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Results for inaugural alcohol-free awards revealed

The awards, launched during the latter half of last year, were created with the aim of becoming the first ever international drinks competition exclusively focusing on products with 0.5% abv or below.

Now, the results are in. According to organisers, hundreds of alcohol-free products from wines, spirits and beers to teas, aperitivos and functional beverages were put through their paces during the awards, which were judges by a panel of top tasters.

• Read more: Low & no and the big shift in drinking 

Judges from the US, Europe and the UK presided over 400 entries from 20 countries, with judging taking place over two days at the beginning of March.

“The buy-in from the trade around the world has been incredible with the sheer number and variety of products being entered far exceeding our expectations for this first year of competition,” said awards co-founder & director Chris Losh.

Non-alcoholic specialist and co-founder Chrissie Parkinson added: “We want the World Alcohol-Free Awards to become a recognised point of reference for alcohol free beverages worldwide, celebrating excellence, originality and progress within this space wherever we see it.”

Earlier this year, Harpers caught up with Losh, who gave a good assessment of where the category is in 2023. After a steady stream of enthusiastic, yet uninspiring, launches in the run up to 2020, low & no variants “burst on to market post lockdown and quality now seems to be a lot higher. More to the point, there has been much more interest from the consumer side, too,” he said.

He added that a “lightbulb moment” happened at the London Wine Fair. During hosting duties and discussions with supermarkets, indie businesses and the on-trade, Losh asked each to name the top upcoming trends for the year ahead.

He said: “Every single one mentioned ‘low & no’. I wasn’t expecting that”.

Sizable submissions for well-established categories such as beer and wine were expected during the awards. However, there were also notable entries and medals for less well-known products like shrubs, bitters and mead, organisers added.

Where applicable, products were judged alongside the right mixers, with medal-winning entry tasted up to 12 times by the panel.

Winner’s medals will be making an appearance on bottles from May onwards, while all gold medal winning products will be shown on the World Alcohol-Free Awards stand at the London Wine Fair in London (15-17 May). The final round of judging to decide the trophy winners will take place over the next six weeks, with the ‘best of the best’ being announced in June.

Winners are now available to view on the competition's website, www.worldafawards.com.

• alcohol free
• moderation
• low & no