These Are The Alcohols People Are Drinking More Of This 4th Of July

For many red-blooded Americans, 4th of July celebrations go hand in hand with fireworks, grilled burgers, and hot dogs — and a boozy drink (maybe in a red Solo cup?). Everyone has their own go-to drink of choice, whether it's a can of PBR, a homemade cocktail, or perhaps those trendy hard seltzers many gulp these days. With so many options, Toast completed a study comparing sales to find out what alcohol people are actually drinking more of during the patriotic summer holiday.

According to Toast, hard seltzer sales had the biggest increase with a 118% increase in sales compared to average-day sales in 2023. It makes sense considering there are so many hard seltzer brands (which we ranked) on the market these days from White Claw to High Noon. Another boozy beverage often found in a bottle or can that saw a boost in sales is hard cider, which saw a 91% increase compared to the average in 2023. The ciders took the fourth spot on Toast's lists — and we have you covered with a ranking of hard cider brands if that's your drink of choice to wash down your hot dog (which is a food that saw a 154% increase in sales according to the study). For hard liquor, most people reached for rum and tequila.

When it comes to hard liquor, tequila saw the biggest boost with a 105% increase in sales — the second biggest boost in alcohol sales on the list. Tequila is a key ingredient in many refreshing cocktails to keep you cool, so Tasting Table has recipe recommendations if you're contributing to tequila's sales this summer. For a cocktail with a festive color, shake up our blood orange and pomegranate margarita. Or make a classic frozen margarita to cool down during the cookout.

Meanwhile, rum saw a 92% increase in sales over the average in 2023. For any rum drinkers, mix up a batch of our triple rum frozen Bahama mama recipe. To make more of a classic rum cocktail, serve these mai tais that use dark rum. To offer some clarification, Toast's methodology looked at its platform data from June 30, 2023, to July 5, 2023, which was compared to the average day that year. Trends come and go, so this year's results might be a little different than other years, but at least you've got some heads-up on what drinks you might want to serve and drink this summer holiday season.