The rise of the low and no space has become one of the few good news stories in a struggling drinks sector. Now, a decade since Seedlip launched and created the non-alcoholic ‘spirit’, the category continues to go from strength to strength both in terms of quality and market share. According to the IWSR, 2024 was another year of double-digit growth for the low and no category in the top 10 global drinks markets, spearheaded by the US and Brazil, where an estimated 50 million consumers were recruited into no-alcohol between 2022 and 2024.

And if money talks, then investments from major spirits groups vouch for these findings. No brand portfolio is complete without a non-alcoholic spirit, but it doesn’t stop at one – many groups are actively seeking out the next hot brand. Last July, Rémy Cointreau acquired a minority holding in Jnpr, then, in September, Stoli Group announced further investment in The Pathfinder Hemp & Root. Having launched Atopia back in 2019, William Grant & Sons unveiled its New to World & Non-Alcohol division in September 2024, the same month that Diageo announced its acquisition of Ritual Zero Proof.

But it’s the category’s growth in diversity and quality that’s more pertinent to the consumer. Today, the category can be loosely divided into two. First, there are the brands that pitch themselves as a like-for-like replacement for an existing spirit. Many of the first brands to hit the market were designed as zero abv gin taste-alikes, but today almost any conceivable spirit, vodka included, has a 0% counterpart.

The second category seeks to create something entirely different. Loosely inspired by amaro or aperitif serves, botanically forward and often bitter, these brands aim not to substitute for the alcohol in a drink but to create a new style of drinking and with it a new style of drinker. “From the beginning, our brand was not a moderation brand; it’s a pleasure brand,” says Imme Ermgassen, co-founder of Botivo. “We don’t want people to drink Botivo because they’re not drinking; we want people to drink it because it’s delicious.

“There’s a move towards an abv-agnostic future. It’s becoming less about what has and hasn’t got alcohol in it, instead more and more people are wanting grown-up, beautifully made, quality drinks that are right for different moments in their lives. Ninety-five per cent of our consumers drink alcohol. From the beginning, we never talk about Dry Jan or Sober October. We always talk about flavour.”

Early iterations of non-alcoholic products often faced criticism on this front. Alcohol brings body and carries flavour; without it there’s a vital missing component.

“When you have a product without alcohol, there’s an obvious difference in terms of taste,” says Gaëlle Bozec, a product manager at Giffard who looks after the company’s range of non-alcoholic liqueurs and what it calls its cocktail bases – a range of products designed to form the foundation of cocktail serves, the bestselling of which is its herbal Aperitif Bitter.

“Alcohol brings a lot of aromatic character, and we have to think about how to create sophistication without it. We have a range of non-alcoholic liqueurs which are made by macerating ingredients in white wine vinegar, but our cocktail bases are different; we assemble these like we would a syrup.

“The non-alcoholic category has grown so much since Seedlip launched. The knowledge and the capabilities of the flavourists are much more developed. Today, we can achieve so much aroma and complexity without alcohol.

“At first, the length in the mouth was a real problem. We had to develop ways to give a non-alcoholic product good body, complexity and length.”

Flavour and complexity

Elena Urbani, global brand ambassador at Lucano, a historic Italian amaro that launched a non-alcoholic bottling in 2022, agrees. “Complexity is super important,” she says. “If you’re fighting against someone ordering a Coke, you have to make the cocktail experience interesting with flavours and complexity, otherwise, people won’t order it again. The fact that with Lucano Zero you can add some bitterness and herbal character to a cocktail means that you can find that complexity without alcohol.”

Therein lies a challenge for the sector. If you are fighting against something with the familiarity and affordability of Coke, how can you convince a consumer to pay prices that are comparable to alcoholic options for something alien?

“When you bring a brand to market, the first stage is awareness,” says Ermgassen. “With non-alcoholic drinks, there’s a stage before that, which is credibility. You have to get credibility from chefs, from food critics, from sommeliers, because the category is in its infancy.

“A lot of people have been burned by liquids that have been subpar, and so we have to work really hard to get the credibility and show that we have a proper craft liquid. For us, having people like Grace Dent talk about it multiple times, having Jimi Famurewa love it, having Yotam Ottolenghi, Jamie Oliver and Jancis Robinson say they’re fans. These voices are so important for us because they’re proof points to other people that our product is different and worth the price. That authenticity cuts through in a world where so many influencers are shouting about things that aren’t good.”

And cocktail bars and bartenders are vital ambassadors for the space. If a product is being sold on flavour, it pays to have skilled creatives making delicious things with it. And, by focusing on flavour, herbal, bitter non-alcoholic spirits can be a useful tool for bartenders looking to add complexity to their low and no serves.

“Bitterness and astringency are profiles so prolific in booze,” explains Jack Sotti, bar director at London’s Archive & Myth, who also cites The Pathfinder, Opius and Midi as stellar examples of the category.

“Having those characteristics in a non-alcoholic format works as a great analogue, makes you come back for more and makes you feel adult, like it’s not just a mocktail.”

And with moderation trends showing little sign of dying out, a bar’s low and no offering is increasingly relevant.

“Ten years ago, if you went into any cocktail bar, there was maybe one non-alcoholic cocktail – now some bars have six or seven on the menu,” says Urbani.

“We’re one of the few non-alcoholic amaro brands, so in markets like the UK, Asia and the US, where we’re seeing a bit of a decrease in alcohol consumption, we have people reaching out to us every week about our Zero Lucano.”

But what’s next for the space? Rapid expansion can’t last forever and tends to have the effect of creating an oversaturation of new brands.

“I think we’ll see a hollowing out,” says Ermgassen. “There’s been the most insane amount of product launches, and people get into this space that aren’t ready yet. It’s hard at the moment – the economy is rubbish, and so your consumers have less to spend. Being a brand in the current economy, and with not very much support from the government, it is harder to survive than it ever has been.

“What we’re going to be seeing in the next few years is probably a falling out of 70% or 80% of brands that won't be able to survive in this environment. The ones that remain will be the ones that are really well made. People might buy you once because you’ve got a nice brand – it’s flavour that will bring them back. And when the environment is this challenging, the great-tasting brands will be the ones that survive.”