Boston Beer brings Truly into tequila soda to help revive brand

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Dive Brief:

• Boston Beer is rolling out nationwide Truly Tequila Soda, the hard seltzer brand’s latest product line. The beverage contains premium tequila blanco, real fruit juice and sparkling water, according to the company.
• Truly Tequila Soda arrives in four flavors: Lime, Grapefruit, Watermelon and Pineapple Guava. It contains 5% alcohol-by-volume and 110 calories per can. The national launch comes after the product was tested in select regions last year.
• The product launch comes as Truly and other hard seltzer brands struggle as more consumers leave the once-trendy category in search of other RTD alcohol offerings.

Dive Insight:

Boston Beer is hoping the tequila-based drink can chart a new path for the Truly brand.

In its earnings report in February, the company pointed to the hard seltzer brand as a major contributor to its 12% decline in revenue during its last quarter. But Boston Beer did highlight growth in Truly Vodka Soda as a promising sign for the brand. This could indicate interest from consumers beyond traditional malt-based seltzer.

“We’re re-crafting a new Truly brand to stand for light refreshment versus bolder flavors and are shifting the mix in that direction. This takes patience and time and we’re seeing progress in our efforts,” outgoing Boston Beer CEO David Burwick told analysts pn its most recent earnings call. “These innovations will better position the Truly brand offering and set it up well for continued improved trends in 2024.”

Last year, Boston Beer said it was evolving Truly into the “post-hype era” for hard seltzer by refreshing the brand. It redesigned the packaging of Truly products to emphasize its real fruit juice content and relaunched Truly Vodka Seltzer as Truly Vodka Soda.

The launch of Truly Tequila Soda comes after other alcohol manufacturers in the seltzer category embraced the agave-based liquor by incorporating it into its drinks. Boston Beer previously launched Sauza Agave Cocktails in 2021 in collaboration with Beam Suntory.

The leading brand in the hard seltzer category, White Claw, also recently introduced a new tequila-based offering in Canada. Similar to Truly’s new offering, White Claw Tequila Smash contains 5% ABV and real fruit juice. It appeared in select U.S. liquor stores in recent weeks, though there is no announcement yet about a nationwide launch. Seltzer brand High Noon launched its Tequila Seltzer in four flavors in 2023.

The market for tequila cocktails is projected to be worth $13.2 billion by 2030, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 5.9%, according to Virtue Market Research.