What Is Zebra Striping? A Catchy New Way to Drink In Moderation
Nothing alters communication like a coined term. The creation of a word or phrase inspired by an item or practice can slip into our lexicon quite seamlessly, and the best ones become quick descriptors that everyone understands. Tell someone to Google something, and they’ll instantly know what to do.
Zebra striping — the coined term for alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks within a session — falls under this distinction. The phrase conjures up an image of the wild animal with interspersing black and white stripes, implying that some sort of back-and-forth behavior is in play. In this case, the volley references a style of mindful drinking that’s uniquely suited to feed off the zeitgeist of the no- and low-alcohol movement. It’s also a rather terrific conversation starter.
“People almost do a second take on the term when they hear it for the first time,” explains Luke Boase, founder of Lucky Saint non-alcoholic beer and The Lucky Saint Pub in London. “But they’re also usually intrigued by the term. And it is a catchy term, which I think is a good thing.”
Zebra striping is also a phrase and practice with legs. While it’s just learning how to walk in the United States, it’s poised to be standing tall well after the holidays and Dry January pass. As such, it’s probably a good time to understand the practice’s potential long-term staying power — and why that’s ultimately a great thing for the modern bar scene.
Earning Its Stripes
It’s not known who initially came up with the phrase zebra striping. It seems safe to assume it was someone in the United Kingdom, since that’s where it initially gained footing. However, the sentiment behind the term isn’t exactly new. It just never had a snappy name.
“I remember the way my mom used to drink when I was growing up,” says Nicky Craig, general manager at Panda & Sons in Edinburgh. “In the middle of the evening, she’d switch from alcohol to soda or water. When I was 14, I worked at a private golf club, and I noticed the women members doing the same sort of switching.”
It’s not known how widespread the practice of alternating was prior to the zebra striping rebrand, nor is it well documented if imbibers truly alternated drinks on a one-to-one basis. However, ascribing a cheeky term to the concept has seemed to transform it into a bona fide lifestyle choice. According to a 2024 report conducted by British hospitality research group KAM in partnership with Lucky Saint, 23 percent of U.K. drinkers surveyed engaged in alternating between an alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks “most” or “all of the time.” When isolated to the 18–24 demographic — 18 is the legal drinking age in the U.K. — the number jumps up to 35 percent. The report also noted the old-school method of drinking water between alcoholic cocktails is something 32 percent of customers do on the regular.
Like most no- and low-alcohol drinking trends, zebra striping carries a strong association to Gen Z. They obviously can’t lay claim to inventing the practice in its pre–coined-term days. Yet as the KAM report suggests, they are more than justified in proclaiming themselves the catalyst behind the movement, especially since it ties in nicely to their other drinking habits. “The younger crowd are the ones drinking more sessional low-ABV drinks and going to more wine bars,” explains Harrison Snow, co-owner and beverage director of Lullaby on New York’s Lower East Side. “It would make sense to see them run with this trend.”
More Than Control
Zebra striping’s most essential element isn’t the beverages. It’s time. Properly engaging in the practice mitigates the pitfalls that can come with consuming alcoholic drinks in rapid succession, but it also extends a guest’s stay. This can give them a greater opportunity to enjoy the bar’s hospitality and tap into its core nature as a place that builds community — elements that can make the visit more memorable.
Stretching the gap between beverages can also deliver some psychological benefits. “It’s usually not until you have your next drink when you realize you probably shouldn’t have done that,” Snow explains. “Zebra striping can act as a buffer that can prevent those situations from happening and those types of decisions from being made.”
“Fundamentally, the practice is not about selling to them what you want to sell but listening to what they want. This leads to creativity. For bartenders, creativity brings joy.”
Of course, well-crafted non-alcoholic drinks play a vital role in ensuring this elongated time is worthwhile. They provide a dash of intrigue, primarily because they are no longer the sugar-laden afterthoughts that they were as little as five years ago. “Non-alcoholic drinks are no longer a cop-out like they used to be,” notes Craig. “They’re now interesting cocktails with plenty of layered complexity.”
For bartenders, building non-alcoholic drinks fit for zebra striping means playing around with spirit-free ingredients, which carry slightly different weights and textures than traditional spirits. This is a positive element, as it can provide bartenders with a unique opportunity to scratch their creative itch in a way that meets a guest’s needs.
“Zebra striping provides a greater opportunity for people to explore menus and for bartenders to guide experiences,” says Liana Oster, bar director of NoMad London. “Fundamentally, the practice is not about selling to them what you want to sell but listening to what they want. This leads to creativity. For bartenders, creativity brings joy.”
“If you relay the term zebra striping back to the customer, it crystalizes things, which could lead them to realize what they’ve been doing. From there, the practice can become embedded in their psyche as good consumer behavior. Then it becomes long-lasting.”
There is only one real potential downside to zebra striping, and it’s not much of one in the grand scheme of things. From the consumer standpoint, zebra striping could end up being a pricey habit. Non-alcoholic drinks, while typically cheaper than traditional cocktails, aren’t free. An elongated zebra striped drinking session could see the guest spending more money on drinks than a shorter stay strictly marked by alcoholic beverages consumed. Still, it may well be worth the money, since it replaces the abstract “costs” of drunken behaviors and day-after hangovers.
A Larger Tie-In
The term zebra striping is informative. It’s also loose and ever-so-slightly irreverent. This makes it a perfect coined phrase for these times; not only does it succinctly point to how the practice works, it also leans into the bar scene’s continued shift away from stuffy pretension. There are more serious terms to ascribe to the volley between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, such as flex drinking or tempo drinking, but those sound like corporatized middle-management speak or terms invented by a mixologist with an immense suspender collection. Zebra striping, on the other hand, is a relaxed, approachable term that, daresay, makes it sound fun to participate in, which could theoretically encourage more folks to give it a try.
It can also set off a light bulb among those who may have unwittingly engaged in zebra striping in the past, before the term was coined. “If you relay the term zebra striping back to the customer, it crystalizes things, which could lead them to realize what they’ve been doing,” Boase says. “From there, the practice can become embedded in their psyche as good consumer behavior. Then it becomes long-lasting.”
Given its ties to positive behaviors and responsible drinking, there’s every reason to believe that zebra striping is destined for some level of permanency in the bar scene’s lexicon as the term continues to penetrate the bar industry’s collective consciousness. There is also a hope within the industry that this evolving prominence within barspeak eventually makes it a routine option for those who wish to be more mindful of what they’re consuming during a night out.
“Zebra striping signals a shift in the ways people approach drinking and how to enjoy yourself,” Oster says. “It basically promotes a healthier relationship with drinking and alcohol, so I’m all for it.”
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