Summer and casual drinking have always gone hand in hand. Tinnies in the park, jugs of Pimm’s replacing pots of tea, and rosé in the sunshine. According to Waitrose, there is an actual “rosé tipping point” temperature — sales of the pink stuff soar 150 per cent when the mercury rises above 20 degrees.
But it’s been a different story this year. The supermarket says that we’re having something of a “sober summer”: data shows that sales of low and no-alcohol drinks at Waitrose are up 32 per cent compared to last year, with searches for non-alcoholic drinks up 185 per cent, and a staggering 756 per cent increase in searches for non-alcoholic lager.
