It’s true that there is reason to feel guilty when you don’t feel like you have the strength to try the experience of a “dry January”. And this is precisely what this challenge of British origin was initiated in 2013: to question one’s relationship with alcohol. Alternatives already exist to participate in your own way, such as “damp January” which consists rather of reducing the number of glasses compared to your usual consumption; “damp” meaning damp in the language of Shakespeare, we will have understood the intention. There is also “sober curious” (sober curiosity or soberly curious in English), another movement, whose project is similar, and plans to be aware of one’s consumption and to check if one can control it. The approach follows in the wake of Ruby Warrington’s book entitled “Sober Curious: The blissful sleep, greater focus, limitless presence and deep connection awaiting us all on the other side of alcohol” published in 2018.
Since the rise of “dry January”, the range of alcohol-free liquid options has continued to expand, thanks to the increasingly successful refinement of dealcoholization techniques, and especially recipes that give flavor to drinks so as to no longer give the impression of making concessions. There are so many choices to enjoy during this sober month of January, especially since 75% of French people have never consumed alcohol-free wine, indicated the recent Chavin observatory carried out by the CSA institute. For the minority who have already taken the plunge, we have found a name for them, at least for those who mix alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks: they are flexibubeurs.
In this dynamic, customers of British pubs have found another way to reduce their alcohol consumption: adopt “zebra striping”. This method, whose name evokes the idea of camouflage like that of the equine, consists of integrating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at the same time of consumption, after work for example. More precisely, it involves alternating between each. According to the report by the consultancy firm Kam commissioned by the alcohol-free brand Lucky Saint and relayed by Beverage Daily, 28% of British consumers use this principle when they find themselves in a pub. For its part, The Guardian newspaper mentions the popularity of the method among the younger generation aged 18 to 24, with more than three quarters of followers (78%).
In reality, if the marketing departments of alcohol-free brands have given a name to this method, it is not completely new to the extent that nutritionists already recommended drinking a glass of water between each glass of wine or alcohol. With “zebra striping”, we are more in the principle of replacing this glass of water with an alcohol-free alternative.