Staying sober? There's still lots to try at London's largest food and drink show

Organizers of a long-running food and wine show that showcases the country's best booze aren't letting a growing trend that sees Canadians drinking less alcohol stop the London event.

Instead, they're embracing the shift to dry drinks.

Taste Ex, known for 18 years as the London Wine and Food Show, kicked off the weekend event Friday night at the Western Fair.

"Alcoholic products are down in general in Canada, the US and in Europe, there's no question about it," said Stephen Rich, who curated the bar menu at Taste Ex. "We know a lot more about how alcohol affects us. People are more health conscious."

According to the 2023 Canadian Community Health Survey, one-third of Canadians aged 18 to 22 reported drinking any alcohol in the previous seven days. Half of people in all other age groups reported the same.

Thirty per cent of people said they drank more than three standard drinks throughout the week.

"Dry January," an effort to stay sober during the month, is also becoming more popular as people look to start the new year in a healthy way, and recover from both over-indulgence and over-spending, Rich said.

He'll be running a 250-foot long bar that has 950 drink choices, including nearly 50 non-alcoholic wine, beer and cocktail options. There's also teas, coffees and kombuchas sourced from all over Canada.

One of the dry drinks on offer this year is Edna's Non-Alcoholic Cocktail Co., based in Vancouver. Nick Devine co-founded the business in 2021, and since then, he's seen the demand and availability of non-alcoholic choices rise quickly.

"It just snowballed, really," he said. "The menus that you see now on tables in restaurants and bars are very different from what you saw five to ten years ago when it comes to non-alcoholic options."

Rich agrees, that a decade ago it would have been really hard to gather so many different non-alcoholic beverages for the event, he said. Now, he sees more producers getting into the industry, and more innovation taking place.

"It won't shock me if next year we have over 100 non-alcoholic products," he said.

A report from NielsenIQ, a consumer intelligence firm, found annual sales of non-alcoholic beverages in Canada had surged to $199 million last year, up from $137 million two years prior.

It showed growing popularity with both young and middle-aged consumers, and especially higher earners. It also found that 75 per cent of people buying were also buying alcohol, indicating that for many people it's not about cutting out booze completely, but rather finding balance.