Coca-Cola Is Launching Its Own Hard Seltzer

Coca-Cola is entering the hard seltzer game under its popular Topo Chico brand, marking the first time it will sell alcohol in the U.S. since 1983.

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Coca-Cola is gearing up to enter the hard seltzer market with its Topo Chico brand.

Coke will pilot the alcoholic beverage in select Latin American cities later this year, and then in the U.S. in 2021, CNBC reports. The last time the company sold alcohol in its home market was when it owned the business, Wine Spectrum, which Coke sold in 1983. Coke purchased the sparkling mineral water brand, Topo Chico in 2017.

Coke is “committed to exploring new products in dynamic beverage categories, including hard seltzer,” the company wrote in a statement on its website. “Topo Chico Hard Seltzer is an experimental drink inspired by Topo Chico sparkling mineral water, which has been popular with many mixologists.”

Sparkling water and hard seltzer have become increasingly popular over the years, particularly because the alcoholic beverage has minimal calories and often times a lower alcohol content. According to The Wall Street Journal, from mid-July 2019, Americans spent $3 billion on hard seltzer in retail stores, a 241 percent surge from a year earlier.

Owned by Mike’s Hard Lemonade, White Claw currently dominates the market, with Boston Beer Co.’s Truly coming in second. Other beverage titans, like Anheuser-Busch InBev and Constellation Brands, have made their own forays into hard seltzer recently

In 2018, Coke rolled out the alcoholic drink Lemon-Do nationwide in Japan.

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