“It’s just a fad,” they said. “The hype will die down.”
They were wrong. Back in 2016, aging Millenials and downright ancient Gen-Xers — with their outdated soul patches and artisanal whiskies — were unwilling to give White Claw a chance. Back then there were only four flavors and no one really cared about the term “hard seltzer.” Flash forward five years and there are nineteen White Claw flavors on the market. Every drinks brand on earth has some sort of alcoholic fizzy water clogging up shelves.
White Claw is so pervasive now that restaurants offer the stuff right alongside cocktails and beer. So it feels safe to say that the phenomenon isn’t going anywhere. If that fact has you all worked up, well… we get it, we love a great cocktail just as much as the next person. But the hard seltzer industry and other ready-to-drink cocktail brands provide something that the next generation of drinkers and partiers want — convenience.
Is any single can of White Claw as good as a mixed drink crafted by a person who really knows what they’re doing? Nope. But White Claw offers an affordable, easy-to-drink, low-calorie, low-sugar option that won’t weigh you down like a beer, still tastes sort of like a cocktail, and, most importantly, gets the job done.
Having said that, not every flavor of White Claw is worth your time — some are straight-up gross. The next time you’re at a party (which thankfully, are a thing again) we don’t want you wasting your time with something that tastes akin to an old, dusty lime peel (exactly what White Claw Natural Lime tastes like). So we’ve taste-tested every single flavor of White Claw currently on the market in an effort to separate the good stuff from the trash.
Ready? Let’s crush some Claws.
19. White Claw Ruby Grapefruit
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Green)
Tasting Notes:
If you’re looking for the worst flavor of White Claw to gleefully pass to your frenemy the next time you cross paths at a party, look no further. When they pop open a can they’ll be instantly greeted with a pleasant burst of fragrant grapefruit accompanied by a sizzle of bubbles that would suggest refreshing crispness. Then BAM they drink the stuff and it just tastes like nothing. Got ’em!
Imagine La Croix’s Pamplemousse flavor + alcohol and you’ll have a good idea of what White Claw Ruby Grapefruit tastes like. That may sound good but it’s not. Pour gin in your La Croix instead.
The Bottom Line::
As bad as licking a rind. Except with 12 ounces to endure.
18. White Claw Natural Lime
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Green)
Tasting Notes:
The fact that White Claw calls its lime flavor “Natural Lime,” should read to you like a red flag. Why aren’t the other flavors dubbed “natural?” Where is my Natural Blackberry? Regardless, this still smells like fake-ass artificial lime. It’s like when you order a margarita and instead get a drink with margarita mix or sweet and sour rather than fresh-squeezed lime juice.
In my notes, I wrote: “White Claw Natural Lime tastes like an old lime peel that fell on the floor and was stepped on a bunch of times by people who were walking in manure for some inexplicable reason.” That assessment still stands. There is something manure-esque about this flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Anything with artificial lime flavor tastes highly chemical, don’t be fooled by the use of the word “natural.”
17. White Claw Surge Natural Lime
Average Price: $18.09 (12-Pack Variety)
Tasting Notes
Even though I think White Claw’s Natural Lime is the worst flavor ever, it must sell well because they felt the need to make a Surge version of the flavor, which contains 8% alcohol by volume over the usual 5%.
It’s only better because you can taste less of what makes Natural Lime so bad.
The Bottom Line
More alcohol helps to drown out this flavor but there will never be enough alcohol in the world to be able to drown away the memory of drinking White Claw Natural Lime.
16. White Claw Strawberry
Average Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Red Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
I need to talk to whoever keeps buying strawberry-flavored things. Whoever you are, please stop. Strawberry flavored candy, wine, blunt wraps, drinks, gum, they’re all awful. Strawberry works in two forms: fruit and ice cream. Anything else is awful and that especially includes White Claw Strawberry.
I’ll give it to White Claw though, they didn’t even try to make this taste natural. It’s aggressively artificial while still somehow tasting like nothing.
The Bottom Line:
Imagine using an empty glass cup as a bowl for strawberries, and then using that cup to drink flat club soda immediately after without washing it out. That still tastes better (and more like a strawberry) than this.
15. White Claw Iced Tea Raspberry
Average Price: $18.99 (12-pack Variety)
Tasting Notes:
White Claw recently launched a line of Hard Tea seltzers because that’s what everyone is doing right now. Why? Seriously, seltzer tea has got to be the worst form factor for tea ever. I understand the appeal of hard tea but please, don’t make tea fizz.
Tea is bitter, subtly sweet, and calming — adding fizz to it doesn’t make it more palatable, it just makes it taste dirty. Each flavor in White Claw’s tea line tastes a bit sweeter than your average White Claw (for some reason) and the inclusion of tea softens some of the characteristic bite. This sounds like a good thing but the resulting flavor never comes together right.
The Bottom Line:
Each flavor from White Claw’s Iced Tea line is bad, but nothing is as bad as Raspberry.
14. White Claw Watermelon
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Yellow)
Tasting Notes:
Watermelon-flavored things are pretty hit-or-miss across the board. Sour-Punch Watermelon? Delicious. Watermelon Jolly Rancher? Essentially trash. File this flavor under trash. White Claw Watermelon smells almost exactly like a watermelon Jolly Rancher complete with an overly candied flavor to match with an unappetizing flat after taste that lingers on the palate longer than it’s welcomed.
The flavor is so flat and uneventful that you’ll find yourself reaching for more sips in order to taste it more. You’ll be trying in vain.
The Bottom Line:
Maybe it can work as the base for a mixed drink, I haven’t tried that, but as it stands, skip this one. Even if you’re curious.
13. White Claw Surge Cranberry
Average Price: $18.09 (12-Pack Surge Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
The Surge series is White Claw’s newest product line and offers a taller can with 8% alcohol by volume rather than the usual 5%. That gives this flavor a much more pronounced kick and will provide a nice feel-good buzz. I just don’t love this Cranberry flavor.
None of the tartness of actual cranberries is present here, instead, you just get a bitter aftertaste coupled with an already bitter alcohol base. It really puts the flavor of White Claw’s alcohol base front and center, and that’s not a good thing.
The Bottom Line
A strong kick and a nice buzz, but one of the Surge line’s weakest flavors.
12. White Claw Iced Tea Lemon
Average Price: $18.99 (12-pack Iced Tea Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes
If you’ve ever wondered what a White Claw version of Lipton Lemon Iced Tea would taste like, you’ve found it. As I mentioned previously, adding a fizzy dry alcohol base to the delicate flavor of tea just makes it taste dirty and bitter, but this flavor features a slight lemon lift that makes it a bit more palatable.
If you’re obsessed with the idea of hard tea, you’re still better off buying a bottle of Lipton and adding a glug or two of vodka over reaching for a can of this.
The Bottom Line
Slightly better than Iced Tea Raspberry in that drinking it won’t make you gag. But there are still better choices out there.
11. White Claw Iced Tea Mango
Average Price: $18.99 (12-pack Iced Tea Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
As you progress through this ranking you’ll find that we think very highly of White Claw Mango. It’s simply one of the brand’s best flavors, so it makes sense that they included it in their hard iced tea lineup. But as good as the OG mango flavor is, it’s still not good enough to convince us that hard tea seltzers are a good idea.
The mango flavoring here drowns out some of that flat tea flavor that makes this line so gross, but we’re pretty sure masking that flavor is not the point of White Claw’s iced tea line. As it stands, it tastes like a worse version of a flavor that’s actually good — so even though we prefer it to a lot of the other flavors in the iced tea line, we still don’t recommend it.
The Bottom Line
If White Claw’s OG Mango flavor is too sweet for you, Iced Tea Mango might hit the spot. But we’re not interested in being friends with you if that’s the case.
10. White Claw Lemon
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Yellow)
Tasting Notes:
For whatever reason, artificial lemon just tastes way less offensive to me than artificial lime. Maybe it has something to do with the way White Claw’s alcohol base pairs with the lemon, but this doesn’t taste too far off from a vodka soda with a lemon twist. Notes of bitter lemon peel dominate the flavor here. It’s not good, but it’s far from being bad.
The Verdict:
Go Lemon over Lime everytime.
9. White Claw Iced Tea Peach
Average Price: $18.99 (12-pack Variety)
Tasting Notes:
Peach is hands down the best flavor in the White Claw Iced Tea line, but does that mean it’s good? Yes, actually. This is the only one that works, the flat tea flavor softens the dry bitterness of White Claw’s alcohol base and provides an interesting slightly sweetened aftertaste that lingers pleasantly on the palate.
We’re still convinced this would taste better without the fizz, but… we’ll tolerate it.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re interested in White Claw’s Iced Tea line, try this flavor and this flavor only.
8. White Claw Surge Blackberry
Average Price: $18.09 (12-Pack Variety)
Tasting Notes
White Claw’s OG Blackberry flavor is already incredibly subtle so it’s strange they chose this flavor to give the Surge treatment. With the stronger alcohol base, this one is almost completely flavorless aside from the bitter alcohol bite. I don’t know that I mind that.
Surge Blackberry has the smallest tinge of berry flavor to it and is remarkably versatile for building complex cocktails.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for the most neutral flavor White Claw, this is it. It’ll work in a pinch when you need to add a bit of club soda to a cocktail. As a flavor though, it doesn’t offer much. If you don’t like White Claw but it’s all they have at the party, grab this one. As a hard seltzer, it’s pretty good.
7. White Claw Blackberry
Average Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Red)
Tasting Notes:
The balance of flavors is slightly different here, but a lot of what I said about Surge Blackberry still applies — this is an incredibly versatile flavor that acts as a great base for a cocktail but unlike the Surge version, you can actually enjoy this one without mixing it into something else.
Blackberry is pleasantly fragrant on the nose and so subtle on the palate that after a few cans you won’t even be able to taste the blackberry notes. For that reason, we’re going to suggest you drink this one first if you have plans to crush a paw (what I call four-to-five White Claws drunk in succession).
The Bottom Line
Bubbly and fragrant without being overly candied — this is a great one if you love subtle flavors. If you’re after a more pronounced fruit flavor, this one isn’t for you.
6. White Claw Black Cherry
Average Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Green)
Tasting Notes:
White Claw Black Cherry smells of pure candied death. But while I hate the way this flavor smells with a passion, the flavor is on freaking point. Notes of deep cherry pair surprisingly well with White Claw’s bitter dry alcohol base.
This is a great flavor to try for first-timers because it’ll give you a good idea of what White Claw offers without tasting off-putting.
The Bottom Line:
The decider. If you don’t like White Claw Black Cherry, you probably just don’t like hard seltzer to begin with.
5. White Claw Tangerine
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Yellow)
Tasting Notes:
White Claw Tangerine is a flavor that was introduced early last year and it still remains one of the best the brand has ever dropped. On the nose, Tangerine is shockingly close to the actual smell of freshly peeled tangerine. It has this remarkable zest that is incredibly appetizing. On the palate, it tastes like a slightly overripened tangerine, which I know sounds bad but just hear me out for a second. While you wouldn’t want to experience the fermenting bitterness of an actual overripened tangerine, in alcohol form that bitter base with subtle fruity top notes hits the spot just right.
To kick it up a notch, mix it with your favorite gin, and enjoy a very tasty gin and soda.
The Bottom Line:
This is bound to be somebody’s favorite flavor, even if it’s not mine. If you find someone at a party drinking White Claw Tangerine, that person either has great taste or they are benefitting from the luck of the draw. Either way, they make a better friend than the person who willfully drinks Natural Lime.
4. White Claw Mango
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Red Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
I don’t generally like Mango-flavored drinks, or hell, even actual mangos if I don’t have a shaker of Tajín nearby. But White Claw Mango just hits all the right notes, it’s pleasantly aromatic, crisp, and refreshing, and next to Golden Road’s Mango Cart, one of the best alcoholic mango drinks ever. The only thing I can think of that would make this drink better is the inclusion of some sort of spice. If White Claw can make Spicy Mango a thing, I’d give them all of my money.
What did they give us instead? F*cking Mango Tea. I’m still salty about that one.
The Bottom Line:
Almost essential. If your question is why have a White Claw over any other hard seltzer? The answer is because the Mango White Claw is fire, so shut up, drink it, and stop asking dumb questions, Cousin Greg.
3. White Claw Surge Blood Orange
Average Price: $18.09 (12-Pack Surge Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
My favorite flavor in the Surge line! Blood Orange isn’t just a good White Claw flavor, it’s one of the best hard seltzer flavors currently on the market. It’s surprisingly complex, bouncing between a bitter bite and a juicy body addicting enough that it’ll make you salivate in anticipation of your next sip.
The stronger alcohol by volume provides a nice buzz when coupled with the flavor make this one of the best single can experiences of White Claw you’ll ever have the pleasure of drinking.
The Bottom Line:
The best-tasting White Claw with the strongest kick.
2. White Claw Pineapple
Average Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Red Variety Pack)
Tasting Notes:
It seems weird that White Claw didn’t launch with a Pineapple flavor, but thankfully it’s here now. White Claw Pineapple is an improvement over the already delicious White Claw Mango. It presents a similar tropical flavor but where Mango has a round flavor to it, Pineapple has a slight tartness to it that compliments the bitter alcohol base while offering a lot of sweetness without tasting overly chemical or artificial.
The Bottom Line:
If you like White Claw Mango you’ll love the Pineapple version. It’s sweet and tart without tasting artificial or overwhelming.
1. White Claw Raspberry
Average Retail Price: $18.99 (12-Pack Variety Green)
Tasting Notes:
For as long as I’ve been ranking White Claws (this is my third time), Raspberry has always remained my favorite. In terms of flavor, balance, and bite, this one delivers best on all fronts. Raspberry features a great balance of bitter and sweet notes, while not being overly fragrant or artificial tasting, and White Claw’s clean alcohol base cuts through the strongest here in flavor, you really taste all 5% of that alcohol by volume. Granted, that’s not saying a lot, but if you actually like the taste of alcohol, Raspberry gives it to you.
By going light on the artificial raspberry flavor White Claw Raspberry plays it safe and it’s better for it. You’re not going to drink it, exclaim “mmm!” and instantly go out and buy a case of White Claw, but you’ll never get tired of this flavor and I’m not sure we can say that about any of the others.
The Bottom Line::
White Claw Raspberry is the only flavor you ever need to drink.
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