On a cold January night, a colleague and I set out to warm up on the 54th floor of the Hyatt Centric Times Square New York.
At the aptly named Bar 54, we enjoyed two beautiful and carefully crafted cocktails and a beer. No matter that I had an hour’s drive home later that evening: none of the drinks had any alcohol.
In December, Hyatt Hotels Corp. officially launched a program to bring “dedicated zero-proof beverage options” to select hotels in Hyatt’s U.S. portfolio, citing the increase in travelers who drink less alcohol.
Called Zero Proof, Zero Judgment, Hyatt actually began rolling out the drinks last August at select properties in its Andaz, JdV by Hyatt, Hyatt Centric and Thompson Hotels brands in partnership with Ritual Zero Proof, a maker of nonalcoholic spirits.
Very early results indicated that Hyatt was onto something. Miranda Breedlove, Hyatt’s national director of bars and lifestyle operations, said the property that first launched the menu, the Revival Baltimore, which is part of the JdV by Hyatt brand, saw an average 37% increase in zero-proof cocktails purchased each month since the launch.
“Anecdotally, responses have been overwhelmingly positive,” Breedlove said. “For example, a local chose to host their birthday party at the hotel’s restaurant, Topside, because of the zero-proof options, and several sober or sober-curious colleagues have shared positive feedback and appreciation to work at a place that has a different kind of beverage menu available.”
Zero proof is the latest term for drinks that have no alcohol, preceded by mocktails, nonalcoholic (NA) or 0% ABV (alcohol by volume) drinks. But it also seems to define a movement toward beverages that are not simply cocktails without alcohol, or soda or juice, but thoughtful and often complex concoctions that may include zero-proof spirits, which those in the F&B business say are much higher quality than they used to be.
Zero-proof drinks are popping up all over the travel industry, from hotels to theme parks to cruise ships, in response to a cultural shift toward drinking less, especially among younger generations. According to Beverage Daily, 30% of Americans don’t drink at all, while 52% are actively trying to drink less, leading Sober October to join Dry January in popular lexicon.
And while travel is an activity during which people often choose to indulge, a Hyatt survey found that nearly 50% of travelers surveyed in October were likely to choose a nonalcoholic beverage over a beer or cocktail.
When it comes to bars and restaurants, that group has long been relegated to drinking water, juice or soda while their alcohol-drinking counterparts get long lists of wine, beer and cocktails made with thoughtfully combined craft ingredients.
That is changing.
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SLINGING ZERO-PROOF DRINKS
When Royal Caribbean Group did a revamp of its beverage menu during the pandemic shutdown, it launched its first zero-proof drink menu, which has now rolled out fleetwide.
Ed Eiswirth, Royal’s director of beverage operations, said that with ships at a standstill, his department was able to spend more time digging into data and trends to understand what guests are looking for.
What they found was that Generation Z, whose oldest members only recently came into legal drinking age, and Generation X are more interested in lower-ABV beverages than previous generations.
“I stumbled on a lot of research around sober-curious guests and especially around Gen Z being super curious,” he said. “These are young people who still drink alcohol, but they consume a lot less. They’ll go out at night and buy one really nice, handcrafted cocktail and then switch to something that’s no-alcohol but that has just as much care taken and is really curated as well as a cocktail.”
In that vein, Royal’s zero-proof cocktails are not simply “mocktails or virgin drink recipes,” he said.
“We really took the time to curate them as standalone drinks without alcohol and really look at blending flavors that work together versus a stock virgin daiquiri that is just an alcoholic drink we’ve taken the alcohol out of. We didn’t even consider putting alcohol in these as we put them together.”
Royal purposefully chose not to incorporate nonalcoholic spirits, in part so the drinks would be appropriate for teens and tweens. And since Eiswirth likes to do “twists on the classics,” passengers will find a Shirley Ginger, which is similar to a Shirley Temple, perhaps the original NA cocktail, but made with ginger to give it more sophistication.
“That’s geared toward tweens, teens and adults who are looking for something really light and refreshing,” he said, adding that such drinks “become an experience that guests can only have on Royal.”
Mishi Torgove, the regional beverage director for Eagle Point Hotel Partners, whose properties include the Sound View in Greenport, N.Y., and New York’s Arlo properties, said demand for nonalcoholic drinks is being driven by the same uptick in demand for healthier options overall. In the beverage category, he’s found that cocktails combining cold press juices with a shot of a spirit like gin or vodka have also sold well over the last few years.
“There’s a healthy component to that cocktail, or at least the appearance of health,” he said. “They will often sell better than something like a chocolate martini, which doesn’t have the same health benefits.”
Torgove wanted to be able to offer guests something better than what he was seeing in the nonalcoholic category: “Canned or bottled juice and mixture in a glass.”
“There wasn’t a tremendous amount of thought put into how it was going to look, how it was going to drink,” Torgove said. “And it didn’t have that tie into the rest of the cocktail menu.”
Torgove wanted to create a nonalcoholic drink that not only looked like a cocktail but one where its “life-cycle” is considered, including its midpalate and its finish. He also wanted it to have the same tie-in to cocktail culture that alcoholic drinks do.
The most popular zero-proof cocktail on the menu at the Halyard, the restaurant at the Sound View, is the Blackberry Bramble, a swizzle cocktail served tall in a Collins glass with crushed ice.
“There’s a correlation with a period in our history that was important for the modernization of the cocktail movement,” he said of the drink. “Even though there’s no alcohol, there is that connection and that nod to the original.”
Andrew K., the Bar 54 bartender who came up with the zero-proof menu, said that the breadth of NA spirits helps give zero-proof cocktails more sophistication.
“There are definitely more flavors and zero-proof spirits on the market to play with now,” he said.
In creating zero-proof cocktails, he takes both a traditional approach — the London Bloom uses Ritual Zero Proof Gin Alternative, basil, cucumber, lime, ginger — and a more inventive one, putting what he calls a “zero-proof twist” on it. The Lassi in the Sky is his take on the traditional Indian mango lassi drink and blends Ritual’s rum alternative with mango puree, lime, ginger syrup and coconut cream.
A PLUS FOR NONDRINKERS ON STAFF
Taking nonalcoholic drinks seriously can have positive implications for staff as much as it does guests.
Andrew K., for example, is sober and said that as someone tasked with “coming up with creative cocktails … normally, I’m operating blind, as I don’t have the opportunity to taste my creations, but creating a zero-proof beverage is way more interesting and interactive.”
He also feels fortunate to support the movement toward more zero-proof cocktail options “to help provide unique and thoughtful offerings to nondrinkers.”
“The zero-proof movement creates a fun and comfortable space that’s really inclusive,” he said. “It’s a mature recognition that not everybody wants to drink alcohol at a social gathering. It’s silly, but I think there’s still some social peer pressure when we go out to social occasions. Hyatt’s Zero Proof, Zero Judgment program offers a way for everyone to participate and still be able to imbibe on a sophisticated, well-crafted beverage.”
The Hyatt program was inspired by the Revival Baltimore’s sober bar manager, Anna Welker, who launched a zero-proof cocktail menu following a successful Dry January menu in 2020 to ensure that nondrinkers who visited the hotel were met with a variety of beverage options.
Hyatt’s Breedlove said that at Alila Napa Valley, chef and partner Chris Cosentino of the in-house restaurant Acacia House also doesn’t drink alcohol, and the program has ushered in a new way for him to connect with guests, and vice versa.
Of course, guests who do not drink or are sober-curious also appreciate the investment in such carefully crafted NA options. In fact, zero-proof cocktails can be so complex, they can take as much time to make as alcoholic cocktails.
Muffy Driessen, a Phoenix-based vice president in higher education as well as an avid traveler who doesn’t drink alcohol, called Hyatt’s zero-proof menu “a great move.”
“This has possibilities as a fun and fresh option for a night on the town, especially for individuals who want to be a part of the evening festivities but not drink alcoholic beverages,” she said, adding that people like her can now “order a delicious beverage instead of the usual soda, seltzer or water with a fruit garnish.”
In search of fun drinks, Driessen often has to concoct her own. While out for dinner recently, she ordered a seltzer with bitters and lime. The confused server offered her a choice of hard seltzers.
“She went right to booze, consciously or unconsciously,” she said.
Driessen said that people she knows who are in recovery “are always seeking places with fun mocktails. Hyatt now has great possibilities of attracting these people and welcoming nonalcohol drinkers with open arms.”
HIGHLIGHT IN DRY DESTINATIONS
While alcoholic beverages are an integral part of culinary culture in most of the Western world and enjoying regional brews, spirits and vintages are sought-after travel experiences, that is not true everywhere.
Alcohol is not culturally significant and is even illegal in some places, predominately Arab and Muslim nations.
But that doesn’t mean the locals don’t enjoy a well-made drink.
Alcohol is strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia, which has recently injected billions of dollars into its tourism sector. Joshua Bush, CEO of Philadelphia’s Avenue Two Travel, visited the kingdom in November and was pleasantly surprised by the sophistication he encountered at Saudi bars, which he said look like they do in “fancy Western restaurants, with chic lighting and seating ... and mixologists that make craft juice cocktails that are extremely complicated.” Among his favorites was a rose, hibiscus and watermelon drink with ancho chili.
“It was just phenomenal,” he said, adding that they use the same techniques for juice cocktails, like smokers and different types of bitters, “and all the same panache and flair that comes with mixing a regular cocktail.”
No alcohol may turn off some travelers, Bush said, but it also caters to this growing group of Americans trying to drink less: “It’s perfect for Dry January, to tie that in.”
BY JOHANNA JAINCHILL
