Angry Seltzer

by Angry Seltzer, LLC.

Review: Angry Seltzer

Posted: Mar 02, 2020 at 1:20 PM (Last Updated: Mar 05, 2020 at 10:12 AM)
Angry Seltzer

Covers Products: Cranky Coconut, Grumpy Grapefruit, Resentful Raspberry

With the tagline of “for people who love the bite of soda...but don’t want the calories,” Angry Seltzer is a line of highly carbonated zero calorie flavored sparkling waters. The products are packaged in 12 oz. slim cans and there are plans to launch about a dozen flavors (with a few that are caffeinated).

For the purpose of this review, we were able to sample three of the uncaffeinated flavors: Grumpy Grapefruit, Cranky Coconut and Resentful Raspberry. 

To recreate the “bite” traditionally associated with soda, Angry Seltzer features a high level of carbonation along with flavors that taste a bit more flavor forward than most flavored sparkling waters. This, combined with the increased carbonation, is the basis for Angry Seltzer making the soda comparison. 

In all three cases, they’ve done an admirable job of formulating products that are crisp and have just the right amount of flavor. We favored the grapefruit SKU the most, but the coconut and raspberry flavored offerings were solid, too. However, we wish that we got to sample one of their caffeinated varieties since we think these might have even greater marketability. 

Moving on to the branding, we feel that this is the more immediately noticeable and, therefore, noteworthy part about this brand. “Angry” isn’t a word or emotion that one typically associates with sparkling water, which makes this approach unique. And thanks to the design of the word, white block capital letters with a heavy red border, the brand has an aggressive visual presence that should stand out from the category. 

This theme is carried through in the flavor names, which all use words that are associated with feelings of anger. Some of these are innocuous and cute, such as Mad Mango, Cranky Coconut, Angry Energy and Angry Original, but others feel like they’ve gone too far to the point where it’s hard to imagine consumers wanting to hold these in their hand. These include Resentful Raspberry, Obscene Orange, Litigious Lime and Belligerent Black Cherry. 

Our advice is just to be a bit more careful in how they craft these flavor names. Something that might sound funny internally during product development might have consequences in creating a SKU that’s hamstrung with negative emotion. The simplest solution might be to drop the adjectives and just keep the focus on the Angry Seltzer brand. 

Beyond that, the overall format of the label, which features a pale blue background with bubble images going through it and large images of fruit that cover the lower third of the can, is pretty good. We think they could rein in the amount of text, but otherwise, it’s very straightforward and easy on the eyes.


Product Ratings