When did alcoholic drinks become accessories?

Coming of age in the late 2010s, pre-drinks or ‘journey juice’ consisted largely of buying small bottles of spirits and pairing them with a sugary, fizzy drink. It was not glamorous; the awkwardly shaped bottles of rum or vodka sticking out of your pockets looked reckless and a little embarrassing. The drink served one purpose, and one purpose only: to get you drunk before a party.

Then we grew up. And suddenly, looking reckless and a little embarrassing came with a lot more baggage. We needed something that would fulfil our night’s needs without looking obnoxious; drinks that could be sipped and snapped en route to the motive. And with drinking habits evolving due to a housing and cost of living crisis, there is arguably more emphasis placed on pre-drinking than before; where previously the club or the party was the main event and drinks would be bought there, we now have to think more carefully about where we are choosing to spend money, and squeeze more value out of the journey there.

Is it any surprise, then, that BuzzBallz became the unofficial drink of summer 2025? Famously women-owned and nostalgic in design (their bubble font resembling a comic strip from the 90s), the stemless plastic goblets could be seen strewn across parks after day festivals, left over outside clubs where the queue would have been and flashing out of windows as trains rushed by.

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Of course, ready-to-drink (RTD) cans never left our shelves. Smirnoff’s range of cranberry and Coke mixers was available long before BuzzBallz were. But something about the drink’s unusual shape (apparently inspired by a snow globe) and eye-catching colours shot the brand into the zeitgeist, making it THE go-to pre-drink this summer. Even those averse to the trend couldn’t resist the neon glow from the corner shop shelf like a moth to a flame.

“They don’t even taste good,” says Tyreis, 22. “But they get you drunk quickly, so they’re good value for money.”

But I‘d argue it’s more than that. BuzzBallz chimed with the neon hues of our vape and Lime-bike-filled times in the wake of 2024’s Brat Girl Summer, becoming a symbol for unabashed feminism and ‘girls just wanna have fun’. Pocket-sized, ready-to-drink and strong in percentage, they combined that fun with convenience, all for the price of a pint. And, in a climate where men are making efforts to redefine masculinity beyond the maonsphere, drinking a BuzzBall symbolises a more playful, social form of drinking than the conventional pint. With all the discourse around gender, the assumed progress we’ve made and the harm that can come from excessive drinking, it’s disappointing that it’s still being gendered.

It was not the first time alcoholic drinks had become an Instagram aesthetic. 2023 saw the proliferation of orange on Instagram dumps as Aperol and Negroni’s accompanied us in bars and on holidays. But this was different. The BuzzBallz’s transitional nature meant it had to be suitable for more than just the one photo. The BuzzBall, in essence, became a transportable accessory – like a hat or a Labubu. Something that could be carried around in your handbag or picnic basket, or held in hand to match your nails. Anytime you left one place to go somewhere else, you could pick up a BuzzBall on the way, as if to put on a jacket or pair of sunglasses.

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But if we think about BuzzBallz as an accessory, inevitably, we must think about what comes next. After all, fashion moves fast these days; today’s Nike Air Rifts are yesterday’s Tabis. And so, as the neon glow of summer dims down and people begin to explore the rest of the corner shop shelves, the RTD monopoly could be anyone’s game.

For me and my friends, it’s a bit like mixed can roulette, trying out different brands, different flavours, different packaging, to see which works best. The thumb-sized, Andy Warhol-style design of a Whitebox cocktail? Or the sleek and sophisticated Moth can – another favourite this summer? Or maybe throw it back with a little nostalgia and grab a Bacardi Breezer?

My bets are that something a little less obvious, a little less neon, will take the prize.

BuzzBallz will become an outdated statement, yesterday’s news, perceived as mainstream, uncool, childish, even. And just like every other social media trend, it will be swallowed up by the endless cycle of fads and crazes, leaving room for the next one to enter the room…

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