Brands are taking non-drinkers seriously. Over the years, research was released, showing that more youth are choosing to not drink alcoholic beverages. We have seen companies like JC le Roux release non-alcoholic champagne, Castle has released an alcohol-free beer, Seedlip’s non-alcoholic spirit and now Holder Vineyard & Wines has also joined the fray releasing their first alcohol-free wine, the Lautus Savvy White.
Clearly there’s a demand for non-alcoholic variants. Research by Sue Sharrad, PhD, has found that young people are drinking less, start experimenting with alcohol later than previous generations and there are more abstainers. It also appears that these youths don’t care about the social stigma surrounding people who don’t drink alcohol.
Other research has found that one in five millennials do not drink alcohol, while 66% said that alcohol is not important to their social lives. It turns out that health is one of the many reasons why there are more people losing interest in alcohol. The calories are not worth it and for people living a healthy lifestyle, they have chosen to rather cut alcohol out, like how some have totally cut out gluten and carbs from their diets. People are more aware of the effects of alcohol on their bodies and with clean eating becoming more than a fad for most people.
Google Trends also corroborates this research, as it released a drinks report that showed how there’s a spike of people searching for the benefits of quitting alcohol on the search engine.
The rise in popularity of mocktails has also shown how people are choosing to abstain. Unlike in previous years, mixologists are creating interesting non-alcoholic cocktails to cater for those who don’t imbibe. Campaigns like Dry January and Ocsober are also adding fuel to the fire, with people cutting down on their alcohol consumption. It’s called Mindful Drinking- it’s not about getting drunk anymore.
I find this all interesting, especially since I don’t drink alcohol too. I’ve constantly had issues when it comes to pairing food with non-alcoholic beverages. I’ve always settled for water as most juices and cordials are too sweet, as are fizzy drinks. I am going to be trying out a number of these alcohol-free beverages, to see if it’s something teetotallers would enjoy.