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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
As the summer holiday season in the northern hemisphere draws to a close, those who have been savouring glasses of rosé as the sun goes down may be surprised to learn just what proportion of “alcoholic” drinks these days contain little or none of the hard stuff. No-alcohol beer, wine, gin, tequila and “mocktails” are where much of the growth is today for the drinks industry.
A sector in the past seen as pretty resilient is not having the best of times overall. Global alcoholic drink sales fell 1 per cent by volume, though it rose 2 per cent by value, last year, says drinks research group IWSR. Spirits volumes in the key US market fell, by 2 per cent, for the first time in nearly 30 years. But US no-alcohol volumes jumped 29 per cent, and global no-alcohol beer volumes grew 6 per cent in 2023, wine 7 per cent and spirits 15 per cent. Growth in no- and low-alcohol drinks is expected to be roughly five times that of total alcoholic beverages in 2023-28.
What the trade calls the “mainstreaming of moderation” partly reflects belt-tightening due to cost of living pressures; the drinks industry did, arguably, push price rises too far in the good times, spending years encouraging people to trade up to “premium” brands. Most age groups, too, are more preoccupied with health.
But booze consumption is in striking decline, above all, among millennials and Generation X. Almost a third of British 18- to 24-year-olds report drinking less than they did a year ago, the consultancy CGA found this month, with 13 per cent completely abstaining. A suitably Gen X-sounding label, “sober curious”, has attached to the trend — which cleverly badges the spurning of guilty pleasures as a form of experimentation in itself.
There is an element of anti-parental rebellion here; some young people see drunkenness as simply uncool. Many are much more weighed down, too, than earlier generations by student debt and housing costs, and savvier about wellbeing. And those who live so much of their lives online are wary of getting so plastered that they can’t remember what they were doing (even if, for their parents, this was often the aim).
As well as no/low alcohol drinks, many young people are turning to cheaper, less hangover-inducing alternatives including cannabis (Gallup says use almost doubled in 18- to 34-year-olds in the US in the past decade) or other soft drugs, or “functional” drinks. These may be infused with CBD oil, or adaptogens or nootropics — plants or mushrooms said to deliver effects such as reducing inhibitions or unleashing creative freedom.
There are consolations for hard drinks makers. One is that as they become more adept at producing no/low alcohol drinks that actually taste like the real thing, or at least are satisfying to drink, they can introduce them as sub-brands of brands they have spent decades investing in — or harness their brand-building expertise to create new ones. Another, says IWSR, is that the main segment losing out to no-alcohol drinks is not full-strength beverages but other non-alcoholic options such as water or soft drinks.
Where might this all end? Epicureans of a certain age may lament — out of earshot of Gen-Z offspring — that taking alcohol out of alcoholic drinks seems part of a continuum that began with taking caffeine out of coffee, fat out of fatty foods and sugar out of sugary drinks. It has spread to taking (cow’s) milk out of milk, sausages out of sausage rolls and indeed meat out of meat.
Yet if those who, for medical, lifestyle or ethical reasons, have to limit consumption of such products can enjoy alternatives delivering similar taste sensations, that is surely positive. And if greater moderation and the growth of alcohol substitutes enables people to continue enjoying drinks and nights out but with fewer of the undesirable results — personal and societal — of excessive drinking, that may be worth raising a glass of alcohol-free prosecco to.
