Nonalcoholic Drinks A Fad Or Future? Shelley Elkovich Of For Bitter For Worse Shares Insights On This Hot Category

In a personal quest to reduce alcohol consumption without ruining my social life or evening relaxation hour, I sampled a number of nonalcoholic brands spanning beer, wine, spirits, and ready-to-drink (RTD) concepts. Most writers confine coverage of the category to Dry January, which is a shame. For many of us making lifestyle changes—not necessarily giving up our beloved wine but in need of flavor flexibility—the implications are year-round and lifelong. The era of Diet Coke, seltzer, or juice at the bar or house party is fading, but sifting through the glut of options costs money and time. Doing some of the heavy lifting for readers, I chose to interview founders of brands I enjoyed drinking and would stock in my pantry again.

I spoke with Shelley Elkovich, CEO and Flavor Maven, about her brand For Bitter For Worse, launched in 2020. After sipping a can of floral and fruity Rose City Fizz, I wanted to hear more about how she created such a complex yet drinkable drink that didn’t lean heavily on sugar and unfolded like a wine on the palate. We chatted about the brand’s origin story (health problem), consumer tastes and feedback, and where she sees the NA movement headed.

When and why did you decide to create an non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (RTD ) brand?

Two life events converged: first in 2018, the environmental consulting firm where my husband Jeff spent most of his career abruptly ceased operations. We then spent six months on retreat in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. The plan was to create our own drinks brand. As cocktail enthusiasts, we considered both premium mixers and RTD (boozy) cocktails as possible products.

Early in our time on the island, we took a whale watching trip on the Salish Sea, where I had a rare neurological reaction to the boat ride. Mal de Debarquement affects your equilibrium. From the onset, I eliminated alcohol from my life.

To be honest, it was only then that I internalized how soaked in alcohol our culture is—from small social gatherings, to big celebrations—I mean, even workplace events are steeped in booze. The double disappointment of not feeling included and not finding anything that pleased my palate and met my ingredient standards was the catalyst for the brand.

We have four varietals and two formats: all our drinks are available in a 750 ml bottle for sharing, and our two sparklers are also packaged in single-serve cans. I set out to create versatile drinks with enough complexity to enjoy right out of the bottle and are also fun to play with in a cocktail shaker.

What are the challenges to creating an adult NA beverage, especially one that seems to blend cocktail and wine adjacent concepts, into something complex and drinkable, especially beyond one glass?

Aside from much trial and experimentation, the big challenge is categorization. By now, pretty much everyone understands the concept behind a NA gin or whiskey, and they have some idea how to use those products.

Drinks that aren’t mimics—that are really their own thing—require another layer of education and sophistication. However, I believe the consumer has outpaced retailers in this area: people are excited about new beverages that tick the flavor boxes without being an inferior analog of the alcohol they otherwise enjoy.

We further complicate the issue [laughter] because while our drinks are ready to enjoy over ice, they’re also versatile in elevated cocktail recipes. Once people wrap their heads around it, they understand the excitement of increased use cases.

You’re spot-on about For Bitter For Worse blending cocktail and wine adjacent concepts within our product line. This is simply because I created our liquid around occasions when I crave a sophisticated drink that’s suitable for the occasion.

I first design our drinks with occasion in mind. Occasion leads to what I call the “flavor wheelhouse.” We have two sparkling spritzes, because I love aperitifs. One is more crisp and refreshingly bitter. The other is richer and more fruit-forward. Then we have a still wine alternative. We call The Saskatoon red wine’s mysterious, wiser friend. I created that varietal for dinnertime and other moments when one might consume red wine. Our other still expression is Smoky no.56, which has “brown spirits vibes.” It’s not a whiskey mimic, but it is a potent drink that encourages you to savor it.

I like that you mention the ability to create a drink that one craves beyond the first glass. This is a major issue for my palate—some NA cocktails and juice-based wine alternatives are perfectly nice for the first sip or first glass, but if they’re too sweet or taste merely like interesting juice, I don’t return to them.

My favorite customer testimonials are those that mention how “obsessed” the drinker is, how they return to our product. They crave it.

Do any of the beverages you create go through fermentation then any form of alcohol removal? Or fermentation then arrestation? Do you envision better production methods, whatever the end goal of your beverage, in the future? Are you working on any new techniques?

We don’t use fermentation. We do use organic spirits in one part of our three-phase production process. We macerate certified organic botanicals in alcohol to extract flavor, and then we remove and recover the alcohol using a traditional still. We call this process “reverse bootlegging.” It’s how we achieve robust flavor and complexity without the use of lab-derived “natural” flavors.

Why do you think the NA wine and beverage movement is growing? Gen-X coming down with health ailments and looking for lifestyle pivots? Half kidding but a growing category within multiple generations.

Ha! So many ailments. Health concerns are certainly part of it. Another driver is mental and emotional wellness. In recent years, we’ve collectively weathered so.much.stress. More people are protecting their emotional equilibrium, as well as their physical wellness (and of course the two are related).

Also, the younger folks—Millennials and Gen Z—are leading the market demand for NA. they’re consuming less alcohol, and they tend to reject binary thinking. I appreciate their nonbinary thinking in general and their flexible attitudes around substance use.

What have you personally observed as far as demand since the launch of For Bitters or Worse?

One fun change I’ve noticed is that a year or two ago, when I told someone I made nonalcoholic cocktails or a NA wine alternative, they’d often ask what that meant. Now, people are more inclined to say, “Oh, I’ve been looking for drinks like that!”

I recently returned from the Sundance Film Festival, where our drinks were served at several events. Sundance is very social—there’s a lot of time waiting in line and people are also quite excited and stimulated by the cultural buzz. So strangers actually talk to each other, and even engage in pretty long conversations. It’s delightful. Anyway, everyone I spoke with was either abstaining from drinking, or cutting back. I was blown away by that.

What feedback have you had about your products?

We’ve been awarded medals at the world’s most prestigious drinks competitions, so that’s nice feedback. In terms of the public, people tend to react with surprise on the first stip. They often say that our drinks are more complex than they expected. Some people find them too bitter. I tell them that our brand name is both an invitation and a warning (and that Jeff and I have been married a long time).

Should NA wine and beverages strive to become more sophisticated to ultimately mirror the real thing? Give us Burghounds a decent facsimile of Premier Cru Côte de Nuits? Or should the goal be simply to create something pleasant, hopefully complex, and vaguely reminiscent of drinking an ‘adult bev’, which of course, has wide connotations depending on who you ask?

There are many ways to delight the palate. I think the key is to be more expansive in our attitudes about what an adult beverage is. I think a drink can be adult without containing alcohol, so I don’t necessarily consider alcohol to be “the real thing.” But to your point, I suspect that facsimiles may continue to set one up for disappointment.

In what aisle, shelf or section should your beverages be placed in the grocery and liquor shop? Should they be sold with wine or as specialty drinks? I think one challenge for many RTD brands is that they run a wide gamut in intention and figuring out audience is critical.

Our best grocery stockists double place our brand. They have a small, curated NA section in the wine/spirits department, and an end cap of premium NA and mixers in the center of the store. Our sales in premium independent grocery chains show that it doesn’t so much matter where in the store, as what else is on the shelf. By this I mean, we sell best when we’re among interesting shelf mates, regardless of where in the store the shelf is located.

Ideally, a good liquor store buyer understands that 82% of consumers who purchase products like mine also buy and consume alcohol. To these buyers, I say: curate a thoughtful NA selection, promote it, and you will see overall sales increase.

Anything else you want to add about the challenges and opportunities for NA drinks and projections for where you and the category are heading?

I’m a label-reading foodie. Personally, I don’t want to consume drinks that are a mix of lab-derived flavors and water. Now that NA has been around a few years, I see that consumers are becoming more sophisticated. They are applying their health standards to drinks. Bacardi actually noted this shift in a recent report. For a significant customer segment (let’s call them Whole Foods shoppers), it’s not enough anymore for a drink to be alcohol-free. It should also come from real ingredients. And it should feel adult and suitable to the occasion.

Another glimpse into the future is the “alcohol flexible” approach that I mentioned earlier. Instead of having a separate non-alc section (often with the juice, soda, and tea), some bars and restaurants are integrating NA cocktails into their main cocktail menu, and simply listing the ABV of each drink.

Audible corporation hired me to create an inclusive cocktail for an event. The default was my nonalcoholic cocktail “Love Wins,” a luscious sour made with For Bitter For Worse The Saskatoon. It was also available with an optional gin spike. Everyone had the same beautiful drink with a luscious foam. All the cocktails looked the same, but some people had a little tipple of gin in theirs. This was an exciting, progressive approach to a workplace event, and it can be done in restaurants, at weddings, and at home.