Jeremy Kim Helped Put Asian Flavors on Hard Seltzer Shelves
By Kelli Luu | 17 Jul, 2026

After being rejected over 200 times, Jeremy Kim’s journey building Nectar Hard Seltzer shows how community-driven marketing can change an entire industry.

Jeremy Kim looked down the hard seltzer aisle at his local grocery store in 2020 and noticed something was missing. All of the seltzer brands offered similar flavors like lime, cherry, and grapefruit, but none reflected Asian American flavors that he enjoyed growing up. 

Using this experience, Kim decided to create a seltzer brand that celebrated Asian flavors, eventually leading to Nectar Hard Seltzer, one of the first viral seltzer brands inspired by Asian flavors like lychee, yuzu, and li-hing pineapple. 

Before Nectar, Kim graduated from UC Santa Barbara and started his career in the digital media and music marketing industries. With his experience, he learned the importance of branding and the power of building online communities with viral content. He partnered with his co-founders who all invested their own savings to found Nectar. 

Nectar Hard Seltzer launched in December 2020 and according to Kim, over 200 liquor stores rejected Nectar during its early days. He decided to turn to TikTok and began posting sharable content that generated millions of views which increased the demand for the seltzer. Two liquor stores in Los Angeles finally agreed to carry Nectar and the first shipments sold out within an hour. 

From there, the company continued to grow and rather than spending thousands of dollars on expensive marketing campaigns, they were able to build an online community through organic content and direct interaction with customers. In 2024 a Wefunder crowdfunding round raised over $680,000 and today Nectar is bringing in more than $5 million in annual revenue. Beyond the drinks themselves, the brand has also continued to embrace its mission of celebrating Asian American culture. 

In 2025 Jeremy Kim unfortunately announced that he was stepping away from the company due to experiencing burnout and has since then shifted his attention towards other ventures and faith-based projects, still proud of what Nectar has become.