Dry January sees surge in interest, according to Google Trends

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This is a popular time to be sober. Interest in dry January, the month when many abstain from alcohol, jumped 259% from the same period last year, according to an analysis by food website Pantry & Larder. Mocktail searches also hit an all-time high this month, up 217% from a dry January 2022.

“Dry January’s popularity has grown steadily since its inception, but this year’s jump is the biggest we’ve ever seen,” said Veronica Fletcher, founder of Pantry & Larder. The website analyzed Google Trends data from the past nine years to make these estimates.

According to the study, California ranks 39th out of 51 US regions for interest in Dry January, and San Francisco residents are 43% less interested in Dry January than Californians as a whole. However, San Francisco soft drink vendors tell The Standard that sober curiosity is strong this month.

Joshua James, owner of the Ocean Beach Cafe bottle shop and diner in North America, told The Standard that soft drink sales for his business tripled between January 2021 and January 2022, and in the first 10 days of January 2023, he doubled sales by compared to the previous year. at this time last year.

Despite heavy rains this past weekend, he says business has been “crazy.”

“It’s noisy in here. There’s a lot of movement there,” James said. “I sell a lot of bottles of non-alcoholic wine.”

James attributes the increased interest in soft drinks to the surge in media coverage of soft drinks since last October and people wanting to drink less after drinking more during the pandemic.

“It’s not so much about sobriety and abstinence, but about people drinking less,” he said. “It’s basically like millennials wanting their lives to be healthier after Covid.”

He also says that drinking a soft drink is much cooler now than ordering O’Doul’s back in the days.

“It’s awkward ordering O’Doul’s at a bar, right? So what we have now is like the exact opposite of that,” he said. “This is not stigmatization. The jars are very tasty and cool.”

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Meanwhile, The Phoenix, a national nonprofit that bills itself as a “sober active community” and occasionally partners with Ocean Beach Cafe and hosts events, is seeing a surge in response to its events. Melissa Rushefsky, program manager for The Phoenix’s Bay Area, told The Standard that the January 29 Dry January Happy Hour event at the Ocean Beach Cafe has already attracted more than 50 people, up from the usual 20 or 30. In addition, she added that The Phoenix “Sober Flow” yoga events with YogaFlow SF had over 100 responses to invitations and they were full. Even traditional bars like vintage whiskey parlor Elixir SF have started promoting North American cocktails this month as part of their Dry January promotion.

SF outpost of North America’s national bottle store brand Boisson has been a bit more modest about its sales this month, but its co-founder and CEO Nick Bodkins told The Standard that the company has “definitely noticed an increased interest” in their products, and not just in this one. month, but from the holidays – and he expects curiosity to continue beyond February.

“Of course, there has been an increase in the number of people taking a break in January, but the same in February, because we are told that it has fewer days!” Bodkins wrote in an email. “The most interesting behavior we see is the number of people who integrate our products into their lives for the rest of the year, even after they have “finished” their alcohol break. They stick to it throughout the year, and it radically changes their attitude towards drinking.”

As for James, he’s happy to see Dry January picking up steam as more popular bars and restaurants add non-alcoholic options to their menus. He believes the trend is more than just a fad.

“People are changing their attitude towards alcohol,” he said.

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