'This is a sea change': Welcome to the era of wellness drinks - The Drum

Many consumers, especially Gen Zers, have been cutting back in favor of healthier serves. The beverage industry has been responding in kind.

The beverage aisle of your local grocery probably looks different today than it did just a few years back. Selection was once limited to sodas and high-sugar sports drinks – but now, there’s a dazzling and ever-expanding array of healthier options, incorporating a long list of trendy ingredients: pre- and probiotics, adaptogenic roots, “functional” mushrooms, cannabidiols (CBD) and nootropics.

Packaging for these products tends to proclaim a range of health benefits from improved sleep, to decreased stress levels, to sharper cognition. Almost invariably, these are followed by a disclaimer stating such claims have not been validated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The rise of health drinks has occurred directly in response to an overall shift in public attitudes towards physical and mental health. While there was a spike in alcohol consumption across the US during the pandemic, more recent data shows younger Americans have begun to curb their drinking habits. A report from Gallup published in August of last year, for example, found that 62% of adults under the age of 35 say they drink alcohol – a decrease of 10% over the past 20 years. (That same Gallup poll also found that rates of drinking have increased, meanwhile, for adults over the age of 55.)

Data has also shown that Gen Zers, in particular, have been drinking less than previous generations. And the rise of the broader wellness drinks category has coincided with the nationwide movement to legalize cannabis, providing Americans disenchanted with boozing an alternative means of relaxation. As of 2024, 24 states have legalized cannabis.

“This is not a fad – this is a sea change,” says Marc Siden, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO) of CBD-infused beverage brand Cloud Water. “It’s not only answering the demand, it’s the thirst of the entrepreneur trying to find the next big gold rush.”

Some of these brands were launched in direct response to their founders’ personal journeys. Siden, for example, was diagnosed and successfully treated for colon cancer earlier in his life. He’s in remission, but the experience set him on a mission to rethink everything that he was putting into his body.

He eventually discovered CBD – a cannabinoid extracted from the cannabis plant – and ”was absolutely blown away” by the growing body of research pointing to the compound’s myriad health benefits. He co-founded Cloud Water in 2018, intent on his goal of bringing the benefits of CBD to the masses.

Then there’s Megan Klein, who founded mocktail brand Little Saints in 2021 after feeling unsatisfied with the non-alcoholic options on offer. “When you have fewer variables around you – when you have fewer distractions, when it’s not social anymore – you really start to see the toll that alcohol is taking on your own health,’” she says.

During the summer of 2021, Klein drove around the Midwest, selling Little Saints mocktails out of a small trailer she’d attached to the back of her Jeep. She was encouraged by the number of people she met who, like her, were looking for an alternative to alcohol. Though she had been working as a product designer by that point for years, she said that that “was the first time I was making something that people were super actively seeking out and [that] was solving a real problem.”

Klein’s decisions to quit drinking and launch of Little Saints were inspired by experiences with psychedelic plant medicines. María Sabina, a Mazatec woman who is credited with introducing magic mushrooms to westerners, used to refer to the mushrooms as “little saints.” In 2014, Klein journeyed to the Peruvian Amazon village of Iquitos to drink ayahuasca for the first time; she still makes annual pilgrimages. “I wanted something that was inspired by plant magic but not a psychedelic itself,” she says of her decision to found Little Saints.

Klein’s psychedelic forays radiate through her brand’s marketing. Little Saints’ website is full of colorful illustrations of jungle flora, psychoactive amanita muscaria mushrooms and jaguar shamans. And yet for all the overt imagery used in its marketing, Little Saints’ products are intoxicant-free.

Recess founder and CEO Benjamin Witte tells a similar story to Klein. He says that his brand – which has since become one of the most successful alcohol-alternative beverage companies on the market – can be traced back to the anxiety he experiencing following the 2016 election. “I just had this thesis that the next 30 years are going to be crazy,” he says. Sensing a general rise in stress across the population, he set out to build a brand devoted to promoting calm and well-being, “an antidote to modern times.”

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In addition to a selection of canned mocktails, Recess also offers magnesium- and adaptogen-infused seltzers and powdered supplements. Witte says Recess’s “business has been doubling year-over-year” and that the ready-to-drink mocktail space has begun to “explode.”

Though the “sober curious” movement arose in tandem with the non-alcoholic beverage market, Witte dislikes the phrase. “What we see is that the bigger trend is alcohol moderation, not elimination,” he says. According to Witte, more people today are looking to simply cut back on drinking as opposed to completely cutting alcohol out of their diets. “Some brands can feel a little bit ‘Holier than thou’ around not drinking, and I think that’s wrong,” he says.

In Safeway – where Recess recently launched – Witte says that his brand’s products can be found right next to hard seltzers like White Claw and High Noon. “That’s where we want to be. When you’re having a party, you'’re just gonna grab your hard seltzer and your Recess. I think it’s going to be rude to not have an alc-alternative at a party in the future.”

From fast food to sloe gin, the food & drink space is massively appetizing to marketers. Join us as we dig into some of the sector’s biggest trends during The Drum’s Food & Drink Focus.

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