Diners are drinking less alcohol, but they do not want water. They consciously alternate drinks with and without alcohol within the same meal — to sleep better, to perform the next day, not to feel saturated. IWSR projects more than 4 billion dollars of incremental value in no and low alcohol by 2028. 74% of Gen Z still drinks. What is changing is not whether they drink. It is how.
01 — The trend
One with, one without, one with
Zebra-striping is alternating glasses with and without alcohol during the same meal. Not drinking stops being a sacrifice and becomes another way of ordering.
The diner is not giving up alcohol. They are spreading it out. They drink less, but they do not want water. They alternate consciously — to sleep better, to perform the next day, not to feel saturated. It is a conscious pattern, not a moral decision.
The market opportunity is measured. IWSR projects more than 4 billion dollars of incremental value in no and low alcohol by 2028. And 74% of Gen Z still drinks, only three points below the general population.
02 — The opportunity
The opportunity is not in offering one alcohol-free option
This is where most drinks lists fall short. They add one option without alcohol at the bottom of the page, as a concession, and assume the job is done. It is not.
The opportunity is in building zebra pairings — wine, mocktail, wine; beer, functional tonic, beer — and raising the mocktail to a category with its own sommelier: separate list, price to match, real thinking behind it. Not an expensive soft drink in disguise.
Whoever understands this first raises the ticket of the sober diner without losing the one who drinks. There is a lot of market still to take.
03 — The base Spain already has
Raw material at the bar, not yet on the list
Spain is the market in the world with the strongest base in alcohol-free beer: one in every seven beers consumed. No other country has that figure. Estrella Galicia 0,0 won the World Beer Awards in 2025. Torres leads alcohol-free wine globally.
The raw material for zebra-striping in Spain already exists. What is missing is for the list to treat it as a product rather than as a nod to whoever is driving — who are only 50% of alcohol-free consumption. And for the floor team to offer it with the same confidence they use to describe a Ribera del Duero.
04 — How it is designed
Three concrete zebra pairings
Three formats already working on lists that moved before everyone else. This is not theory: they can be built tomorrow with what you already have in the cellar and a bit of thinking behind the mocktail.
- Wine, mocktail, wine. For the mid to high tasting menu. Wine with the first course, a technical mocktail with the fattiest or most complex dish, wine with the main. The mocktail works as a palate pause and a reset. The guest finishes without feeling they have drunk too much, and without feeling they have stopped enjoying themselves.
- Beer, functional tonic, beer. More casual, fits a bistro or an informal tasting format. The functional tonic — with adaptogens or bitter citrus — cleans the palate and lowers the sense of saturation. Same round, two categories, same price.
- Your own version. The specific format is defined by your kitchen, not by your bar. If you work over coals, zebra works alternating red wine with bitter sodas. If you work raw and cold technique, alternate white wine with alcohol-free spirits and citrus. There is one rule: every course has its option with and its option without, thought through to the same level.
What is fading in parallel is the caricatured alcohol-free option: juice with a paper umbrella, water with rosemary, the mocktail called that because it does not dare call itself a cocktail. The guest who is alternating does not want that. They want a serious drink, gourmet and craft but without alcohol, inside the same meal in which they may well drink alcohol.
05 — For your restaurant
The operator who understands over the next few years that the guest is alternating — and not picking a side between drinking and not drinking — will come out of the period with a higher liquid average ticket and a whole table consuming, not half of it. From what I see in clients, I do not see another route.
Is your drinks list designed for the guest who alternates, or for the one who has to pick a side? At Eating Stories we redesign drinks lists in zebra terms, with technical criteria and a metric per lever. Looking at what your tables are consuming today and what they are asking for even when it is not on the list.
