Ask ten people about Gen Z and alcohol and you will hear the same headline: the kids quit drinking. The truth is more interesting, and a lot more useful if you sell beverages for a living. Americans are drinking at the lowest rate Gallup has recorded in 90 years, and the steepest pullback sits with adults under 35. But the generation the headlines call sober is anything but. Gen Z still drinks. It just drinks less often, more deliberately, and on its own terms, and that singl

Walk into any modern grocer, natural foods retailer, or beverage alcohol store and the cold case has changed. Coconut water sits next to kombucha. Mushroom coffee sits next to prebiotic soda. A CBD sparkling water sits next to a hemp-derived Delta-9 drink. Customers stand in front of the door, pick up two cans, and stare at the labels trying to figure out which one solves the problem they walked in with.