Surfside drinks on show on the commerce present throughout CinemaCon 2026 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on April 15, 2026.
Travis P Ball | AP
A few decade in the past, gross sales of LaCroix started to skyrocket. Quickly, flavored seltzers had been all over the place, from grocery retailer fridges to liquor retailer cabinets.
However the period of bubbles seems to be like it’s winding down, due to seltzer fatigue. Now, non-carbonated drinks, from Liquid Dying to Surfside Iced Teas, are taking the highlight.
“If you concentrate on the place there’s extra development, the place there’s extra client curiosity relative to a couple years in the past, it is a shift extra to nonetheless, throughout each [alcohol] and non-alc,” mentioned Randy Burt, Americas director of client merchandise at consulting agency AlixPartners.
That is to not say seltzers and different carbonated drinks will disappear. However their development has slowed, as Technology Z more and more seeks out choices with out bubbles and beverage corporations focus extra of their innovation efforts on fizz-free drinks.
Look no additional than the alcohol class. Malt-based onerous seltzers, which incorporates White Claw, noticed quantity drop 1.1% within the 52 weeks ended April 26, in contrast with the year-ago interval, in line with information from market analysis agency Circana. However, ready-to-drink premixed cocktails noticed quantity develop 46.4% in the identical time, fueled by development from Surfside, Solar Cruiser, BuzzBallz and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Cutwater Spirits, which has each carbonated and non-carbonated choices.
Bursting bubbles
A lot of the driving drive behind the change from bubbly to noncarbonated drinks is coming from Gen Z, which is usually outlined as individuals born between 1997 and 2012. Over their lifetime, soda consumption has dropped dramatically from its peak in 1998, reusable water bottles have develop into a staple accent, and a plethora of recent drinks like refreshers and soiled soda have gone mainstream.
Broadly, Gen Z needs to attempt new merchandise. Whereas older generations present extra model loyalty to their favourite beer or cocktail, youthful shoppers have a unique mentality.
“We’re seeing loads of promiscuity inside consumption and alcohol round new merchandise,” mentioned Scott Scanlon, government vice chairman of alcoholic drinks for Circana, citing the rise of White Claw and Actually about eight years in the past. “Now what we’re seeing is then shoppers soar to the latest product — that is Surfside, Solar Cruiser due to that.”
He sees a generational shift between Gen Z and their predecessors, millennials, who could not get sufficient of seltzers.
As Gen Z reaches ingesting age, their alcoholic preferences replicate that generational divide. Non-carbonated alcoholic drinks like Surfside and BeatBox are stealing “share of throat” from onerous seltzers, which have seen their development sluggish.
“Gen Z is much more more likely to order tea-based drinks at completely satisfied hour, they usually’re form of transferring from carbonated — or seltzers — as their default, ‘higher for you’ choose,” Burt mentioned. “I believe that is a part of the shift, towards wellness and performance that you just’re seeing occur, particularly from a Gen Z perspective.”
For followers of some drinks, like practical teas and coffees that concentrate on stress aid or immune assist, going fizz-free makes extra sense, given the drinks’ non-carbonated base.
Plus, some shoppers don’t view carbonation because the wholesome possibility.
Carbonated water is barely acidic, which might put on down tooth enamel when consumed in giant portions, particularly if the seltzer makes use of citric acid for flavoring. Plus fizzy drinks may cause bloating and burping for some individuals. After which there’s the affiliation bubbles of any sort can share with sugary sodas.
What is the tea?
Alcohol is main the development, due to the meteoric rise of Surfside.
Indie vodka distiller Stateside Manufacturers launched the onerous iced tea model in 2022. The ready-to-drink beverage makes use of vodka as a base and iced tea and lemonade as a mixer.
On the time of its launch, carbonation was all over the place throughout the alcohol trade.
“Among the many choices on the market had been carbonated iced tea and carbonated lemonade, which is rather less uncommon, however we had been similar to ‘What the heck, man? Who carbonates iced tea?’ That appears unholy,” mentioned Stateside co-founder and CEO Clement Pappas.
Customers appeared to agree. By 2024, Surfside was the fastest-growing alcohol model within the U.S., based mostly on Nielsen IQ information.
“I believe there was an enormous pent-up demand for non-carbonated choices,” Pappas mentioned. “There are only a few on the market, particularly in a ready-to-drink format.”
Surfside’s buyer base skews feminine. Pappas mentioned that most of the model’s followers dislike carbonation as a result of they discover it results in bloating, significantly after consuming a number of drinks in a sitting.
Stateside is leaning additional into fizz-free drinks with its newest model: Tremendous Lyte. The model nonetheless makes use of vodka as a base, however the mixer is impressed by basic sports activities drinks.
Whereas Surfside might have popped the seltzer bubble, different non-carbonated alcoholic drinks have grown rapidly since then.
Quantity development of Cutwater’s canned cocktails has practically doubled over the past 12 months, in line with Scanlon. BeatBox, a wine-based punch model that’s majority owned by InBev, has additionally seen demand for its drinks skyrocket because the alcohol big has ramped up its distribution. After which there may be BuzzBallz pre-mixed cocktails, which launched in 2009 however has seen its development rocket after its acquisition by Sazerac in 2024.
Established alcohol gamers have additionally been making an attempt to tackle Surfside, additional boosting the profile of non-carbonated drinks within the class. Twisted Tea proprietor Boston Beer launched Solar Cruiser in 2024 with the purpose of immediately competing with Surfside.
To this point, Surfside retains an even bigger slice of total market share, though Solar Cruiser is rising quicker as of late.
Bubble-free Celsius heats up
Instances of Celsius power drinks at a retailer in San Francisco on March 17, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
On the non-alcoholic facet, the shift towards bubble-free drinks is not as robust, in line with AlixPartners’ Burt. Some carbonated drinks are nonetheless displaying robust development; PepsiCo’s Poppi, in addition to power drinks like Celsius and Ghost, are seeing robust demand.
However there are indicators that the delicate drink panorama is shifting.
Celsius, for instance, expanded its fizz-free line of power drinks earlier this 12 months, impressed by Gen Z’s concentrate on wellness and the overall development towards noncarbonated drinks in different classes. Usually, carbonated choices dominate the power drink aisle, permitting Celsius to face out and win over clients who may in any other case keep on with tea or espresso for his or her caffeine repair.
The model’s pre-existing noncarbonated peach mango inexperienced tea taste is persistently a prime 10 performer for Celsius and is at the moment within the quantity 4 slot throughout all of its flavors, in line with Celsius Chief Model Officer Kyle Watson.
The expanded line has helped Celsius develop gross sales from Gen Z and girls, two key segments within the power drink class.
“In focus teams that we have had … even our model ambassadors throughout all of our universities, loads of them speak about how they do not like ingesting glowing,” Watson mentioned.
When shoppers drink “practical drinks — like these touting excessive protein content material, prebiotics, caffeine or different advantages — they need “a greater taste expertise,” in line with Watson.
Watson mentioned that a part of the attraction of the fizz-free line is the way it goes down “actually easy,” making it a greater pairing for meals. About 37% of Celsius shoppers eat their power drinks with a meal, in line with Watson.
And Celsius has made positive to place its noncarbonated bona fides entrance and heart of the road’s packaging.
“With the enlargement, we additionally needed to guarantee that the callout round being fizz-free and that attribute of it being noncarbonated and having that easy, refreshing taste profile was extra prevalent on the precise can design,” Watson mentioned.
Some different beverage manufacturers are betting massive on the swing away from fizz.
“Our product is extraordinarily drinkable due to the shortage of carbonation,” Trace CEO Michael Pengue mentioned in an interview.
Based in 2005, the flavored water firm has a faithful fan base, significantly in Silicon Valley. However the model has gotten “dusty,” and its development has stagnated, in line with Pengue. He’s hoping that customers’ shift away from bubbles will increase gross sales, together with new packaging and a horny new advert marketing campaign. (Whereas Trace has some glowing choices, it’s a a lot smaller a part of the model’s portfolio, in line with Pengue.)
Earlier in Pengue’s profession, he led Nestle’s water and tea manufacturers, which incorporates Perrier and San Pellegrino.
“I used to be on the opposite facet of carbonation when carbonated delicate drink shoppers had been searching for more healthy alternate options, getting away from aspartame or excessive fructose corn syrup, they usually moved over to Perrier, San Pellegrino, Polar, LaCroix,” he mentioned. “All of glowing [water] exploded. We’re seeing the identical precise factor now, simply the alternative.”
Trace’s nonetheless flavored water affords “drinkability” and “pure hydration”, giving the model an edge over glowing waters that can’t be drank as rapidly, in line with Pengue. He mentioned it additionally has a “sensory softness” that appeals to shoppers who don’t just like the chunk of carbonation.
Can-do perspective
For many years, an aluminum can with a pull tab often meant a carbonated beverage like beer, soda or seltzer was inside.
However as of late, most new non-carbonated drinks are coming in cans, resembling the seltzers and bubbly drinks from which they’re stealing share.
“The can is profitable,” Ball CEO Ronald Lewis mentioned on the corporate’s earnings convention name earlier this month.
Liquid Dying canned water drinks at a retailer in Pinole, California, US, on Monday, March 11, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
He would know. Ball is the world’s largest producer of aluminum packaging.
Celsius’s Watson credit Liquid Dying with paving the way in which for shoppers to just accept fizz-free canned drinks.
When Liquid Dying founder Mike Cessario began the corporate in 2017, he couldn’t discover a single bottler within the U.S. able to placing nonetheless water in cans. Non-carbonated drinks require a fast dose of nitrogen to maintain the can from collapsing on itself, presenting one subject for bottlers; carbonation creates excessive inner strain to permits a can to maintain its form.
Cessario instructed CNBC that the important thing to getting shoppers to purchase canned water — an in any other case unthinkable proposition — was by positioning Liquid Dying as a cool model.
“We designed it to look extra like a beer than a water, so it felt like one thing much more acquainted to individuals than similar to a bizarre bottled water in a can,” Cessario mentioned.
Liquid Dying has since launch glowing and flavored glowing traces, though it returned to its non-carbonated roots with iced tea in 2023.
For beverage corporations, aluminum cans are sometimes cheaper than glass bottles and a extra sustainable possibility than plastic bottles.
And for shoppers, cans really feel colder — and possibly even cooler, a callback to the final wave of classy drinks in the course of the seltzer growth.
