How Exactly Do You Pronounce La Croix?

Things that are associated with millennials: avocado toast, student loans, a certain shade of pink, and La Croix. People wear t-shirts and hats declaring their love of the sparkling water brand. You probs even have a friend who stocks whole cases of the stuff in their fridge (or...you are that friend. No judgement).

But stronger than the newfound, passionate love for this particular fizzy water, though, are people's opinions on how the brand name should be pronounced.

Case in point: Over the holidays, I was at my parents' house, watching a movie with my mom and sister. Cozied up on the couch under a blanket of the family cats, I asked my sister to bring me a La Croix. Innocent enough, right?

So imagine my surprise at my mom's intense reaction to what I said. "It's not La Cr-ah," she snapped. "It's La Cr-oy." Woah.

In case you have somehow managed to miss this cultural phenomenon: La Croix is a relatively low-cost sparkling water sold in bulk in most supermarkets nationwide. (A list of retailers is available here.) La Croix's cans have retained more of less the same splashy, high-color design since the 1980s, along with a very loyal following.

Yet, somewhat inexplicably, a series of trend pieces popped up about La Croix starting around 2015—and that's when it really started taking off. Vox chalks up its climbing popularity to the a national pivot away from soda: A cost-effective, fruit-flavored, fizzy beverage functions as a logical stand-in.

So: How do you pronounce La Croix? First, you'll need a history lesson.

La Croix water comes from La Crosse, Wisconsin, where it was first manufactured (in 1981, thus the can) by a small family brewery called GE Heileman. Although it has since been acquired by the Florida-based National Beverage Corp., La Croix retains its same name: a mashup of the names of its hometown and the state's St. Croix river.

The French colonized Wisconsin beginning in the 17th century, establishing the state as a key part of the fur trade. That's where Wisconsin gets Francophone names like La Crosse and La Croix, but as one committed Wisconsinite put it while defending the seltzer's Midwestern monicker to City Pages, "anyone who pronounces that river [St. Croix] 'kwah' was French and is dead."

As my mother correctly pointed out, La Croix is indeed pronounced "La Croy" — "it rhymes with enjoy," as the brand puts it.

A litany of YouTube videos would, however, tell you differently, so we'll defer to this video from Mashable to sound it out. Now you won't sound like a tool asking for a mixer at your next party.

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