The cereal and juice aisles have been doing this for decades.
You certainly don’t find much alcohol in cereal these days.
I think food in general has been doing this for a long time. Over time companies are switching out more expensive ingredients for cheaper ones that are close enough and as a result over time, food tastes different. It is part of the reason why many people try and avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. It is much cheaper than sugar, and certainly changes the flavor of the things it is in compared to regular sugar.
I’ve definitely noticed for sure. Food generally tastes like nothing now. I used to love sushi growing up and now you can’t even taste the difference between the fish and the rice.
Kind of a good thing to be honest. I don’t want to demonise alcohol, but people do tend to drink too much, and having slightly less alcohol in common drinks wouldn’t be a bad thing.
If you really want to get drunk efficiently you use vodka anyway.
This is why UK-brewed versions of continental beers taste better on the continent. They’re all generally weaker here.
I suspect this is the real reason I’m seeing so many “non alcoholic beers” on the shelves.
Ever thus: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZtxE3JzO8
As someone who works in that industry, the reason that has been communicated to us is that they‘re testing the markets and demographics and so on and the results all say younger generations like to drink alcohol less, so there is a pivot to non-alcoholic drinks.
Cause I dislike spreading rumours without something to back it up I went and searched a source which confirms that: https://www.kantar.com/north-america/inspiration/consumer/why-young-adults-are-turning-to-low-no-alcohol-drinks#:~:text=A%202018%20Berenberg%20Research%20report,Boomers%20did%20at%20their%20age.
I love the diligence. That scans honestly, I was wrong to assume the worst. I’m used to InBev and their ilk being kind of terrible.
I‘m not trying to say they or who I work for aren‘t terrible (I could rant a lot about all kinds of my employers I’ve had who all have been terrible in one way or another) just that for this one specific change the main factor might be a shift in mentality towards alcohol.
I actually, now that I’ve read the OP, think that inflation might be another factor which isn‘t being communicated so openly.
in Finland most of the cheapest beers have gone from 4.7% to 4.2% alcohol volume.
I don’t mind this. I like beer, but some styles I like can be 7% or more which is just too strong. I want to be able to enjoy the taste, not get buzzed after one beer with dinner.
I’ve tried the non alcoholic beers but they all have a similar off taste to them.
What’s more worrying I wonder, preferring one strong beer because it’s fewer overall calories per session, or wanting multiple low strength ones so you can do more drinking? I can’t quite tell honestly
For me, the one strong beer is too much anymore.
I used to like the higher ABV beers, imperial stouts, etc more, but even just one of those is just… too much. Especially getting a full pint.
For that reason I don’t mind that the high ABV options are getting toned down. This might be a case of economics and preferences moving parallel to each other.
