Company: Coors Brewing Co., Golden, Colo.

Beverage: Hard Green Apple Zima XXX

It has been more than 10 years since Coors Brewing Co., Golden, Colo., entered the malternative category with Zima, and the brand has undergone several evolutions. Today, it is known as Zima XXX, and at a time when new product releases in malternatives are few and far between, the brightly colored, reincarnated Zima shows Coors’ commitment to the category. Coors’ latest debut of Hard Green Apple Zima XXX is expected to be a top seller.  

“Hard Green Apple builds on the momentum we’ve generated for Zima XXX since we launched three new flavors last year,” says Sara Mirelez, brand director for Zima XXX at Coors Brewing Co.

The process for creating the new apple flavor to kick off 2005 was based largely on what consumers preferred in a highly competitive tasting.

“Coors research and development worked with several flavor companies to create about 60 new flavor concepts, ranging from chocolate to raspberry Zima XXX,” says Keith Villa, brewmaster at Coors Brewing Co. “Then a cross-functional team from Coors tasted and narrowed down the flavor concepts to about 12 unique flavors. Consumers chose the winning flavor, and by a wide margin they selected Hard Green Apple.”

The Zima XXX line’s bright colors match flavors such as Lemon Lime, Black Cherry and Orange, and the target audience is men and women, ages 21 to 29 years old. The new flavor will be on store shelves beginning at the end of the month in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles and 24-ounce cans.