Highballs, a mix of spirits and soda, are quickly becoming the hottest liquor trend at convenience stores, surpassing whiskey and wine sales just two to three years after hitting store shelves.

According to data provided by GS Retail to Maeil Business Newspaper on Sunday, highball sales at GS25 convenience stores jumped 12 fold, or 1,112.2 percent, in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period during the previous year. Highballs have now emerged as a major liquor category at GS25, trailing beer and soju. GS25 created a dedicated highball category in January 2023 and began full-scale sales. Fueled by their explosive popularity, the number of available highball products has surged from just two to more than 40. In the first quarter of 2025, highball sales at GS25 outpaced both whiskey and wine.

In the combined liquor sales ranking at GS25, whiskey accounted for 45.8 percent, wine 38.4 percent, and highballs 15.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023. In 2025, the order shifted to highballs at 39.7 percent, whiskey at 35.1 percent, and wine at 25.2 percent.

A GS25 official said highballs have firmly established themselves as one of the top three liquor products alongside beer and soju within just two years.

Fellow major convenience store chain CU is also seeing a steep rise in highball sales. At CU, highball sales accounted for only 0.6 percent of total liquor sales in 2022, but this figure jumped to 11.3 percent in 2024. In contrast, beer’s share fell from 61.5 percent to 54.5 percent over the same period while soju has maintained a roughly 20 percent share for three consecutive years. A CU official noted that highball sales are eating into beer’s market share.

Convenience store chains attribute the highball boom to the MZ generation’s preference for lighter, more flavorful alcoholic drinks, with thr MZ demographic accounting for around 70 percent of highball customers. The trend has evolved from first-generation highballs focused on authentic flavor to second-generation fruit-flavored versions, and now to third-generation highballs featuring transparent cans. With warmer weather arriving earlier in 2025, highball sales are expected to gain even more momentum as monthly sales during the second and third quarters typically surge to nearly double those of the first quarter.

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