Alcohol-free booze is becoming big business
84 comments
·January 7, 2025teractiveodular
rpastuszak
I remember the same happening in Poland ca. 15-20 years ago (I’m not sure if that’s still the case).
Another way of sneaking in alcohol into ads relied on linguistic jokes, e.g.:
You’ll get an ad telling people that Bols (a vodka brand) sponsored a boat with the same name.
In Polish łódka Bols (the Bols boat, /wootkah/) sounds almost the same as wódka Bols (Bols vodka /vootkah/). Given the stronger association between the word Bols and vodka it requires a conscious effort not to hear the implied word vs what is actually spoken.
Sinister, but gotta admire the chutzpah.
I few weeks back I saw some ads for cocktails with alcohol free gin (in Italy IIRC)
jackstraw14
Pretty sure you see Heineken Zero ads all over some Formula 1 tracks for the same reason.
fredley
Anecdotally, my local (UK) brewery’s most profitable beer is their alcohol free one. Partly this is because it’s priced the same as their alcoholic beers, but they pay no duty!
gadders
This is what pisses me off about non-alcoholic products. They don't take all the duty out of the price of the new product.
fredley
I think if they did, they’d sell less of it. Consumers would associate the cheaper price with a poorer quality product (most are probably not directly aware of the amount of duty they’re paying or even that they are). The whole goal of non alcoholic beer is to make it feel as much as a real beer as possible. A big price disparity would create more of a difference.
gadders
I'm sure that's what they claim. The bonus profits are just a coincidence.
Nosecco, though, is pretty reasonably priced (£3/bottle last time I looked) so kudos to them.
maurits
I'd wager that marketing figured out that people are willing to pay a premium for the added feature of not having alcohol.
Maybe the same segment that also pays more for premium (healthy, biological etc ) food.
mynegation
Not an expert, but as far as I know, the best way to make non-alcoholic drink is to make real thing and then carefully take alcohol out of it, so at least in terms of COGS the producer will spend more money. But mostly I think it is supply demand balance.
louthy
That has nothing to do with the tax?
rob74
Alcohol free beer is nice, what I don't get is alcohol free spirits. Above a certain alcohol content, the burning sensation caused by the alcohol is part of the experience of drinking it, and that can't be replicated without alcohol. So alcohol-free gin is maybe good for cocktails, but does anybody really drink it in its pure form?
esprehn
> alcohol-free gin is maybe good for cocktails, but does anybody really drink it in its pure form?
That depends on what the zero proof spirit is aiming for. I've found some of them are not very good alone because they're trying to replicate a particular flavor in the cocktail, but others (ex. Monday's Gin) are great with just ice. We keep a bottle of it around for a fun evening beverage.
The "savory non-tea zero proof beverage" for the evening is a difficult thing to come by. That's the space these fake spirits are trying to fill.
kasey_junk
Mostly I just use it for cocktails but I’ve found a couple of na “spirits” that I’ll drink over ice like a real alcohol. Particularly the Free Spirits Bourbon and the Almave Amber.
https://drinkfreespirits.com/collections/non-alcoholic-spiri...
mynegation
Maybe not the gin (did not like it to begin with), but alcohol-free wine, yes. The taste still gives some memories of ritual and celebration without associated health damage. Good likeness of wine, turns out, is not very cheap. You can buy a cheap non-alcoholic wine that taste something like kombucha or grape juice, but really good brands are constantly sold out in our local alcohol-free drink shop, despite being 2-3x the price of the real wine.
matthewmcg
The pricing makes sense for the better brands as they have to basically make a nice wine, and then take additional steps to remove the alcohol. At least that’s what they do for the better alcohol-free Rieslings. See https://thezeroproof.com/products/buy-eins-zwei-zero-rieslin...
onion2k
Manufacturers made alcohol-free versions of their products so that governments wouldn't step in to regulate them. They can claim to be responsible product owners who offer low-alcohol versions of their drinks to keep people safe from harm, which is true to an extent, which means governments don't force them to do things to be safer in other ways (reduced alcohol on main brand offerings, proof-based taxation, etc.)
They don't really make these things because they're a good idea. They do them because it's cheaper than not doing them.
zeta0134
Oh absolutely. At most restaurants, my options are water, badly stale tea, a variety of sodas, and alcoholic beverages. All of the interesting drinks are poisoned. I want to enjoy the variety and see what flavors and experiences are out there without the poison, and the N/A menu is my key to actually doing that. Suddenly I can try "real drinks" and get all of the fun with none of the nauseating headache.
Why wouldn't I want to do this?
spacebanana7
I recommend trying alcohol free gin & tonic. It’s very competitive with ‘normal’ soft drinks like Pepsi & Fanta, especially if you’re looking for variety.
foooorsyth
Just being able to hold a drink in your hand as social cover is part of what you’re buying. At a Christmas party, you just want to have what appears to be the peppermint Christmas-themed drink in your hand like everyone else, even if you’re pregnant or don’t drink for whatever reason. People will stop asking if they can get you a drink. Not everyone buying an NA drink cares about perfectly emulating the sensation of alcohol entering the body.
chung8123
Tonic and lime or club soda and lime can do that as well.
kasey_junk
If you allow yourself a touch of alcohol bitters in tonic or club soda is another good choice.
globular-toast
Yes. Discovering lime soda is what allowed me to stop drinking alcohol. Prior to that I would feel the peer pressure to have an alcoholic drink. For some reason water is unacceptable. Coca cola or similar is OK, but very unhealthy. Lime soda seems to be the minimum that is allowed and doesn't seem too unhealthy.
The other trick is making the drink last for as long as you can. As soon as the drink is finished you are required to obtain another one. But nobody needs to drink multiple litres of fluid in the space of a few hours, plus it's expensive. So I take tiny sips and make half a litre last an hour or longer.
bellgrove
Anecdotally I've found that almost all alcohol-free cocktails on the menu are priced the same as regular version cocktails; like $15-$20! In Canada, at least, I believe there are licensing and taxes that contribute to the price of alcoholic beverages, so I don't understand why an alcohol-free cocktail should cost anywhere close to the regular drink.
InfiniteRand
I'm curious how many people tasted beer for the first time, and purely based on the taste wanted to drink more. My impression, and this might just be limited exposure, is most bitter drinks are niche products unless they deliver alcohol or caffeine. Does anyone have a good counter-example?
mk89
This is visible also in Germany since 5-10 years. There has been now some development of really tasty alternatives, from the classic "radler" now with a mix with everything (e.g., Becks Ice) to 0.0% alcohol like Bitburger Isotonic, which is really tasty and refreshing.
Wine, on the other hand, is impossible to make alcohol free.
lambdaba
Just curious - why is this flagged?
archagon
Maybe some drinkers are triggered by the idea that not everyone wants to drink alcohol?
It’s a bizarre attitude but one that I’ve certainly encountered before.
high_na_euv
In Poland in last decade there was huge boom of 0% beers
trwired
Another booming segment is energy drinks. I wonder if these two have a common root, that is a yet-to-be-(re)discovered market for soft drinks marketed towards adults. In the region's early history that niche was occupied by kvass. It is still very popular in ex-Soviet countries, but not so much in the CEE area.
Ekaros
Non-alcoholic ciders seem to have about half the sugar content of Cola. So even for non-light drinkers they can be somewhat better albeit more expensive option.
OJFord
That's it for me. A lot of the time I drink something alcoholic my requirements actually are just cold (not hot), and not sweet (and other than water). Traditionally that approximately means alcohol! Tomato juice I suppose, iced tea doesn't have to be that sweet, cold brew coffee... But basically it's alcohol.
I do now enjoy 0-0.5% 'beer' sometimes, I think it works best when it's not the kind you drink with alcohol, so it's not disappointingly not quite right. E.g. I like the AF versions of Guinness & Bavaria - I don't really drink stouts or lager.
sebtron
In the last 15 years or so 0% beer has improved from "sparkling piss" to something passable, I bet this explains at least part of it. Nowadays 0% Heineken is almost as good as regular Heineken - which means it is not that good, but you can keep a bottle in your hands and occasionally take a sip while you try to socialize.
mpawelski
Can confirm. Plus nowadays you can find 0% beers that are actually quite good and very similar in taste to a regular beer. In the past there were really only shifty ones.
zabil
I enjoy the taste of hops and personally, I find zero version better than their alcoholic counterparts, not sure everyone else feels like that.
I wonder why it took the market so long to boom in this segment. Nice to see other recommendations.
nojvek
Zero IPA is really good
jakubmazanec
I recommend non-alcoholic beers from Nilio [1]. Probably only available in Czechia and Slovakia though.
sbuttgereit
I like beer. One might say it makes me a jolly good fellow... but...
I use to really dislike non-alcoholic beer. Not because I had any problem with the idea of it, but because they all tasted like crap.
These days, I'm finding that there are some I actually like. By taste, they are clearly not regular beers: they have to be taken as their own thing. But they're not bad at all and they are close enough to satisfy the want of a nice beer. I like them when I don't want any of the effects of the alcohol... maybe I'm working on something that requires, you know, thought, or I will drink them during my monthly poker game. I'm glad there are more and better choices.
What I am missing is something in between the full-on-not-worried-about-alcohol beers and non-alcoholic beers. I want a good range of choices in "small beers", where they're good and they'll get me relaxed but I can have a few without getting too buzzed or drunk. I've seen some advertised here and there (none anywhere close to where I live).
As for non-alcoholic spirits, I agree with those that don't get it. The spirits I like depend far too much on the interaction of alcohol and how it evaporates for the overall experience to see the point.
> Brands are doing what they can to lift the appeal of alcohol-free alternatives.
In Indonesia and India, public alcohol advertising is basically banned, so for decades you've seen huge outdoor ads for Bintang Zero (which is terrible) and Kingfisher Water (same logo as the beer) for the sole purpose of circumventing these laws.