The Calypso-inspired song “Feeling Hot Hot Hot” by Montserratian musician Arrow has people dancing and singing along to “Ole ole – ole ole, hot, hot, hot” as it extols party people to join the celebration. Recognizing a good thing, over the past 25 years the fun party song has been played on cruise ships and re-released by countless artists including Buster Poindexter and His Banshees of Blue and Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Don Omar. Within the beverage category, hard seltzers are sizzling “hot hot hot,” with dollar sales of $4.3 billion and a nearly 70% year-over-year (YOY) growth for the 52 weeks ending June 13, according to data from Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI).

Scott Scanlon, executive vice president for BevAl Vertical at IRI, notes that the ready-to-drink (RTD) hard seltzer category had experienced triple-digit growth from 2018-2020, with no signs of cooling down. “Total hard seltzers are up 33% in 2021 and had $0.5 billion in growth year-to-date thru June 20, 2021,” he says. “They are now a 7% share of total beverage alcohol (TBA) dollars with sales totaling $2.1 billion. This was despite the cycling COVID panic buying/channel shift in 2020.