Five top stories on non-alcoholic beverages in 2023

Innovation surrounding non-alcoholic adult beverages remained stagnant for decades. The market yielded a handful of good booze-free beer brands over the years, but the world of wine and spirits alternatives was puny. Selections for non-booze drinkers too often revolved around seltzer water, conventional soda and juice.

Not exactly innovation.

What non-booze drinkers lacked were adult beverages that could serve as ceremonial markers between, for example, a day of work and evening. Or for celebrating on a Saturday night. In other words, drinks without hooch that performed the same function as a full-strength Manhattan or glass of Chardonnay for those who imbibe. For most who drink booze, the turn to a pale ale or Pinot Grigio involves a conscious pivot from a day of coffee and kombucha to something else entirely.

But now those who reject booze, or are just working to mitigate its consumption, enjoy a diversity of thrilling adult beverages that indeed divide drinking meant for every age from sipping geared toward adult palates. The growth has been robust enough to spawn a new trade association in Washington, DC, the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA), which sponsored an entire section of Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia in September devoted to the brands that are developing exciting beverages, from sparkling wine to canned cocktails to IPAs, without the ethanol.

The trend is here to stay. As more and more people experiment with well-crafted adult drinks minus the hangover potential they are embracing the beverages, and adding them to their drinks ‘fridges and carts, and wine racks.

Read on for a selection of New Hope Network stories that covered this effervescing industry in all of its exhilarating ferment.