Just as contemporary sobriety programs have mushroomed in recent years, so have new non-alcoholic drinks. In the U.S alone, in 2022 there have been 80 new non-alcoholic beverage launches, and still counting. Celebrities like Katy Perry, Blake Lively, and Kylie Minogue are also getting in on the act. Personally, I have a fully stocked non-alcoholic bar and regularly introduce friends to these alternatives with tastings around my dining table. My bar includes high quality, and good value sparkling teas like Bla and Royal Flush, de-alcoholized wines such as Noughty by Thomson & Scott, functional beers with added benefits such as Fungtn, knock-out complex botanical Botivo, to full back bar replacements like Ritual Zero Proof and Lyre’s (Agave Blanco is fab!).
In Australia, Government guidelines for what is considered ‘Non-Alcoholic’ are different depending on Australian State laws, but generally speaking, non-alcoholic beer is 0.5%
Comprehensively well described by Drink Aware because not all countries’ guidelines are equal!
As a passionate advocate working in this booming non-alcoholic beverage category, I am frequently asked to justify the cost of these innovative, ground-breaking, and delicious adult non-alcoholic beverages.
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Crafting these drinks takes the same skill, uses high-quality botanicals and natural ingredients, and requires high spending in marketing to achieve the status that alcoholic beverages already have. My observation on who asks this question the most is that it's Boomers and Gen Xers. We've grown up around booze and linked its intrinsic value to the "buzz" it provides. Ask a 22 years old Gen Z who’s never tasted alcohol before, and they clearly don’t see the value proposition through the same lens.
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Definitions good to know
Non-Alcoholic - These have next to no alcohol in them whatsoever. Different countries have different rules but generally, they could be up to 0.05%. Alcohol-Free - In the UK alcohol-free means drinks below 0.05% ABV (same as the non- alcoholic definition above) and ‘low-alcohol’ means drinks below 1.2% ABV. But in many countries, including all in the EU and in the U.S drinks that contain 0.5% alcohol or less, by law, are considered to be alcohol-free.
So tonight, you will still find me dancing around my kitchen island while cooking dinner. Only I will be enjoying the ritual of a zero-proof.
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