To find a local retailer where SONIC Hard Seltzers are sold, click here. Offering less tartness than other options, it evoked subtle similarities to soda beverages like 7UP. Cherry Limeade Sonic Seltzer is a genuinely bold soda experience! The mayor of Park College City submitted President Joe Bidens ash cross to mark Ash Wednesday has some under the false impression it is a forehead bruise. Because Sonic hard seltzer is sold in third-party retailers, not the chains 3,500 locations nationwide, getting the look and feel just right is paramount to the partnership. Take advantage of this one-of-a-kind seltzer experience! COOP Beverage Works manufactures and markets alcoholic beverage products in the seltzer, ready-to-drink (RTD) and malt-beverage categories such as SONIC Hard Beverages (SONIC Hard Seltzer, SONIC Hard Slush and SONIC Hard Southern Sweet Tea) and future licensing partnerships. Save your money, these are not tasty, they are very artificial tasting. The zesty taste and refreshing complexity make it the perfect choice for those looking to take their seltzer experience up a notch worth picking up if available! True Sonic fans know that the chain's drink menu is at least as important as the food. Sonic prominently features Ocean Water as an iconic item on their expansive slush menu. 2014 - 2023 VinePair Inc. Made In NYC, The Number of Sonic Drive-Ins in Every State [MAP] | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/articles/map-states-sonic/, dining out, Infographics, map, restaurants, sonic, VinePair Happy Hour: Whats Your Favorite Way to Drink Bourbon? They were terrible imo. Sonic Hard Seltzers, which were previously only sold in Oklahoma, are now . Sleek cans. Trew Knowledge. The fake cherry flavor is big and bold, calling to mind memories of eating cherry snow cones in the summertime. All Rights Reserved. A licensing deal between Oklahomas iconic fast-food franchisor and one of its longest-running craft breweries was ready for John Hancocks. Previously only available in seven markets, brand fans and consumers across these states will have the opportunity to grab a pack of their new favored hard seltzer at select retailers in the upcoming weeks. The Cherry Limeade IS Sonic. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. The thought occurred to him on a socially distanced jog a few months prior. Perfect for fans of black cherry soda or snow cones in the summertime, it achieves a unique candy-like sweetness that truly captures Sonics iconic identity. As the Official Hard Seltzer of the Big 12, SONIC Hard Seltzer will have category exclusivity and use of Conference and Championship marks at the retail level, along with social and digital engagement on the official Big 12 Conference channels and receive exposure in conjunction with the Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship; Phillips 66 Big 12 Mens Basketball Championship; and Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. Since 2009, COOP has created a core lineup of seven year-round beers, four seasonal beers, and various limited and barrel-aged releases. With its continued market expansion, SONIC Hard Seltzer is on track to see significant growth across the US. Colder faster, 360-degree branding on the vessel and leading recycling rates and recycled content rates make this the easy choice for quality and environmental superiority for the market and for SONIC., Claude Marbach, CEO, Ardagh Metal Packaging North America, agrees, confirming hard seltzers are a beverage category increasingly committing to cans. [M]ost consumers are either fans or are at least familiar with our popular drink flavors across Sonics 46-state footprint, explains Springer, noting that while the firms franchisees are excited by the hard seltzer rollout, there are no plans to sell the alcoholic beverage at the drive-ins themselves. Find Sonic Hard Seltzer near you! Sleek cans. Order up! Results were mixed at first, a fact that was not lost on Mossman and his COOP colleagues in Oklahoma City. Cant wait to try this!! SONIC Hard Seltzer can be enjoyed on its own or as a core ingredient in a delicious cocktail for added effervescent flavor and fun. (The firm is not involved in COOPs sales, marketing, or external partnerships, including the one with Sonic.) IRVING, Texas Big 12 Sports Properties, the LEARFIELD team dedicated to the Big 12 Conference as its sponsorship rights holder, announces a multi-year agreement with Oklahoma City-based COOP Beverage Works, makers of SONIC Hard Seltzer. This week, the sitting US Lego has announced some new sets for Disneys 100th anniversary including 18 adorable collectable minifigures. Hed been thinking about the line as a bolt-on to COOPs traditional beer portfolio, an effervescent ancillary revenue stream that would run in tandem with the core business. Sonic Seltzers Melon Medley is an unrivaled tropical treat that stands out among the rest. The R&D process at COOP would eventually coalesce as Will & Wiley, a hard seltzer line named for actor Will Rogers and boundary-pushing pilot Wiley Post, two native Oklahomans. There's no sweetness or fruit flavor, real or fake, to counteract the unrelenting acidity. According to new reports, the hard seltzer market is expected to reach $49.4 billion by 2028[1], showing that the category is still highly in demand with no sign of slowing down. SONIC Hard Seltzer is available in two variety packs, Tropical and Citrus and our Greatest Hits Pack. Sonics lineup consists of eight flavors and is currently available across seven states throughout America! Nestled in the vibrant Downtown LA Arts District, Truly LA contains everything from our small-batch flavor innovation lab to a concert venue where we host a myriad of events ranging from weekend artist markets to live music collaborations with our friends at Live Nation. . COOP Ale Works COOP Ale Works is a craft brewery based in Oklahoma City, OK, dedicated to brewing full-flavored beers with the greatest attention to quality. A hard seltzer typically has a distinct sweet taste, as opposed to regular seltzer. Nothing was the same after the summer of White Claw. In addition to the packages environmental advantages, brands also enjoy leading filling, distribution and retail display economics as there is no wasted space due to cans stacking abilities. SONIC Hard Seltzer is currently available in eight flavor offerings and provides a modern and craveable take on classic SONIC flavors. As Oklahomas top-selling craft brewer, COOP had been carefully stewarding its own brand for the last 13 years, and with popular Sonic-style hard seltzer flavors, Mossman had a ready-made conversation starter with a nationally known licensor whose offices were just a mile south of the brewery. Whether the money printer will go brrrr for Sonic hard seltzer longterm remains to be seen. But Sonic was thinking bigger, and COOP came calling at the right time. Orders . Not just anybody can say I want to make alcoholic beverages, he says. Its a winning combination indeed, including the delivery of variety across a unique combination of fruit flavors. It doesn't taste like orange juice, but rather what you thought "orange juice" was when you were a kid if you grew up on the corn syrup-rich, artificial stuff. We love sonic drinks so were excited to taste these. While the accompanying illustration implies raspberry flavor, it tastes more akin to pink lemonade. The Tropical offers Mango Guava, Melon Medley, Orange Pineapple, and Ocean Water. Served by SONIC's iconic Carhops, the restaurant's expansive, award-winning menu offers unique, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and drink options for the whole family. Because the brand had made it to retailers just before the coronavirus made it to Oklahoma, he was able to monitor scan data to see how the various Will & Wiley offerings were performing off-premise, which, if you recall those chaotic early days when the -demic was still epi-, was the only place anyone was buying. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Truly Hard Seltzer, a leader and innovator in the hard seltzer category, will officially open its first brick-and-mortar location, Truly LA, in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 25. By Christmas Eve, Springer had secured the green light, and the two firms set about developing Sonic-specific flavor formulas and packaging to evoke the drive-ins neon Americana branding. This new offering makes a splash in the growing beverage category by re-creating fan-favorite beverage flavors in a new format. We each tried these and unfortunately promptly threw the whole pack away. Crawford Smith/Mashed. The latest product offering takes inspiration from SONIC Drive-In signature beverage flavorswith a hard seltzer twist. Required fields are marked *. They werent horrible, just not amazing. Sonics Mango Guava seltzer offers a familiar flavor profile: sharply reminiscent of the popular mango-flavored hard seltzers. 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If there's any guava flavor in this seltzer, we certainly couldn't detect it, and we wouldn't really know what to look for anyway. In fact, demand for this flavour-packed hard seltzer has grown from a regional Oklahoma, U.S. launch in May 2021 of this year to now including availability in retail stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas. Pick up a pack and host your own happy hour any time you want! The Citrus pack has Lemonade, Limeade, Lemon Berry, and Cherry Limeade. Overall, it's a solid seltzer, but it's about middle-of-the-pack compared to its siblings. Were building an enterprise separately, built around Sonic and any additional innovations that well bring on, he says. The aesthetic change takes place alongside news that the brand will be expanding its distribution footprint into several new markets. Whether you are kicking back and relaxing while watching sports or sitting and soaking up some sunshine poolside, you'll be tasting the good vibes with every sip. Though it certainly wont surprise you with its bold guava notes, fans of these drinks will likely find much to savor here as well! There is no other drive-in quite like them! Brand stewardship and licensing partnership was something that was in my set of experiences previously. Its a lot easier for you to come in with Sonic hard seltzer than it is to get a meeting with the Wal-Marts of the world when youre pitching a small craft brand that the planogram guy has neither heard of, nor can find with a quick Google search, he says. Why does lime get to taste like actual limes while lemon only tastes like sour? Two weeks after the [Will & Wiley] launch party, Rudy Gobert famously caught Covid here at the Thunder game in Oklahoma City, and our whole world changed, says Mossman. Prior to July 18, Sonic Hard Seltzer was available in a total of 31 states including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. This is why many opt out of adding lemon to their favorite beverage or even cooking with it due to its lack of sweetness; this singular characteristic deters most. With this drink on your side, youll never have to worry about running short of sweet refreshments! For more information, visit coopaleworks.com. According to Velocity, Sonic Hard Seltzer arrived in the state of Oklahoma on 17 May, where it can be found in most liquor, convenience and grocery stores. SONIC Hard Seltzer is only available at select retailers, so you will not find it on the menu at SONIC Drive-In locations. 1Source: Grand View Research, I., 2022. With the popularity of the chain still growing, its no surprise that the recently launched Sonic Hard Seltzers are also a hit. As one of the chain's signature items, this flavor features prominently in Sonic Seltzer's marketing materials. Produced by COOP Ale Works in Oklahoma City, the line includes eight seltzers, three frozen offerings, and one hard sweet tea (though they arent offered at any of the chains restaurant locations). The Citrus pack includes four flavors - Lemonade, Limeade, Lemon Berry, and Cherry Limeade; while the Tropical boasts Mango Guava, Melon Medley, Orange Pineapple, and Ocean Water. However, many other hard seltzer brands do melon, so it makes sense that Sonic would want a piece of that action. Thanks so much for sharing your honest thoughts with us, Jessica! As the past 18 months of alco-llaborations demonstrate, pretty much any brand with a functioning marketing department can develop a crossover alcoholic beverage brand on a lark. The plain Limeade seltzer was a surprisingly pleasant surprise. Understandably so. 1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice. Between my husband and I we are hard pressed to find a hard seltzer at least one of us wont drink. They are not amazing I was disappointed because I really wanted to love them. Pick up a pack and host your own happy hour any time you want! The aftertaste is faintly reminiscent of SweeTARTS candy, and its carbonated finish mimics the flavors or aromas of champagne-based mimosas. Treat your taste buds to a unique blend of Japanese melon Ramune soda and Pepino Limon Gatorade with a hint of sweetness, culminating in an acidic cucumbery aftertaste like nothing youve ever experienced before. We tried one of each, just overwhelming tin can flavor. With craft beer growth slowly rebounding from the pandemic, heavy crowding in off-premise chain retail, and category lines blurred nearly beyond recognition thanks to malt- and spirits-based momentum with American drinkers, staking out a stable place in the market is no mean feat. The Citrus Variety Pack features Cherry Limeade, Original Limeade, Classic Lemonade and Lemon Berry. The hint of sweetness leaves your tongue pretty quickly, making way for an acidic, cucumbery aftertaste that's a little bit like Pepino Limon Gatorade. Support: https://ko-fi.com/birdstorcThank you for adventuring with us! Americas In its home market, Mossman says, the synonymity is more pronounced (if thats even possible.) While some of the calories in SONIC Hard Seltzer do come from those sugars and other carbohydrates, most of them come from the alcohol content itself. Lemon Berry's fatal flaw is that it's just, well, boring. They generously sent us a couple of cases so we could test out all the flavors and share our results with you. The FDA requires that the total carbohydrates listed include sugarsa type of carbohydrate. In 1953, the first model of the drive-in restaurant opened in Shawnee, Okla., originally named Top Hat. But two things happened that would dramatically expand the course of the brewerys FMB foray. The restaurant wowed diners with then-innovative curbside service, which let visitors order burgers without leaving their cars, and led to the catchphrase, Service at the Speed of Sound (i.e. Quickly, a leader emerged among the four flavors: cherry limeade. Weve worked for the last year-plus on executing 198 new distribution agreements in 25 states, he says. We took the hard job of tasting them all and ranking them so you know which one to buy. It's the closest most of us will ever get to an old-timey soda fountain. You asked and we delivered: SONIC Hard Seltzer is now available across nearly half the country! As the consumer profile of seltzer drinkers continues to expand, so do the occasions for drinking a SONIC Hard Seltzer. (A little oasis in [customers] days, as Springer puts it.) And by God, are those fans thirsty. It would definitely be worth picking up as a standalone six-pack if you had the opportunity. In this video I try the Sonic hard seltzer! Join our large community of insiders - it's totally free! Sonic hard seltzers comes in a wide variety of flavors! SONIC Hard Seltzer products are packaged in Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) North America 12 oz. This Sonic Seltzer presents an assertive orange flavor with a subtle hint of pineapple to balance. Your email address will not be published. They were just undrinkable. As it so happens, the hard-seltzer-ficiation of Ocean Water would lead to a sea change for COOP. Hard Seltzer Market Size Worth $49.4 Billion By 2028: Grand View Research, Inc.. [online] Prnewswire.com. Sonic Hard Seltzer. OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --SONIC Hard Seltzer, a rising fan-favorite, announced the continued expansion of its eight hard seltzer offerings into new states: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. We enjoy Mango White Claw, so we enjoy this too. Guava is often a mysterious flavor in many products, but its distinct and unique taste can be hard to define. November 4, 2021. Nov. 3, 2021, 09:55 AM. We had high hopes for the Ocean Water seltzer going into this taste test, but sadly it was one of the least impressive flavors in the lineup. Mossman says Sonic hard seltzer is firewalled from the rest of the business to make sure COOP services the license as best it can and to give the former licensing executive an opportunity to keep his brewerys partnership momentum going. Now, on Christmas Eve 2020, it was coming to fruition. Pick up a pack and host your own happy hour any time you want! Top Hat was already copyrighted, restricting the Oklahoma restaurants ability to expand. Rather, it tastes like a watered-down version of cheap pink lemonade, which is not a bad thing at all. Returning from a morning run in early September 2020, he got in touch with the brand marketing team at Sonic to pitch a one-off collaboration. However, the reason for the change in name stemmed from a copyright conflict. But those are stunts. Mossmans six-year tenure at the brewery was immediately preceded by another half dozen years as a CPG licensing executive focused on the hardware industry. An additional 22 new U.S. states will be added this January with plans in place to extend distribution to retail stores across the rest of the country by the end of the year. You need relationships with chain retailers, strong distribution, and licensed brands that the American drinking public would actually reach for instead of owned-and-operated brewery brands. This seltzer might also please fans of black cherry soda. Its extreme sweetness and sourness are sure to make an impression, though some may find the flavor too intense if you prefer natural fruit flavors in your beverage options, this one isnt for you. Guava is one of those fancy-sounding names that manufacturers can just throw onto products because they know that not that many people will call their bluff. Would you also like to leave us a comment? Despite this substantial disparity, some individuals claim enjoyment from sucking on wedges for fun possibly catering towards Sonics Lemonade demographic crowdsourcing? According to Daniel Mercer, CEO, COOP Ale Works, its no secret why SONIC Hard Seltzer has carved out its own niche in the crowded hard seltzer category. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. Sonic Hard Seltzer comes in two themed 12-packs: Citrus and Tropical. About COOP Beverage Works In here youll also find all the cooking tips and tricks + information and basics for special diets like gluten free, vegan and keto. Additionally, Missouri residents are now able to get their hands on SONIC Hard Seltzer in St. Louis. It did make sense, at first. No content on this site may be reused in any fashion without written permission. | VinePair, https://vinepair.com/articles/ask-bartender-secret-to-margarita/, wbs_cat Spirit, wbs_type Tequila, agave, blanco, lime, margarita, tequila. If youre within striking distance of a Sonic, assume youre surrounded by cherry limeade acolytes. SONIC Hard Seltzer is not available for purchase at SONIC Drive-In locations. But for the uninitiated reading this: Cherry limeade is Sonics signature fountain drink, a refreshing concoction of juice, flavor syrups, and Sprite served over the chains beloved pebble ice. In 2018, the category grew by 4%, making it the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. market. Back in OKC, Mossman is banking on it.