 Hey, njroute22.com here with another vlog About this is our cheap wine reviews vlog, but we're not doing cheap wine today We're doing something a little bit off the beaten path if you want to speak in those Phrases today. We're talking about spiked seltzer and today in particular. We're talking about the smirnoff brand Spiked sparkling seltzer. They all have different words for it. This is a Something that's relatively new to the scene and just in the last year or two. They've Exploded on on the booze scene Let's let's try the refreshing test real quick It definitely passes the refreshing test in my opinion. I don't drink it out of the can I drink it over ice Sometimes with a few ounces of extra water because well, we'll get into it in a minute we've tried this in the past and From other brands such as truly or white claw and I totally did not enjoy the experience overall I got kind of a buzz after the first half a can or can and then something happened. I just felt like Crappy not not in a horrible painful way But in like an empty like soul Soulless way. I felt like something had been robbed from me I can't explain that and not many people will get what I'm talking about but I'm very aware of how I feel at all times and I felt like lost but not Panicky it just didn't do anything for me. I felt like it was something wrong Now that was with the truly brand of spiked seltzer. It's called spiked and sparkly I don't know what the hell it's called and the white claw brand and the flavor was somewhat minimal on on those as well and then I Asked a few local liquor store Managers like what what their opinions works. I was fascinated by this because they have stacks thousands of cases of this stuff everybody's drinking it now and Someone had told me that the smirnoff had the best flavor and I said let me give it a shot I tried it like last week and I said, you know, this is actually pretty good I didn't get that horrible feeling. It's one of the lower alcohol content Some of them have alcohol content as high as 6% which is pretty pretty good for a 12 ounce can of fluid But their carb rates were different too I mean, I mainly drink red wine because it's relatively low in cars I think it's two grams a glass maybe eight grams of bottle And I drink two two bottles a night That's like 16 grams carbs. I think I may be off by a few percentage points But I think the red wine is I don't drink beer anymore at all because I From my whole life. I used to suck down like coronas and stuff like that. It was the worst decision It just wasn't it made me gassy. I couldn't really eat. I'm not a good burp I can't burp and it's it just was bad beer. I love beer. It was the happiest buzz you can get by the way for me beer beer was a good buzz, but I miss it But I don't miss the the the way I felt and I think beer belly is Truly not a like a folk saying it really is real beer It's just I don't a lot of people love their beers, especially the craft beers and everybody's touting Craft beers I believe have gone into the territory of the wine speak where they talk about all these different notes and brewing process and Organic hops and I know I don't do beer anymore. Okay, you can drink beer all you want It's an American tradition hot dog and a beer baseball this stuff I'm I don't do beer anymore at all occasionally when I'm in a pinch and there's a beer around and the liquor store is closed I might have one or two But I try my best to make sure that does not happen. So anyway, let's get back on to this Spike seltzer. I'll be right back. I'm gonna get my case here This Smirnov comes in a 12 pack. They also sell six packs of various flavors individual flavors, but the variety pack comes here with a cranberry lime berry lemonade raspberry rosé and What hurt melon? Okay, and I have hang on a sec This is how many I've sucked down before this video. I've drank Wait a minute Seven I have one two three four Five six seven cans of this that I've sucked down and it makes me look like a big lush. No, not really that's a bear that's about a bottle of wine worth of of Spike seltzer they drink and just to give you a little math here Here's a little math you think I'm all about how I feel but this this spike seltzer is four and a half percent alcohol and a case of Them is 144 ounces. So here's here's the math number if you can read 144 ounces times point 045 percent is 6.5 ounces of 100 percent pure alcohol to give you a comparison a 1.5 liter bottle of wine is a 52.8 ounces and at 13.5 percent just to pick a number you get 7.1 ounces of pure 100 percent alcohol So a 12 pack of smirnoff spiked sparkling seltzer say that three times quick is Less alcohol by about 10 percent or so then then a bottle of 13.5 percent 1.5 liter bottle of 1 13.5 percent wine. So you're getting less alcohol and another thing I'm concerned about Let me take another sip ready. That's the watermelon flavor and drink right now. In fact, I'm gonna live on the air I'm gonna crack it open make a mess and I'm gonna pour it in here Everything depending on how much ice I use I might water it down Because it doesn't really alter the flavor too much. It just dilutes it And you know why not preserve your your integrity a little bit by not getting sloshed at a rapid rate So I ate this is eight cans and I have four cans left to complete the case It is refreshing. I'd say summer drink hot day. I Think it's a it's a good thing and there's a lot of theories out there and why people drink it And what the demographic is more women like it than men In fact, you can actually get away with drinking it like in public because it doesn't look as innocuous as a bottle of whiskey or a Vat of wine or even just a simple can of Budweiser Some people can get away with drinks because it looks like almost like an energy drink and whatever Like I said, I I the first two brands the truly brand I felt really something rotten in like in a weird mysterious kind of like way It wasn't normal Maybe I'm the only one on planet Earth. Maybe it's all in my mind But like I said, the the buzz came and it never really got higher. It never really I never I Just didn't like it. These these are pretty good Let me rank them by flavor. Okay, my favorite flavor overall out of all of these is the berry lemonade The berry lemonade is The most enjoyable if they sold this in a 12 pack I would buy this one pretty much without thinking and Maybe the second best flavor I would have to say and it's it's kind of a tie for the worst This berry lemonade was was my overwhelming favorite out of all of them But it's a like a tie for worse It's hard to say which is which is worse the watermelon sort of tastes like watermelon But it also tastes like very artificial and even though I just drank it and give a thumbs up from the refreshing gulp standpoint the raspberry rosé is the only one really with a color. It's sort of Pinkish like that This is Okay, I mean it's a girly kind of drink This might actually be number two, I don't know. It's tough to say and then there's this last one which is cranberry lime Which I thought was just kind of weak overall, so I'm not gonna Maybe this is second and tied for last. I mean they're all equally not as as as enjoyable as the berry lemonade It almost depends on your mood, so I don't really like those flavors I don't know how everybody else sees but this is this one had the most Satisfying and non crappy tasting or artificial tasting flavor. This this is good. This is a malt beverage, too And I don't know it's a big industry and I'm just kind of fascinated as to how It just blew up and I'm fairly certain without even looking into it that they had a very very very targeted and strategic social media campaign because that's pretty much the only way Anything gets traction in 2018 and beyond is to have a very well orchestrated social media Strategy and that includes like Paying decent money probably less than Super Bowl commercial money, but paying decent money for highly influential Influencers on social media and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and What's app and all this other stuff because that's how pretty much Half the population under 35 these days gets gets influenced into doing things in our opinion I just use my own two eyes and observe and I noticed these these mountainous stacks of Towering stacks of these beverages. They're Commandering, I mean they're really Making huge headway in a short amount of time at the liquor stores Hundreds upon hundreds of cases of these things are flying out the door of liquor stores having a tough time keeping them in stock And I'm wondering I mean are people drinking because they truly like it Is there something addictive in it or is it just that they became brainwashed into wanting it now? Let's get into real quick here the price The price I've only checked two places and I only know I mean the going price for it at a place Like Bourbon Street, which is popular in the western half of New Jersey along the New Jersey Route 22 area It's 1899 for a 12th back and that's about the going price in the 1899 1999 that's about the pretty much the price at Bourbon Street for all the major Sparkling spiked seltzers, but I found this 12 pack of smirnoff at shop, right? liquors, which is owned by quick check, which is franchise, which is in Clinton, New Jersey, they have a couple other shop, right liquors around And they're not all Consistent with the prices either just so you know Because the one in Hackett's town charges different prices than the one in Clinton, but they had it for 1499 So let's talk about economics here. That's $7 and 50 cents Now if we take our math for the alcohol content and you want to say that this 12 pack equals there's the math again 144 ounces for 6.5 ounces of pure alcohol versus 52.8 ounces for At 13 and a half percent for 7.1 ounces of alcohol That's why I like the 14 14 and a half and 15 percent alcohol lines better getting Substantially more booze real booze the fuel that makes your buzz so 1499 for a for a 12 pack is 750 bottles $7 and 49 cents if you want to be used to actual marketing No one does 750 or 749 799 never $8 even that that's the oldest trick in the book to make it 7.99 it doesn't that still make you laugh to this day some companies in the past have tried just doing even numbers I don't know what their success rate was but to this day It's still one penny under the even dollar which is which is sneaking even number So 750 for a bottle of wine is right smack dab in the middle of our cheap wine range Which is between five dollars and ten dollars. So this qualifies as a cheap booze Night and I don't like spending 1499 on a double bottle of wine I like spending in closer to 10 or 11 or 12 But we're grasping at straws literally at this point So I like to smear off. I mean it may not be the most potent But you do get like a slightly different buzz and I'll end this a little clip I'm already at 14 minutes ridiculous. Oh one last thing. I water my wine down at least two to one sometimes three to one So with this four and a half percent alcohol the watering down aspect I Think out of having water while you drink is important No matter and no matter whether it's a beer or a seltzer or wine or hard liquor. You still have to hydrate I'm a little bit on the fence on terms of how to hydrate so I'll be drinking though I've never been able to put down a whole case in a night by the way of this Because I either get full or tired it takes forever, especially if you water it down So that may be a good thing if you don't want to overextend your liver and your overall health, but I'm losing my train of thought here But I'll come back after I kick the case and I'll talk talk to this video camera in the morning and say how I how I felt The last few times the three times I've tried a case of this or almost the case of it in a night I don't think I've ever felt bad. I For the first time ever though while I drank the truly in the white claw. I didn't feel Right and in retrospect I didn't like that and that's why I almost swore them off until the smirnoff which didn't doesn't give me that Empty kind of soulless feeling. Hmm. I don't know Like you can't always trust what they say to put in it. There could be some undetectable Organisms that they stick in there just to keep the population dumb. I don't know Not 100% sure but that's it. So I'm gonna go go finish my work up here over here and And come back with an overall review Conclusion about this I like these I mean 1499 at one. Oh Last last quick thing I keep forgetting out of all the Spark spike cells and they all advertise they have these little stat bars one gram of carbs 90 count that that that that the the smirnoff one out of all of them had the lowest amount of carb It's one period per can All the ones they they like to advertise. Oh, it's only one gram of sugar But they might have two or three grams of carbs overall If you just want the lowest possible carb impact to your diet the smirnoff ones from what I've seen I could be wrong Correct me if I'm wrong had the lowest overall Carbohydrate content per 12 ounces. So that's why I think I like these So 12 grams of carbs for an entire case is pretty damn good And you're not going to raise your blood sugar one bit with this I mean the alcohol will prevent you from losing body fat until you recover for a day or two That's the way it works. I look up in the trope Nutritional ketosis and alcohol and you'll see it takes a solid two to three days After having alcohol in your body to lose any substantial body fat, but you know, that's a story for another day I'll be back with a second half update here 15-17 minutes. I gotta make these videos shorter than the half an hour But since they're stream of thought and unscripted This is the way it's gonna be until I figure it out A better way to do it. So I'll be back in a little bit after I finish four more cans and then tomorrow morning with a hangover Status report Hey, I'm back. It's a little bit after 1 a.m. I'm about to open up the 12th can 12th 12th Can of this Smirnoff spiked sparkling seltzer. See it three times quick. You can't do it spike sparkling seltzer Maybe you can anyway. I feel okay Not nearly as Like a double bottle of wine. Who knows I might just Reach the tipping point after this I added water to my little mason jar And I saved the best one for last because that's you know I had this weird thing where I when I go out to eat or if I'm eating food at home like and I have like a Myriad of food to choose from I always save the best bite for last. I don't know why it's like a weird thing I don't know if there's a childhood I'm pouring it in anyway this this 12 pack empty 12 pack of Smirnoff spiked sparkling seltzer variety pack There's like a little bit less alcohol than a 1.5 liter bottle of I learned this from my dad to Compress milk cartons and bottles just to make it more efficient You know I hate when people throw out an entire milk carton. They don't even think about it Always crush it always crush it. I'm not doing for the environment. I'm doing it for my own like come like my own efficiency, so Forget that Anyway, I I think it's it's not happy as beer. It's not as Buzzy as wine. It's not as angry as liquor, but this is isn't a bad little drinking Mechanism your your mileage may vary and probably will Provided you haven't been influenced by the nefarious Marketing people out there that just want to trick you this this was My foray into the spiked seltzer was completely organic and not influenced by any Social media or marketing. I just observations store presence Conversation real-world physical conversation with people who deal with this on a daily basis And it took multiple like I don't know almost a ten or twelve Conversations with these people before I actually decided to to give it a shot because The fact that it's blown up so fast. I Can't put my finger on it yet, but there's something going on It's either really really profitable for for people to make these canned beverages There has to be some sort of profit margin or or the sales are so good. Maybe people are there's not too many people that drink wine Maybe people like the cans. I don't know. It's like easy It's not a long-term relationship, you know It's like a 12 ounce any throw out and get a new one to a new relationship. I don't know. There could be a million reasons why People like these smaller servings. I Could go on on on on and on and on about it. I mean, that's a psych the psychology Study that could take 10 or 20 years to figure out exactly what the consumer Behavior is and I'm sure somebody's already figured it out and some of these these dark hidden Marketing companies they they they know Like that 72% of the population just doesn't like to commit to it to a bottle of wine or that that's too sophisticated Still to this day, you know, they have cheap wine box wine you could you could wine should be accessible for everybody and I think wine is is is the best way to get a buzz in my opinion But hey, you know you you may have grown up with a father or mother that just loved their like shots You want to drink shots good drink shots? I don't care what you do Everybody's different, but I'm going to say I mean like I'm almost guaranteed to say that this is gonna pass the one case test or two bottle test primarily because Like I said, this this is how much alcohol I get 100% alcohol from a 1.5 liter of a 13.5% This is the same amount of alcohol in a case of this Smirnoff stuff. So I'm definitely I drank a lot less and you know some of the wines I drink are 14 and a half or 15% That's like eight or more percent or eight ounces of Booze so that makes a huge difference, but I'm gonna take them on one last sip here you go You know what the raspberry lemonade by far is the best tasting flavor And so I'll bring my camera up to my bedroom and do a morning after oh, I saw them My previous video was about I figure what kind of other this Bayaka Bayaka Spanish one that was like $40 on sale for $10 at buy right. I said in the morning. I felt okay And I was just rough around the edges I'm not even gonna put it in the review, but I want to let you know that It passed the two bottle test, but with a D-minus. Okay. It was a D-minus Passing grade. It was the bare minimum. I felt pretty crappy all day today and almost panicky I got some points today. I never really reached that point of oh my god I'm never drinking it again, and I probably will drink it again if I have the opportunity or if someone offers me some I'm not gonna do a two-bottle thing anymore maybe if I didn't drink for a week or two before but that Rarely if ever happens hasn't happened in a few years a Week is about as far as I go five days But we're gonna keep these in our rotation maybe once or twice a month. I'm gonna drink these smirnoffs And only at shop right because they shop right liquors they have them for $14.99 if I can get a cheaper up if I find ever for $10.99 a case I'll pick up like 10 cases and keep them in in the storage area because the I think these are okay And they're I think even lower carb than red wine, which is Which is a which is a good thing, but I'm a little bit sad This is all I have left and I have to make it through the rest of the night I might want more of something one more glass Do I steal somebody else's wine? It's not a good idea, but you never know You do what you have to do so My next cut on this video is gonna be tomorrow morning wearing the same shirt that I sleep in And I'll let you know how I feel if it passes the one case slash two bottle test I'm fairly certain it passes, but we'll see tomorrow if I don't do a video I'll write in the in the in the story that we posted in the comments or the description of the video. I Think it'll pass That's it 1 a.m. Sign it out. Okay. This is the next day after the smirnoff Um spiked seltzers and I feel okay. Um, definitely I guess you could say passed say maybe a cc minus rating for the How do you feel the next day? Rating criteria I'm not a big fan of carbonated beverages in general. So I Don't think I'm gonna be buying those things too often Maybe even a hot day like a daytime drinking for a couple cans, but not a not a whole 12 pack So that's it. I think they did okay. I don't feel like rubbish today, but Again, not a big fan of carbonated and we'll stick with our wine