Both Coke and Heineken announced they will be launching their hard seltzer brands in Europe this year. Tere are several barriers that any hard seltzer brand will need to overcome in Europe, starting with the fact that “seltzer” is not a word used here. Will consumers over here really fall for the hype of low calories in an alcoholic beverage? Besides, the powers that be in both Germany and the EU are already taking a long hard look at hard seltzers because it could be argued that they are akin to alcopops. Those drinks were taxed nearly out of existence in 2004. If this fate were to befall hard seltzers too, their time in the limelight in Europe could be brief.