Culture · Aug 17, 2026
The Party Is Going Alcohol-Free, and It Starts in the Morning
A cluster of social formats loosely called soft clubbing has turned the night out inside out: morning raves, coffee clubbing, listening bars, no alcohol. It is the clearest sign yet that alcohol-free is not only a bottle you buy, but an occasion you build.
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Culture · Aug 13
Pleasure, Not Moderation: A Sign the Alcohol-Free Category Is Growing Up
A British aperitif called Botivo is growing fast by refusing the usual alcohol-free script. It sells pleasure, not moderation, and…
Industry · Aug 13
Tea Is the Flavor Trend Alcohol-Free Drinks Have Been Waiting For
A new IWSR report frames tea as one of the biggest flavor trends in drinks, and pitches it as a growth lever for alcohol. Read it …
Industry · Aug 13
What Little Saints' 2,699% Growth Says About Building an Alcohol-Free Brand
Little Saints just landed at No. 103 on the 2026 Inc. 5000, the highest-ranked beverage company on the list. The number that earne…
Culture · Aug 1
Tomatoes Are the Cocktail of the Summer, and That Is Great News for Alcohol-Free
The tomatini is being called the drink of the summer, part of a broader savory turn toward umami, tomato water, and olive brine. I…
Industry · Aug 1
A Craft Beverage Innovator Is Closing, and the Reason Is a Warning for Non-Alc
Untitled Art, a Wisconsin craft company known for genuinely full-flavored alcohol-free brews, is shutting down after a decade. The…
New Products · Aug 1
Skincare Scientists Just Launched a Non-Alcoholic Beer Built for Recovery
HOPKIND, a "beer with benefits" from the founders of a microbiome skincare brand, adds postbiotics and recovery compounds to non-a…
Industry · Jul 27
The World Cup Is About to Become the Biggest Alcohol-Free Ad Campaign Ever
The beer giants sponsoring the 2026 World Cup are pouring their marketing muscle into zero-proof, not full-strength lager. When An…
Culture · Jul 26
A New Awards Program Wants to Decide What Good Tastes Like in Non-Alc
The Zero Proof Choice Awards are back for 2026, led by alcohol-free pioneer Derek Brown, with a jury of sommeliers and bar experts…
Culture · Jul 23
The Case Against Sweet Mocktails
The most common reason an alcohol-free drink disappoints is that it is too sweet. Real cocktails never were. Here is how to build …
Culture · Jul 21
The Two Things Most Alcohol-Free Drinks Get Wrong
A great cocktail is very cold and correctly diluted — on purpose. Skip either and even a perfectly balanced alcohol-free drink fal…
Industry · Jul 15
A Beloved Alcohol-Free Spirits Brand Just Closed — and Demand Wasn't Why
The British non-alcoholic spirits brand Myth Drinks is shutting down — not for lack of demand, but because the economics of distri…
Culture · Jul 11
What Makes a Good Alcohol-Free Cocktail
Remove the alcohol from a cocktail and you do not just lose the buzz — you lose structure, warmth, aroma, and body. A great alcoho…
Industry · Jul 10
The Alcohol-Free World Just Had Its First Big Merger
The Zero Proof, a national retailer of non-alcoholic drinks, has acquired The New Bar, a West Coast hospitality and discovery plat…
Industry · Jul 8
The Team That Built a Billion-Dollar Tequila Is Now Betting on Zero Proof
George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman sold Casamigos to Diageo for up to a billion dollars. Their next act is a non-alcoh…
New Products · Jul 7
Citadelle Makes an Alcohol-Free Gin, and How It Made It Is the Real Story
The established French gin house released its first zero-proof expression. Instead of removing alcohol from finished gin, it borro…
Culture · Jul 6
The Alcohol-Free Category Is Finally Done Trying to Taste Like Alcohol
A look across this year's launches reveals a clear shift: the strongest new products have stopped trying to be flawless copies of …
New Products · Jul 4
A Chili Margarita Earns High Marks, Plus Seven New AF Launches in One Week
The Modern Substitute reviews the Aplós Chili Margarita and finds real complexity in a can. Meanwhile, a single week brings seven …
Industry · Jul 3
New Research: One in Five Drinkers Now Skips Alcohol When Out, and Price Is the Top Reason
Datassential's 2026 trend research puts numbers on what bartenders already see: Americans are drinking less, Gen Z is leading the …
Culture · Jul 2
The Best Alcohol-Free Spirits Are Being Built for Cocktails, Not Sipping
A quiet shift is reshaping the AF spirits category: the strongest products are no longer trying to be sipped neat. They're designe…
Industry · Jul 1
The Rise of the Dedicated Alcohol-Free Bottle Shop
From online specialists to brick-and-mortar storefronts, retail built exclusively around alcohol-free drinks has gone from experim…
Culture · Jun 30
What "Sophisticated" Actually Means in an Alcohol-Free Drink
Every AF brand promises a "sophisticated adult beverage." Most don't define it. Here's what the word should mean when there's no a…
New Products · Jun 27
Two Spritzes, Two Philosophies: Venetian Bitter vs. Alpine Elderflower
The Modern Substitute reviews a pair of AF spritzes that represent the two great spritz traditions — and the tale of the tape says…
Industry · Jun 24
How Big Alcohol Buys the AF Category: Inside the Invest-to-Acquire Playbook
Diageo, Constellation, and Pernod Ricard don't buy AF brands outright — they take minority stakes, watch the data, and convert lat…
Industry · Jun 17
Five Years to the Shelf: What It Actually Takes to Get an AF Brand Into Whole Foods
Dry Atlas traces Mingle Mocktails' path from a customer service desk inquiry to national placement. The timeline is measured in ye…
Industry · Jun 10
"Zebra-Striping" Gets a Business Model: The Industry Discovers the Extend-the-Night Occasion
Dry Atlas argues the AF industry has been selling "moderation" while consumers actually practice something else: alternating drink…
New Products · Jun 6
Drømme Awake Earns a Rave — and Makes the Case for Functional AF Spirits
The Modern Substitute calls Drømme's botanical spirit "one of the best non-alcoholic drinks I've had yet" — with a Szechuan-pepper…