Gen Z is forcing the alcohol industry to shift as they embrace ‘sober-curious’ lifestyles and search for quality beverages. A 2025 Gallup poll found that the percentage of U.S. adults who said that they consume alcohol fell to 54%, the lowest rate in the 90 years it had been tracking.
Quality Over Quantity
Ryan Close, the CEO and founder of Bartesian, said he is seeing consumers choose quality over quantity. They are not looking to consume more or less alcohol, but rather they’re searching for better and higher-quality beverage options. Bartesian makes an automated at-home cocktail machine that allows users to create bar-style cocktails by inserting flavor capsules and adding their own spirits.
Close believes the shift is going beyond what consumers drink and expanding to why they’re drinking in the first place. He argued that Gen Z consumers are not looking to ‘drink for the sake of drinking,’ but are instead seeking to have a shared experience. Bartesian not only allows users to pick different flavors of cocktails, but also what kind of spirits and how much alcohol goes into the drinks.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
