Truly: 8 Best Flavors & 4 Alternatives + Originals

Diana Barkley (Senior Editor)

Truly hard seltzer hasn’t been around for incredibly long yet, compared to other alcoholic beverages. In this article we’ll delve deeper into what makes Truly so popular, the best flavor varieties to try, and interesting facts about the brand.

In the nearly 10 years since its inception, Truly has taken the American alcoholic drinks market by storm. They’re well-known for producing low sugar and low calorie seltzers with a ‘kick’ — as well as many, many delicious flavor varieties.

Hard seltzers first became popular around the mid-2010s. Beverage brands such as Truly and White Claw hit peak popularity around 2019, when alcoholic seltzers became somewhat iconic summertime drinks.

Truly still remains a unique brand to this day, largely due to its interesting variety of flavors (Desert Orange anyone?), diet-friendly concoctions, and celeb collaborations. 

What to Know about Truly Flavors

What to Know about Truly Flavors

Truly is currently a market leader when it comes to hard seltzers, particularly in America. So it comes as no surprise that there are plenty of fun facts to be found about the brand.

For a start, Truly is made by the Boston Beer Company, which is known for making an effort to become more sustainable. This is a popular move, particularly when it comes to younger consumers today.

The drink has been endorsed by a range of modern celebrities, including comedian Keegan-Michael Key, singer-songwriters SZA and Dua Lipa, and soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Some have even been known to collaborate with the brand to produce limited edition flavors.

The Truly brand is keen to promote a kind of laid back summer lifestyle. Its marketing campaigns focus on Truly being the drink of choice for beach parties, outdoor activities, and social get togethers.

Besides the above, easily Truly’s most fun, interesting fact is its founder: Truly was in fact created by a female graduate who had only recently begun a role as a product developer at the Boston Beer Company.

Nowadays, she’s their Director of Product Development, but more on why she created Truly in the next sections.

Origin of Truly Hard Seltzer

Origin of Truly Hard Seltzer

The creator of Truly hard seltzers is Casey O’Neill, and her invention story is both ingenious and very simple: she wanted to enjoy a drink post workout, but didn’t want to negate all the hard work she’d put in.

Truly was born and quickly became hugely popular. In the meantime, Casey’s career skyrocketed.

Who Invented Truly

Who Invented Truly

Casey O’Neill, who was a product developer at the Boston Beer Company at the time. She’d only recently graduated the Master of Science in Innovation program at Northeastern University when she developed the popular drink.

Since then, she’s gone from strength to strength within the Boston Beer Company.

Ingredients of Typical Truly Drinks

Ingredients of Typical Truly Drinks

Truly’s hard seltzers are typically made with real fruit juice concentrates, natural fruit flavoring, and corn-based vodka, as well as filtered carbonated water.

The ingredients are generally quite simple, with little in the way of additives and artificial extras.

What Truly Tastes Like

What Truly Tastes Like

Truly seltzers are known for being (for the most part) light and refreshing, with just hints of fruity flavoring.

They’re not just diet-friendly, they kind of taste diet-friendly too, but in a good way. T

hey’re ideal if you’re not a huge fan of overly sweet or flavorful drinks, and want to opt for something more thirst-quenching instead.

Alcohol in Truly

Alcohol in Truly

Truly contains around 5% ABV (alcohol by volume), making it similar to many standard beers.

This makes Truly a nice lower calorie, low sugar alternative to beer.

Paired with the marketing and clever branding, it also makes Truly drinks appear like a classier alternative. Though beer, of course, has its own die-hard fans.

The Best Truly Flavors Ranked

The Best Truly Flavors Ranked

Truly produce over 30 different flavors, ranging from simple one fruit varieties to vodka sodas, and limited edition ranges. Many have firm fans who absolutely love them.

It wasn’t an easy task with so many to choose from, but we’ve collated the top fan favorites in this list.

Passion Fruit

Passion Fruit

Truly Passion Fruit is made with vodka, concentrated fruit juice, and natural flavoring.

It seems to have mixed reviews, but those who love it really love it. That’s because the Passion Fruit flavor makes for a tropical, refreshing seltzer that tastes like a cocktail in its own right.

You could add extra passion fruit puree and a wedge of lime to make this one into an actual cocktail or just enjoy it ice cold on its own.

Lime

Lime

The Lime flavor Truly seltzer is a popular variety, unusually because the lime flavor is quite subtle. It’s zesty with a subdued lime flavor that’s pleasant without being biting.

For comparison, White Claw’s lime flavor has been described as being much more citrusy and tart. If you do want your Lime Truly to have a bit more acidity, you could add a little bit of lime juice or a wedge of fresh lime.

Grapefruit

Grapefruit

Grapefruit Truly is another firm customer favorite. This is because it’s sweet but slightly tart with a touch of the bitter flavor distinct to grapefruits.

Many compare this one to the lemon and lime flavors, though diehard fans stick to their Grapefruit Truly.

If you like a Campari, you may enjoy this as a lighter alternative.

Citrus Squeeze

Citrus Squeeze

Citrus Squeeze Truly boasts natural flavoring and a tangy, bright flavor. It’s a mixed citrus flavor that’s ideal for a hot summer day.

If you enjoy less sweet, simpler flavors, the Citrus Squeeze Truly will probably work for you. Pair it with a sprig of fresh mint for a refreshing summer cocktail akin to a light mojito cocktail.

Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry Lemonade

This one’s been described as tasting like ‘the moment you realize your roommate’s away and you have a long weekend ahead of you.’

It’s flavored with the taste of zesty lemonade and sweet, fragrant strawberries.

In fairness, this puts it right at the top for us, as it makes the Strawberry Lemonade flavor a bit distinct and different from other alcoholic beverages available in the supermarket.

Black Cherry

Black Cherry

If you like cherry-flavored drinks, this one’s for you. It’s sweet with a slightly tangy flavor to balance out the cherry sweetness.

Black Cherry flavors can be incredibly overpowering and sugary, but this steers just clear of that.

With that said, cherry flavoring is always just a touch artificial. With that said (again) if you like cherry-flavored candies, you’ll probably also like this.

Pineapple & Cranberry Vodka Soda

Pineapple & Cranberry Vodka Soda

This is delicious. It balances sweet, tropical pineapple perfectly with tart cranberry.

If you’ve ever had a vodka cranberry (who hasn’t?), you’ll like this slightly fruitier, lighter version.

It’s really good for any season and makes for an almost sophisticated drink. We think you could probably even drink this at a wedding.

Watermelon Breeze

Watermelon Breeze

This one actually gets a fairly bad writeup, but we’re mentioning it here anyway. Why? Because it’s described as tasting like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, and those are delicious.

Sure, it doesn’t taste much like ‘natural’ watermelon, but it’s an alcoholic soft drink, so that kind of comes with the territory. It does contain ‘other natural flavors’, so it’s not entirely artificial.

All in all, if you’re after a sweet, candy-like low cal alcoholic seltzer, this one’s pretty good.

Top tip: there’s also a Watermelon Lemonade flavor if you’re wanting something a bit less sweet. That one gets an excellent write-up, too.

The Original Truly Flavors

The Original Truly Flavors

Truly started its journey towards hard seltzer fandom with just three flavors. Interestingly, none of these are available today, but they must have done something right.

After all, Truly is one of the most popular alcoholic soda brands available in America today.

Colima Lime

Colima Lime

This 2016 flavor was described as an easy to drink seltzer with just a hint of lime and touch of sweetness. It didn’t taste very alcoholic, wasn’t very tart, and was essentially just a basic alcoholic seltzer with a touch of flavor. Nothing overly exciting.

Grapefruit & Pomelo

Grapefruit & Pomelo

This was said to taste like sweet pomelo paired with Florida grapefruit. It had a fresh and sweet flavor with just a touch of tanginess. Unfortunately, that’s just about all we can still find about this flavor, and it’s no longer produced.

Pomegranate

Pomegranate

Truly Pomegranate continues our journey on seltzer flavors that weren’t very popular. This one had by far the worst reviews of the three original varieties.

It was described as a light alcoholic beverage with just a hint of fruit flavoring. Which is probably why it’s no longer around.

Types of Truly Drinks

Types of Truly Drinks

At time of writing, Truly produce four ranges of their popular hard seltzers. They’re practically organized into light flavors, bolder options, basic vodka sodas, and limited releases. Below we cover what these mean and what’s included in the sub-types.

Light Flavor

Light Flavor

These are characterized by being ‘lightly flavored.’ They’re essentially seltzer water with added alcohol and a touch of flavoring.

Currently, the Light Flavor category holds a range of refreshing flavors including a tropical mix range, citrus mix, and berry mix.

Bold Flavor

Bold Flavor

The Bold Flavor range by Truly is, well, more boldly flavored and offers a bit more taste, sweetness, and tang than the lighter category. These include the delicious lemonade mix range, as well as the punch mix.

You’ll find that the packaging on these Truly drinks is also a little brighter and more colorful.

Vodka Soda

Vodka Soda

The Vodka Soda category includes a classic mix range, a paradise mix, and a twist mix. The classic strikes us as the most interesting, as it includes simple ‘classic’ drinks such as lime vodka soda, as well as tropical varieties such as mango vodka soda and pineapple vodka soda.

Limited Release

Limited Release

Truly’s Limited Release range will change from time to time. At time of writing, there’s a Getaway Pack which includes the flavors Arctic Berry, Desert Orange, Mountain Pear-Adise, and Tropic Like It’s Hot.

Previous releases included a Holiday Party Pack, a Poolside mix, Wonderworld, iced tea flavors, and more.

It’s really unsurprising that the brand was created by a product developer in the drinks industry.

Tasty Alternatives to Truly

Tasty Alternatives to Truly

While Truly hard seltzers are incredibly popular, there are alternative brands out there which are worth checking out.

White Claw is probably the best-known one, though there are others as well. If you enjoy a low calorie drink but not necessarily something sweet or sweetened, you’ll want to check out number 4.

White Claw

White Claw

Truly rival White Claw makes a range of popular hard seltzers that are similarly refreshing and tasty.

Their classic hard seltzer range includes peach, pineapple, strawberry, lemon, blackberry, tangerine, passion fruit, and ruby grapefruit flavors just to name a few.

There’s a vast number of other flavors available, including a range of ‘hard’ iced tea.

Bon & Viv

Bon & Viv

Bon & Viv are the creators of a range of ‘Spiked Seltzers’ in a variety of flavors.

The cans look classy and feature simple designs, and they come in flavors such as black cherry, grapefruit, pear elderflower (classy), coconut pineapple, and clementine hibiscus just to name a few.

They’re fun and creative in their flavor creations, so you’ll want to give them a try if you like Truly.

Arctic Chill

Arctic Chill

Arctic Chill is perhaps the third most popular hard seltzer brand.

They also craft a range of interesting flavors, including strawberry watermelon, mandarin orange, pink apple & lemon, ginger lime, fresh lime, cranberry lime (there’s a lot of lime here), and more.

The design of these looks a bit more modern, which may appeal more to some.

Low Calorie Beers

Low Calorie Beers

Since Truly focuses largely on low calorie, low sugar alcoholic drinks with fun flavors, any alternative will need to be similarly diet-friendly.

There are some great low cal beers available today, including Michelob Ultra, Corona Premier, Budweiser Select 55, Miller64, and Heineken Light.

The Budweiser Select 55 is particularly popular as it’s one of the lowest calorie beers you can get today and contains just 55 calories per can. Pair it with some low calorie lemonade for a refreshing, subtly fruity shandy.

(30 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)
You need to be a registered member to rate this.

Loading...