The Warheads Candy of Your Childhood Is Now a Hard Seltzer
The extreme sour candy gets a boozy update thanks to Artisanal Brew Works.
Growing up, my older brother could eat Warheads like Skittles. And in true little sister fashion, I tried and failed to mimic what I now know to be insane behavior. They're not for the faint of heart, which apparently, is a camp I'm in. That said, if you are brave enough, you can now get your extreme sour fix a boozier way.
Warheads has teamed up with Artisanal Brew Works to create a spiked seltzer flavor that tastes like the candy itself. So, um, expect tears. The concept was dreamt up by two former high school teachers-turned-brewery owners Kurt Borchardt and Colin Quinn, who founded Artisinal in 2015. While they started with double dry-hopped IPAs and English browns, according to Food & Wine, the idea for something more innovative sprung up last year, and the pair reached out to Warheads.
"We figured that we'd jump out in front of it and just ask them if they were interested in working with us," Quinn told the outlet. "As it turns out, they were very receptive, and really, really cool."
The brewery started with a batch of sour beers, featuring the classic Warhead flavors Watermelon, Green Apple, Black Cherry, Lemon, and Blue Raspberry. The test was a quick hit and inspired Borchardt and Quinn to expand on it. Thus, the seltzers were born.
"After making the Warheads beers for a while, the seltzers seemed like such a natural progression of that," Quinn added. "It seemed like something that would work really well that would make people happy."
The Warhead Seltzer, which the Brewery describes as "refreshing, sweet, tart, and totally unlike any seltzer you've had before," boasts a 5% ABV and is available across Massachusetts, Southern California, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and more. A spokesperson for Artisanal said the brewery is "expanding into new states every month."