Should mocktails be off limits for kids?

July 17, 2024 by
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The mocktail trend shows no sign of slowing down as companies develop more and more products tailored to people who want a tasty drink sans the alcohol and its effects. Not only are there alcohol-free wines, gin, whisky, tequila, and other spirits, canned ready-to-drink mocktails are popping up on store shelves too. Most US states have no age restrictions on these products, but some experts believe that people under the legal drinking age shouldn’t be able to buy them.

Sparkling tropical mock-tail from Food Network by Geoffrey Zakarian

The theory behind this recommendation is that canned mocktails and other zero-alcohol products that are marketed as alternatives to cocktails will be a gateway to alcohol use by children. “There are so many cues in non-alcoholic beverages that mirror that alcoholic counterpart.” say Molly Bowdring, a clinical psychologist and researcher who co-authored a recent opinion piece in JAMA on this topic. Beyond the smells and tastes, the packaging of mocktails mimics that of traditional drinks. Manufacturers often make both alcohol-free and alcohol-containing products that have a similar appearance.

Bowdring likens the mocktail issue to e-cigarettes and other vaping products. Youth smoking had been declining for years until companies started heavily marketing vaping, and now tobacco use among minors is on the rise. She thinks it is time for laws to limit sales of non-alcoholic spirits and mocktails to minors. “If we leave the door open to there being a marketing push for non-alcoholic beverages among kids, could that then lead to increased alcohol use among this generation? We don’t want to wait to find out if that’s going to happen,” she says.

One of my most vivid childhood memories was stopping in a small-town bar with my grandfather on the way to spend the week at my grandparents’ farm. The bartender made me a Shirley Temple and I thought I was the coolest kid in town. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized there were a lot of things wrong with this scenario! While I don’t think our current alcohol regulations do much to encourage responsible drinking, it would probably be better if mocktails and other alcohol-free spirits, which from a glance are indistinguishable from their alcohol-containing counterparts, are limited to those of legal drinking age or at least those over 18. At the least it would make it easier to enforce underage drinking laws. Do you agree?

Note: We have added the Book Category tag “Mocktails” to the Library and are in the process of updating all those related books and if you are seeking recipe drinks with no alcohol – our Recipe Tag “Beverages / drinks (no alcohol)” will locate those.

Category: Antipasto

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3 Comments

  • Fyretigger  on  July 17, 2024

    If the lack of success at enforcing the flavored tobacco and vaping products bans are any indication, I’m afraid it’s pointless to attempt beyond education. And that’s a far more clear cut problem than ‘what is a mocktail?’ Then enforcement would put an awful burden on cashiers to make judgement calls and then have to weather the backlash from argumentative patrons.

    It feels to me that the candyfication of coffee and tea drinks is a far worse health concern. Kids who wanted to nothing to do with coffee 30 years ago are now swilling giant caffeine sugar bombs with alarming frequency.

  • TeresaRenee  on  July 17, 2024

    This reminds me of the Popeye cigarettes of my childhood. They were eventually relabelled because the idea of kids pretending to smoke became extremely unpopular.

    I think the marketing label “mocktail” is the issue here. Essentially a mocktail is just a combination of juice and/or pop and/or other flavourings which, in my opinion, is not a gateway to alcoholic drinks. It’s just a way of making non-alcoholic drinks appeal to adults. Labelling it a “piña colada mocktail” instead of, say, “coconut-pineapple juice” is definitely trying to hint at (glorify? Push?) alcohol consumption.

    Maybe disallow the mocktail label in stores that serve minors?

    I haven’t really considered 0% alcohol wine and beer. When I was underage, we found ways to get real alcohol. No one would bother with the 0% stuff because the point was to drink actual alcohol. The only people I know who buy 0% wine and beer are people who don’t drink but want to fit in with the drinking crowd and don’t see juice/pop/water as alternatives.

    I agree with Fyretigger’s comments about coffee and tea drinks. Lots of high school kids are addicted to caffeine these days.

    Personal note – I grew up in a household that served milk to parents and kids for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No water, tea, coffee or alcohol with meals. I think my dad had wine with dinner once/month? My in-laws serve only alcohol (cocktails, wine, beer), tea and coffee with dinner. I was so dehydrated by the end of dinner, I used to sneak out to get water. LOL. It took me years to get water with my dinners there.

    On a side note, there is a bottled water company that decided that water was too focused on the ‘healthy’ market and created the “Liquid Death” brand to appeal to the non-health crowd. Apparently, it sells well in bars where it’s more cool/fun/hip to be seen drinking a can labelled “Liquid Death” than a bottle of water.

  • Foodycat  on  July 19, 2024

    In the UK, the low and no alcohol beers are grouped in the supermarket along with the regular beers, so you get age checked when you buy them (I am now “visibly over 25” so I don’t get carded). Technically they can sell them to under 18s but it seems to mostly be store policy not to.

    I don’t really know why the children would want to – the aim of low alcohol wines etc is to get as close as possible to the taste of the full-alcohol version as possible, whereas the aim of teenage drinkers was always to get as wasted as possible on something that doesn’t taste like alcohol.

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