Dry January trend takes hold

Dry January may be drawing to a close, but a nonalcoholic movement is gaining steam, locally and nationwide.

Some 49% of Americans say they are trying to drink less in 2025, a 44% increase since 2023, according to a survey by NC Solutions, which conducts research in the consumer packaged goods industry.

Gen Z is leading the way, the survey says, with 65% of Zoomer respondents, born 1997-2012, seeking out sober alternatives – more than half saying that’s simply because they don’t want to drink alcohol.

Nonalcoholic beer has been around since the Prohibition era, according to the NA Beer Club. But its popularity has recently picked up steam, with sales growing 34% from May 2023 to May 2024, as alcoholic beer sales declined 3%, according to a report by market research firm NGA.

And another trend, seen both locally and nationally: nonalcoholic cocktails – or mocktails – are on the rise. Research firm Business Research Insights projects the mocktails market will reach $13.8 billion in 2032 from just $7.5 billion in 2023.

Mandi Fritz, owner of spirits supply store 417 Cocktails, offered a mixology course at Hold Fast Brewery on Jan. 16, and participants got to try their hands at two creations, both alcohol free.

“Carol and I were talking about how with the uptick of Dry January, people aren’t drinking, so we thought of doing a mocktail mixology class,” she said, referring to Hold Fast co-owner Carol McLeod.

With some customers of both Hold Fast and 417 Cocktails taking a break from alcohol during the annual monthlong alcohol abstinence campaign, promoting an alternative made good business sense, Fritz said – but she added they make sense not just in January, but year-round.

“Bars and even liquor stores are seeing nonalcoholic and mocktails as not just a trend, but a way of being inclusive,” she said.

There are many reasons a person might eschew alcohol, according to Fritz – a medication reaction, an allergy to alcohol, a pregnancy or even just a preference.

“Whatever it may be, bars have realized people don’t want just a sweet Shirley Temple,” she said, referring to the OG mocktail. “Part of enjoying a cocktail or a mocktail is the art of it. You can still have a sugar-free or gluten-free dessert and enjoy it. That’s the way we need to think about cocktails.”

With the growth in the mocktail movement, a bar owner would have to be a little tipsy to skip out on the trend.

As 30% of people who are of drinking age opt not to drink alcohol, the impact is being felt at the cash register. Total alcohol sales – comprising beer, wine, spirits, seltzers, and ready-to-drink cocktails – fell in 2024 for the first time in three years, to $112.9 billion from $113.6 billion the year prior, according to data firm NIQ’s tracking of sales in U.S. supermarkets, drug stores, mass-merchandise stores, convenience stores and liquor stores.

Some may be rethinking their alcohol consumption after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s Jan. 3 advisory that took a hard line against alcohol consumption, with risk of certain cancers increasing with just one drink. Murthy called alcohol the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S. after tobacco and obesity, perhaps giving fuel to the growing nonalcoholic movement.

Everyone’s invited
Rogan Howitt, one of the owners of The Golden Girl Rum Club, located on the downtown Springfield square, said mocktails have been part of the Golden Girl experience from its 2016 start.

“Obviously, we’ve always wanted to be as inclusive of a space as possible,” he said. “We wanted to offer a space where everyone felt like they were coming to have a good time, and we didn’t want to leave anyone out.”

Some people don’t drink, he said, and others just want a night off, as a designated driver or otherwise.

“We want our mocktails to feel celebratory,” he said. “That’s something that bartenders are having to get used to these days. People have their own reasons for not drinking, and we’re cool with that.”

The drinking culture has changed since Golden Girl opened, Howitt said.

“I’ve worked downtown at bars for about 20 years, and I’ve seen a shift in drinking culture,” he said. “A lot of young people aren’t going out as much as they were back in the day.”

The mocktail option may just be the enticement to change that – or at least that’s what Sophie Liffick is hoping. The 26-year-old entrepreneur is in the process of launching So Curious Co., for which she designs and serves mocktails in pop-up events. She also provides mocktail menus to bars and restaurants on a consultant basis, citing The Royal and Tie & Timber Beer Co. as examples.

“It’s been quite the journey – a real whirlwind,” she said.

Liffick quit drinking a year and a half ago – not, she said, because it was trendy.

“I was a full-fledged alcoholic myself,” she said. “I still worked at a bar and a lot of my friends worked in bars – but I wanted to try something different.”

Liffick has always worked in the food and beverage industry – currently at Druff’s, and previously at J.O.B. Public House.

“I took all those skills and mashed them together,” she said. “Now I make really complex, thoughtful, sippable drinks.”

She said she finds an appreciative audience in her own age cohort.

“The game has changed quite a bit,” she said. “So many people in my generation don’t drink, but they still want that social aspect.”

Conference spirits
At Oasis Hotel & Convention Center and its Fire & Ice restaurant, General Manager Missy Handyside-Chambers said a mocktail menu is hot off the press. The menu will be offered in both the restaurant and for events at the convention center.

“We literally just rolled this out,” she said.

Fire & Ice manager Lelia Enea said nonalcoholic options have been on the rise in Springfield.

“People are talking about it – it seems like it’s a fad that’s blown up here lately, and I didn’t want to be left out,” Enea said.

And what better time than January, she added.

Enea said part of the challenge was to get creative with ingredients that were already on hand – but she also wanted to offer tropical options to fit the theme of the Oasis.

“Taking into account the season, we have a drink with cranberry and cinnamon,” she said. “It reminded me of winter.”

There’s also The Howie, a mocktail named after the Oasis flamingo mascot. Enea called it “a tropical escape in a glass,” featuring a smooth blend of orange, pineapple and lime juices, grenadine and club soda.

“I noticed that we have a lot of people that come in and get flavored lemonades, and I thought maybe those people would like something more unique,” she said.

Handyside-Chambers said mocktails are a popular option for a variety of groups, with some opting for mocktails to be included at a cash bar. She added that on New Year’s Eve this year, a huge nonalcoholic event was held in the grand ballroom.

“Their entire beverage menu was mocktails,” Handyside-Chambers said. “People are expecting that offering now.”

Handyside-Chambers said the trend has come on strong in the last six months.

“I don’t know if it’s something that maybe was happening on the East or West Coast and just happened to reach us now, but it’s a big deal,” she said.

Enea noted mocktails are inexpensive compared to a conventional cocktail.

The same is true at Golden Girl, where Howitt said a mocktail runs $3-$4 cheaper than its boozy cousin.

Tastemaking
The secret to a good mocktail, Fritz said, is layering flavors so that the alcohol is never missed.

Fritz taught the Hold Fast mixology students how to make a mock tai.

“It’s like a mai tai, but instead of floating a shot of dark rum on the top, we floated espresso on the top,” she said. “It has that bitterness – that depth of flavor that helps your palate pick up on all the other flavors.”

Fritz said zero-proof spirits are a game-changer for mocktails, allowing a mixologist to substitute a nonalcoholic tequila for the standard kind in a margarita.

Howitt said at Golden Girl, the mocktails also include house-made syrups and infusions.

“We try to make something unexpected,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed working through hard-to-work projects.”

For Liffick, one of the key ingredients is shrubs – a name for sippable vinegar-based drinks.

“They are fun to make,” she said. “They really bring this kind of heat – a flavor that I think is satisfying for somebody who can’t drink alcohol anymore.”

For those who don’t want the alcohol but do want the buzz – or at least the relaxation – there’s still another option: THC-infused spirits, like a new margarita containing Delta-9, a cannabis derivative, introduced recently at El Sombrero.

In Jeffery Bates of 417 Good Eat’n’s Jan. 21 Facebook post about the drink offering, the discussion was lively, with one respondent calling it “a whole different ballgame,” and another saying simply, “I love Missouri.”