The High Noon Drink: What It Is and What Comes After It

Picture this: it's a warm afternoon, the sun is blazing, and someone hands you a cold, fizzy drink that somehow manages to be refreshing, light, and just boozy enough to make the moment feel special. That, my friend, is the magic of the High Noon drink.

If you've spotted this canned hard seltzer popping up at cookouts, beach days, and rooftop hangs, you're definitely not alone. High Noon has built quite the reputation for itself, and for good reason. Made with real vodka, real juice, and sparkling water, it sits in a sweet spot between a cocktail and a casual sip.

But here's the thing: once you fall in love with the High Noon drink, you start wondering what else is out there. What flavors should you try first? What drinks pair a similar vibe? And what actually comes next once you've worked your way through the lineup?

In this post, we're breaking it all down. From the best flavors to worthy alternatives and everything in between, consider this your go-to guide for leveling up your High Noon experience.

What Is the High Noon Drink, Actually?

If you've been anywhere near a golf cart in the last few years, you already know what a High Noon is. But for the uninitiated, here's the quick breakdown before we get into why it's become the unofficial drink of the back nine.

High Noon Sun Sips is a vodka-based hard seltzer made with real fruit juice, and that distinction matters more than it sounds. Most mainstream hard seltzers are built on a fermented malt or sugar base, which gives them a slightly grainy, beer-adjacent taste that spirit-forward drinkers have never fully warmed up to. High Noon skips all that. Real vodka, real juice, real seltzer. The result is something that actually tastes like a light cocktail instead of a watered-down beer in disguise, and that difference is exactly why it caught on so fast with golfers.

The numbers are clean, too. Each standard can clocks in at 4.5% ABV with roughly 100 calories and no added sugar. For golfers who want something cold and social without feeling like they owe the treadmill an apology, that's a genuinely compelling combination. It slots neatly into the "light but legitimate" category that has become increasingly important to health-conscious players who still want a real drink in hand.

Flavor variety has also done a lot of the heavy lifting here. The lineup runs deep, including watermelon, peach, black cherry, pineapple, mango, lemon, and raspberry, among others. Variety packs are practically a staple at the turn, and the ability to grab something different on holes 10 through 18 keeps things interesting during a long round in the heat. Seltzer Nation's reviews consistently highlight the clean fruit character that the vodka base delivers, which is a big part of why it earns repeat carts rather than one-round curiosity.

No elaborate serving ritual required. Crack it, keep it cold, drink it straight from the can. Simple, portable, and socially frictionless, which is about as on-brand for golf cart culture as it gets.

How High Noon Became the Unofficial Drink of the Golf Cart

Let's start with the most underrated detail in the whole High Noon origin story: the can fits perfectly in a golf cart cup holder. That's not a marketing strategy, that's physics working in your favor. No mixing, no glassware, no cooler lid gymnastics between shots. You bomb one down the fairway, crack one open, and move on with your life. The self-contained format survives cart paths, speed bumps, and that one guy in your group who drives like he's qualifying for something. Convenience is the underrated king of on-course drinking decisions.

But convenience alone doesn't build a cultural moment. High Noon put in serious work to own the outdoor lifestyle space, eventually landing an official partnership with the PGA of America and the PGA Championship, complete with on-site activations and a branded clubhouse presence at the 2024 Championship. They weren't just advertising near golf; they were physically inside the sport's biggest events. Layer in a collab with TravisMathew on limited-edition apparel and you've got a brand that didn't just sponsor golf, it embedded itself into the culture.

The "real vodka, real juice" positioning mattered too, especially for the 35-to-52-year-old golfer who has strong opinions about malt beverages and isn't afraid to share them in the group chat. Nobody's stopping the cart girl to build a custom vodka soda. High Noon solved that problem with a product that felt like a legitimate spirit-forward choice rather than something pulled from a college cooler.

Variety packs closed the deal for group rounds. One case, multiple flavors, zero committee meetings about what to buy. The brand has leaned further into this with packs built around outdoor occasions, which is essentially just describing a Saturday morning tee time.

The rest is pure social physics. Once High Noon became the thing your group brought, it became the thing everyone brought. Golf peer norms are sticky, and showing up with the "wrong" drink to a casual foursome carries a surprising amount of social weight. That cultural snowball is nearly impossible to stop once it's rolling.

Calories, Sugar, and ABV: The Honest Breakdown

Let's talk numbers, because this is where a lot of golfers get misled by label language.

A standard 355ml can of High Noon clocks in at roughly 100 calories, 2g of sugar (naturally occurring from real fruit juice), and 4.5% ABV. That's a pretty clean profile on paper, and honestly, it's part of why the can became so popular on the course.

But here's the label nuance worth understanding: "no added sugar" is not the same as zero sugar. The fruit juice that gives High Noon its flavor brings natural fructose along for the ride. It's a small number, but it varies across the flavor lineup, so if you're tracking closely, it's worth checking the panel per flavor rather than assuming they're all identical.

The 4.5% ABV is genuinely useful context. Most cocktails run significantly higher depending on the pour, which means High Noon sits closer to light beer territory. For golfers trying to stay sharp through holes 14 through 18 and still have a functioning opinion at the 19th hole, that lower ABV has real strategic value.

For comparison, a clean vodka soda built with a quality spirit comes in around 97 calories and zero sugar. According to alcohol calorie research, the calorie differences between these options are modest enough that the real decision comes down to taste preference and what you're actually reaching for. Both are reasonable choices. The difference is craft, control, and what ends up in your glass.

Signs You Might Have Outgrown Your Seltzer

Here's a truth that hits different on the first tee of a golf trip: there's a moment when you unzip your cooler, pull out the same variety pack you've been buying since 2021, and feel something you didn't expect. Not refreshed. Vaguely embarrassed.

That feeling has a name. It's called outgrowing your drink.

The broader industry is catching up to what a lot of golfers already sensed. Hard seltzer is officially in its awkward era, with industry insiders describing the category as needing full reinvention to stay relevant. The initial boom was real, explosive even, but post-pandemic the momentum shifted as consumers started asking better questions. Like: what am I actually drinking, and why?

That label-reading phase is a legitimate milestone. A 2023 survey found that 62% of consumers now check nutrition labels on alcoholic drinks, and once you start scrutinizing ingredients, the gap between a malt-based seltzer with artificial flavor and a vodka build with real juice becomes a lot harder to ignore. You don't stop at watermelon flavoring once you know what watermelon flavoring actually means.

Flavor fatigue is the other quiet killer. When dozens of brands are releasing hundreds of SKUs across every tropical and berry combination imaginable, the flavor itself stops communicating anything. RTD premiumization is accelerating precisely because consumers are done choosing from noise. They want something with a clear identity and a quality story that holds up.

The important thing to understand is that none of this is snobby. Upgrading your drink is the same instinct that makes you research shafts, obsess over a putter fitting, or finally stop buying the cheapest golf ball on the shelf. It's intentionality. It's knowing what you like and committing to it. The defining beverage trend of 2026 isn't more seltzer flavors; it's spirit-forward RTDs built for people who actually give a damn what's in the can. Sound familiar? It should. Those are your people.

The Golf Cart Build: A High Noon-Style Recipe Worth Making

Here's the good news: you don't need a vending machine, a convenience store, or a variety pack to get your fix. You can build the same clean, light, refreshing drink you've been pulling from the cooler since 2021, and when you upgrade the base spirit to something that actually has a story, the whole thing tastes noticeably better.

Call it the 19th Hole Build. Send it in the group chat Saturday morning when someone asks what everyone's drinking. It'll stick.

The Recipe

The 19th Hole Build

• 1.5 oz Broken Tee Vodka

• 0.5 oz fresh-squeezed or quality fruit juice (watermelon, grapefruit, and peach all deliver; pick your flavor)

• Sparkling water or club soda to top

• Served over ice in a can-cooler or insulated cup

• Optional: squeeze of fresh lime or lemon

How to Build It

Pour the vodka over ice first. Add your juice. Top with sparkling water and give it one gentle stir. That's it. The DIY vodka seltzer method is well-established at this point, minimal stirring preserves the carbonation and keeps the drink light through the back nine. Resist the urge to over-engineer it. The simplicity is entirely the point.

Why the Base Spirit Actually Matters

In a drink this stripped down, there's nowhere to hide. A vodka seltzer is essentially water, bubbles, a splash of fruit, and whatever vodka you chose. That last part carries the whole thing. Broken Tee is distilled seven times from non-GMO corn and carbon filtered, which means the clean finish you're tasting is genuinely clean. It's not a carbonation trick. It's not fruit flavoring doing heavy lifting. The smoothness is built into the spirit itself, and that difference is real in a drink with this few ingredients.

Pre-batch two or three in a Yeti or insulated bottle before the round and you're golden through the turn. No cans to pack, no variety pack flavor lottery, just the build you actually want. That's the upgrade.

The Part No Seltzer Can Has Ever Done

Here's the thing about a can of seltzer: it arrives cold, you drink it, and it disappears into a recycling bin on the 14th hole. No story. No artifact. No reason to mention it to the next foursome you see at the turn.

Every bottle of Broken Tee Vodka comes with a collectible golf ball marker tucked inside. Not a sticker. Not a QR code to a sweepstakes nobody enters. An actual ball marker, the kind you use on the green, lose in your bag, and somehow find again three rounds later. It's a tactile, genuinely golf-native detail that no canned RTD brand in the category has ever come close to offering, because most of them are beverage brands wearing golf clothes, not brands that actually grew up in the game.

That ball marker does something sponsorship dollars cannot manufacture: it starts conversations. Pull one out on the first tee and somebody asks about it. Leave one on the table at the 19th hole and it becomes part of the round's story. Golfers notice the small stuff. We obsess over headcovers, shaft labels, and the exact grind on a wedge. A well-designed ball marker lands in that same part of the brain, the part that says that's cool, where'd you get that.

That's the real difference between a brand that sponsors golf culture and a brand that was built inside it. One buys a badge. The other hands you something you'll actually mark your ball with on Saturday morning.

Bottom of the Glass: What to Take Away

High Noon earned its spot on the cart, full stop. It nudged a generation of golfers to actually read the label, ask what was in the can, and start caring about the difference between malt-based and spirits-based. That's a genuine contribution to the culture, and it deserves credit for it.

But the category has grown up. Consumer taste has sharpened, and craft spirits are now defined by provenance, ingredient transparency, and a real story behind the pour rather than just convenience and a clean calorie count. The golfer who wants more than a variety pack now has better options than ever before.

The build is simple, the ingredients are better, and the vodka comes with a collectible ball marker. That last detail alone is worth two minutes of conversation at the first tee, which is more than any can of seltzer has ever delivered.

Next round, try the 19th Hole Build with Broken Tee Vodka. Bring the bottle, bring the recipe, and let the foursome weigh in. That's the whole experiment. No agenda, just better ingredients and a little more intention behind the glass.

Because at the end of the day, the 19th hole is about drinking what you actually enjoy, with some style and a good story attached. That's always been the point.

Conclusion

The High Noon drink has earned its place as a go-to beverage for good reason. It delivers real ingredients, a clean refreshing taste, and just the right amount of buzz to elevate any occasion. Whether you're a longtime fan or just cracking your first can, a few things are worth remembering.

Start with the fan-favorite flavors, explore the seasonal and limited releases, and don't be afraid to branch out into similar hard seltzers when you're feeling adventurous. The world of light, flavorful drinks is bigger and better than ever.

Now it's your turn to take action. Grab a variety pack, host a backyard taste test, or simply try one new flavor this weekend. Life is too short to sip something boring. Cheers to finding your perfect pour, one cold can at a time.