The 2 Best Hard Seltzers of 2025

We appreciate the natural taste of Happy Dad’s seltzers, but the flavors are far too subtle, the texture is thin, and the carbonation is lacking.

Nectar makes a killer lychee seltzer, but all of the other seltzers in the Original variety pack taste flat and more artificial — though their flavor is so mellow that it’s difficult to taste much at all.

The black cherry and lime seltzers from White Claw’s original variety pack taste like classic fountain drinks, but they taste more artificial than our picks—including the White Claw Vodka + Soda seltzers—and the texture is syrupy. They also leave an astringent aftertaste, and the bubbles turn flat as soon as they hit the palate.

The Truly strawberry lime and blueberry seltzers smell and taste more like candy than real fruit or juice. They’re also a bit too sweet then acrid on the finish. And the carbonation is underwhelming.

The Michelob Ultra variety pack as a whole ranged from strange to great. Certain flavors tasted funky and wrong, like the watermelon strawberry flavor, which reminded our testers of seaweed. But the cucumber lime flavor was one of our favorite seltzers of the bunch, because the cucumber notes are strong and aromatic, and it’s very light and refreshing. These are also some of the only seltzers we’ve found that don’t contain added sweetener of any kind—they actually taste like flavored seltzer.

The Corona hard seltzers are well carbonated, but they’re overly sweet and leave a saccharine coating on the tongue long after they’re gone.

We dismissed Kirkland’s hard seltzers because the black cherry and mango flavors had unpleasant aromas, tasted cloying and bitter, and left an unpleasant metallic aftertaste.

The Bud Light black cherry and mango seltzers tasted bitter, musky, and unbalanced, and the carbonation is almost nonexistent.

We found two out of the four options in Seagram’s Escapes Classic variety pack to be undrinkable. The Jamaican Me Happy seltzer is overly sweet and syrupy, and the blueberry acai lemonade seltzer tastes unpleasantly like grape-flavored Nyquil mixed with sugar.

The pineapple mango and strawberry kiwi seltzers we tried from Vizzy had potent, skunky smells, and their soapy, synthetic flavors reminded us of the fragrances found in Bath & Body Works.

Nearly every aspect of the Press hard seltzers we tried was objectionable—they smelled and tasted rancid, the carbonation was weak, and they had a palpable, malty aftertaste.

We disliked the cloying mouthfeel and astringent aftertaste of the Topo Chico hard seltzers, and the lemon lime and strawberry guava flavors tasted downright off. Our testers compared the flavor to mop water, candy sprayed by a skunk, and three-hour-old strawberry chewing gum.

Trader Joe’s has its own line of hard seltzers under the name Shell House. Our testers in New York and California found different variety packs in stock at our local storefronts, and none of the flavors we tried were good. They had a fuzzy texture and tasted dusty.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.