Going NoLo – Breaking up with Booze

In most higher-income nations, youth drinking is on the decline. GenZ (born 1996 -2010) consumes 20% less alcohol than millennials (1979 – 1995), who in turn drink less than their boozier GenX (1965 -1978) predecessors. As the wellness industry blossoms - with exercise, healthy eating, mindfulness and self-care prioritised over demon drink – so too does the desire to drop the bottle. Wise to alcohol’s detrimental effects on physical and mental health, young people are reaching for ‘no’ and ‘low’ alternatives - ‘NoLo’ in modern parlance – and the industry is rapidly innovating to meet demand.

The Blue Dolphin Store - an online shop for alcohol-free drinks - was launched in Barcelona in 2020. The business started when, after a traumatic experience relating to the death of a family member, founders Pere and Ana decided to quit drinking alcohol. They thought it would be best to go through this tough time in a healthier way. They ended up discovering that not drinking made them feel much better, so they never went back.

Ana said: “We were social drinkers, like the majority of people in Spain, but after going sober we soon experienced the frustration of not finding good quality non-alcoholic options for adults. It became boring sipping a tonic or soft drink when everyone else was having wine and cocktails, so we began researching alcohol-free alternatives. We found non-alcoholic wine, spirits, craft beers and ready-to-drinks, and decided to bring them together under one roof, so people just like us could easily buy premium alcohol-free beverages. The Blue Dolphin Store was born.”

Headquartered in Barcelona and staffed by a team of six, Pere and Ana’s non-alcoholic drinks store includes all the main alcoholic beverage categories - beers, wines, sparkling wines, spirits, vermouths, and aperitifs - but in alcohol-free versions. They are ‘inclusive drinks’, making you feel part of the group rather than an outlier.

While many of the mainstream industrial brands have alcohol-free variants - Tanqueray, Heineken, Martini, Corona, Guinness - The Blue Dolphin Store focuses on innovative products, those that are hard to find in regular stores. It has the widest range of non-alcoholic drinks in Spain - including some exclusives – and sales have increased year-on-year. They ship to Spain, the EU, and across the globe on request.

The alcohol-free drinks market may be comparatively small, but has been growing steadily over the last five years and predicted to keep growing. In fact, UK-based IWSR (International Wines and Spirits Record) expects the no-alcohol category to expand +7% between 2023 and 2027.

Ana explains: “The main reason for the growth of the category is a shift in consumers’ habits towards wellness. People want to be healthy, and they care about the food and drink they consume. Alcohol is bad for your body; therefore a lot of people look for healthier alternatives, including alcohol-free or dealcoholized drinks. Aside from avoiding the adverse effects of alcohol, this type of beverage has less calories and several have added bonuses, such as organic and natural ingredients, being low in sugar, gluten-free, and so on.”

At the moment, The Blue Dolphin Store is focussed on introducing alcohol-free drinks to the Hotel Restaurant Catering (HoReCa) sector. Their goal is to make their premium non-alcoholic drinks readily available in bars and restaurants, giving customers a tasty substitute. This will result in a superior experience for everyone - whether they usually drink alcohol or not - and help increase revenues.

One drink you won’t find in The Blue Dolphin Store (but possibly should?) is kombucha. And, here in Mallorca, we boast the king of kombucha: Edu Martínez.

Once a hippie home-brew, kombucha is now a fashionable beverage touted in every farm store and deli. Thought to originate in China, it’s best described as a light effervescent fermented tea with added flavourings and innumerable health benefits. Thanks to the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast), kombucha contains probiotics, digestive enzymes and vitamins – all essential for a healthy gut microbiome. A happy gut means elevated mood, enhanced cognitive function and a strong immune system.

Edu was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but moved to Madrid at the age of 22 to better understand his Spanish ancestry. He found work as a creative director in advertising but harboured an insatiable passion for gastronomy. Following an educational programme at elBulli – brainchild of three-Michelin-star chef Ferran Adrià - Edu was inspired to ditch the advertising world for cooking. Done with big cities, he found a discarded centuries-old carpentry workshop in Llubí, at the heart of agricultural Mallorca, and one sympathetic renovation later, Brut restaurant opened in summer 2017.

Edu continues: “Brut’s concept is an experimental tasting menu of fresh, seasonal produce, cooked in front of a maximum of 16 diners seated at a u-shaped bar. In a vineyard-rich island like Mallorca, the wine pairing was straightforward, but complementing fine dining with alcohol-free drinks was tricky. We couldn’t turn to the sugar-laden soft drinks market, so we started homebrewing kombucha – just for our diners.

“Using the laboratory-style techniques I learned at elBulli, I created a perfect kombucha partner for every course, from a bitter artichoke-infused ‘cava’ to a sweet turrón-laced dessert ‘wine’ and a medicinal hierbas-spiced digestif. On the strength of enthusiastic feedback, I lured old friend Lucas Cambiano to Mallorca from Saatchi & Saatchi Madrid, and we took our ‘Isla Kombucha’ to the retailers.

“In keeping with the low-waste ethos of Brut, we use local herbs and flowers and felt it was nonsense to bring in tea from China, so use low-caffeine olive leaves as the base - perhaps the only olive-leaf kombucha makers on the planet. It’s part of the reason we were recognised for both flavour and innovation at last year’s World Kombucha Awards.

“Flavour-wise, we follow kombucha’s centuries-long connection with the earth and have our core product – lemon and ginger, grapefruit, hibiscus and raspberry – alongside seasonal small-run limited editions involving such delights as almond blossom, verbena and wild celery. We’ve also cold-pressed tomato and fig leaves for a completely new taste profile. Some of our creative concepts have been unexpectedly bad, others unexpectedly good, but we always have a growing network of global kombucha specialists to turn to for tips and hints. Certain limited editions are loss leaders, as we couldn’t charge enough to cover the costs, but they go down fantastically with Isla Kombucha devotees.

“Our kombucha is packaged in brown bottles – the kind you’d see with artisan beer – so you still feel part of the drinking ‘tribe’, but without the empty calories, hangovers and beer fear. The plan is to expand into a bigger brewery taking on a like-minded investor partner who shares our rich values, vision and philosophy. The journey is just beginning.”