It wasn’t long ago that Zima was the punchline of a joke, the drink loser boyfriends ordered on sitcoms. Sales of the clear near beer had plunged since its introduction in 1994, and Adolph Coors Co. was on the verge of discontinuing the brand.
But now the makers of these beer hybrids are having the last laugh. In the past few months, sales of Zima-like beverages such as Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Silver–what the industry calls “malternatives”–have skyrocketed. Even Zima is being relaunched. Drinkers, especially those aged 21-25, and especially women, have embraced the refreshments, all of which taste something like carbonated lemonade with a kick.
“Younger people have grown up on sweeter drinks, and they may find this to be less a transition than beer,” says Eric Shepard, executive editor of the trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Many of these drinks are imports from Europe, Canada and Australia, where so-called “alcopops” are already popular. Mike’s Hard Lemonade was the first to immigrate, in 2000, followed by Smirnoff Ice, which is brewed by Diageo PLC, a British conglomerate that also owns Captain Morgan rum.
Last year, 5 million barrels of malternatives were sold in America. That’s minuscule compared with the 201 million barrels of malt beverages overall, but with beer sales flat, it’s the fastest-growing segment of the $33 billion industry.
This year, a half-dozen new drinks will try to capitalize on the market: Skyy Blue and Stolichnaya Citrona to compete with Smirnoff Ice; Sauza Diablo, another tequila “flavored” drink to take on Tequiza; Mike’s Hard Iced Tea, to complement Mike’s Hard Lemonade and to flank Doc Otis and Jack Daniels’ lemonades; Captain Morgan Gold against Bacardi Silver; and something called Vibe, another malt beverage from Coors.
“Suppliers are always looking for ways to attract younger drinkers, and maybe they simply want a sweeter product,” Shepard says. “They’re very successful elsewhere — in Australia they have an 11 percent share.”
But other observers are less enthusiastic.
“It’s a fad,” says Mike Wilky, the longtime bar manager at the Off-Campus Pub, next to California State University in Fullerton. “Zima had its day. I only kept it until Smirnoff Ice came along, for the women. Not very many guys drink it.”
Shepard says the current marketing blitz reminds him of the halcyon days of the wine cooler, when Bruce Willis hawked Seagrams, and Bartles and Jaymes (or at least the actors who played them) became household faces. Coolers were the hot drinks of 1985, then dwindled to insignificance.
“I think people realized they tasted like (expletive),” Shepard says. “With (malternatives), they have a better-tasting product. But it still could be a faddish thing. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
