November 12th 2021
Seltzer Culture:
The other day I was at a trivia night in the West End of Glasgow that was sponsored by a new alcoholic drink called “Viper”. Viper advertises itself as “Sparkling Water with a Bite”, the logo is a V with a snake-like aesthetic. It comes in two flavors: lime and cranberry. It tastes awful. But I do think there is a bit of a cultural phenomenon here that exists on a global scale. The Viper situation is a feature of a trans-cultural clash; the culture of seltzer. I predict that because of the cultural boundaries in the UK regarding seltzer, Viper ultimately will fail
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like hard seltzers and the culture around white Claw is something I am no fan of. However, it is hard to denounce how successful it has been and how quickly it proliferated US drinking culture. I’m not going to go toooo hard into this because this re: stats and figures is just a silly little post, but I’m sure that if I were to look into this the Hard Seltzer market growth would be simply exponential. The sheer number of seltzers (White Claw, Truly, beer-branded seltzers, etc.), is evidence to this. It is clear that companies in the UK such as Viper see profit possibility here. This being said, I have witnessed little Hard Seltzer culture here in Scotland[1].
I believe that the core to this isn’t that the alcoholic beverage is not attractive to the UK (although I think there may be some stigma) but rather the fact that there is no “seltzer” culture here. There is no establishment by which the likes of Viper can build their empire. What I mean by this is that in the UK there really isn’t a seltzer. And I mean this in the truest sense – the term seltzer is mostly an abstraction. Sure people know what seltzer is, but it is not used. Rather the term “sparkling water” is used. This might be semantics but I think semantics are at the core of this. Hard Seltzer sounds sexy. Hard “Sparkling Water” does not.
And then there is the question of availability. I don’t know why seltzer is so popular in the states but it is. Maybe this has something to do with Deli culture or the quench for a healthy carbonated drink, but regardless Seltzer is in the US. And I don’t remember a time that it wasn’t. Schweppes and Polar have been two canned seltzers that I always remember being around. Many supermarkets also have the store brand variety as well, in cans or bottles. And then there are the “designer” seltzers, the La Croix’s and the Bubbly’s and the Spindrift etc. etc. There is simply a lot of popular bubbly water.
This isn’t quite the same in the UK. In fact, I have struggled to find even a single can of carbonated water, not to mention finding a seltzer. I think this is the core of the predicament: it was a natural process of transitioning from buying a 12 pack of Black Cherry Schweeps to buying a case of White Claws because there’s the “hey why not add alcohol to this” mentality. Whereas with Viper, the establishment for buying canned water just simply isn’t there.
I asked some friends about their thoughts regarding this and the sentiment is very much that: I am aware of it, I might buy one, but I would never buy a case and party on hard sparkling cider. And yeah that’s really all it comes down to in the end. I also think the “Sparkling Water” nomenclature works against branding. When one wants to get drunk, they do not want to get drunk on “water”.
So in short this is why I think Viper won’t work – 1) there is a stigma against hidden alcohol bevs 2) no seltzer foundation both linguistically or commercially which leads to 3) complete misunderstanding of what Viper is. I must say, I am not heartbroken by this.
[1] Again this is going off personal observations, there could be whole swaths of seltzer drinkers I am simply unaware of, but bars and grocery stores, etc. do not seem to be necessarily stocked with the products.
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