Your Favorite Refrigerated Pickles Are Turning Into A Hard Seltzer
Have you ever eaten Grillo's Pickles? If so, you've undoubtedly enjoyed the crunchy snap, the briny tang, and the all-around pickle-ness, but do you love them so much that you drink the juice, too? According to Eddie Andre, Grillo's Pickles vice president of brand, many Grillo's fans do just that. For this reason, the brand decided to partner up with Philadelphia-based Two Robbers Craft Hard Seltzer to make pickle-flavored hard seltzer.
Grillo's seltzer isn't the first such beverage on the market. Back in 2021, Crook & Marker released a flavor called Afternoon Dillight, but it was only available as a limited-release item and is no longer available, thus leaving the pickle seltzer market wide open for new entries. You shouldn't have to hunt too hard for Grillo's Pickle Seltzer, either, as it will be sold in supermarkets such as Giant, Wegman's, and Whole Foods and liquor stores when it's released this summer.
Grillo's Pickles have previously been used to flavor beer
Pickle-flavored hard seltzer may be a relatively new product (if not an unexpected trend), but there are quite a few pickle beers on the market. One Texas brewery, Best Maid, has enough pickle brews that they were able to release a variety pack last summer. Even Grillo's Pickles have been used in beers before. The first of these went by the catchy name of Sam Sam the Pickle Man. It was made by Massachusetts's own Down the Road Brewery Co. and came out in time for the 2018 Boston Beer Fair, where it proved pretty popular with pickle partisans. National Pickle Day 2022 (which was November 13, in case your calendar's not handy) saw another Grillo's beer collab, this one with Lord Hobo Brewing in Woburn, Massachusetts. This product, simply called Pickle Beer, was not too bad for a novelty beer, as Untappd users awarded it a three-star rating overall.
Since hard seltzer tends to be less robust than beer, will Grillo's Pickles play nicely with this lighter product? We can't speak to the taste just yet, as we've yet to sample the new brew. Each batch is said to include more than 20 gallons of garlicky, vinegary pickle brine, so we surmise that this seltzer will have a pretty distinctive flavor that will pair perfectly with pickle popcorn and potato chips.