This is one case where drinking and driving kind of go together.
With its third edition kicking off in Denver last month, the No/Low Tour, presented by for-profit industry group Focus on Health, aims to spread education, awareness and best practices for the red-hot adult non-alcoholic (ANA) and low-alcohol space. They’ll be making six stops at industry events across North America.
Speaking with BevNET last week, Focus on Health co-founder Alex Jump said the group is eager to continue doing what’s worked for the Tour so far, but now with a bigger guest list: This year the tour is splitting the non-alcoholic drink menu at each one of its stops with a curated group of standout bars from around the country, representing “people that our industry looks up to and who are regarded as top of the craft.”
That includes national award-winning venues like Papercut in Austin, Denver’s The Yacht Club, San Francisco’s Trick Dog, and Cobra of Columbus, Ohio, which is set to join the tour for Portland Cocktail Week in October.
After two years of spreading the basics of ANA, this year’s education program features a master class from the guest bars about strategies for building a successful non-alc beverage program. There will also be a blind tasting of non-alcoholic spirits to help understand their optimal pairings and presentation on-premise.
It’s all part of a broader effort to deepen ANA knowledge and awareness on both sides of the bar.
For consumers, Jump noted, there’s been progress in helping them understand that ANA drinks are often as expensive as real cocktails — as long as that value proposition is evident.
What Jump Said: “There are still going to be guests who are shocked that a non alcoholic cocktail is priced in alignment with an alcoholic cocktail and if you, as the bartender, can’t explain to the guests the products that are going into [the drink] and the quality of the ingredients, then that drink is going to be a failure on your menu, or your non-alc program might be a failure”
Following the Tour’s end, each of the six bar-led educational sessions will be held for a second time in that bar’s home market, with Diageo sponsoring.
Jump acknowledged that there’s “still a long way to go” with ANA education, but the Tour’s acceptance at booze-centric industry events like Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans speaks to a growing acceptance.
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