We’re currently living through a golden age of nonalcoholic cocktails.
Gone are the days of seltzer water or juice as a nondrinker’s only beverage options at a bar or restaurant. Over the past three years, the nonalcoholic (NA) sector has seen significant growth, prompting heavy hitters like Heineken and White Claw to de-booze their flagship products and encouraging innovation in dealcoholized wine and zero-proof spirit options.
But among all the growth, customers are noticing the price of their mocktails rise, too — and they’re not happy about it.
“Why are you paying $14.99 for some damned juice, just so you can look like you’re drinking with other people?” creator @maliktheoracle says in an Instagram video about drink prices. “I do not want your mocktails, I am not buying your drinks.”
“Don’t put 2 fruit juices in a glass with a splash of seltzer and a sprig of mint and charge me more than $8,” Anthony, 43, of New York tells TODAY.com via Instagram direct message.
Katy Guest, 36, of New York, writes in, saying, “i whole heartedly think zero proof drinks w no adaptogens, should be at least 25% less than a regular cocktail.”
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It’s true that some menus list drinks of lemonade, sparkling water and mint, or seltzer with a fruit juice floater and sprig of rosemary for $15. JW Wiseman, founder of Curious Elixirs, calls these “a mockery of mocktails.” And some bars might not even have a zero-proof list, promising instead to quench your thirst for something special based on your preferences, then hand you a juice jumble with syrup for a price you won’t see until the bill comes.
Understandably, that’s infuriating.
Max Stampa-Brown, a food and beverage consultant, says there are plenty of “people who are phoning it in” and using whatever was leftover from their process of making alcoholic drinks and hiking up the price to increase their profit margins.
He adds that the cost of those ingredients are at their cheapest — “nine times out of 10” — when being used in this way, “unless you’re doing something very elaborate, in which case, it warrants it.”
But the part that blatant overcharge — experts have shared with TODAY.com that freshly squeezed juices, for example, could cost around $1 per serving for the establishment — makes it easy to forget, is that when a drink is developed under the care of an intentional beverage director or mixologist, the costs might add up to even more than that tequila soda.
Plus, sometimes, it’s not just juice.
Many of the customers who spoke with TODAY.com via Instagram direct message share the sentiment that if a drink doesn’t have alcohol in it, it should cost less than one that does.
But in reality, a vodka with cranberry juice has a lower cost for a bar than a zero-proof cocktail made with nonalcoholic spirits, fresh-squeezed juice, in-house syrup and spices.
What some consumers are missing is that there are generally three camps of nonalcoholic beverages, and each has its own pricing structure: zero-proof craft cocktails, ready-to-drink (RTD) and — everyone’s favorite to hate on — juice.
Zero-proof craft cocktails
Some bars have fully developed nonalcoholic beverage programs. Often, those bars stock NA aperitifs like Lyre’s Spirits and The Pathfinder, or other zero-proof spirits like the ones from Seedlip or Ritual. Some of these bottles can cost bars the same amount as a mid-tier bottle of booze.
“They’re not shortcuts or simplified versions of traditional spirits — they’re intentionally built to deliver body, balance and a premium drinking experience,” Lyre’s vice president of North America, Michelle Green, tells TODAY.com. “That craftsmanship and the experience it creates is what drives the value.”
Mixologists working with these in stock use them to create a balanced, flavorful and meaningful experience for anyone looking to sip.
Depending on the ingredients and the labor cost, prices here are generally accepted — according to the experts we spoke with — at anywhere between $10 and $16.
Dan Vannatter, beverage director at Cafe Zaffri in New York City, tells TODAY.com he spent between two and three weeks developing the two NA cocktails on the restaurant’s menu. That’s a significant labor cost to the restaurant.
His zero-proof Pink Moon and Daisy Chain cocktails cost around $7 each to make, and they are both listed on the menu for $18.
While that sounds steep, with complex flavor profiles and the respect of being served in proper glassware, some nondrinkers might find the price tag worth it.
Ready-to-drink
Other programs that recognize how much work needs to go into properly developing these menus but don’t have the resources to dedicate might outsource to any of the brands making RTDs, like Curious Elixirs, Phony Negroni, Ghia, Lyre’s and more.
Much like beer or canned cocktails, the costs here are relatively straightforward: Bars pay the brand for their products and then mark it up (hopefully only slightly) to make a profit.
RTDs “offer lower labor, no shrink from spillage and minimal wastage,” Green tells TODAY.com, which makes the margins even more attractive to bars.
Wiseman says his company sells Curious Elixir to bars and restaurants at $6 per bottle, and each bottle has two servings. They then have a suggested retail price of $16 a bottle or $10 per glass (one serving).
They take the guesswork out of cocktail creation and allow customers to build relationships with drinks they can come back to again — hopefully confident in what they’re spending on.
But some experts, including Stampa-Brown, think bars are leaning toward taking advantage of consumers in this space.
“I think everybody’s just overpricing this,” he says of popular RTD Phony Negroni, which retails for around $5.25 per bottle, but can rise to more than double on a restaurant menu.
Stampa-Brown says menus are veering toward “price-gouging people who are just trying to be there in an environment where they feel like they’re accepted — and that’s kind of the point of mocktails in the first place.”
Juice — just juice
Almost everyone we spoke with agreed: A glass of juice should not cost more than $5.
So, yes, if you’re bemoaning that your virgin mojito is priced at $15, know that your groans are justified.
Just as there are plenty of beverage directors carefully pricing out their zero-proof drinks according to cost, there are many trying to capitalize on the upward swing of NA popularity.
In those cases, feel empowered to speak up.
If a nonalcoholic drink isn’t listed on the menu, ask your server or bartender how much it will cost you before ordering. If you’re unhappy with the prices, get creative.
“There are other options,” Dan Stern, head bartender at Bandits Burgers & Dive in New York City, says.
He recommends taking a look at the alcoholic cocktail menu to see if there’s any ingredient that sticks out to you. Maybe there’s a special syrup, extract, juice or something else that you can ask to be added to your soda water.
Ask for soda with a splash of citrus, he suggests, saying it costs “pennies on the dollar for them” to make.
Stern says it “shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg for that, or even a pinky.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
