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Alcoholic soda was a $116 million business in 2015

Who needs plain ol’ soda when you can have one with a boozy kick? That’s become the mantra of many beverage marketers (and, in turn, many thirsty adults). Yes, hard soda is a thing — a $116 million thing, in fact: That’s the rough sales total for this emerging category in 2015, according to market researcher IRI.

The trend started primarily with alcoholic root beers — specifically, a craft-brewery brand called Not Your Father’s Root Beer, which dominated the category last year (it accounted for $92 million of the $116 million in sales). But it’s now spreading to the major players in the beverage world. Anheuser-Busch InBev has its Best Damn Root Beer brand. And earlier this year, MillerCoors launched Henry’s Hard Soda, a brand that takes as its inspiration one Henry Weinhard, a 19th-century brewer who made a name for himself in Portland, Ore., and who once suggested running beer through the city’s drinking fountains. In other words, Henry liked to have a good time.