It’s increasingly easy to have non-alcoholic drinks at a bar and even to find a bar that serves only non-alcoholic drinks, such as Hekate’s Hearth, an alcohol-free bar and coffeehouse in New York City’s Alphabet Village.
“People don’t know they’re looking for a place like this,” said Katherine Maley, who is sober and offers tarot readings at Hekate’s Hearth. Sometimes people come in to work in the café during the day, Maley said, and stick around at night to discover that non-alcoholic imbibing can be refreshing and fun.
“It’s good to be able to taste what you’re drinking,” Maley noted, rather than just pounding them back. Hekate offers numerous non-alcoholic beers and specialty cocktails, including one that this reporter enjoyed: the Admiral Gilded, a refreshing, less toxic take on the brandy cordial.
Hekate’s variety is emblematic of an industry with many more attractive non-alcoholic choices than ever before.
“There’s so many good tasting options. Now, if you go to a half decent bar, they’ll have more than one option for you,” said Susie Goldspink, who studies no- and low-alcohol consumption trends at research consultancy IWSR in London.
“Everyone’s a lot more aware now of the damage alcohol is doing to you, and younger generations, in particular, are a lot more health focused. In those generations there’s a lot less stigma around not drinking alcohol,” Goldspink said, particularly in people up to 28 years old (Gen Z).
Non-alcoholic beers are the most developed market segment, Goldspink said, with increasing strength in non-alcoholic cocktails. Non-alcoholic wines and spirits are less developed, she added, although there is a strong push by wine producers to make such products.
This market seems likely to grow.
New Options for the Beer Enthusiast and Cocktail Connoisseur
Non-alcoholic options for beer drinkers have expanded beyond grocery-store brands. Athletic Brewing, founded as a taproom in Stratford, Connecticut, in 2017 to provide non-alcoho