I was at a house warming party recently and there was a really nice bottle of rosé open on the counter. I poured myself a glass and chatted away as kids rotated underfoot, dogs roamed, and guests circulated. The hosts took us around and we admired the period details and funky San Francisconess of the whole place. When we got back to the kitchen, I refilled my glass and realized that only one other person was drinking. Everyone else had a non-alcoholic drink in hand. There was kombucha, flavored sparkling water, and all sorts of other colorful aluminum cans but nary an alcoholic drink.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Everybody has been writing about the nonalcoholic drink trend. There are the stories about younger generations turning away from alcohol and the panic among producers. There have been plenty of stories about the surgeon general declaring alcohol cancerous. Then there is the rise in cannabis as potentially displacing alcohol. So, what’s happening out there in this American drinking landscape?
But this is also very personal because my wife basically stopped drinking last year. She wasn’t sleeping well and correlated her drinking with ragged sleep. While she hasn’t completely stopped, she sleeps much better and just feels better, especially when she doesn’t drink. We all know that there are mornings where you know that you went too far. Now, for her, that’s almost never the case. That sort of transformation means that our budget has improved markedly but that we’re also frequently on different tracks.
But she’s not the only one. As I look around at gatherings, I see far fewer people drinking, especially women, but also a marked moderation among men - including myself. At a recent lunch beer was offered, but the hosts said ‘we’ve got this interesting nonalcoholic beer.’ The packaging was bright and we all left lunch sober. For the record this was Fieldworks’ Day Money NA Grapefruit Blonde. It reminded me of all the Radlers I used to drink when I lived in Bavaria and the gemischts in Croatia - super light, super refreshing, barely any alcohol. Now that the door is open, I’ve started looking a lot more closely at the NA options on menus and crossing over because the quality is there even if the price is about the same and, you know what?, I don’t need to have that drink all the time!
The funny thing about a change in perspective is that you really notice things that you missed before like, for example, just how casual having a drink is. It’s the socially approved phenomenon that we probably don’t need to be doing all the time. Why not just have a mineral water? There are all the health issues like sleep, weight gain, and issues with overconsumption (we really do have a larger social problem with drinking).
Plus it’s just incredibly expensive, especially here in the United States. I just got back from a trip to Italy where house wines are generally quite good and cost a few dollars for a half liter, specific bottles are generally listed for under 20 Euro a bottle, and frequently restaurants just give you an amaro after dinner because that’s the nice thing to do. Compare that with the dining experiences that I’ve had since returning to SF where a pint of beer is close to $10, wine and cocktails are even more. Those can be real budget breakers so it’s no surprise that this past weekend’s visit to a local brewery meant that nary a 20-year-old was in sight. If you’re young or don’t care much about alcohol then why would you spend the money when there are great and inexpensive sparkling waters that retail for the same amount per case as a glass of wine? Oh, and then there’s the cannabis option?
Sure, there are plenty of places to drink and there are plenty of younger people drinking, but there’s a larger change happening all around us. Our culture is particularly elastic so expecting changes like this is par for our national culture but it happens just as the wine, beer, and spirits industries had found a way into this not particularly alcohol friendly culture. There’s no great conclusion here. Just an observation of the world changing around and within us. And, of course, the fact that I still drink and write about drinking puts me in something of an awkward position. More on that later.
What I’m drinking
The Summer 2025 Distiller Magazine is out with my latest look at what I’m drinking which is a Japanese Shochu made from sake lees called Shigemasu Shochu. Tasting this bottle is its own delight, it’s light, flavorful, and alive. Visiting where it was made was a wonderful trip. While primarily a sake facility, they also use the sake lees in this shochu which gives it an added burst of flavor.
The work that goes into this is really fascinating from polishing the rice right through the critical step of growing their own koji. I managed to visit a lot of these koji rooms and they are all their own little sacred spaces lined with cedar and the cultures that provide all the magic for their shochus. I’ve been drinking a lot more of these over the past few years because I met Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman who are category evangelists par excellence and are importing some amazing examples like the Shigmasu Shochu but also the stunning Mugi Hokka made from barley and the Yokka Koji made on Okinawa. We’re blessed with the number of bottles that are exported but the number and variety in Japan is awe inspiring.