Barbet taps into alcohol-free trend with grown-up sparkling beverages
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
That’s a familiar question at social gatherings, often directed at those who skip alcohol but are left clutching brightly coloured pop cans or basic sparkling water. Barbet—an emerging sparkling water brand with four full-flavoured options in stylish, eye-catching cans—hopes to change that question to, “What are you drinking?”
The idea for the Toronto-based company, co-founded by sisters Andrea Grand and Katie Fielding, was born in 2020. Fielding, who has epilepsy, experienced a bad seizure that led her to eliminate alcohol, among other things, from her diet.
“During that time when she wasn’t drinking, she was constantly holding a pop or a soda that you’d have at the kids’ table—something juvenile in branding and in flavour,” says Grand. “We were in COVID at the time, but even with limited social experiences, she was constantly asked, ‘Why aren’t you drinking?’ She felt excluded… kind of like an outsider looking in.”
Back in 2020, Grand says the options for adult-focused non-alcoholic drinks were scarce. “We very naively one day said, ‘How hard could it be to create a sparkling beverage brand?’ From that point forward, [Katie] was our North Star. All her experiences are what we’ve always drawn inspiration from, and we just put one foot in front of the other and created what is now Barbet.”
After more than a year-and-half spent in flavour development and brand development, Barbet launched in December 2021 with three varieties: Wild Card, which combines blood orange, calamansi and jalapeno; Love Bite, which features pink grapefruit, ginger and juniper; and Light Wave—a mix of cucumber, pineapple and lavender. Earlier this month, Barbet launched a fourth flavour: Deep Dive, which combines white peach, yuzu and mint.
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Barbet’s focus is not only on creating drinks that are full-flavoured, but that also engage all the senses. “When you crack open one of our cans, the aromatics are immediately strong—you can get the essence of the ingredient profile from that,” says Grand, adding that the flavour profiles pair common and uncommon ingredients. “All of our cans also pour out into a beautiful colour.”
This, says Grand, is what differentiates Barbet: “incorporating the full sensory experience— from aromatics to the colour to the ingredient choices—all wrapped up within a modern-designed can.”
Offering choice in a time of meaningful consumption
Barbet isn’t just about making non-alcoholic drinking look and taste good. It’s about offering today’s consumer a choice, whether they’re looking at Barbet as a zero-alcohol option or as a mixer for alcoholic beverages. “Our entire ethos is about putting alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks on a level playing field,” says Grand.
With the launch of Deep Dive this year, Barbet highlights the growing shift towards “more mindful consumption” in Canada. Recent LCBO data shows a 73% increase in sales of non-alcoholic beverages from 2023 to 2024, and 189% growth since 2022. Meanwhile, a study from NIQ shows that 75% of non-alcoholic beverage consumers also purchase alcoholic products.
“What we’re seeing now is that it’s about choice, not segmentation,” says Grand. “So, it’s this idea of creating inclusive experiences that centre around having equally delicious options—whether you are choosing to drink [alcohol] or not.”
While the non-alcoholic category is growing, Grand notes that it’s still in its infancy. She compares it to the evolution of the vegetarian movement. “Fifteen years ago, you would order a chicken salad—hold the chicken. Now, there are entire restaurant concepts based on plant-based lifestyles,” she says. “We’re seeing that same adoption at the restaurant level right now with the non-alcoholic category, where entire menus are built just for non-alcoholic drinks.”
READ: Non-alcoholic drinks aren't just for the sober, as more Canadians cut back
That’s a signal of the category’s strong growth and where it’s headed, says Grand. “We’re gaining the right to be in these celebratory moments… We’re seeing increasing adoption at the restaurant level, which is always a good indication of how things are trending.”
Today, Barbet sees a huge opportunity in the grocery channel. The company started its distribution strategy with restaurants, cafés and bodegas to create brand awareness and buzz. It then expanded to specialty grocery stores like Summerhill Market, Fiesta Farms and Healthy Planet. The products are also available online for delivery across Canada. Last September, Barbet listed with Jonluca Neal to grow its distribution in grocery stores nationwide.
“We’re really excited about the groundwork that we’ve put into the brand up until now, slowly building at a grassroots level to make sure we just weren't showing up on grocery shelves,” says Grand. “We have a community embedded in our product… and people are ready to purchase the product again.”
