White Claw Hard Seltzer

Submission 37,208

Part of a series on Hard Seltzer. [View Related Entries]

About

White Claw Hard Seltzer is an alcoholic seltzer water beverage created by Mark Anthony Brands. The drink comes in different flavors, such as mango, black cherry, lime, and others. Online, the prevalence of the beverage has led to memes and parodies which characterize those who drink it as normie and slightly obnoxious. The drink and its cultural presence has been compared to Four Loko and LaCroix.

History

White Claw launched in 2016. A Facebook page for the drink was created on April 4th, 2016.^[1] The drink was announced in a press release on June 24th, 2016 on Brewbound.^[2] The press release said of the beverage, "White Claw Hard Seltzer brings the simplicity that is seltzer water, along with a spike of alcohol and a hint of natural fruit flavor, to create a refreshing low calorie seltzer drink with no artificial ingredients… it’s a brand new kind of alcoholic refreshment that is more relevant than ever given today’s healthier lifestyles and choices."

White Claw began gaining more attention two summers later. On July 3rd, 2018, blog Post Grad Problems^[3] wrote an article comparing White Claw to Four Loko, a controversial drink that mixed caffeine and alcohol that was popular at the end of the 2000s, on the basis it was similarly trendy towards young people. It became much more popular the following summer, with several articles investigating the drink's popularity. Mel Magazine^[4] attributed the popularity of the drink along with other spiked seltzers to the drink's light caloric intake and suitability to day drinking. Several college students interviewed in the piece talked about how they could control their level of drunkeness well with spiked seltzer, and did not feel as bloated. Salon^[5] declared "It's a White Claw summer -- like it or not," writing that the popularity comes from the impression it is a health-conscious drink as well. The Takeout^[6] wrote White Claw became synonymous with hard seltzer, "like Band-Aid stands in for adhesive bandages."

Online Presence

White Claw has developed a strong online presence through ironic memes and parodies. There are several Instagram accounts devoted to jokes about White Claw, such as whiteclawgang^[7] (example shown below, left) and itsawhiteclawsummer^[8] (example shown below, right).

On June 25th, 2019, YouTube comedian Trevor Wallace posted a sketch about White Claw, drinking it and turning it into an over-the-top fratty character. The video helped spread the phase "Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws." Chris Furnari of Brewbound told Salon that consumers of White Claw "…either love wearing boat shoes, ‘Nantucket red’ shorts and playing corn hole, or love making fun of the Chads who do those things.”