The dramatic decline in alcohol consumption is due to a combination of several things. Boozy drinks have always been a favourite target of the tax raiser. And, as anyone given to increasing tariffs knows, there is a point in extortion where the bitten become the biters. Add caution on medical grounds, the switch to recreational drugs and the ever increasing awareness of alcohol-fuelled accidents and even more repeat orders may be left untouched.
There is also the imponderable ‘fad’ concept. In my advertising days in the fifties, sixties and seventies it was de rigeur to drink to prove your manliness. Hence the enchanting invention of the non-alcoholic ‘Gunner’ beverage for those who chose to remain sober but wished to sound gruntled. It’s my preferred tipple today but only after I consumed enough alcohol in my earlier life to float the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
If your product is a vintage wine, robust brandy or a delphic spirit you may be reluctant to produce a non-alcoholic version of it. Market cannibalisation is always painful. It could be quite indigestible for companies like Diageo or Pernod Ricard. Nevertheless, demand is a persistent buyer and paradoxically non-alcoholic wines and spirits are making their inevitable incursion onto the grocery shelves.
Taste is a very personal attribute but it is with modest confidence that I say that all the non-alcoholic pretenders I have tried have been ghastly. I’m sure laboratories the length and breadth of Europe are working through the night to produce something that tastes like a good drink. I am not a chemist, nor even a wine taster, but I wonder if they are going about it the right way. You cannot produce the ‘body’ mouthfeel of alcohol non-alcoholically but body and taste have points of contact that meet in various herbs.
There could be few things more beguiling than a ‘sustainably green non-alcoholic drink’ with its implied tastealike and lookalike benefits. “One for the road?” could again become an acceptable invitation.
There’s a market out there that I don’t think chemists can fully serve but herbalists may be able to. It needs a really creative approach to locate it.
Interesting puzzle, isn’t it?
Good morning
John Bittleston
If you have any ideas please tell us at [email protected].
13 February 2026
