I assumed NoLo was still a niche thing. Specialty stores, the trendier cocktail menus, wellness crowds on a Sunday. A new survey says otherwise: it's closer to mainstream now. But the raw number matters less than the question sitting under it. Who reaches for these drinks, and what do they want out of them?

What they did

Researchers recruited 1,464 US adults aged 21 and older through Prolific, an online research panel. Participants filled out a 30-minute survey about no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) beverages: had they tried them, what pushed them to. The same survey covered current drinking habits, psychosocial factors and demographics. Then the team ran multivariable logistic regression to see which factors predicted whether someone had ever tried a NoLo product.

One limit worth keeping in mind. This is cross-sectional, a one-time snapshot. It tells us who has tried NoLo drinks and why. It says nothing about whether those drinks changed anyone's consumption over time. Prolific also attracts more digitally engaged people, so the 75% figure probably runs a bit higher than it would in a fully representative sample.

What they found

75% of participants had tried at least one NoLo drink.

Top motivations:

  • Decrease alcohol consumption: 45.5%
  • Abstain from drinking: 37.4%
  • Avoid the negative effects of alcohol: 36.8%

The bigger story is who sits inside that 75%. People with moderate or high-risk alcohol consumption, screened with the AUDIT-10 alcohol use tool, had twice the odds of having tried a NoLo product (AOR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.4-3.0). Among people who had already tried to quit drinking, the odds were 2.7 times higher (AOR = 2.7, 95% CI 1.9-3.7).

What it means

The default assumption about NoLo drinks: they're for the casually curious, people who want the social ritual and don't much care about alcohol either way. This study points the other way. The people reaching for NoLo products most actively drink more, and they have already spent time thinking about their relationship with alcohol.

If you drink lightly, sparkling water does the same job. NoLo drinks fill a different gap: something that looks and feels like a beer or a wine, and lets you slow down mid-evening without breaking the social rhythm.

The motivation I keep coming back to is "avoid the negative effects of alcohol" at 36.8%, nearly level with abstaining outright at 37.4%. Those aren't people skipping a drink because they don't feel like it tonight. They know what happens when they don't ease off, and they want a lever for it in the moment, not the morning after.

Whether that instinct works, the study can't say. Does swapping in a NoLo drink at the right point actually make the next morning better? Different study, different design. What this one does establish: the demand comes from people with a real use case. Trend followers aren't driving it.

On a night where the pace picks up without you noticing, a swap-in drink is exactly that lever, something that keeps you in the conversation while your BAC (blood alcohol concentration) levels off. AlcoBalance runs on the same logic. You see where you are on the curve, you see what one more drink does to it, and you decide while you're still steering the evening.

Source: Drug and Alcohol Review, DOI