What You Need To Know About The New Warheads Hard Seltzer Collab

If you were a kid in the 90's whose favorite pastimes included torturing your taste buds with multiple Warheads at once, this sour-candy news is for you. The hard candy brand, developed in Taiwan in the 70's and brought to the U.S. in the early 90's (via Pennsylvania State University), can now truly say it has "grown up" along with its Millennial customer base. Warheads just announced its collaborating with a brewery to develop sour hard seltzers.

Saratoga Springs, N.Y., craft brewery Artisanal Brew Works first caught the attention of sour candy lovers in 2020 with a line of Warheads-flavored beers, Food & Wine reports. The beverages were so successful that the brewery decided to cater to gluten-free drinkers with Warheads Hard Seltzers. The seltzers, developed in an official collaboration between Artisanal Brew Works and Warheads manufacturer Impact Confections, will first be tested in the brewery's New York taproom. If drinkers approve, they will be distributed in other states.

The 5 percent ABV seltzers "are refreshing, sweet, tart, and totally unlike any seltzer you've had before," Artisanal Brew Works told Food & Wine. Expect an emphasis on the tart — Warheads are known to pucker even the most sour-tolerant mouths with their combination of malic acid, citric acid, and ascorbic acid (via Pennsylvania State University). With Warheads Hard Seltzers, Artisanal Brew Works aims to recreate the candy-eating experience in sparkling-beverage form, down to "the point when the Warheads candy transitions from the sour phase to the flavor phase."

Speaking of flavors, Warheads Hard Seltzers are available in the same five varieties as the candies: Watermelon, Green Apple, Black Cherry, Lemon, and Blue Raspberry, complete with many of the same ingredients used in Impact Confections' formula (via Food & Wine). If you're unsure if you can handle the acidity, the Artisanal Brew Works website assures that the seltzers are "still drinkable by the pint" and have plenty of sweetness to counter the sourness. Those who find themselves in Saratoga Springs can pre-order a four-pack for $15.