What Are RTDs? The Ready-to-Drink Alcohol Boom, Explained

The first time I heard someone in the drinks trade say “RTD” I assumed it was a distributor, or possibly a disease. It is neither. It stands for ready to drink, and it’s the industry’s catch-all term for the entire wall of skinny cans that has taken over the cold aisle in the last decade: the hard seltzer, the canned Margarita, the vodka soda, the hard tea, the 100ml Espresso Martini, the spherical thing. The term is unglamorous on purpose. It describes a format, not a flavor or a spirit, which is exactly why it’s so confusing: two cans that look identical can be completely different drinks, and the only thing they have in common is that somebody else mixed them.

This is the plain-English guide. What RTDs are, the three kinds that exist, why they’ve grown while every other category shrinks, how strong they actually are, and how to read one in the shop. It’s also the hub for everything 12×75 has written about the category, which, at this point, is a lot.

RTD is an industry abbreviation for ready to drink. In alcohol, it means a drink that’s been formulated, mixed and packaged in a single-serve container, usually a can, sometimes a bottle or a pouch, and sold sealed. You don’t add anything. You don’t shake anything. You open it and drink it, which is the whole point. Contrast that with a bottle of gin, which is an ingredient, or a bottle of premixed Negroni you pour over ice, which the trade calls ready to serve (RTS), a cousin rather than a sibling. And note what the term doesn’t tell you: it says nothing about strength, sweetness, quality or what the alcohol is made from. A 4% hard seltzer and a 24% canned Old Fashioned are both RTDs. So is a 15% BuzzBallz. That’s why the category needs a glossary.

Strip away the branding and every RTD on earth is defined by one thing: where the alcohol comes from. There are three answers, and they matter more than the name on the front.

The reason this matters is the thing I keep writing about: the front of the can is marketing and the back is evidence. A malt-based “Margarita” and a tequila one can sit side by side, look the same, and be fundamentally different drinks. I’ve untangled exactly what’s actually inside a canned cocktail, and the difference between canned cocktails and hard seltzer, if you want the long versions.

Because it’s the only part of the industry reliably growing. IWSR’s 2025 data shows total beverage alcohol volumes fell 2% across 21 markets, with spirits and wine both down 4% and beer down 2%, while RTDs rose 3%. The category has grown at an 8% compound rate since 2019 and now holds a 3.5% share of all alcohol in the world’s top ten markets, up from 1.1% in 2014. In June 2026, RTDs overtook vodka in global value. In the US the picture is starker still: spirits volumes fell 4% in 2025 while spirits-based RTDs grew 14%, and in the first quarter of 2026 they jumped 30% in dollars to make up 28% of all spirits volume sold in shops, according to WSWA. There are now more than 750 spirits-based cocktail brands competing in the US alone.

One more number tells you where it’s going. Inside the category, the two kinds are moving in opposite directions: globally, spirits-based RTDs grew 7% in 2025 while malt-based ones fell 5%. In the US, malt seltzers lost share while spirits RTDs took it. The hard seltzer that started the boom is being replaced by the vodka soda and the canned cocktail, drinks that contain the actual spirit. I wrote about the scale of this shift in the alcohol industry’s $3.8 billion can problem.

Convenience. No bartender, no shaker, no half-used bottles of vermouth in the fridge. A cocktail you can carry to a beach. Portion control. A can is a single, pre-measured serving, which suits people who, as I found in how Gen Z actually drinks, drink less often and more deliberately. Flavor without homework. You don’t need to understand an appellation to buy a canned Paloma; it tastes like grapefruit and tequila, and the can says so. The numbers on the label. Hard seltzer taught a generation to look for 100 calories and 5% ABV, and the format kept that habit. Add the fact that beer, the drink RTDs most often replace, has been losing drinkers for a decade, and the can was pushing at an open door.

“One can” is not one drink

A 12oz can at 5% is about one US standard drink. The same can at 10% is two. A 100ml can at 22% is about 1.3. Container size tells you nothing; only ABV times volume does, which I’ve laid out in how many drinks are actually in one canned cocktail.

“Margarita” doesn’t mean tequila

The cocktail name describes the flavor, not the alcohol base. Read the small print for vodka, tequila, malt beverage, wine or agave wine.

Skinny can, not necessarily light

Alcohol carries about seven calories a gram before any sugar, cream or liqueur is added, so a strong canned cocktail can be far heavier than it looks, and US alcohol labels aren’t required to say. The canned cocktail calories guide does the maths.

Some are very good now, and I say that as someone who expected to hate them. When I blind-tasted 17 canned cocktails against freshly made versions, fresh won 16 times, but the gap was often small, and one can, Post Meridiem’s Espresso Martini, beat the bartender outright. The best spirits-based RTDs have stopped competing with hard seltzer and started competing with bars. The worst are still sweet, thin and chemical. The category is wide enough that “are RTDs good?” is like asking whether wine is good. It depends which one, which is why the rankings below exist.

RTD: ready to drink, the umbrella term. RTS: ready to serve, a premixed bottle you pour, usually multi-serve. Canned cocktail: an RTD styled after a cocktail; says nothing about the base. Spirits-based RTD: alcohol from distilled spirits. FMB: flavored malt beverage, a malt-based RTD like White Claw. Hard seltzer: sparkling flavored alcoholic water, malt- or spirits-based. Hard tea / hard lemonade: tea or lemonade with alcohol, usually malt-based; Surfside is the spirits-based exception. Vodka soda: vodka, sparkling water, flavor; High Noon’s territory. Premixed: someone else combined the ingredients; may be single- or multi-serve. Nitro: nitrogen-charged for a creamy foam, used in canned Espresso Martinis. Agave wine: fermented agave, not tequila, used as a base in some cheap “Margaritas.”

What does RTD stand for?

Ready to drink. It refers to alcoholic beverages that are pre-mixed, packaged and sealed by the producer for immediate consumption, with no preparation needed.

What are examples of RTDs?

Hard seltzers (White Claw, Truly), vodka sodas (High Noon, NÜTRL), canned cocktails (Cutwater, Tip Top, Post Meridiem), hard teas and lemonades (Twisted Tea, Surfside), canned wine and spritzers, and products like BuzzBallz.

Is a hard seltzer an RTD?

Yes. Hard seltzer is one type of RTD, usually malt-based (like White Claw) but sometimes spirits-based (like High Noon, which is technically a vodka seltzer).

What is the difference between RTD and RTS?

RTD (ready to drink) is single-serve and consumed straight from the container. RTS (ready to serve) is a premixed cocktail, often a multi-serve bottle, that you pour over ice or into a glass.

How strong are RTDs?

Anywhere from about 4% to over 20% ABV. Hard seltzers sit around 5%; canned cocktails range from 5% to 24%. A 12oz can at 5% is about one US standard drink; at 10% it’s two. Always multiply ABV by volume.

Why are RTDs so popular?

Convenience, single-serve portion control, familiar flavors that need no expertise, and clear numbers on the label. RTDs grew 3% globally in 2025 while total alcohol fell 2%, and in the US spirits-based RTDs grew 14% while spirits overall fell 4%.

Are RTDs cocktails?

Some are, most aren’t. Spirits-based RTDs made with real spirits, juice and liqueur are close to actual cocktails; malt- or wine-based “cocktail” cans use flavorings on a fermented base. Check the alcohol base on the label.

BY VIM, EDITOR OF 12×75. Market figures from IWSR, WSWA SipSource and DISCUS, correct as of September 2026. Please drink responsibly.