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In 1993, Coors Brewing Company launched Zima, a clear alcoholic beverage to join the transparent market trend alongside Crystal Pepsi and Tab Clear.
While traditional beer showed its brewing process through amber and brown hues, Zima's crystal-clear appearance suggested laboratory precision.
The name "Zima," borrowed from Slavic languages where it denotes winter, evoked images of pristine mountain snow and pure spring water.
Coors marketed Zima as neither beer or wine cooler, but in its own category—a carbonated alcohol drink filtered until transparent.
It targeted consumers who found beer bitter and wine coolers too sweet.
Coors saw an opportunity in Americans' growing obsession with "clear" with "clean".
They spent $38 million on launch advertising that portrayed Zima as a sophisticated alternative to conventional alcoholic beverages, using the slogan "Zomething Different."
In 1993, Coors poured $50 million into launching Zima, flooding TV networks with commercials featuring young folks in sleek bars sipping clear bottles.
The campaign used its famous slogan — "Zomething Different" — during prime-time slots and plastered billboards nationwide.
Within six months, 48% of American beer and liquor consumers had purchased at least one bottle of Zima.
The aggressive rollout mirrored similar campaigns defined 90s marketing.
Pepsi spent $40 million broadcasting Crystal Pepsi's "Right Now" campaign during the 1993 Super Bowl.
Coca-Cola's 1985 New Coke launched saturated airwaves with commercials promising "The New Taste of Coca-Cola”.
After its national launch in 1993, Zima's sales surged to 1.2 million barrels in 1994.
The clear malt beverage would never again match these numbers.
1994 would be its peak and most successful year.
Between 1993 and 1994, David Letterman devoted segments of "Late Night with David Letterman" to ridiculing Zima, often holding up bottles of Zima while delivering pointed jokes about its taste and marketing.
His repeated jokes—calling it "liquid polymer" and mocking its "not beer, not wine" identity—reached millions of viewers nightly.
Its mockery in pop culture became a punchline that stuck.
The brand's market share dropped sharply during this period, with data showing a 60% decline in sales between its launch and 1996!
In 1995, Zima had become branded as a "woman's drink" in bars and liquor stores across America.
Coors' response was Zima Gold—a new beverage engineered to appeal to male drinkers through its amber color and whiskey-like flavor notes.
The product was launched in spring 1995, backed by TV spots showcasing men in bars confidently ordering the drink.
The market rejected Zima Gold within months.
Male consumers avoided it, viewing the Zima name itself as incompatible with their drinking preferences, regardless of the new bourbon-inspired taste.
By early 1996, Coors pulled Zima Gold from production after distributors reported full cases gathering dust in warehouses.
MillerCoors discontinued Zima in America in October 2008 after sales dropped to 0.5% of the malt beverage market.
The crystal-clear, citrus-flavored drink that had peaked at 1.3 million barrels sold in 1994 had dwindled to just 8,000 barrels in its final year.
In June 2017, betting on '90s nostalgia, MillerCoors revived Zima for a summer release.
The 5.4% alcohol beverage returned in its original glass bottles with the same black-and-teal logo.
Despite initial social media buzz, the 2017 release sold only 3,000 barrels.
A second attempt in summer 2018 performed even worse, selling just 2,000 barrels.
By September 2018, MillerCoors abandoned the revival, leaving Zima's future solely in the Japanese market, where it has maintained steady sales since 1995.
While Zima struggled in the United States, the drink carved out a lasting presence in Japan after its 1996 launch.
Japanese consumers from college students to middle-aged professionals embraced Zima, contrasting sharply with its American image as a distinctly 1990s fad drink.
The beverage maintained steady sales in Japan for over two decades, appearing in convenience stores, supermarkets, and vending machines across the country.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and aluminum shortages forced Molson Coors to pause Zima production.
The company halted Japanese distribution in December 2021.
In spring 2023, Zima returned to Japanese retail shelves through a new manufacturing and distribution agreement with Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co., a 280-year-old sake producer based in Kobe.
This partnership shifted production entirely within Japan.
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