Traditionally associated with teetotalers, sober souls and children, mocktails have emerged from the very bottom of menus to an audience beyond those merely abstaining from booze. Sophisticated nonalcoholic concoctions, which use ingredients ranging from zero-proof spirits to syrups made from fruits and botanicals, are a celebrated drink in their own right, particularly among Gen Z demographics. This surge in popularity aligns with a broader shift in consumer tastes.

According to NielsenIQ data, a good portion of consumers are consciously reducing their alcohol intake, citing health and wellness concerns, changing social dynamics and evolving interests as main drivers.

This trend is further evidenced by the meteoric rise of companies like Athletic Brewing, the world’s largest dedicated nonalcoholic brewery, which has witnessed astonishing revenue growth since its inception in 2018, bringing in $90 million in 2023. Santa Ana-based Bravus Brewing Co., North America’s first nonalcoholic craft brewery, introduced Wine0 (pronounced “wine-oh”), a low alcohol-by-volume sparkling rosé for the mass market, in 2024. And nonalcoholic Guinness 0.0 nabbed a $32.5 million investment to double production in the next year.As the year starts afresh, and resolutions are made and broken, many people take the Dry January challenge, in which they abstain from alcohol for the entire month. According to data from CivicScience, an estimated one-fourth of Americans 21 or older will take part in the annual promise of swearing off alcohol for 31 days, a tradition rooted in a circa-1942 Finnish government campaign called Sober January as part of its war effort.

For those dipping their toes in the ethanol-free waters, myriad beverages await at an increasing number of bars and restaurants.

The mocktail’s history

The two best-known temperance drinks, otherwise known as mocktails (a term that dates back to 1916, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary), arrived in the Prohibition era with the advent of the Virgin Mary, a booze-free Bloody Mary created in the 1920s. The Shirley Temple, christened after the Depression-era child star of black-and-white pictures, appeared on menus in the 1930s. The pink-hued virgin tipple, whose disputed origins are credited to a number of Hollywood restaurants, including Chasen’s and Brown Derby, features ginger ale or lemon-lime soda laced with grenadine, with a maraschino cherry and lemon for garnish. The faux-boozy beverage provided a glamorous option for the child actress to sip when she was dining out with her parents. (For the record, Temple allegedly didn’t care for her namesake drink, despite going to court in 1988 to defend it against companies trying to use her name to sell a bottled version.)

Other abstemious cocktails slowly found their way onto menus thereafter, like the Arnold Palmer, featuring iced tea and lemonade, named after the legendary golfer, which was created in the late 1960s; and the Roy Rogers, a 1940s-era drink made with cola and grenadine syrup and garnished with a maraschino cherry. Now many restaurants and esteemed cocktail joints offer a litany of drinks that go above and beyond pouring two or more sweet liquids over ice.

“We learned very quickly, about two years ago, that there was this really big need for a zero-proof section on our menu,” said Ying Chang, who with her husband, Robert Adamson, owns James Beard Award-nominated Strong Water in Anaheim. Of her cocktail menu’s 40 drinks, which focus on nautical culture, four fall under the mocktail category, “which is a lot considering most places have maybe one or two.”

Noting that “curating a zero-proof section is even harder than curating a cocktail menu,” Chang uses components that evoke ethanol spirits’ taste like Lyre’s products, made by a U.K.-based nonalcoholic spirit company.

“Lyre’s is very popular. They kind of hit all categories, whether you’re looking for a London Dry (gin) or you’re looking for a rum,” she explained. “Obviously, it doesn’t have alcohol in it, but it has a reminiscent flavor of it. Using that in combination with other things like fresh juices can really make for a really fun cocktail.”

Striving for balance

Low-alcohol drinks typically have no more than 10% alcohol by volume, while zero-proof drinks, also known as alcohol-free or nonalcoholic beverages, are made with fresh produce, juices, tonics and other mixers but can also feature zero-proof wine, beer and spirits. Chang’s Strong Water has two zero-proof cocktails on its mocktails menu: the Anana Rising (billed as a bright and juicy beverage with pineapple, lemon, cinnamon and walnut bitters) and the Tarobi Colada (tropical, rich and creamy with pineapple, lime, coconut, taro cream and sugarcane).

“When we make a mocktail, we have to work on the flavor profile of the spirit component and play with it,” she said. “When you’re doing it with no alcohol, it’s a little bit more difficult because finding that balance is harder. But we have a really fun program right now that a lot of people really appreciate.”

At Playa Provisions in Playa del Rey, bartender Arik Silva created zero-proof drinks, including its most popular one, the Golden Slumbers. “It’s basically a riff on a spicy Paloma,” a tequila-based cocktail made using grapefruit juice, lime juice and grapefruit soda or sparkling water, he said. “Here we use a nice passion fruit puree mixed with a little bit of grapefruit juice. It’s something that not only tastes good, but it’s also well balanced — and that’s key to making a good mocktail.”

Silva stresses that simply adding sweet juice to sugary sodas no longer suffices to make a satisfying mocktail. “The moment you say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna add some kind of juice to Sprite,’ you’re getting into dangerous territory,” he said. “You really want something that’s going to be complex.”

His other zero-proof creations for the seaside spot include the Switchel (which uses Ritual Zero Proof gin and spicy watermelon shrub), the Amalfi Highball (Ritual Zero Proof whiskey, coconut and San Pellegrino Limonata) and the Please Please Me (Ritual Zero Proof whiskey, oleo saccharum and bitters).

Bitters, a neutral alcohol infused with spices, herbs, roots and other ingredients, are often used to enhance cocktails; Chang uses Fee Brothers, a nonalcoholic version. “You have to do more research,” she said. “You do have to look for certain bitters that just have no alcohol at all, because bitters are generally alcohol-based.”

A big hurdle when creating sober-safe drinks is sourcing quality ingredients, Silva said. “Finding different ingredients that don’t contain alcohol can be a challenge, because there are hundreds of different liquors and amaro out there that I can use to whip up something real quick, but there are only so many nonalcoholic ingredients that come in liquid form.”

Another issue is price, since mocktails tend to cost more than an iced tea or diet soda, popular tipples for temperance. “Nonalcoholic spirits can come at a pricey level,” he said, but other nonspirit replacements, like infused syrups and sodas, “come down to the different types of produce and the cost of what we get it for.”

Also of grave importance, the drink has to look good in addition to tasting and smelling appealing. “We use very similar parameters in making a zero-proof cocktail as we do our regular cocktails,” Chang said. “It still has to have a beautiful garnish, but it also has to make sense — it’s not a garnish to be a garnish.” Other Strong Water aesthetic staples, like swizzle sticks, little flags and umbrellas, “really add that personal touch to it.”

Mocktails can be found at nearly every saloon and tavern, even if their hallowed halls lack a dedicated zero-proof menu. San Juan Capistrano’s Swallows Inn, a dive that wears the label with pride, has seasoned bartenders who can whip up proof-free potations from sunrise (it opens at 8 a.m.) to closing.

During my recent visit to the watering hole, Tony Gomes, a bartender 34 years in the game, simply asked what kind of mocktail I wanted — fruity? Not too sweet? — and concocted a delicious zero-proof drink on the spot, carefully blending ginger ale, pineapple juice, orange juice and grenadine with an orange segment and cherry garnish. It came to around $3 or $4, the price the bar would charge for a glass of orange juice.

Gomes notes that nondrinkers should feel comfortable asking any bartender to make a booze-free drink. “I can make anything people want,” he said. “Sure, this is a drinker’s bar, but I want to make everyone feel comfortable.”

While the seasoned bartender says the Swallows Inn doesn’t see as many requests for mocktails as some other bars, he has noticed the trend. “It’s definitely a popular craze — and it should be,” he said. “It’s about making people feel comfortable in places where people drink.”

Gomes says the bar also carries Heineken 0.0, the brand’s zero-proof beer, which teetotaling customers can select.

Should you want to make your own mocktails, Chang said it’s all about finding the right balance, with a light hand when it comes to sweetness. “I think for me the citrus-to-sugar ratio is really important, especially in tropical cocktails,” she said, recommending at-home bartenders “start low and kind of add a little bit of sweetness at a time to really get that balance.”

Silva recommends alcohol-free bitters for a surefire at-home cocktail hit. “That’s a big one, especially for those who like to have so-called boozier cocktails, like old-fashioned Manhattans. Get yourself a nice nonalcoholic bitter.” He went on to suggest giving your drinks a resting period, too. “When it comes to (mocktails), let them sit for a second; let them dilute a little bit” before serving.

Should alcoholics drink mocktails?

Motivations for abstaining from alcohol run the gamut, encompassing health concerns, religious convictions and the life-and-death need for sobriety. Offering nonalcoholic beverages enhances inclusivity, allowing people with varied lifestyles to participate in social drinking rituals. However, for those in sustained recovery, where complete abstinence is paramount, the composition of nonalcoholic alternatives is crucial.

Many such drinks, by design, are meant to mimic the taste and complexities found in their alcohol-fueled siblings. Far beyond the days of “near beer,” distilleries and breweries now produce zero-proof whiskeys, tequilas, wines and craft beers that, for better or worse, taste like the real thing. For many people in drug and alcohol recovery, mocktails that use zero-proof alcohol or spirits, which taste like the real deal, aren’t always advisable.

“I don’t want to taste alcohol; it’s incredibly triggering,” said a person in recovery who asked to remain anonymous. “I haven’t had alcohol on purpose for over a decade, so to suddenly taste it could trigger all sorts of alcoholic stuff in my brain. I don’t need that.”

Mocktails that use flavors and syrups as their backbone, rather than zero-proof spirits, can be more prudent for those who identify as alcoholics. Even alcohol-free wines, sipped from an all-too-familiar glass, can taste shockingly similar to the real thing, ushering in unwelcome provocation.

Enjoying them is a choice a recovering alcoholic must make for themselves. Sometimes a bar setting is not the ideal spot for some seeking continuous sobriety. People who choose abstinence, especially during the early days of recovery, should ask the server whether a mocktail uses zero-proof ingredients or low-alcohol ones. And if you don’t want to risk it? Soda is always a safe bet.

“People want to be helpful, which I understand, but recovery in alcoholism is something only other alcoholics or addicts could really understand,” said my sober friend. “When in doubt, La Croix can be found everywhere.”

Mocktails go mainstream

Dedicated mocktail bars have emerged in recent years, like the short-lived Stay Zero Proof in Los Angeles or the successful Khan Saab in Fullerton, which has an entirely nonalcoholic bar program.

While options for a sober night out, tasty mocktails aren’t limited to bars, high-end or otherwise. The movement has even reached other mainstream establishments, with chain restaurants and grocery stores expanding their offerings: Ritual Zero Proof, as its name suggests, produces rum, gin, tequila, whiskey and aperitif alternatives that promise “to make any cocktail nonalcoholic.” And national chain Postino, a restaurant and wine bar with locations in California, rolled out five zero-proof cocktails on its menus Wednesday.

Even Coors Light debuted booze-free, beer-flavored ice pops for March Madness season in 2023.

The world of nonalcoholic beverages is as vast and alluring as it is booming. Experiment, explore and uncover what tickles your palate. From innovative creations to sparkling water adorned with a lime garnish, the possibilities are endless. The morning-after headaches? A distant memory.