NEW YORK (PRNewswire) — Many a volume has been authored on the best practices for pairing a wine with whatever you might be serving up for dinner, or whether a stout or an IPA would best accompany that stew bubbling away on the stove. But when it comes to alcoholic beverage choices for American adults (aged 21 and up), how much does the "when" of it factor into the type of drink one chooses?
Quite a bit, as it turns out: when presented with a broad selection of adult beverage types, Americans 21+ (who drink several times a year or more) clearly reach for different drinks on different occasions. Beer is the top choice as something they're most likely to drink throughout the year (though table – that is, not sparkling – wine is the top choice for women and the over-65 set). Table wine gets the silver medal overall, though the second tier shows considerable variation by age and gender. For those aged 21-44, liquor/spirits/cocktails hold this position while wine is choice number two for those 45 and older. Meanwhile, liquor/spirits/cocktails are the second highest year-round pick for men while beer holds this distinction among women.
However, when thoughts turn to upcoming yuletide festivities, it would appear that visions of cabernet, chardonnay or other grapes may start dancing in these Americans' heads like so much sugarplums, as table wine is the top choice for Christmas.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 1,951 adults aged 21 and older (of whom 1,176 drink alcohol several times per year or more) surveyed online between August 20 and 22, 2014. (Full results, including data tables, are available here)
Beer follows wine as the second choice for Christmas overall, though among women and those aged 65 and up, liquor, spirits, or cocktails come in as the second choice to sip around the tree. These preferences all echo those seen for last week's Thanksgiving, while preferences shift considerably as one continues to review the holiday calendar throughout the year.
Bubbling in the New Year
When the ball begins to drop in Time's Square on December 31, bubbles may be rising in flutes and coupe glasses around the country, as sparkling wine is the top selection for New Year's Eve. Liquor/spirits/cocktails are the second choice overall, though among women they share this position with table wine.
A different kind of bubbles on Super Bowl Sunday
On Super Bowl Sunday, these Americans turn from grapes to grains, as beer is the top selection across the age spectrum and for both men and women. Liquor/spirits/cocktails come in second, while flavored malt beverages are choice number three overall; those aged 55 and older turn to table wine as their third choice.
Different top choices but a common runner-up when we celebrate the saints (Valentine and Patrick)
Wine, it would appear, is for lovers. That's the top takeaway from table wine's pole position come Valentine's Day, with ages and genders in full agreement. As the calendar moves on to St. Patrick's Day, it may not come as a surprise that beer takes first chair. However, these saints do have some common ground, as liquor, spirits and cocktails come in as the second most popular drink on both their holidays.
Cinco de Mayo follows the good St. Patrick's lead, with beer being the most popular drink followed by liquor, spirits, and cocktails. Come Mother's Day though, it's time to get out the bottle opener again as wine takes back the top spot and holds onto it through Easter.
Beer — the official adult beverage of summer?
Once grilling season kicks off though, beer seems to hang on as the top holiday selection until things cool off. It's the number one selection both overall and, more specifically, across age and gender lines for Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekend.
In fact, the entire roster of top five selections is consistent across all three of these holidays, with liquor/spirits/cocktails coming in second and table wine third. While perhaps less well known, flavored malt beverages are the fourth most common selection for these holidays, while hard cider comes in fifth.
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Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online, in English, within the United States between August 20 and 22 among 1,951 adults aged 21 and over (of whom 1,176 drink alcohol several times per year or more). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, The Harris Poll avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Poll surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
