Our Favorite New Age Canned Beverages—That Thirsty VCs Love, Too

“We’re not trying to bring back Prohibition—or judge anyone,” promised Bill Shufelt, leading me through a taste test of the non-alcoholic beer from his seven-year-old Athletic Brewing, recently valued at nearly a half-billion dollars. That money has afforded some fine products: To my immense surprise, Shufelt’s brews tasted nearly identical to traditional suds, and had I not been stone sober, I might’ve worried that my sense of taste had fallen to the bottom of a glass. “We’re just trying to bring great options to the modern drinker,” Shufelt said.

Store shelves are crowded these days with many other brands trying to do the same thing: provide healthy alternatives to the typical (less healthy) beverages adults consume, like alcohol and sodas. Venture capitalists have scrambled to guzzle them down, shoving billions of dollars at health-oriented canned beverage startups in the past five years (even as they displayed abstemious interest in most other sectors). A few weeks ago, industry leader Liquid Death received a new $1.4 billion valuation for its canned water, and soda maker Olipop has been in talks this winter to raise more money amid expectations that sales could reach $450 million this year. And since these startups prosper as much through advertising as actual flavor, they’ve attracted a mix of traditional venture capitalists and dozens of celebrity investors happy to lend their profiles to their marketing, including Beyoncé, a couple Jonas Brothers, Josh Brolin, Russell Westbrook and Naomi Osaka.

Which of these VC-backed New Age beverages actually tastes good? I assembled a list of a dozen or so refreshments from speaking with executives, founders and investors in the space, and then narrowed it down to the ones below, sampling enough bubbly drinks to reinflate the Hindenburg. “The world is so connected, so busy, so high performance, so health oriented,” Shufelt said. “It’s about time adult beverages changed to keep up with that.”