"On a Friday night in Ottawa's Hintonburg neighbourhood, Sophia Marco scans the drink menu at her local bar. Around her, friends laugh over cocktails and beer, but she's eyeing the mocktail section where prices hover around $14 or $15 a glass. Since she switched to non-alcoholic options, what surprises her most is that mocktails tend to be around the same price as the cocktails."
"Across Canada, the non-alcoholic drink market is booming as more people look for ways to socialize without the buzz. But alcohol-free doesn't necessarily mean cheaper. When I first started to order mocktails or non-alcoholic drinks, I was shocked at first, says Luba Khalil. I thought alcohol was the expensive part. But now I'm just kind of like, whatever everything's expensive these days."
"Making non-alcoholic drinks isn't necessarily simpler or cheaper than producing traditional ones. Mathieu Gagnon, co-founder of Sober Carpenter, a Montreal-based brewery specializing in non-alcoholic beer, says the process is much more technical than one may think. We actually use the same ingredients that go into beer, he says. We just stop the fermentation before it reaches above 0.5 per cent."
Non-alcoholic beverage options have expanded as more people seek ways to socialize without alcohol. Mocktails and alcohol-free beers are increasingly available in bars and businesses. Prices for non-alcoholic drinks frequently match those of cocktails, surprising many consumers who assumed alcohol made drinks costly. Production of alcohol-free beer can be technically demanding, using the same ingredients and stopping fermentation before alcohol levels exceed 0.5 per cent. Demand growth has prompted companies and events to cater to non-alcoholic preferences. Cost perceptions collide with production complexity and broader inflationary pressures, so alcohol-free does not automatically mean cheaper.
Read at www.cbc.ca
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]