Welcome to the Age of Hard Juice | The New York Times

Breweries and beverage companies are now creating so-called hard juice, no precedents written in stone fruit. Last year, Molson Coors Beverage Company partnered with the Coca-Cola Company to create Simply Spiked, which includes Simply peach and lemonade juices. In March, New Belgium Brewing introduced its Wild Nectar Hard Juice line that features tropical juice mixes, including strawberry guava.

Hard juice is part of the natural progression toward beverages built around big flavors, not an alcohol category like beer or wine. “It’s a blurry space and that’s the point,” New Belgium chief marketing officer Shaun Belongie wrote in an email. “Drinkers just want something delicious and refreshing.”

For my latest article in the New York Times, I look at how companies are approaching the still-burgeoning category of hard juice.