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They're 'zebra striping' to pace themselves'A lot of people are like, I’m tired of the hangovers,' says one bartender of the customer trend to opt for mocktails between the real thingLast updated 12 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Any good cocktail menu should have some non-alcohol offerings, too, says Ryan Ringer, co-owner and bartender at Grey Tige in Toronto. Photo by Michelle Siu for National PostWalk into a Toronto bar on a Friday night and some of the drinks in people’s hands have no alcohol in them at all. The customers holding them are not sober, just pacing themselves.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThe industry calls it ‘zebra striping’, alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks during a night out. In Canada it has grown into a $223-million business, and the people driving it are mostly still drinkers.Low- and non-alcoholic beverage sales climbed from $171 million in 2023 to $200 million in 2024 and $223 million last year, according to NielsenIQ. About 20 per cent of Canadian households bought them over the past year.Join Laura Brehaut on a weekly food adventure with mouth-watering reads delivered Fridays.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Cook This will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againRyan Ringer has been bartending since 1998. He sees the trend from behind the bar at Grey Tiger, a Toronto cocktail bar he co-owns that opened in 2015 with a menu section called the Path of Temperance.“People will come in and they’ll have an alcoholic drink, but then maybe between alcoholic drinks, they’ll have a non-alcoholic,” Ringer said. “I think it’s less about people drinking less. It’s more about moderation. It’s more about people really thinking twice about where they’re spending their money and what kind of experiences they want to have.”“A lot of people are like, I’m tired of the hangovers,” he said. The four drinks on the Path of Temperance — the Crown Spritz, the Finest Timeline, the Sky Reset and Love in the Shadows — all cost $15 versus alcoholic cocktails that start at $18 and climb to $26. On the menu at Grey Tiger is The Finest Timeline, a non-alcohol cocktail made with black rice aperitif, chili lime cucumber shrub, ginger beer and mint bitters. (PHOTO BY BECKY IP)Ringer makes his own non-alcoholic ingredients rather than buying them, and builds the drinks to come as close to a cocktail as he can. “We really want people to be like, are you sure there’s no alcohol in this?” he said.In Ontario, non-alcoholic beer and cider sales grew 14 per cent over the year ending in November, and de-alcoholized wine grew 126 per cent, the LCBO reported, adding that large national brands are launching new styles this year.Molson Coors is one of them, Michelle Ramos, senior director of global brands at Molson Coors Canada, said in an email. Its lineup runs to Coors Edge, Molson Excel and Heineken 0.0, which is its largest non-alcoholic brand and grew by double digits in June.The category once served people who did not drink, Ramos wrote, and now many want both.Non-alchohol drinks are filling a gap. Alcohol sales fell to $25.8 billion in the year ending March 31, 2025, down 1.6 per cent even as prices rose, according to Statistics Canada.The average Canadian of legal drinking age now buys about eight standard drinks a week, down from 9.7 a decade ago.That pullback has been building for years, said Rod Phillips, a history professor at Carleton University who studies alcohol. Younger people are leading it, he said, in the same way they gave up smoking first, proving more risk-averse than older generations.“That’s a kind of a recognition I think on the part of a lot of young people that you don’t need to drink alcohol to have fun,” Phillips said. “Younger people are just more aware of the health dangers and they’re acting on it.”Yet the trend toward zero alcohol may already be peaking. Low- and non-alcoholic sales grew 17 per cent in 2024, then another 12 per cent last year, but are up only four per cent so far in 2026, according to NielsenIQ.The fully sober bar is still rare in Canada. One of the few is Spilt in Edmonton, a mocktail bar whose co-founder, JoAnne Pearce, told Global News it was the first of its kind in Alberta.Chris Elliott, chief economist at Restaurants Canada, is not sure a bar with only non-alcoholic drinks will ever be common, though the drinks themselves are spreading fast. “Most restaurants are adding this to the menu,” he said. “It’s something that we have seen.”For Ringer the argument over the menu is already settled. “Now it’s like, oh, we couldn’t have a menu without the path of temperance,” he said. “Like any good cocktail menu should have a solid non-alcoholic offering.”Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. 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