, the latest press release shifted the emphasis. Happy Thursday was less about being bubble free and more about tapping into “a growing demand among new legal-aged drinkers who crave the flavors they know and love from their favorite fruity coffee-house beverages.”

Photos of Happy Thursday Raspberry Dragonfruit poured into a can, over ice, may look familiar to frequenters of national coffee chains. Many may recall the 2017 Pink Drink craze, when a customized Starbucks order made with the coffee shop’s Strawberry Acai Refresher went so viral, the company later added it to its menu.

Starbucks recorded another spike in Refresher sales in 2023, with the fruity drinks consistently recording double-digit gains, the company shared during an earnings report. Not long after that earnings call, Molson Coors announced Happy Thursday.

A more direct transformation of a non-alcoholic refresher into an adult beverage also came in 2023, but from Starbuck’s notorious East Coast rival, Dunkin’. The company partnered with Mass. Bay Brewing and its craft brand Harpoon to launch Dunkin’ Spiked Iced Coffee and Dunkin’s Spiked Iced Tea. Two of the latter’s flavor offerings – Strawberry Dragonfruit and Mango Pineapple – were labeled as “Iced Tea Fresher” on cardboard and can packaging, implying they were a 5% ABV version of Dunkin’s own refresher offerings.

Dunkin’ Spiked’s fate hasn’t been as sunny as Happy Thursday’s. The brand family recorded a 54.9% decline in dollar sales and 54.6% decline in volume in NIQ-tracked channels YTD. And losses have accelerated in the last four weeks: dollar sales -68.3%, volume -67.4%.

So a hard refresher is basically just a spiked version of the fruity coffee drinks Gen Z grew up drinking, right? Well, not so much.

In comes LightStrike Hard Refresher, launched nationally this year by Kirin-owned New Belgium Brewing. The 5% ABV offering looks more like a sports drink you’d get after a workout (or night out drinking, say, hard refreshers), packaged in resealable 16.9 oz. bottles. The offering is non-carbonated, gluten-free and contains 10% coconut water and sea salt, allegedly creating “the perfect blend of refreshment and alcohol content that’s perfect for the pregame, the after-party or the after-after-party,” according to a press release.

LightStrike was created from New Belgium’s own Gen Z consumer testing, which found them wanting something in the “sessionable hard seltzer space,” that has “better-for-you cues” that aren’t too much “in your face” (think Olipop or Poppi), and that feels familiar, but no one has thought of it yet,” CEO Shaun Belongie shared last fall.

LightStrike is available in two flavors – Lemon Lime and Orange Mango – packaged in single-flavor 4-packs across retail channels, with a particular focus on grocery.

“Because it’s [LightStrike] got a lot of the same cues from the non-alc space in this plastic bottle, we think there’s an opportunity to be that idea of familiar, ‘Oh, I get what that thing is, but it’s the alcoholic version,’” Belongie said.

Resealable packaging was also important for Phillip’s Distilling in the creation of SixSip, launching in June. The 11.1% ABV, wine-based offerings are packaged in hexagonal, clear resealable bottles, which will be sold as singles, as well as in single-flavor 12-packs.

“There’s a lot of folks that are out there right now with different packaging options,” Scheck said. “And we like when retail stores and liquor stores have a section dedicated to it, and that’s something I think we see now more than ever.”

SixSip will be available in four flavors – Strawberry Lemonade, Pineapple Passionfruit, Peach Mango and Raspberry Rita – and first distributed in Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Indiana, Florida and Texas.

SixSip is the first RTD offering from Phillip’s, which was looking to capitalize on the segment that has driven recent growth for spirits. In the last 26 weeks (data ending May 11), base-agnostic RTDs have growth dollar sales 3.3% YoY in Circana-tracked off-premise channels, the largest dollar sales growth of any bev-alc category in the period (beer -2.3%, spirits +1.1%, wine -4.3%), and outpacing total industry trends (dollar sales -2.1%).

“As this category continues to drive beverage-alcohol, we have to evolve with it,” Scheck said. “As RTDs become more common, specifically for Gen Z, we’re a company that’s going to follow those trends and make sure we’re doing what the consumer is asking for.

“Folks who are 21 and in that 21-to-25 age demographic have never existed in a world where hard seltzers, beyond beer and all of those things didn’t exist,” he continued. “This space of flavor forward beyond beer is not going anywhere anytime soon.”

That longevity is vital. Numerous fads have come and gone in the beyond beer space, none more extreme than hard seltzer, which kicked off beyond beer trends. The once mighty bubbly segment is now trending down 4.9% in dollar sales and down 7.9% in volume YTD in NIQ-tracked channels, with declines accelerating in the last four weeks (dollar sales -5.7%, volume -8.6%).

The flexible definition of the hard refreshers may help them avoid hard seltzer’s fate. The broader refreshers idea speaks to general trends that are up across bev-alc.

Just look at Total Wine & More’s 2025 ‘trends to watch’ list, which includes things like resealable packages, no carbonation and spirits-based RTDs. There’s a hard refresher that can hit each of those trends.

“These refresher brands tend to have similar characteristics of growing RTDs across alcohol,” Kosmal said. “This includes fruit-forward flavors, non-carbonated liquid with ‘no bubbles’ prominently labeled, gluten-free claims and for many brands, claims of simple and ‘real’ ingredients, like real tea, real juice, etc.”

The key for an individual brand to find staying power is to not lose contact with the consumer, Scheck said.

“What it really is is again, listening to the consumer, doing everything we can to hear from them, and then capitalize on that and lean into that,” he said. “We’re doing interviews with consumers all the time, every time we’re coming out with flavors or concepts. We’re putting them in front of consumers and getting their reaction, and specifically consumers in the demographic that buys these in large amounts.

“It really is listening to the consumer and giving them what they’re asking for, not just throwing things against a wall and seeing what sticks.”