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‘Spirits’ the UK’s second favourite low-and-no option

A survey by low-and-no retailer Dry Drinker discovered that 29% of UK consumers prefer ‘spirits’ over other non-alcoholic alternatives.

Gin-World-Spirits-Report-2024-SB
Respondents’ favourite spirit categories were gin and whisky

The first-choice option was wine, which took 45%. Beer was close behind with 22%, with cider dragging its feet at 4%.

The survey data was collected between October and December 2024, featuring 6,182 respondents across the UK.

Stuart Elkington, the founder of Dry Drinker, said: “There’s a clear shift happening towards more sober lifestyles. Celebrities like Tom Holland openly sharing his decision to cut back on alcohol – and even, creating his own line of no/low alcohol beers – and viral trends like the 75 Hard challenge on TikTok are making sobriety more current and aspirational.

“However, while more people are choosing to drink less or even not at all, they still want to enjoy the same variety and quality they’ve come to expect from alcoholic drinks. The demand for alcohol-free options that deliver on taste and experience has never been stronger.”

The most popular type of spirit for respondents – whether alcoholic or not – was gin, with 15% favouring the category. This was followed by whisky, which took 14% of the vote.

Rum and vodka were tied at 7%, with Tequila getting just 2.7%. Combinations of spirits fared better than Tequila, including gin and vodka (3.8%) and gin and rum (3%).

When it came to spirit flavours, many were open-minded, with 15% saying they like ‘all of them’. The strongest combination of flavours was ‘citrus, herbal/floral, berries’ (8%), followed by ‘citrus, spicy, smoky’ (6%).

Citrus emerged as a standout, featuring in nine out of 10 of the top combinations.

The most popular way of drinking spirits was ‘sipping neat/on the rocks’, with 27% stating this as their preference, followed by 26% saying they like ‘all’ ways of consumption. ‘Pre/post dinner tipple’ had 25% of the vote, with ‘making cocktails’ taking 23%.

We recently looked at how smaller brands can break into the low-and-no space.

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