We are all familiar with the various alcoholic beverage trends of late — Fireball exploding into the liquor scene several years ago, the monstrosity that was Bud Light’s Lime-A-Rita and that friend of yours who pretended to be a huge IPA fan for one summer.

The beverage that has been making the most waves this summer is hands down hard root beer, with the two titans of the emerging industry being Boston Beer Co.’s Coney Island Hard Root Beer and Small Town Brewery’s Not Your Father’s Root Beer.

I tasted the Coney Island Hard Root Beer, which hit shelves just two months ago, as it’s more readily available in the Syracuse area. I had no idea what to expect from this beverage. The beer looks exactly like a normal root beer when poured into a glass, lots of carbonation with no head and it smells sweet and syrupy.

The sudden explosion of alcoholic root beer is reflective of the beer industry’s effort to create sweeter drinks that appeal to adults under 35. That demographic has spearheaded the consumer shift from beer to liquor, costing the beer industry nearly 10 percent of its share in the alcoholic beverage market in the past 15 years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

My first sip of the Coney Island Hard Root Beer pleasantly surprised me; the beverage tastes almost exactly like a normal root beer with only the faintest taste of alcohol. A few sips later I came to truly enjoy the drink, which has a rich, sweet flavor with hints of vanilla. Coney Island Hard Root Beer is no pushover when it comes to alcohol content either with a surprisingly high ABV of 5.8 percent. So, although it may taste like you’re drinking a regular root beer, don’t be surprised if you feel a little tipsy after a few.

Only time will tell if hard root beer is here to stay, but if Coney Island Hard Root Beer is any indication, my bet is that it will be.