It’s a Good Time to Be Making Mocktails

The nonalcoholic beverage industry could get a boost from the surgeon general’s warnings linking alcohol to some cancers. But don’t expect the industry to condemn your glass of pinot.

Business is booming for Per Se’s drinks.

Its nonalcoholic hibiscus margarita can be found on restaurant menus in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. Eight distribution partners are putting its canned mock negronis and whiskey sours on the shelves of grocery stores and liquor retailers across the Midwest. Its drinks even popped up at the Minnesota State Fair.

It’s not just thanks to Dry January. Consumers have been slowing their intake of chardonnay and pale ale for a while, and the tiny nonalcoholic beverage industry has been on a tear. After the surgeon general’s warning this month about the link between alcohol and certain forms of cancer, it is poised to attract even more customers.

But don’t expect mocktail and near-beer makers to start denouncing alcohol or citing frightening statistics from medical journals to make their case. Sounding preachy is not on brand. Moreover, the industry depends on the investments, marketing expertise and distribution systems of the beer, wine and spirits industry.

“Drinking alcohol is still the default in our culture when you go out, so telling someone to stop feels like a personal attack,” said Hally Turner, who founded Per Se in 2019 with her husband.

“This isn’t an opportunity for us to proclaim, ‘Death to alcohol,’” echoed David Fudge, a co-founder and the chief executive of the nonalcoholic beverage company Aplós. “Quite honestly, there’s quite a bit of distrust around the government and institutions broadly these days, so I’m not sure that kind of tactic would work with most customers.”