Anyone who enters Club Soda of London, located in the central neighborhood of Covent Garden, you will hardly notice the difference compared to a normal liquor store. Bottles of wine and beers of all kinds adorn the shelves of this place with bar and tasting service, but when you look closely you realize a peculiarity: here practically no drink contains alcohol. This is one of the first businesses specialized in this type of product in London, a trend that is increasingly gaining ground in the country due to the changes in consumer habits of the population, especially among the youngest.
Laura Willoughby y Jussi Tolvi They opened this business two years ago, but explain that Club Soda has been around for more than a decade, when Willoughby decided to stop drinking. Their goal was to find people who wanted to socialize without the need to consume alcohol. “We started with small meetings in bars and then moved on to organize festivals every year, in which we taught people the different types of non-alcoholic drinks that are on the market. So far we have had ten editions, most of them in London,” explains Tolvi. The success of the events led them to consider opening a physical store where not only the products are sold, but they can also be tasted. non-alcoholic cocktails prepared at the moment.
Soda Club Facade / .
“Selling only drinks would not allow us to be in this area, because the market is small and most people buy products online,” he says. Willoughby. “This space is dedicated above all to educate the consumer and also to the hospitality sector. “We give customers the opportunity to try the drinks before they buy them so they can see what they really like and what they want to serve in their establishments,” he adds. In addition to the tastingsthe Soda Club organizes talks with experts, debates on the role of alcohol in social relationships and cocktail courses aimed at professionals who want to respond to an increasingly high demand for this type of drinks.
Consumption reduction
The percentage of adults who acknowledge having consumed alcohol in the last week in England it has gone from 68% in 1998 to 57% in 2022, according to data of the National Health Service (NHS). In the case of young people between 16 and 24 years old, the difference is even greater, going from 64% in 1998 to 46% in 2022. The proliferation of trends on social networks such as ‘Dry January’ or ‘Sober October’ ‘, which encourage the reduction of alcohol consumption in certain months of the year, have contributed to changing the habits of the population, especially among the youngest.
Interior del Soda Club. Sala ‘Tasting room’ / .
“People are trying to reduce the volume of alcohol that consumes. In many cases it is not about quitting completely, but about having a healthier lifestyle and limiting consumption to the place and time that they consider most appropriate,” explains Willoughby, who highlights that, in the case of young people, this It doesn’t mean they socialize less. “The youths are the group of people who less baby but they are still the group that goes to pubs the most. “We haven’t stopped going out, but we do want to consume drinks that make us feel better and enhance the occasion.” This change is being increasingly noticed in the city’s bars and cocktail bars, where it is common to have a space reserved on the menu for non-alcoholic combinations.
Wide offer
The Club Soda product offering is endless: white and red wines, sparkling wines, beers of different varieties (lager, IPA, black…), prepared cocktails such as mojito, daiquiri or ‘virgin mary’ and even ingenious drink substitutes. distilled Michael Bookera 37-year-old customer, shows off a bag with today’s purchase: a bottle of non-alcoholic prosecco and sparkling jasmine tea, plus some non-alcoholic beers. “I am always looking new and different drinksand it is increasingly easier to find them in cities like London,” he says.
Other European cities, including Barcelona, are also opening similar stores in recent years as a sign of a trend that seems unstoppable. “Habits are definitely changing. There are people who go to these places because they have had too much alcohol and want to quit, but there are also people who do not have the habit of drinking and who want to go out at night and have some option beyond sugary soft drinks as always,” says Booker. The proliferation of this type of drink – and this type of venue – both inside and outside the United Kingdom has opened a window for many people who want to escape the social pressure that, in many cases, is still linked to alcohol consumption.
Subscribe to continue reading
