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This beverage isn't made in South Carolina. I say that, as all of the previous White Claw seltzers were made in three different locations. They all had Arizona, New Jersey, and South Carolina listed. For some reason, this one is only made in two of those. I don't know what South Carolina did to upset the White Claw conglomerate, but they better shape up. After all, if you can't make cranberry, you can't conquer the world. I think that's how the saying goes.
Seltzers are going to seltzer. This one looks just like all the others. We've got water, and we have sparkles. The cranberry actually smells pretty nice, despite the fact that I am not actually a massive fan of cranberries. I repeat my assertion that cranberries are usually mixed with some other fruit in order to make them palatable. If that's what you have to do with your fruit (or berry), it's probably not particularly good. I say this is someone who absolutely knows that you don't want to eat a hop, but you can make some delicious beer with it.
First sip is generally bland, but the cranberry is doing what it needs to do to make this something other than just an alcohol-flavored seltzer. I had been struck in the past with how effectively White Claw had managed to add enough flavor to their seltzers to make them enjoyable on their own, without the need to fall back on the fact that seltzers are basically water with carbonation, and any flavor is a flavor you should be grateful for.
Tip-in is cranberries and gentle carbonation; exactly what you would expect. The middle does what the lime did and starts to ruin things with carbonation getting a little too loud on the roof of the mouth and mixing with light alcohol while the cranberry flavor seems to dissipate in favor of runny water. The finish is the same abysmal crash of unrestrained alcohol with no flavor and some carbonation.
Bottom Line: It doesn't seem like surge is the direction we need to go.
1.25/5
