The zero-proof cocktail stopped being a punishment drink and became the best-margin line on the bar menu, which is why it now costs almost as much as the real thing.
- The liquid runs a lower pour cost than a cocktail (about 10 to 15 percent versus 18 to 22), and in the US there is no federal excise tax on a non-alcoholic spirit.
- On Backbar's negroni math, the boozy build clears about $11, the zero-proof one about $10.50, on a lower price.
- Demand is real: US no-alcohol spirits have been the fastest-growing spirits segment (five-year growth above 60 percent through 2024, per IWSR), and Diageo's non-alcoholic business grew about 40 percent in fiscal 2025.
- Bars price it near the cocktail on purpose, so it reads as craft, not apology.
Priced under the cocktail but above soda, it is the drink quietly paying the rent.
