Meet the 'Double Dippers': Why 82% of Non-Alcoholic Drink Buyers Also Drink Alcohol

The Rise of the "Double Dipper"

If you've pictured the typical non-alcoholic spirits buyer as someone who has sworn off alcohol entirely, it's time to update the mental image. Recent industry research puts a number on something bartenders and retailers have suspected for years: the overwhelming majority of people buying non-alcoholic spirits, beers and wines also buy and drink alcoholic ones. The figure making the rounds is striking: 82% of non-alcoholic drink buyers also drink alcohol. They're not choosing a side. They're choosing a moment.

Industry watchers have coined a name for this cohort: the "double dippers". It's a slightly cheeky label for a genuinely significant shift in how modern drinkers approach choice. Rather than identifying permanently with one category or another, today's cocktail enthusiast is fluent in both languages, ordering a classic Negroni on one night out and a Lyre's Italian Orange spritz on the next, sometimes within the same evening.

Why This Matters for How We Talk About Non-Alcoholic Drinks

For a long time, the conversation around non-alcoholic spirits was framed around absence: what's not in the glass. That framing made sense when the category was young and the products themselves were an afterthought on the bar cart. But it never quite matched how people actually behave.

The double dipper data confirms what a walk through any decent bar already tells you. People are ordering non-alcoholic serves for reasons that have nothing to do with permanent lifestyle labels. They're driving later. They're pacing themselves across a long dinner. They're keeping a clear head for an early meeting the next day. They're simply in the mood for something bright and citrus-forward rather than something boozy. And on another night, for another reason entirely, they'll order the classic version of the same cocktail.

This is choice by occasion, not identity. It's the same instinct that has someone order a espresso martini at 9pm and a herbal tea at 11pm without anyone treating it as a contradiction.

The Research Behind the Trend

This pattern echoes broader findings in consumer behaviour research. A study published in the journal Appetite examining flexible drinking patterns found that consumers increasingly view their drink choice as context-dependent, shaped by the occasion, the company and the desired experience, rather than as a fixed personal category (Rehm et al., Addiction, 2017, on patterns of alcohol consumption moderation). Market analysts at IWSR have similarly tracked what they term "moderation" as one of the fastest-growing behaviours globally, distinct from abstinence, where the same household happily stocks both a bottle of gin and a bottle of Lyre's Dry London Spirit.

What this tells us, quite simply, is that non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks are not competing categories fighting over the same finite group of loyal customers. They're complementary tools in the same drinks cabinet, reached for depending on the night.

What This Means Behind the Bar

For Hosts and Entertainers

If you're planning a dinner party or a gathering, the double dipper insight is genuinely useful. It means you don't need to guess who "needs" the non-alcoholic option and who doesn't. Building a bar that offers both a classic Margarita and a Lyre's Agave Blanco version, side by side, with equal care and equal craft, means every guest gets to choose based on how they're feeling in that exact moment, not based on a label they've been assigned.

The best hosts we know don't ask "who's not drinking tonight?" They simply build a bar that welcomes both, so people can move between the two as freely as they move between courses.

For Bartenders and Bar Owners

For the on-trade, this is a strong signal that a non-alcoholic cocktail list shouldn't be an apologetic footnote. If the majority of the people ordering off it will also order a spirit-forward cocktail later that same visit, the non-alcoholic menu deserves the same seasonal creativity, the same premium garnish, the same glassware. It's not a consolation menu. It's simply another set of flavours for the same discerning guest.

A Category Built on Choice, Not Compromise

This is really the heart of it. The double dipper phenomenon confirms that the growth of premium non-alcoholic spirits isn't a story about people giving something up. It's a story about people gaining an additional option that fits seamlessly alongside the one they already had. A Lyre's Aperitif Rosso spritz isn't a placeholder for the "real" cocktail. For the 82% of buyers who go both ways, it simply is a real cocktail choice, chosen on its own merits, for its own moment.

That's a far more interesting story than the old, narrower one. It suggests a drinks world that's becoming more flexible, more attentive to context, and frankly more fun, where the only question worth asking about a glass is whether it's the right one for right now.

Bring the Double Dipper Mindset to Your Own Bar

Next time you're setting up drinks for guests, or simply deciding what to pour for yourself, try building the bar the double dippers already know works: both options, equal craft, no labels attached. Explore the full Lyre's range and find the flavour profile that suits tonight's mood, whatever that turns out to be.