Costco's New Kirkland Brand Cocktails Are An Obvious High Noon Copycat

Costco is no stranger to the fruity, effervescent a-little-too-easy-to-drink canned cocktail game. Its Kirkland Signature label Hard Seltzer is often compared to White Claw in terms of taste, alcohol content, and flavor options, with many people lauding how affordable the Costco drink is in comparison to popular brands like White Claw and Truly. Recently, a Reddit user in Washington State noticed that a new boozy seltzer is popping up in Costco aisles, and it looks suspiciously like High Noon, a popular vodka and fruit-based canned seltzer sold at many major grocery and liquor stores. 

Costco's new Kirkland Signature brand cocktail is simply called Vodka + Soda. We like that the branding team pulled no punches when it came to naming the product. According to the Reddit post, the Kirkland Signature Vodka + Soda variety pack includes 18 cans in three different flavors: peach, watermelon, and pineapple. High Noon also comes in pineapple, peach, and watermelon, but the brand ultimately offers a larger array of flavors, including lemon, lime, passion fruit, black cherry, and grapefruit. Both Kirkland Signature's Vodka + Soda and High Noon tote no added sugar, 100 calories per can, real fruit juice, and 4.5% alcohol by volume.

Costco's whole thing is that it sells items in bulk, helping customers save potentially thousands of dollars a year. But the listed price of the Kirkland Signature Vodka + Soda has some people hesitating to head down to the liquor aisle. In a photo posted to Reddit from a Washington State Costco, the price of an 18-pack of Kirkland's Vodka + Soda cans is listed as $54.21, which roughly comes out to $3 a can. For comparison, we looked up the cost of an eight-pack of High Noon, also in Washington State, and found that it landed at about $2.70 a can on average. Although the price difference isn't huge, it's surprising to see Costco selling a more expensive knockoff. Note: Due to Washington State spirit sales taxes, the price might be a little better at out-of-state Costcos.

So, is Kirkland Signature's Vodka + Soda worth the price? As we mentioned before, High Noons are extremely popular, with many people reporting that it's the only hard seltzer they actually like. The hard seltzer was also voted the #1 Best Tasting Hard Seltzer according to Tasting Panel Magazine. We placed High Noon squarely in the middle of our own hard seltzer brand ranking. Tasting Table has yet to conduct a side-by-side taste test — which might be better done during the hot summer months while lounging on an inner tube — but if Kirkland Signature is able to pull off the same bold, authentic flavors, then it may be worth a pick-up if you can't get your hands on a more affordable case of High Noon.