The Growing Popularity of Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Not a fad — and the reason it is not explains what has appeared on the shelf since, and why the good bottles are no longer the cheap ones.
The short answer is no, it is not a fad — and the reason it is not tells you something useful about what to buy.
We first made the case for this category in 2018, when it still had to be argued. The growth happened. Almost none of the reasons we gave were the ones driving it, and the difference matters, because what actually happened changed what is on the shelf.
Why it is not a fad
The clearest evidence is generational rather than commercial. A longitudinal study of more than 23,000 Australians, published in Addiction, found Generation Z substantially more likely to abstain from alcohol across their lives than Baby Boomers — and, importantly, it is the first Australian study to separate genuine cohort change from the simple fact that people drink less as they age. A passing trend does not survive that test.
It is also why sober curious stopped being a useful description — the phrase implies a phase, and the study describes a cohort. That distinction is what changed the industry’s behavior. Nobody installs a spinning cone column, or spends years developing a botanical distillate, for a fashion. The money went in because the demand looked structural — and everything good on the shelf today is downstream of that decision.
What we got wrong in 2018
| The 2018 argument | What happened | |
|---|---|---|
| Health | People would switch for the health benefits. | Health is a reason people give. It is not what built the category — the drinks that sold were the ones worth drinking. |
| Cost | Alcohol-free would be the cheaper option. | The opposite. A good bottle costs about what its alcoholic counterpart does, and sometimes more. |
| Who was buying | People abstaining permanently. | Largely people who still drink, choosing not to on a given evening. |
| The shelf | Wine and beer with the alcohol taken out. | That, plus spirits, ready-to-drink cans, functional drinks and a set of bottles imitating nothing at all. |
This article was first published in 2018. The left column is what it argued at the time.
What has actually grown since
In 2018 this was essentially two shelves: dealcoholized wine, and a handful of beers. It is now six, and they have not improved at the same rate.
Beer, which settled first
The most convincing category by some distance, because hops and malt carry beer’s flavor and both survive removal intact. The range now runs from American craft — Athletic Brewing, BrewDog — through German brewers who had been making alcohol-free wheat beer and pilsner for decades, Erdinger and Weihenstephaner, to Spanish lager from Estrella Galicia and Japanese yuzu ale from Hitachino Nest. If you are new to any of this, beer is the gentlest place to start — and it is also where the question of what is actually left in the bottle is easiest to answer.
Spirits, which arrived late and grew fastest
The deepest change. Where there was Seedlip and very little else, there is now a full back bar: gin, whiskey, tequila, rum, vermouth, aperitivo, amaretto. Ritual and Lyre’s built ranges; Espadafor brought GINSIN, WHISSIN and VERSIN out of Spain; Almave built a tequila-style spirit from real Blue Agave.
Vodka is the newest arrival of all, and it is instructive. It is the hardest spirit to replace precisely because it is defined by what it is not — so none of the bottles that finally appeared imitate neutrality. They go savory, spiced or botanical instead.
Ready-to-drink, which did not exist
A can you open is a different product from a bottle you build with, and in 2018 there was essentially nothing. Mingle Mocktails, Little Saints, Free Spirits, Aplos and Lyre’s all now make cans worth opening, and Curious Elixirs bottles proper bittersweet drinks rather than sweetened approximations.
Functional beverages, which are a different axis entirely
Non-alcoholic functional beverages — adaptogens, kava, nootropics and hemp, added for an effect rather than a flavor. Three Spirit, Aplos and Kin Euphorics work in bottles; Leilo makes kava cans and The Pathfinder builds on hemp and root.
⚠ Worth separating two things that get run together: functional and non-imitating are different questions. A gin-style bottle can carry lion’s mane, and several canned negronis carry adaptogens. Added-for-an-effect and not-standing-in-for-anything are answered independently, and a bottle can do either, both or neither.
And drinks imitating nothing at all
The category that did not exist as a category. Sparkling teas from Copenhagen and TÖST, verjus-based table drinks from NON, botanical elixirs built to be sipped rather than mixed. We go through why those bottles stopped imitating anything separately. These are not measured against anything, which means they have no ceiling set by how close they get.
Why non-alcoholic drinks are so expensive
This is the 2018 prediction that aged worst, and it is the question we are asked most often about the shelf: why does a bottle with the alcohol taken out cost as much as one with it left in?
A substitute has to undercut the thing it stands in for, because it is competing on being an acceptable stand-in. A drink that is not standing in for anything is priced as itself. So as the category stopped imitating, the prices stopped apologizing — and a sparkling tea now costs what a good bottle of anything costs, because that is what it is.
Where the value sits instead is format. Cans and multipacks are where a category that no longer discounts on principle still competes on price.
What this means for what you buy
Three practical consequences, and they are the reason any of this matters.
Judge the category by its best current bottles, not by the one you tried once. The improvement has been uneven and recent, and beer in particular is a different product from what it was.
Expect to pay real money for the good ones, and be suspicious of anything positioned mainly on being cheaper — that is usually a bottle still competing as a substitute.
And decide whether you want a familiar shape or a good drink. Both are now genuinely available, which was not true in 2018, and they lead to completely different bottles. If the labels are the part that confuses you, start there.
Sources
Common questions
Is the non-alcoholic trend a fad?
The evidence says no. A longitudinal study published in Addiction found Generation Z substantially more likely to abstain across their lives than Baby Boomers, separating genuine generational change from the fact that people drink less as they age. Producers invested on that basis, which is why the drinks improved.
Are non-alcoholic drinks cheaper than alcoholic ones?
Usually not, and that surprises people. A good bottle costs roughly what its alcoholic counterpart does because it is priced as a drink in its own right rather than as a cheaper stand-in. Cans and multipacks are where the value sits.
Which categories have improved most since 2018?
Beer settled first and is the most convincing, because hops and malt survive removal intact. Spirits arrived later and grew fastest, from almost nothing to a full back bar. Ready-to-drink cans and functional beverages barely existed at all.
I tried one years ago and did not like it. Is it worth trying again?
Probably, and start with a different category. Most of the improvement is recent and uneven, so a bottle you disliked years ago is weak evidence about the shelf now. Beer changed earliest and most.
