America’s Most Popular RTDs, Ranked by Alcohol Content [Infographic]

Ready-to-drink (RTD) products are on fire, and much of that flame is fueled by their ease, nostalgic flavors, and high volume of booze. We have a sneaking suspicion that the latter is what the young’uns are looking for the most, as it’s becoming increasingly evident that recently of-age drinkers want to feel a buzz fast. To appeal to these consumers, alcohol brands’ RTD offerings continue to climb the ABV ladder, as evidenced by the recent slew of jacked-up releases.

What constitutes an RTD can be controversial. Some consider the category to only cover wine- and spirit-based offerings, whereas others would throw flavored malt beverages (FMBs) in there as well. For our purposes, we included FMBs in this list because they are incredibly similar to the rest of the category in form and function.

A new RTD release seems to hit the market every day, so we compiled some of the nation’s favorites to see how they compare in alcohol content. Here are the most popular RTDs in the U.S., listed in ascending order by ABV.

High Noon (4.5%)

Gallo introduced High Noon in 2019, and it is now the category leader of spirit-based RTDs, according to Shanken News Daily’s Impact Databank. High Noon’s original concept was a line of vodka-based seltzers kissed with a bit of fruit juice. Over the years, the brand has tacked on a line of vodka-spiked iced teas and tequila seltzers with blood orange, grapefruit, lime, and pear flavors. While High Noon ranks No. 1 in volume sales, relative to the rest of the category, it lags behind in ABV. That’s probably what the brand is going for, as these top-selling seltzers are meant to be sipped under the sun.

NÜTRL (4.5%)

Canadian couple Paul and Melissa Meehan founded NÜTRL in 2014 before AB InBev scooped it up in 2022 and brought it stateside. The brand produces vodka-based seltzers in fruit flavors like pineapple, peach, and strawberry, as well as specific lines of lemonade- and cranberry-based flavored vodka seltzers. Coming in at 4.5 percent ABV per can, NÜTRL ranks on the mellower side of the RTD ABV spectrum.

Surfside (4.5%)

Surfside launched in Philadelphia in 2022 as a canned, vodka-based iced tea and lemonade beverage from the same team behind Stateside Vodka. It quickly rose to become the No. 2 best-selling spirit-based RTD in 2025, second to only High Noon, according to Shanken News Daily. Surfside’s current offerings include iced tea and vodka, lemonade and vodka, and half-and-half and vodka. Each of the three categories comes in both plain or fruit flavors.

Sun Cruiser (4.5%)

Boston Beer Company launched Sun Cruiser in 2024. While other RTD brands added on iced tea-and- vodka cans after making a name for themselves with flavored seltzers, vodka-based Sun Cruiser first hit the market with its Classic Iced Tea. The iced tea lineup now includes half & half, peach, and raspberry flavors. In its second year of business, the brand added a roster of lemonade-flavored vodka cocktails.

Carbliss (5.0%)

Adam and Amanda Kroener came up with the idea for a tasty, better-for-you canned cocktail while on a low-calorie, low-carb diet. They founded Carbliss — a canned vodka cocktail — in 2019. The product contains no carbs, as the name phonetically suggests, as well as no sugar and only 100 calories. The vodka-based line comes in single-fruit flavors, as well as in lemon-lime and lemon iced tea. Carbliss’s tequila-based line, consisting of Margarita and Strawberry Margarita flavors, entered the market in 2023.

SipMARGS (5.0%)

Joey Angelo and Brian Axelrod founded SipMARGS in 2021, but it underwent a full rebrand when ultra-popular influencer Alix Earle invested in the brand alongside Palm Tree Crew, an entertainment and lifestyle company co-founded by the DJ Kygo, in 2025. The brand crafts canned, sparkling Margaritas, ranging in flavor from classic lime to spicy. It sources its tequila and, for one of its products, mezcal from Jalisco, Mexico. Currently, SipMARGS is only available in nine states, but Sazerac’s recent investment in the company will likely expand its reach.

White Claw (5.0%)

Mark Anthony Brands founded White Claw in 2016, and it quickly became one of the most ubiquitous RTDs in the country. Though consumers may believe the alcohol in White Claws is vodka, these carbonated cans are actually malt based. (The brand uses gluten-free malts.) The cans are known for their piquant, fruit-forward flavors like green apple, pineapple, and watermelon. By 2021, White Claw accounted for over half of the hard seltzer market share.

The Finnish Long Drink (5.5%)

American Evan Burns and Finns Sakari Manninen, Mikael Taipale, and Ere Partanen founded The Finnish Long Drink in 2017 and introduced the carbonated, gin-based canned cocktail to the U.S. in 2018. The idea stemmed from a longstanding Finnish drinking tradition. For the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, the Finnish government invented the “long drink” — a simple, effervescent, fruit-flavored gin cocktail that would be easy to serve to the mass of attendees. Now, The Finnish Long Drink cans come in a range of fruity flavors, such as peach, cranberry, and traditional citrus.

Monaco (9.0%)

Atomic Brands founded Monaco in 2012. Its flavors range from fruity (citrus and watermelon) to dessert-like (vanilla cream). Its products also straddle five different types of spirits: Cognac, gin, rum, tequila, and vodka. Its website notes that there are two shots of booze in every can, accounting for its 9 percent ABV.

BeatBox (11.1%)

Justin Fenchel, Aimy Steadman, and Brad Schultz founded BeatBox as MBA students in 2011 as a large-format, vodka-based punch meant to serve a crowd. They later flipped the script by repackaging their product in individual, resealable Tetra Paks — a move that met consumers’ desires for ease. Once the brand repositioned itself as an RTD, it catapulted to its current popularity. The founders also reworked the beverage itself: The alcohol in BeatBox is now wine made from orange peels heavily dressed up with sugar and fruity flavorings like blue raspberry and watermelon lemonade. These brightly colored, nostalgically designed pouches pack a punch with 11.1 percent ABV.

Cutwater (12.5%)

Canned cocktails began as a side project for Cutwater Spirits, an offshoot of Ballast Point Spirits, in 2013. Cutwater was bought by AB InBev in 2019 and has since risen in the ranks to become one of the top-selling RTDs in the country. The brand veers from the category’s trends by flavoring and labeling its cans after already-established cocktails, covering concoctions with gin, rum, tequila, vodka, and whiskey bases. For instance, its current lineup includes canned versions of a Lime Margarita, Long Island Iced Tea, Banana Mudslide, Chocolate Espresso Martini, and White Russian.

BuzzBallz (15%)

Then-high school teacher Merrilee Kick came up with the idea for BuzzBallz in the mid-aughts based on her wish to sip a cocktail out of a plastic container while grading students’ papers. The resulting product is small but certainly mighty. A standard BuzzBallz packs 15 percent ABV into a tiny, 200-milliliter bulb. Now, the brand is under Sazerac’s purview after a 2024 acquisition. The spirits in BuzzBallz’s Cocktails and Mixed Drinks lines depend on the flavor, but most contain rum, tequila, or vodka. There’s also a line of flavored Chillers, and the base of each is an orange fruit wine. Its offerings begin with typical flavors like grape, cherry, and watermelon. From there, the options grow zanier with Choc Tease, Horchata, Hazelnut Latte, and Chili Mango, among others.

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