This article was initially published in the March issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe click here.
Is 2023 the year that the on-premise finally embraces the benefits of offering consumers a range of non-alcoholic cocktails equal to their alcoholic counterparts?
There was a welcome surprise at the recent launch of the Nobu Hotel Portman Square’s bar in London: an abundance of non-alcoholic cocktails on its ‘Japanese Passport’-themed menu. Out of 12 signature cocktails, bar manager Sophie Bratt has included four complex non-alcoholics for guests looking for something without the booze – a ratio that tips the scales when you look at how no-alcohol serves have historically been adopted by the on-premise.
Bratt’s – and other bartenders – wholehearted adoption of non-alcoholic cocktails is answering the increased demand from consumers. According to GlobalData, the market for no-alcohol drinks is predicted to reach US$200m by 2026 (compared to $74m in 2017) – a ten-year CAGR of 10.5%. ‘Dry January’ reached record heights this year, with research by Alcohol Change UK, the charity behind the event, showing almost 9m consumers in the country planned to take part. In the US, meanwhile, a study by consumer insights platform Veylinx found that more than half of American consumers are trying to drink less alcohol year round.
Drinkers and non-drinkers have been actively seeking out new products to try in the no-ABV category, but the on-premise has been slow to react.
“The category and the movement really started with the consumer, which is quite rare,” points out Camille Vidal, founder of La Maison Wellness and an early advocate for the alcohol-free movement. “If you look at [drinks] trends, they always come from bartenders, but with no & low, it was very much a pull from the consumer – the bartender took time to get on board.”
On-premise gets on-board
Granted, early products released in the category were perhaps not of a quality high enough for bartenders to warrant using them on their menus, Vidal points out. But, with products like Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Italian Orange winning Tales of the Cocktail’s ‘Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient’ in 2022, bartenders are clearly taking the category more seriously. So they should – the Veylinx study showed that 52% of American drinkers who are trying to reduce their intake are actively replacing alcohol with non-alcoholic drinks. That means that bars’ already captive drinking audience is open to, and looking for, non-alcoholic serves.
Vidal reports a rise in acceptance of alcohol-free cocktails in the on-premise. “This year, more than ever, bartenders and venues are really starting to understand why it’s important – it’s becoming less of an afterthought,” she says.
This is also something Paul Mathew, founder of Everleaf Drinks, has started to see more of. “The on-trade has by far been our biggest channel,” he says of the success of Everleaf’s three non-alcoholic aperitifs: Forest, Mountain and Marine. “The conversation we’ve had with bars hasn’t been us saying, ‘here’s a non-alc’, rather them saying, ‘we’ve been looking for a non-alc’,” says Mathew.
The Netherlands is currently Everleaf’s biggest on-premise market, while Italy is also taking off. At the end of 2022, Everleaf launched in the US, counting the likes of Dante and Death and Co in New York City, and Sexy Fish in Miami as early on-premise fans.
Newer brand High Point Drinks – which makes aperitif Ruby and digestif Amber – is also gaining traction in the channel, and from a range of operators. “We’ve noticed a real variety of the types of venues that stock High Point Ruby Aperitif,” explains founder Eddie Lofthouse. “Our UK accounts include restaurants such as Hawksmoor and bars like Experimental Cocktail Club, but we also have great feedback from Kerb in London, which is a different style of venue that attracts a different type of consumer to traditional bars and restaurants.”
Service please: equal standing
So, how are bartenders using non-alcoholic products and approaching cocktails? For Vidal, presenting lists that can be both alcoholic and alcohol-free is an effective way of incorporating non-alcs into a menu. “I love that at Hacha [an agave-focused bar in London] you have the menu and then those cocktails can be made alcohol-free as well – that should be the norm.” It’s also a method Vidal applied when she was working on an opening in Paris where she put together a ‘mirror menu’. “It’s a much more inclusive way of doing it – sometimes non-alcoholics can be presented in a bit of a judgy way on menus,” explains Vidal.
Some bars are incorporating non-alc products into their trademark serves. “It’s really exciting to see Dante use them in twists in their Garibaldi and Paloma and just how well they work,” says Mathew of the iconic New York City bar and arguably two of its best-known cocktails. In particular, Everleaf’s Mountain (which has notes of cherry blossom, strawberries and rosehip) is doing well in big UK chains like Bill’s and The Botanist; the former serves it with pink lemonade, the latter with strawberry syrup, apple juice and foam. These big accounts are becoming increasingly important, says Mathew: “The fact it’s becoming more mainstream and having high volume accounts is really fabulous. It makes the drinking occasion really inclusive, meaning there aren’t any barriers to any occasion.”
Over at Hawksmoor, the team is using High Point Ruby in its Longshore Drift, with Coast tonic and pink grapefruit. Other products among its ‘Temperates’ menu include the Sour Cherry Nogroni with Tanqueray 0.0%, Aecorn Bitter and sour cherry, and the Water Street Fizz, which uses Three Spirit Livener, sour watermelon and Coast yuzu soda.
The adoption of non-alc cocktails has also clearly been boosted by more trust in the products on the market, although a lot of bars are still making their own ingredients rather than utilising brands – as is the case at Nobu, which includes homemade products such as sencha green tea soda, Nobu miso and plum syrup in its non-alcs instead of pouring off the backbar.
Perhaps there’s a middle ground, says Godelief Van Erve, global marketing director for Dutch drinks firm De Kuyper, which introduced De Kuyper Zero, a range of alcohol-free cocktails, to its portfolio in late 2021. She observed the company’s non-alc being used interestingly in the on-premise. “There is definitely a need in the on-trade for gastronomy, so from that point of view, if the cocktail is already pre-mixed, you’d expect some bartenders to be hesitant,” she explains. “However, in a bar in Rotterdam we saw them using our Margarita and adding a few drops of bitters to make the drink their own.”
RTD ‘hybrid drinker’ opportunity
While alcoholic ready-to-drinks are big business, even in the on-premise, the alcohol-free RTD segment is an interesting proposition. For De Kuyper, adding them to its portfolio was driven by consumer demand, particularly that of the hybrid consumer. “This was our chance to step into the trend of everything we saw happening with not necessarily just the teetotaller, but also the hybrid drinker,” explains Van Erve. Indeed, Veylinx’s study found that consumers who drank alcohol were more likely to spend money on canned/RTD cocktails than those who didn’t.
RTD brand Black Lines Drinks has just launched its first non-alc, a Shirley Temple. “Since we started the business in 2019, the no & low space has exploded in popularity,” explains head of sales Morgan Ward. “Consumers are more conscious about what they drink and when they drink it, so it was important that we produced a product that could be enjoyed by all.”
In choosing the Shirley Temple, Black Lines eschewed the temptation to recreate an alcoholic cocktail in favour of celebrating possibly the most famous non-alc cocktail. “In our eyes, the Shirley Temple is the world’s most iconic ‘virgin’ serve,” he explains. “A serve that has been forgotten, that needed to be rediscovered and celebrated.”
It’s a very different approach to De Kuyper, which looked globally at the most well-known cocktails to create its four-strong Zero range (Margarita, Pornstar Martini, Mojito and Strawberry Daiquiri). The company chose this path, says Van Erve, because the non-alc RTD is “still a very niche category for development”.
La Maison’s Vidal thinks there is still a way to go for the RTD segment of non-alc to set itself apart from soft drinks, but potential growth hinges on the fact that it sits in an affordable price range.
A zero future?
What does the future hold for brands in the non-alcoholic cocktail space? For Everleaf’s Mathew, the fact that his liquids aren’t mimicking alcoholic spirits puts his brand in a strong position in the on-premise. “With all three SKUs, we have flavours that aren’t present in alcohol, like saffron in Forest, as well as some umami botanicals in Marine,” he says. This has led to Everleaf being used in alcoholic cocktails – an exciting new angle for non-alcs; High Point, meanwhile, is also experimenting in this space, promoting its Ruby aperitif in a (lower) alcohol Daiquiri.
For Mathew, 2023 is a year to engage even more with the on-trade. “I think a lot of people at our stage would be looking at supermarkets where volume has been for no-alc but we want to double down on the on-trade. It is a great place for people to try our brand – it’s where we want to be.”
Over at High Point, Lofthouse sees quite a bit of work ahead. “While there has been some change when it comes to the perception of non-alc in the on-trade, there is still some education to be done. We find that bartenders and staff still don’t present a non-alc spirit as an option when people order a water or a soft drink. The other challenge is bartenders understanding that there should be a variety of options on the non-alc menu; you would never have just one gin or whisky on the menu.”
However, the rise in quality of the non-alcoholic market is something the De Kuyper’s Van Erve sees as being a huge positive for everyone involved. “As long as the quality of the products keeps going up, this will help the category grow,” she says.
This article was initially published in the March issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe click here.
