The End of the Premium Alcohol Era? Cheap Cocktails Are Making a Comeback in Style

The marriage of 47-year-old American teacher Merrilee Kick was coming to an end, and she realized that with a teacher’s salary and a mortgage, she would not be able to cover her living expenses on her own. She needed a side job. To the delight of consumers around the world (especially middle-aged women, who were her primary audience), she decided to start her own business – cocktails. Although her idea was brilliant, as what middle-aged woman wouldn’t want to treat herself to a fine, conveniently packaged cocktail at the end of a tiring workday, banks remained unimpressed until she offered her mother’s ranch cows and, of course, the house she lived in as collateral.

The first line of cocktails, named BuzzBall (the cocktails are packaged in round plastic bottles because her inspiration was a snow globe she brought back as a souvenir from her travels), was launched in 2009, and despite a rocky start, demand exploded. In early 2022, the company was acquired by Sazerac for an incredible half a billion dollars, and founder Kick made it to 89th place on the list of the hundred richest self-made female millionaires in the U.S. In January of last year, Kick and her family exited the ownership structure, and in the meantime, the value of BuzzBall skyrocketed to one billion dollars. Interestingly, the colorful balls filled with cocktails, which cannot look more trashy and toxic than they do, attracted a younger audience, Generation Z, who promote them on social media platforms in droves.

This success story signals a shift in the market and the blossoming popularity of the so-called ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage category, a mix of alcoholic drinks that is most commonly marketed in cans. Recent data shows that while many brands in the alcoholic beverage world are playing the premiumization card (drink less, but better), in reality, businesses like BuzzBall are thriving without caring about the premium impression; they are practical, cheap, but also of decent quality.

Sudden Turnaround

Emma Thompson, a researcher at the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) and a doctoral student in public health policy at the University of Edinburgh, published an interesting analysis of this trend on the IAS website. As she noted, premiumization has dominated the global alcohol industry for at least the last two decades. In other words, the business strategy of producers has been to encourage consumers to move up a level, to buy smaller quantities of more expensive, higher quality, or craft products instead of cheaper ones. Industry organizations, such as spiritsEUROPE, have linked this strategy to public health efforts to reduce the harmful consequences of alcohol consumption. If one looks at the business reports and those intended for shareholders of any of the major alcohol producers, Thompson writes, one will very likely find references to premiumization that promotes long-term growth in the spirits category, as consumers want to drink better, not more.

This, she continues, can be found in Diageo’s and AB InBev’s reports, and this focus on premium products has been cited as one of the reasons why Pernod Ricard sold its portfolio of cheaper wines. However, while major brands explain revenue growth precisely by the desire of customers to drink better (which is also the reason many craft brands have succeeded), there are indications that this long-standing trend may be changing.

Tinification Has Arrived

According to The Drum, superpremium RTD products grew by 37 percent in 2025. Canned cocktails now make up 27 percent of the British RTD market worth £787 million, and this segment continues to grow, even 64 percent year-on-year. In the U.S., RTD cocktails are growing seven times faster than the broader spirits category, worth $14.7 billion. Waitrose even has its own term for this, tinification, referring to the transition of alcohol into cans.

Diageo’s new CEO Dave Lewis signaled that the company may focus more on affordable RTD products, or ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, in the near future, as consumers face rising living costs, and it recently launched a cheaper version of its Johnnie Walker whiskey. IWSR, an organization that analyzes data for the alcohol industry, also recently reported that premiumization is weakening, with 2025 seeing growth in the volume of alcohol sold exceeding the growth in sales value.

In other words, the market shows signs that consumers are once again buying larger quantities, even if they are spending less per unit of product. In the same IWSR report, it is highlighted that RTD products are the segment in which the industry is achieving growth. This could be problematic, Thompson notes, as such brands attract a young audience and sell products that, indeed, have a relatively high alcohol concentration of 13.5 percent.

Dangerous Habits

Thus, a new, lucrative niche has opened up for alcohol producers, but the problem is (and it is quite a significant one) that it undermines the idea of moderate alcohol consumption. While premiumization was ‘working’, they did not face such challenges because they practically eliminated the younger target group by price, targeting (older) customers with deeper pockets or those who occasionally enjoy alcohol (the mantra ‘less, but better’).

Thompson warns that recent research shows that rates of episodic binge drinking with large amounts of alcohol are increasing in early twenties. At the same time, the UK still has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption among young people. Since alcohol marketing is causally linked to consumption, all eyes should now be on the relatively new segment of RTD alcohol, and if necessary, take additional steps to ensure that the trend of reducing alcohol consumption among young people does not completely reverse.

In any case, the alcohol industry is at a crossroads. RTD has opened up a new, very lucrative niche, but the question is how to capture it without encouraging a new generation to drink. Until yesterday, the answer was simple: through premiumization, higher prices, and the message ‘drink less, but better’, but that simply does not apply to the new category. BuzzBall, however, has taken a different path, from cocktails for a middle-aged teacher to a product that has captured Generation Z. The industry now must decide how to replicate that market success without repeating its side effects.