11 Truly Hard Seltzer Flavors, Ranked Worst To Best

Hard seltzer is the easy-to-drink malt beverage that became incredibly popular during and just after the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to many different brands cashing in on the craze. It's the type of drink that tells your bartender you want something refreshing, simple, and relatively healthy compared to other drinks. Although sales have slowed a bit for the low calorie, low sugar alternative to beer and spirits in recent years, Truly Hard Seltzer (produced by Boston Beer Company since its launch in 2016) remains one of the biggest names in the game.

The brand has many different styles to choose from, thanks in part to the relatively neutral taste of the fermented cane sugar used to make it and the ease with which fruit shines against it. All of those varieties mean there's something for just about everyone, but choosing between them can feel impossible. To help make it a bit easier, I tasted and ranked 11 of the brand's flavors from three different variety packs (berry mix pack, citrus mix pack, and the party pack) and ranked them from worst to best.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

As a lover of citrus flavors, I was excited to try Truly Lemon. Unfortunately, immediately upon smelling it I knew I was in for disappointment. Rather than smelling like a bowl of fresh lemons, it smelled like a can of chemicals, which is strange given that its ingredients are just filtered water, alcohol, natural flavors, citric acid, lemon juice, sodium citrate, and cane sugar. 

Lest you think the chemical taste comes from the "chemical sounding" ingredients, citric acid is what gives citrus fruits their tart and sour notes, while sodium citrate, which comes from citric acid, is often used as a preservative and flavor enhancer in foods and drinks. Sodium citrate can even serve as an emulsifier in lasagna. In theory, it should make the drink smell and taste better, not worse.

The flavor is better than the smell, but just slightly. There isn't much recognizable lemon essence that comes through, or even the brightness I would expect from something with even a small amount of lemon juice (this style contains less than one percent juice). It ends up tasting like kind-of-sweet, kind-of-sour water with notes of cleaning supplies. 

I really wanted to love Truly Raspberry, and the aroma when I first opened the can was promising. It smelled like fresh raspberries, despite containing less than 1% juice. At first sip, it tasted nice and light, though I struggled to place the flavor as raspberry. Then, a strong, unpleasant aftertaste quickly took the spotlight, completely overpowering the entire experience.

Strangely, what keeps this variety out of the bottom spot is that it gets better with time. As the seltzer sits for a bit, more of the mellow berry notes come to the forefront, while the almost acerbic aftertaste virtually disappears. 

It's unclear whether the changes to the flavor are due to the seltzer getting warmer or if aeration of the open can plays a role, but once it mellows out a bit, the seltzer really isn't half bad and is worth giving it a try. Now, we're not talking about popping one of these open while it's room temperature, but I do recommend letting it sit open for a few minutes after you take it out of the fridge or cooler.

As a lover of limeades, I was very hopeful about Truly Strawberry Lime. Unfortunately, it neither smells nor tastes prominently like either of those flavors, despite containing 2% juice. The seltzer has an almost medicinal scent, possibly because the smell of strawberries is naturally very soft and attempts to make it stronger rely on other scents to boost its characteristics. In this case, those additional scents clash for me. While the taste is better than the smell, it also features a bitterness up front and a bit of an aftertaste. 

The strawberry flavor is eventually able to fight through when I really look for it, but it remains subtle in the face of what I can only assume is the lime's bitterness (which strangely doesn't come into play later in this ranking — more on that in a bit). Whatever is going on with this flavor's smell and taste, I hope it's figured out soon, because there's a ton of promise there.

Pineapple can make for some really great alcoholic drinks, from margaritas and piña coladas to a simple pineapple bourbon lemonade, but Truly Pineapple doesn't quite deliver on that potential. As part of the brand's Party Pack, it's touted as a fan favorite, but both its smell and taste are reminiscent of pineapple Dum-Dums without enough sweetness. I suppose that flavor might be nostalgic for some and lend to its fan-favorite status, but it's lacking freshness that I want from pineapple drinks. 

While it does boast natural flavors, Truly Pineapple does not contain any real juice, which is probably why it comes off as a one-dimensional, manufactured pineapple. It's not that the pineapple is bad, per se — it's just jarring to have such a flat experience when pineapple is typically so sweet and dynamic. 

Though I'm not sure there's a single accepted definition for what constitutes "wild berry," the can for Truly Wild Berry shows strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, implying those are the fruit essences inside. I'll just have to take the can's word for it. 

Truly Wild Berry smells generally fruity, but not distinctly of any of the aforementioned berries. I'm not even sure I could get as far as "berry" if I smelled it blind. As far as the taste, the flavor is muddled, with the different fruit flavors fighting to shine through. Still, it is not unpleasant — just one-note. There is, however, a slight aftertaste. I'd imagine this is owed to the raspberry component in the seltzer given that variety's strong aftertaste, but it's nowhere near as strong as the Truly Raspberry.

Given its generally fruity profile with no strong lead flavor, it might be just the hard seltzer to add to your favorite sangria. It will provide a nice fizziness thanks to the carbonation, along with a small boost in alcohol content and more fruitiness.

Nothing compares to fresh watermelon on a hot summer day, but I wondered if popping open a Truly Watermelon might be the next best thing. The scent reminded me of a watermelon Jolly Rancher candy. While that is an admittedly a delicious smell, it made me worry that the seltzer would be overwhelmingly sweet or taste like artificial watermelon flavoring. Thankfully, that fear was unfounded. 

Rather than tasting like candy, the seltzer had a surprisingly good watermelon essence. It wasn't too sweet and offered the subtle, soft taste of fresh watermelon. It also didn't have any sort of aftertaste, making it easy to drink. That said, while the soft flavor was the best I could have hoped for from a watermelon seltzer, it didn't wow me when compared to the front-runner Truly flavors, landing it right in the middle of the pack. Still, I bet its fresh flavor would be the perfect low-calorie and low-alcohol addition to spike your homemade watermelon juice.

Lime is one of my go-to seltzer flavors, and Truly is no exception. I was a bit worried after the bitter taste of the Truly Strawberry Lime, but somehow there was no bitterness at all in the Truly Lime. It smells just like fresh cut lime wedges to the point that I would almost be tempted to squirt a little bit on some tacos (almost). But it is absolutely the perfect beverage to enjoy alongside them if you want something with a little kick that isn't as boozy as a margarita.

The flavor of the seltzer is lighter and more subtle than the smell, but it's very refreshing. There's no aftertaste, making it very easy to drink. It's difficult to detect the alcohol in it at all, despite being 5% ABV, like all the rest of the Truly flavors I sampled. I wish the lime itself was a bit stronger, but this is a solid option that I'll definitely have in the future.

Grapefruit is another one of my go-to seltzer flavors and Truly does it very well. It has a delicate smell, but you can absolutely tell that it's grapefruit. The trend I noticed throughout the ranking is that the seltzers with real juice, even at a small percentage, had a more authentic smell and flavor than those without. Truly Grapefruit contains less than 1% juice, but it clearly does the job.

The taste is very similar to a non-alcoholic grapefruit seltzer. It seems like the grapefruit does a better job masking the fermented, boozy flavor than some of the other styles. That makes it one of the easiest-to-drink hard seltzers, which is both a good and potentially dangerous thing. Just make sure you're keeping track of how many of these you're imbibing, because as with Truly Lime, it might be easy to get a little carried away. Grapefruit edged lime out of the top four by just a hair in my ranking thanks to its somewhat more interesting flavor profile that includes some subtle floral notes. 

Truly Cherry is arguably the best smelling can of the bunch, and its taste is close behind, outdone by only two other flavors. Immediately upon opening the can, the cherry scent was so strong that I would have known it even with my eyes closed. It contains 1% juice, which isn't much, but likely helps contribute to the great smell and taste. The scent reminded me of Black Cherry Kool-Aid, albeit less sweet.

The cherry remains distinctive in the flavor as well, which is what sets it above grapefruit and lime in my ranking. I'm not typically a big fan of fresh cherries because of their texture, but this seltzer doesn't have any of those issues, just the great taste. I would grab lime or grapefruit if my primary goal was strictly refreshment, but for flavor forward varieties, cherry kicks off the top three. 

I've had my share of hard seltzer flavors over the years, but this is the first time I'd ever tried a blueberry variety, and it was one for the books! Another variety with a small amount of fruit juice, Truly Blueberry contains 2%, which is more than most of the other varieties. It smelled like blueberry pancakes and tasted that way, too. I couldn't help but smell it between each sip because it was so cozy and comforting, while also being refreshing.

The only thing keeping the Truly Blueberry out of the top spot is that the No. 1 flavor has slightly better drinkability. That said, this can has an amazing flavor that's unexpected in a seltzer and makes me want to come back for more. That said, the very flavor forwardness that helps it climb through the ranks is almost like enjoying a very rich dessert: At some point you just can't have any more, no matter how bad you want to. Unless you add it to something else, maybe — perhaps a refreshing blueberry lemonade to cut through some of the richness.

After experiencing the muddled flavor of the wild berry variety, I didn't have high hopes for Truly Citrus Squeeze. My expectations dipped even lower when I noticed that the featured fruits on the label appear to be orange, lime, and lemon, and we all know how I felt about the lemon flavor. It turns out that either I can't tell the difference between pictures of citrus fruits or the can is a little misleading. The flavor is actually a combination of orange, lime, and grapefruit, and it's delicious!

Truly Citrus Squeeze smells just like a freshly-peeled orange, possibly owing to the fact that it has the highest juice content of all the flavors in the citrus mix pack (though that's admittedly still just 2%). It's incredibly easy to drink with an overall light taste where orange shines through the brightest, complemented by the tartness of the lime and juiciness of the grapefruit flavor. It makes sense why this style is included in both Truly' Citrus Mix Pack and the Party Pack; it's the shining star of both. Honestly, if I could buy a pack of all Citrus Squeeze, I would in a heartbeat.

The varieties for this tasting and ranking came from three "Light Flavor" variety packs of Truly Hard Seltzer. Each pack contained four different varieties, but Truly Citrus Squeeze was in both the Citrus Mix Pack and the Party Pack, making for 11 unique seltzer flavors.

Each can was chilled for several hours prior to the tasting and then sampled directly from the can, the same way I always drink hard seltzer. I smelled each flavor before taking two sips to establish the experience of both the primary flavor and any lingering flavors or aftertaste. This led to an initial categorization of top, bottom, or middle. 

From there, the seltzers from each of those three categories were sampled against the others in that range in a head to head tasting that narrowed down the ranking. Upon discovering that some flavors changed somewhat dramatically as they sat, each seltzer was tasted again at a slightly warmer temperature to make any final adjustments to the order.