India's bars get creative with zero-proof drinks

Mint

23-05-2025

How hard is it to find a good mocktail in a city like Mumbai? The answer is a struggle, as I inevitably learned. As someone who has always been a teetotaller, my biggest conundrum while dining out is to find a balanced, non-alcoholic drink. Most restaurants and bars tend to list the usual variety of tried and tested beverages like fresh lime soda, iced teas, virgin mojito or for the sake of nostalgia, pina colada—which get boring.
With the introduction of zero-proof drinks and spirits as well as the rise of the 'sober curious", especially amongst Gen Z, one would think that restaurants and bars would be doing more. And while many are, with a significant shift towards organic ingredients and innovative flavour profiles, are they actually good enough to draw customers back?
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Recently, I enjoyed a non-alcoholic cocktail at Ode, a European-forward restaurant in Mumbai. The drink, Apro Nuts, was well-balanced with the use of coconut water as the base, along with apricot brine, pickled apricot for a touch of tartness, and rosemary and lime to balance out the sweetness. It got me thinking about what establishments are doing to cater to sober drinkers.
At Pandan Club, a Peranakan-inspired restobar in Chennai, restaurateur and partner Manoj Padmanaban shares how they've crafted their zero-proof programme, called 'zero fake", with the intention of flipping the script on mocktails. 'Most mocktail menus read like they've been written by a reluctant intern. Our menu isn't a footnote and we wanted to change that perception," he says, referring to some of their creations like nitro-infused zero-proof stout or a coconut toddy-inspired zero-proof champagne. Their 0% stout features kaya jam and pandan. Jamun and grapes are vinified for the 0% rosé, while ingredients like fennel and yuzu feature in their 0% sake. Padmanaban says there is now an uptick in places embracing fermentation, homemade tinctures, and botanical infusions for mocktails.
At Masque, in Mumbai, seasonality is one of the mainstays of the beverage programme, which extends to non-alcoholic pairings. Head mixologist Ankush Gamre says they usually ask guests their flavour preference and then build the drink from there. 'Currently, a summer favourite is mango kombucha, where we use mango peel trimmings," he says. During the monsoon, the restaurant switches to ingredients like roselle and mint, and also makes batches of tepache, a Mexican fermented drink using pineapple skin. 'We get the best variety of pineapples from July to September, and come winter, we try to introduce drinks with ingredients like pomelo," he says. 'Increasingly, people are keen to know about the ingredients going into their drinks. They even tell us how they'd like us to sweeten them with agave nectar, honey, stevia or other sweeteners."
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Bar and beverage consultant Nitin Tewari points out that one broad trend that they're seeing with zero-proof beverages is that restaurants and bars are making the effort to use regional-inspired ingredients, and create in-house sodas. 'To be fair, as a country we have always had a penchant for seasonal drinks like aam panna, shikanji, chaa, and sharbats. People often see value in ordering these, versus just lemonades and iced teas when dining out," he says. 'We're also seeing the use of exotic ingredients, such as Thai flavours like kaffir lime, galangal and lemongrass."
Gurugram-based regional Indian restaurant, Bhawan, makes its own sharbat sodas in flavours like cucumber, mint and bela, and litchi and rose. Similarly, at the Thai restaurant Banng in Gurugram, zero-proof cocktails feature vibrant flavour profiles such as pink guava, tom yum broth, kaffir lime and salted plum water, in a conscious effort to cater to the growing number of sober drinkers.
According to Tewari, a majority of restaurants don't realise the potential to make more profits off non-alcoholic drinks. 'After spending a significant chunk on acquiring liquor licenses, cocktails and spirits become one of the primary products for them to push out, leaving little scope for non-alcoholic beverages," he explains. On average, five out of 100 such restaurants that are paying close attention to their zero-proof menus, he adds.
For all the efforts to appease the 'sober curious" or those who crave the flavour of their favourite spirit—minus the buzz, the numbers are still very minuscule. Not to mention, the flavours don't appeal to all. For a teetotaller like me, who has no reference point for a spirit like gin or tequila, such menus often tend to go unnoticed.
Tewari notes that there is still not much demand for non-alcoholic wines and beers across the country, explaining the lack of such products. For one, the percentage of such drinkers is still very small. He also points out how mostly its alcobev brands that are producing such products, as a means for surrogate advertising.
Sana Bector Parwanda, co-founder of Delhi-based Zoet Desserts, says she consciously started moving away from alcoholic drinks a few years ago.
One of her biggest frustrations was the lack of sugar-free mocktails. 'I'm someone who would rather eat my sugar than drink it, so I end up ordering tonic water as a safe choice." She adds that while travelling to other countries, non-alcoholic aperitifs with evolved flavour profiles are quite enjoyable, and even non-alcoholic wines and beers, which are tougher to find in India.
Gamre is optimistic about the future of zero-proof menus. 'The fact that zero-proof beverages are finding a place on bar menus is pointing to a much bigger demand than we acknowledge," he says. 'Creating these drinks is also like writing a new flavour book each time, as guests don't want to settle for a concoction that tastes like a blend of juices they can easily make at home."
Tewari adds that even a platform like 30 Best Bars India is acknowledging zero-proof drinks with the addition of an award category titled 'Best non-alcoholic cocktail menu" in 2023. The winners include Pandan Club in Chennai and Bandra Born in Mumbai. Is it a sign that zero-proof drinks will finally see the evolution it deserves?
Arzoo Dina is a Mumbai-based food and travel writer.
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