Opinion: Non-Alc Needs More Honest Reviews and Less #sponcon

(Photo: Patrick Pleul/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

We only grow as artists and entrepreneurs when we receive (and listen to) constructive criticism. As a writer, receiving critiques from peers and industry professionals helped turn my idea for a book into an actual book. I now apply the same mentality to being the co-founder of a non-alcoholic spirit brand. There’s just one caveat: It’s challenging to find genuine feedback in the non-alc world because most drinks are co-founded by folks in tech or finance with five minutes of sobriety and little to no beverage industry experience. Their VC-funded marketing teams reach out to influencers to promote their brands in exchange for money. This means our social media feeds are flooded with #sponcon (sponsored content) rather than honest reviews.

The pay-to-play model isn’t limited to the non-alc world; it impacts every industry, including the presidency, sports and college admissions. This is just how the world works. The current algorithm-inspired presentation of mass-produced #nonalc only shows a small part of our industry’s offerings. This filtered glimpse can lead beverage directors and sommeliers to dismiss the non-alc category altogether, argues Ian Blessing, former French Laundry sommelier and co-founder of All The Bitter.

“Yes, taste is subjective, but there are objective ways to evaluate balance, structure and quality,” Blessing said. “Too often, I see ‘best of’ lists that feel like they were written from marketing copy, not real tasting. There are incredible NA products out there, but also plenty of deeply flawed ones.”

Artisanal drinks made for quality over quantity rarely have the financial backing to pay sales reps, let alone influencers or a marketing team, to promote their drinks, meaning consumers only see ads for fancy sodas or analogs with a big budget. This is something Laura Silverman, founder of Zero Proof Nation and Zero Proof Choice Awards master of ceremonies, keeps in mind when she’s in critic mode: “The only way that consumers can truly find products that match their taste and lifestyle is if they know they can trust the voices behind the reviews.”

Read More: Non-Alcoholic Culture Deserves More Than Attention; It Needs Intention

Historically, people trust critics who are transparent about their relationships with brands they review. Trusting a critic or influencer is a big part of why people click add to cart. As Silverman said, consumers want beverages that complement their current lifestyle, not something that references their past.

Alcohol serves more purposes than just intoxication, says Chris Marshall, founder of Sans Bar Academy and a prominent voice in the non-alcoholic drink movement: “Spirits are vessels of story, liquid literature that evolve into expressions of personal identity.” He has a point. A whiskey connoisseur has a totally different vibe from someone casually sipping wine while catching up with a friend or a college student doing a keg stand. What we drink often reflects who we are.

“Perhaps it’s time for non-alcoholic spirits to shape culture in their own way. The most compelling non-alcoholic spirits aren’t those that imitate alcohol, because analogs can only reference existing culture. New, original expressions can create modern culture, showing us how an entire generation declares that they are above the influence of alcohol,” Marshall concluded.

To Marshall’s point, with Gen Z drinking less alcohol than previous generations, it’s important to note that the entire concept of analogs seems unnecessary to people who didn’t care for “the real stuff” in the first place. They’re interested in sophisticated flavors and innovation, two features that rarely fit into an aesthetically pleasing social media ad.

From Influencer to Author to Co-Founder

When I began dating my now husband/co-founder, Nick Mechak, in 2018, he immediately dismissed the NA category as a sommelier and New York City restaurant manager. “The NA options back then were either synthetically flavored water, analogs or canned drinks filled with sugar,” he says. A lot has changed, including us launching our own NA spirit line, “Once I left restaurants and learned more about non-alc options, I realized I wanted something that was complex with low sugar,” he concludes. That’s essentially where our brand, (parentheses), was born.

While Nick taught himself how to make vinegar, I nerded out on botanicals and tapped into my bartending roots. Nick’s quest for complexity, paired with my former-whiskey-drinker palate yearning for a slow-sipping, stiff NA drink, showed us that the bite we craved could be achieved with fermentation and botanicals.

Click here to check out Bottle Raiders’ reviews of (parentheses).

Tawny Lara’s book, “Dry Humping”; drinks, (parentheses); and 50-card deck, “The Sobriety Deck.” (Photo: Tawny Lara)

For years as a journalist, my pitches on sobriety, booze-free dating, and non-alc drinks were (and are often still) rejected by traditional media. “Non-alc just doesn’t get a lot of clicks,” one editor of a prominent men’s magazine recently told me. I’m grateful that social media, podcasts and blogs helped establish my career as a respected voice in the sober-curious and non-alc movement. But a lot has changed over the past 10 years. For example: I, too, was one of those influencers who created #content about drinks I knew nothing about in exchange for money. Now, I’m on the other side of the industry as a scrappy, indie co-founder competing with VC-backed co-founders with no interest in the actual liquid they sell.

Let’s Grow The Non-Alc Industry Together

Journalists/Editors/Critics: Feature drinks that taste great and have killer brand messaging. Don’t just cover the celebrity-backed and VC-backed NA brands that can afford marketing and PR teams. Evaluate our industry thoughtfully and holistically so we can grow.

Bartenders/Beverage Directors: Develop some inspired zero-proof recipes that make sense for your establishment. Customers will pay good money for a quality non-alcoholic drink. And please don’t roll your eyes when someone asks for non-alcoholic drink options. Yes, this still happens — a lot.

Brands: Give beverage formulators proper time and budget to develop interesting drinks that rely on their talent more than SEO-friendly ingredients. Or better yet, experiment with your own formulation like we did!

Influencers: Learn about the liquid you’re promoting. Take classes. Read beverage industry books. Blessing recommends “How to Taste” by Mandy Naglich. Mechak recommends “The Wine Bible” by Karen MacNeil. I recommend “Girly Drinks” by Mallory O’Meara and anything by Derek Brown and John deBary.

It’s time to push the non-alc movement from the “OMG, yay, this category exists!!! Use my promo code!!!” era to a new age of properly evaluating the myriad drinks dominating our doomscroll. If we say this industry is growing and “here to stay,” let’s all collectively step into this next phase together, one honest review at a time.

More Non-Alcoholic Industry Coverage:

• NYC’s First Alcohol-Free Members Club to Open This Fall
• Bottle Raiders Announces Zero Proof Choice Awards, the First US Nonalcoholic Drinks Competition
• Why the Smartest Bars and Restaurants Are Rethinking Their Non-Alcoholic Beverage Menus