Gen Z has jumped on yet another trend. But this time, it’s not low rise jeans or matcha lattes or hot girl walks. In fact, this new movement might surprise you. And as Meredith McCabe reports, businesses are catching up to the trend.
GONZALEZ: My favorite, always, is the Monday Mezcal. (fade) I am a big agave spirit person, and my dad loves mezcal, so I’m biased because of its sentimental value. But also, it also just really captures the astringence and the flavor profile that I really like.
That’s Brianda Gonzalez. She’s pointing at a bottle of yellow-ish liquor with an eye-catching black and blue geometric label. We’re standing in a small bottle shop on bustling Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, California. The store is full of brightly-labeled liquors, wines, and cocktail mixes. At just 28, Gonzalez is the founder and CEO of the New Bar.
GONZALEZ: By the beginning of 2022, I decided to leave my job in tech to build the New Bar full time. I found this incredible, tiny, cute shop, and I thought, you know, I could, I could, pull this off, I think. And so, yeah, so we opened mid-July, and now here we are.
But the New Bar isn’t your typical bar where you’ll find spilled drinks, sticky floors and drunken college students stumbling around.
HAYES: Garnished with a little orange peel for you. (sound of ice clinking and stirring) ...all the fun without the alcohol.
You heard that right! No alcohol! New Bar employee Eva Hayes serves mocktail samples just like this one seven days a week.
The New Bar is one of several non-alcoholic bottle shops in the L.A. area. It’s become part of the sober curious movement…a movement that has many young people exploring their relationships with alcohol…whether that means quitting cold turkey or just cutting back on the binge drinking.
Twenty-four-year-old Bharat Rai knows this movement well.
RAI: You know, back when I, when I drank a lot, like it may have been like three days of me, just like, you know, really slogging through the day and, you know, dragging my feet…
Rai recently graduated from USC with a master of science in translational biotechnology.
RAI: And I really realized that if I want to stay productive and get all the things done that I need to get done effectively, then, you know, I really do need to watch what I drink because that hangover the next day is really not going to be worth it in the long run.
Rai is the co-founder of an app called Ethos: mindful drinking. He began his research for the app as a student when he started looking at alcohol consumption through the lens of biomedical sciences.
RAI: Ethos’ mission is to increase the awareness and the mindfulness of social drinkers, and the way that the way that we’re doing that is we’re providing an educational experience. When someone is downloading the app, you’re going to set your limits, you’re going to log your drinks.
Rai launched Ethos this past November after months of research. Like Gonzalez, he capitalized on a trend of young people wanting to explore their own alcohol consumption.
RAI: I think really, since the last few years, there’s been a bigger emphasis on public health issues and just more conscientiousness towards your own individual health at large.
There are many reasons why young people might cut back on their alcohol consumption…productivity, mental and physical health, and sleep are just a few.
And studies back it up. A 2020 study from the University of Michigan shows that over the last two decades, the number of college students who abstained from drinking went up by 8%. And according to a 2022 U.K. study from Drinkaware on alcohol consumption trends, Gen Z is the most sober and sober-curious generation yet.
Gonzalez still does drink but infrequently and not heavily.
GONZALEZ: I’m very high strung. I am a chronic overthinker, and I found that hangovers really seem to exacerbate that for me.
Rai has also cut down on his alcohol consumption quite a bit. In fact, he pulled up the Ethos app and showed me his target amount of standard drinks for the week: 1.4. As a founder of a start-up, decreasing his alcohol consumption has paid off…literally.
RAI: And I’ll tell you, like drinks are not cheap here either. And it really put a dent in my bank account for a little bit there.
Now to be fair, these non-alcoholic drinks, like a bottle of Sovi’s reserve red wine or Bax Botanics’ gin, could set you back as much as $40. In fact, Gonzalez knows she has to work extra hard to get people interested in these drinks when there’s still such a strong culture of drinking to get drunk.
GONZALEZ: When I was building the experience and the way the brand looks and feels and the entire concept, I was really focused on making the category feel exciting and sexy and interesting and accessible for the Gen Z and millennial demographic in particular.
Gonzalez adds it’s not just about getting a buzz. She says it’s important to understand the intensive process of how these drinks are made and to examine the inherent value in a drink other than its physical effects.
GONZALEZ: I don’t really drink to get drunk personally. What I have come to find is that I actually really, really value the flavors, the experience, the reminder to slow down and enjoy something with somebody or to participate in mixology or to pair something with a meal, right, that’s the inherent value of a drink to me.
Now, I’m 21 years old and new to the world of fancy cocktails. But with all of this talk of complex non-alcoholic drinks, I couldn’t not give it a try.
NARRATOR: All right, I’m going to try a sip. See how it is. It looks really pretty. All right. It’s really good. I’ve never had a real negroni before. But I love it. I love sweet and citrus. So this is perfect.
An added bonus? I downed the whole thing and was able to drive home, no questions asked.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Meredith McCabe.