I assumed NoLo was still a niche thing - specialty stores, the trendier cocktail menus, weekend wellness crowds. A new survey suggests it has crossed into something closer to mainstream. But the raw number is less interesting than the question underneath it: who is reaching for these drinks, and what are they hoping to get out of them?

What they did

Researchers recruited 1,464 US adults aged 21 and older through Prolific, an online research panel. Participants completed a 30-minute survey on their experience with no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) beverages - whether they had tried them, what motivated them - along with questions about current drinking habits, psychosocial factors, and demographics. The team ran multivariable logistic regression to identify which factors predicted whether someone had ever tried a NoLo product.

One important limit: this is cross-sectional, a one-time snapshot. It tells us who has tried NoLo drinks and why. It cannot tell us whether these drinks actually changed anyone's consumption over time. The Prolific platform also attracts more digitally engaged participants, so the 75% figure may run slightly higher than in a fully representative sample.

What they found

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

The most commonly reported motivations:

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

The more striking result is who's inside that 75%. People with moderate or high-risk alcohol consumption - screened using 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). People who had previously tried to quit drinking had 2.7 times the odds (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 without caring much about alcohol either way. This study points the other way. The people most actively reaching for NoLo products drink more, and have already been thinking seriously 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, but lets you slow down mid-evening without breaking the social rhythm.

The motivation I find most interesting is "avoid the negative effects of alcohol" at 36.8% - nearly as high as abstaining outright (37.4%). People aren't reaching for an alcohol-free beer because they don't feel like drinking tonight. They're reaching for it because they know what happens when they don't ease off, and they want a lever for that in the moment, not the morning after.

The study can't tell us whether this instinct works - whether swapping in a NoLo drink at the right point actually makes the next morning better. That's a different study. What it does establish: demand is coming from people with a genuine use case, not just trend followers.

On a night where the pace picks up without you noticing, a swap-in drink - something that keeps you in the conversation while your BAC (blood alcohol concentration) levels off - is exactly that lever. AlcoBalance works on the same logic: you see where you are on the curve and what happens if you have another drink, and you decide consciously while you're still steering the evening.

Source: Drug and Alcohol Review, DOI