Australia's consumption of 'ready to drink' beverages including seltzers has hit a new record level after climbing beyond pandemic peaks

The surprising drink that’s growing in popularity as Aussies snub beer and wine

  • Australia’s consumption of ‘ready to drink’ beverages has hit a new record
  • Overall alcohol use fell from lockdown-riddled 2021 to 2022 by 1.8 per cent
  • However, RTD consumption increased 3.2 per cent due to seltzer popularity 

Australia’s consumption of ‘ready to drink’ beverages, including seltzers has hit a new record level after climbing beyond pandemic peaks.

The latest Alcohol Consumption Report from Roy Morgan investigated use from Australians over a four-week period, finding 16,603,000 residents aged over 18 drank over an average four-week period – a drop of 1.8 per cent.

The report did however find RTD use has increased a further 3.2 per cent over the past 12 months, climbing from 13.5 per cent of the population to 16.7 per cent – an extra 680,000 Aussies.

The increasing popularity of hard seltzers is believed to be behind the figure, with the low calorie drinks becoming a major part of the Australian market.

Australia's consumption of 'ready to drink' beverages including seltzers has hit a new record level after climbing beyond pandemic peaks

Australia’s consumption of ‘ready to drink’ beverages including seltzers has hit a new record level after climbing beyond pandemic peaks

Wine remains the most popular alcoholic beverage, but the amount of drinkers fell marginally from 9,237,000 in 2021 to 8,938,000 in 2022.

Beer and spirits consumption also fell as the country moved out of lockdowns, experiencing a 2.3 per cent and 2.8 per cent drop respectively.

Roy Morgan found RTD use has increased a further 3.2 per cent over the past 12 months, climbing from 13.5 per cent of the population to 16.7 per cent

Roy Morgan found RTD use has increased a further 3.2 per cent over the past 12 months, climbing from 13.5 per cent of the population to 16.7 per cent

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levin said during the pandemic drinking behaviours changed. 

‘The extensive disruption to people’s day-to-day lives, and the restrictions on travel for most of this time, led to several changes of behaviour.’

‘One of the most prominent was the increasing consumption of alcohol during the pandemic years of 2020-21.’  

‘Although the “big three” alcohol types of wine, beer and spirits are all down on a year ago, the consumption of wine and spirits is still well above pre-pandemic levels,” warned Levine.

Despite the falls for major drink types, RTD purchases have grown thanks to the popularity of seltzers. 

‘The emerging trends suggest consumption of wine and spirits looks set to return to pre-pandemic levels while RTDs, and ‘hard seltzers in particular’ rise in significance and beer consumption continues its long-term decline.

Advertisement

You May Also Like

Suspected armed robber arrested in Delta

Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested a robbery suspect and recovered…

Porter: Border Deal Is a Bad Deal, and GOP Is Bad for Tanking It

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Katie…

10 X-Men Who Deserve A Comeback

The Krakoan Era of the X-Men brought back quite a few classic…

CNN’s Jim Sciutto claiming Nancy Pelosi being barred from Holy Communion NEVER EVER happens (and he KNOWS cuz he’s Catholic) goes so WRONG

An archbishop doing what should have been done YEARS AGO and barring…