Taiwan is developing a distinctive zero-proof scene that offers patrons a way to gather without leaning on alcohol.

A man stands at a backyard grill, tending steaks as he talks to the camera. He’s getting older, he says, and has decided it’s time to ease up on the drinking. That’s why he’s switched to nonalcoholic beer. “Same great taste as regular beer, none of the booze,” he says with a grin.

At first, he feels good about the change — he can still drink with his friends while staying sober enough to be responsible for his family. But then comes the turn. “I realized I wasn’t getting drunk,” he says. “Which is kind of the point, no?”

He lifts a chilled can, condensation sliding down the side as if on cue. “Which is why I drink Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer,” he declares. “The first nonalcoholic beverage that’s more than 96% alcohol.”

This 2025 sketch from the long-running late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live captures the growing global fascination with zero-proof drinks. The sector is booming, driven not only by heightened awareness of alcohol’s health effects but also by a younger generation that shows far less interest in drinking than its parents.

Around 2023, the World Health Organization issued a warning that “no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.” That message had reached mainstream media by the following year, with scores of articles and podcasts dissecting the implications and dishing out advice on cutting down.

Last year, there was a flurry of reports about Gen Z’s disinterest in getting wasted. For example, a January 2025 article in Time Magazine was headlined “Why Gen Z is Drinking Less.” In April, The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast asked: “Is the gym Gen Z’s pub?”

Here in Taiwan, where socializing tends to revolve more around shared meals than rowdy nights at the bar, the zero-proof industry has room to grow — if it can overcome a few distinct hurdles. Some in the sector argue that instead of marketing itself primarily on the absence of alcohol, it must persuade consumers that these drinks are worth seeking out on their own merits.

Adrian Ng, the Malaysian cofounder of Taipei’s first nonalcoholic bar ABVLESS, says he believes Taiwan’s drinking culture is not only different from that in the West but also from that in the rest of the East Asia region.

“In Japan and Korea, people love to have a drink after work, but in Taiwan it’s usually only on the weekend,” he says. “The nonalcoholic trend in western countries happened because it’s an alternative, but in Taiwan we don’t have [that kind of] drinking culture — you don’t need an alternative.”

Instead, Taiwanese customers look for a drink that tastes and looks good, irrespective of its alcohol content.  

“The economic environment in Taiwan is good, so people are willing to pay more to get a better drinking experience even if there is no alcohol,” Ng says. “Many of our customers go hybrid. They can drink, but they choose not to drink.” Although ABVLESS is temporarily closed while Ng looks for a new location, his other venture, Astēa, continues to serve tea-infused cocktails and mocktails in an upscale setting, with the menu divided between the two offerings.

Since ABVLESS opened in 2020, a small but steadily growing number of products, venues, and events have emerged in Taipei to cater to people seeking an alcohol-free experience. This is welcome news for those who don’t want to imbibe but still want to enjoy a night out. Until recently, most Taipei bars offered little beyond soda or the occasional overpriced mocktail — and that was on a good night.

Last year saw the launch of at least two new daytime dances with a focus on having fun without getting drunk. D.O.S.E., a sober daytime dance party, run by the queer-friendly 69 Days community, takes place every few months or so, and includes music, massage, mocktails, and meditation (follow its Instagram page “69days_to” for more).

The coffee-rave trend has reached Taiwan as well. Rise & Rave, a monthly pop-up party, is the creation of three young Taiwanese who spent much of their lives abroad. Cecillia Wu grew up in South Africa; Eric Lin in New Zealand; and his partner, Yimei Lin, in the Netherlands. All three returned to Taiwan in recent years and had taken up DJ’ing for fun.

Last June, over coffee, they began talking about hosting an event of their own using a daytime-party model. They were less than enthusiastic about the local club scene and wanted to build a community where they could play the music they loved.

“The Taiwan [clubbing] scene was such a different vibe [to what we were used to],” says Eric Lin. “We wanted to feel more approachable, friendly, and fun.”

Things moved quickly. About a week after that first conversation, the three were hosting their inaugural pop-up rave in a café, playing to a crowd of more than 200. They initially offered sparkling wine, but soon noticed it barely sold, and have since gone entirely alcohol-free.

Elsewhere in the city, more bars are expanding their drinks lists to include credible alcohol-free options, including bottled kombuchas. High-end cocktail bars without fixed menus are beginning to offer sober-friendly recipes as well. A growing number of daytime spots now focus on high-quality nonalcoholic drinks — nitro teas, specialty chocolates, and other inventive alternatives — giving friends a funkier option than meeting over coffee. “Nitro” refers to infusing a drink with nitrogen gas to add body, creating a creamier texture reminiscent of a beer.

We’ve scoured the capital for some of the best events and venues that offer great options for hanging out with friends without the hangover.

Best for a cozy bar experience:

RED ROOM RENDEZVOUS 紅房餐酒館
No. 252, Section 2, Keelung Rd., Da’an District

Red Room Rendezvous is my go-to choice for meeting friends who want a drink while I stay sober. This bohemian vegan restaurant–bar–performance space offers homemade zero-proof drinks that are genuinely flavorful without being cloyingly sweet. Its ginger soda is a cloudy glass of spicy goodness, while the rendezvous lemonade is tart and crisp with what I interpret as hints of kumquat — although the menu describes it as “oolong osmanthus.”

Also on tap are two fruit-flavored kombuchas and a “chaiwallah” (sparkling spiced tea). This intimate spot hosts arty events on the second floor —poetry, music jams, quiz nights, and dancing — and is a five-minute walk from Liuzhangli MRT.

Best if it’s time for tea:

WANGTEA LAB 當代茶吧
No. 24, Lane 64, Section 2, Chongqing N. Rd., Datong District

Housed in a heritage building — a graceful 1922 shophouse with lofty ceilings and blue-gray terrazzo floors — Wangtea Lab specializes in a range of draft teas. Some are sparkling, infused with carbon dioxide, while others are cold brews charged with nitrogen for a smooth, creamy body.

I sample each of the teas and settle on a nitro tea called “Hello Pear,” because it is the freshest and lightest of the four. It is a blend of three teas — baozhong, oolong, and biluochun (a green tea) with a touch of added pear. The fruit complements the delicate tea flavors; the result is soft on the tongue with none of the tannic edge of the stronger brews I sampled.

The second-floor café area features exposed brick walls and beautiful, gigantic picture windows facing a leafy park. The place has a kind of hidden feel — on a Sunday afternoon in November, there were just a couple of other solo customers enjoying their drinks. This light-filled, beautifully preserved historic building is a lovely spot to read, work, or catch up with friends. If they happen to drink alcohol, there are also draught beers on tap. Naturally, they are infused with tea.

Wangtea Lab was launched in 2020 by members of the family behind Wang Tea, a tea trader founded in the late 19th century. It’s located about a 10-minute walk from Zhongshan MRT Station, in the old tea district near Dadaocheng.

Best for fancy cocktails:

ASTĒA 芏
No. 236, Wenchang St., Da’an District

Until ABVLESS reopens later this year, those seeking complex, high-quality nonalcoholic cocktails will have to head to Adrian Ng’s other bar, Astēa.

Located in the sleepy backstreets south of Xinyi Road, near Xinyi Anhe MRT Station, Astēa is an almost spaceship-like lounge, with padded stools around a long, curved bar, attended by white lab-coat-clad bar staff. Everything is mellow and softly lit — browns and yellows dominate — while the ambient tunes add to the relaxing vibe. Once the heavy front door closes, the world outside vanishes.

Astēa centers its menu on tea-based drinks, offering seven cocktails, each available in both alcoholic and zero-proof versions. According to Ng, the flavors differ markedly within each pair. All the tea leaves are sourced from Taiwan.

I order a tall glass of ginger-colored, smoky prosecco made with baozhong tea and alcohol-free chardonnay. It’s tangy and slightly sweet, with crisp bubbles and a tea flavor that lingers on the tongue. Each drink arrives with a small petri dish holding a pinch of the leaves used in the cocktail. Curled like tiny spider legs, they’re meant to let you inhale the tea’s original aroma.

Best if you love chocolate:

TERRA BEAN TO BAR CHOCOLATE 土然巧克力專門店
No. 7, Wenzhou St., Da’an District

Terra is a decadent yet delightful chocolate drinking bar tucked away in a lane near the southwest corner of Da’an Park. The interior — designed to evoke a cacao grove with lush plants, curved walls, and chocolate-brown hues — is full of light and space, perfect for an afternoon drink with friends. A row of gleaming taps behind the bar dispenses sparkling cacao and two varieties of iced nitro chocolate served in champagne flutes. There is also hot chocolate made with single-origin beans, as well as a bottled chocolate beer that, at 9%, delivers a serious punch.

The beans are sourced from 11 countries worldwide, including Taiwan, Haiti, India, Peru, Trinidad, and Vietnam, each with its own distinct flavor profile. The bar rotates the beans used in its single-origin drinks; on the day I visit, the selections are from Trinidad and Tanzania.

The flavor profile of chocolate varies by plantation, just as wine or coffee does, Terra’s Brand Director Jill Chuang explains. She adds that it will take time to educate the public about the complexity of chocolate to encourage people to sit down and savor a glass. “Just like single origin coffee, [where] people spent a lot of years to cultivate the market in Taiwan, we have a long way to go,” she says.

Each glass of single-origin chocolate comes with a card describing its flavor profile and graded attributes: fluffy, cacao, floral, herbal, spice, dark, sweet, and nutty. Haiti’s beans, for example, carry notes of citrus, molasses, and hops, while Taiwan’s are described as woody, peppery, and touched with smoked plum.

I opt for the signature set, served on a wooden tray and featuring a small glass of sparkling cacao and two glasses of iced nitro chocolate. The sparkling cacao is light and slightly tangy, a chocolatey blend with gingery undertones. The iced chocolates, made with 70% chocolate and lactose-free milk, are thick and velvety without being overly sweet. Their flavor and texture linger long after the last sip.

Terra also serves coffee for customers who come to enjoy the to-die-for chocolate desserts. Because both the drinks and desserts are so rich, pairing them may overwhelm all but the most seasoned stomachs!

Best if you love to dance:

RISE & RAVE

If you’re anything like me — someone who likes to turn in early but still loves to dance — you’ll be pleased to know that Taipei has joined the cool kids and now hosts daytime coffee raves.

The uninitiated can get informed by searching on YouTube. In July, luxury lifestyle magazine Tatler Asia covered the coffee rave’s explosion in Asia that summer, which is also when the first Rise & Rave was held here in Taipei.

I attended the fourth iteration of the event in October at a trendy Xinyi café and quickly felt as if I’d stepped into one of those YouTube coffee-rave videos. At times, it seemed there were nearly as many photographers and videographers angling for the perfect shot as there were dancers. But the vibe was friendly and upbeat, and it didn’t take long for the space to get packed, the music to get heavier, and the place to start jumping.

The typically monthly Rise & Rave takes place at a different location each time, with doors opening around 10:30 a.m. and running into the early afternoon. The organizers already have plans to expand, stating they hope to host future events in art galleries and wellness spaces such as Pilates studios or gyms, in addition to cafés. Follow Rise & Rave on Instagram (rise.rave.tw) for details of the next event.