Since White Claw arrived in the UK in 2020, hard seltzers have continued to grow in popularity. These alcoholic sparkling waters are known for being low in calories, low in sugar and with minimal ingredients, while containing roughly the same amount of alcohol as a standard lager, up to about 5% ABV.
Hovering at about 100 calories a can and with a few carefully chosen natural flavourings plus spirit, seltzers have gained a reputation for being a relatively light choice. For this piece, 25 refreshing seltzers – alcoholic and non – were tasted to find those that deserve a place in a picnic.
Best Sustainable Seltzer
Singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding co-owns this high-end, sustainable seltzer with natural flavours. Using wonky fruit, quadruple-distilled beet vodka and natural plant-based flavourings, Served comes in at 95 calories a can. The raspberry flavour tastes like just-crushed raspberries in a clean, clear vodka soda and is naturally sweet.
Best Soft Seltzer
Dash Water is fresh and naturally light, with no sugar and zero calories. It is produced using spring water and fruit, including wonky and surplus produce from farmers' fields, and natural flavourings. The Pink Lady apple flavour is subtly tart, hydrating but with enough character to feel like a treat. Dash is a B Corp, making it a healthy choice beyond a standard soda.
Best Light Seltzer
Melleau sparkling vodka soda has a near-saintly 3.4% ABV, providing a sessionable drinking experience with juices and carefully selected botanicals. Choose from Tahiti lime and yuzu, raspberry and calamansi, passion fruit and pomelo, and blood orange spiked with bitters. All are gently effervescent with no added sugar and up to 95 calories a can.
Best Kombucha Seltzer
Buci hard kombucha is not strictly a seltzer but is seltzer-adjacent, being low in sugar with minimal ingredients. This hard kombucha of carbonated fermented green tea comes in three flavours: wild berries; ginger and lemon; and pear and elderflower. It uses only natural ingredients, with between 110 and 115 calories and a 5% ABV. The pear and elderflower has subtle notes of juniper and pepper, making it light and complex.
Best Supermarket Seltzer
Marks & Spencer hard seltzer is a low-calorie alcoholic serve with just 75 calories per 250ml despite its 4.5% ABV. The lemon and lime flavour is broadly enjoyed thanks to fresh zestiness, and although there are slightly detectable added sugars and flavourings, it tastes citrussy and clean without overt artificial sweetness.
Best Savoury Seltzer
Yew pickle sparkling water is a pickle-flavoured sparkling water spiked with a hearty splash of natural dill pickle flavour against a mellow backdrop of cucumber, plus a dose of organic kombucha. With no sugar and only trace calories (2kcal per 100ml), it is a healthy choice. It can also be mixed with gin, vodka or whisky.
Best Small-Batch Seltzer
Nethergate Brewery and Distillery makes the most of mineral-rich water flowing through ancient chalk beds beneath its Suffolk site to create fruity vodka seltzers. The blueberry and lime flavour is a juicy and floral option with a light ABV of 3.4% and 96 calories a can. The price is £1.30 a can.
Best-Tasting Seltzer
High Water’s flavours stood out as the most premium, natural and authentic-tasting, with the caveat that these are the least sweet of the bunch. The cucumber and mint flavour is herbaceous, refreshing and verdantly green. The mango and peach nails the tropical mango without resorting to the saccharine. All are made with a 5% British vodka, no sweeteners or preservatives and no more than 99 calories a can. One percent of company profits go to the Just One Ocean charity.
Best Craft Seltzer
Arrowtown vodka soda offers a black cherry and apple flavour that is a more refined version of similar options. Both use natural flavours and no artificial sweeteners. The peach and raspberry is bursting with sweet stone fruit and a luscious berry zing against triple-distilled vodka. It is 109 calories a can and 4.5% ABV, plus each can removes two plastic bottles from oceans.
Best Big-Brand Seltzer
White Claw remains the big hitter when it comes to hard seltzers. Staying true to its key selling points of natural flavours, low cal, low sugar and free from artificial sweeteners, it continues to launch great flavours. The green apple flavour is a current go-to, and its latest foray into lower-cal cocktails, Clawtails, is also successful, with the peach daiquiri in particular.
Joanne Gould is a food, drink and lifestyle writer with a decade of experience, taste-testing anything from South African wines to speciality coffee or scotch.
