The Curious Case Of Booze-Free Beverages

Forbes

03-06-2025

JW Wiseman, founder of Curious Elixirs, has pioneered an original approach to the non-alc space.
What began as a personal quest to drink less has blossomed into a pioneering force in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. In this interview, JW Wiseman, founder of Curious Elixirs, shares the decade-long journey of his brand, from kitchen experiments to navigating market shifts and shaping the future of social drinking. We sat down to discuss the evolution of his innovative elixirs, unique marketing strategies, and the unconventional distribution model that has propelled Curious Elixirs to the forefront of a booming category.
Dave Knox: This year is your 10-year business anniversary with Curious Elixirs. What led you to launch the business?
JW Wiseman: The short answer is I was drinking too much. While working at Thrillist, I had 20 drinks one night and didn't even have a hangover the next day. That experience started me on the path to launching the first craft non-alcoholic cocktail company. I was a big cocktail enthusiast, loving Negronis, Blood and Sands, and other innovative drinks. But as I changed my relationship with alcohol, I couldn't find anything adult to drink. Curious Elixirs started with me tinkering in my kitchen, then slowly realizing there might be a business here.
Knox: How did you go from tinkering in your home kitchen to bottling and tweaking formulas, transforming a hobby into a professional business?
Wiseman: It was a slow burn. I started mixing different things in my kitchen, trying to make a non-alcoholic Negroni or Dark and Stormy. Then I brought my creations to parties. At the opening party of Playland Motel, a hotel I co-owned, I put out a giant carafe labeled Curious Elixir No. 1. People didn't realize it had no alcohol and drank it more than the mezcal or other cocktails. I thought, "People are drinking this because it's delicious." That was the "aha!" moment, realizing it had a much bigger audience than just me and my friends who were drinking less.
That led me to consider a Kickstarter, find a commercial kitchen, and research the market. I discovered that over 75 million adult Americans didn't drink alcohol, and another 90 million had two or fewer alcoholic drinks a week—these numbers were from over a decade ago and have only increased. The term "sober curious" didn't even exist when we started. The process was slow at first, taking a couple of years to piece together that this should be a business and a huge opportunity. It wasn't until I saw Martha Stewart speak in 2015 that I decided to turn this into a real business.
Knox: When you first put Curious Elixir No. 1 on the bar, how has the formula changed since then? Did that original one include adaptogens, which you're known for today?
Wiseman: Yes, Curious Elixir No. 1 had functional herbs. After leaving Thrillist, I started a marketing company for growth-stage clean food companies. One client was Daily Harvest, which opened my eyes to the power of adaptogens and functional herbs to support the body. I saw a market for these remedies—herbs with a long history of traditional usage. Rhodiola rosea particularly stood out, with its multi-thousand-year history, first referenced in 77 AD. It can help balance cortisol and aid serotonin and dopamine absorption.
Adaptogens were built into Curious Elixirs from day one. I felt this could be Curious Elixirs' "secret mission": be flavor first, and as the market matured, we could talk more about the functions and how adaptogens support the body. That's what we're increasingly known for. But initially, we focused on making the best possible drinks with depth, complexity, and sophistication to appeal to beverage directors, sommeliers, and aficionados.
Knox: Balancing education about the non-alcoholic space and the use and safety of adaptogens must have been challenging at the early leading edge of these trends. How did you approach this?
Wiseman: For the first five years, adaptogens were very secondary, almost tertiary, messaging. It was like being vegan 30 years ago—people didn't know what it meant, and many still don't quite understand adaptogens. So, we went heavy on flavor first for the first five years. That's why Daniel Boulud restaurants, Alinea in Chicago, and other world-class establishments picked us up. We focused on creating the world's best non-alcoholic drinks, which hadn't been done before. It's only been in the last two or three years, from 2020 onward, that people started to realize there's a whole class of plants that can boost the body or reduce adrenal fatigue. That's when things picked up in the adaptogen space. Now you see ingredients like Lion's mane, which is in our newest Elixir, Curious Zero, a Lion's mane lager. These ingredients are having a moment, but it's been years in the making.
Knox: You have an amazing marketing background, working with brands like Daily Harvest and trendsetters like Thrillist. How has that influenced Curious Elixirs' branding and marketing?
Wiseman: Taking the Thrillist example, we described Thrillist's voice as if Han Solo were your friend telling you about the coolest spot. It's like having a cool older brother or a friend who's more in the know, but always with a fun and whimsical style. If someone entertains you while educating you, it performs better, sticks better, and reaches more hearts and minds with a sense of humor. We took that to heart. When we launched our Kickstarter, we did a Game of Thrones spoof video that got over six million views on Facebook. That was huge for us in breaking through the clutter, especially when video was relatively new on that platform. I think incorporating an eye and voice from comedy is incredibly helpful for breaking through clutter, and that's something we've always baked into the brand.
Knox: Let's discuss funding. You started with Kickstarter. How have you approached your funding journey as you've grown the business over the last decade?
Wiseman: Because we were so early and this segment of the beverage industry literally didn't exist before Curious, we decided not to take outside capital. We did it ourselves, using Kickstarter to break through the noise, create a time-boxed campaign to get our first 500 buyers, and secure initial press and validation. Since it was so early, we didn't need to raise a lot of money. Because we make a luxury item—something at the high end of what's now a real segment of the beverage industry—we've been running on cash flow ever since. Profits are reinvested to grow the team, expand distribution, secure multiple warehouses, reduce costs over time, and continuously refine our recipes. We never stop refining, just like with business practices or marketing; we always strive to make our drinks better.
Knox: Regarding your distribution strategy, many brands go straight to large retailers. You've taken a different approach. What led to your choices in distribution and driving consumption and awareness?
Wiseman: A lot of this comes from the Warren Buffett school of "look at what everybody else is doing and do the opposite." Everyone was launching celebrity tequila or going retail-first. We decided to go direct-to-consumer (DTC) first because we believed we'd build an army of ambassadors and then determine distribution based on where our highest quality customers were. Once we saw a concentration of great customers in Michigan, for instance, we knew we should have a distributor there.
I also started with DTC because it's what I knew. At Thrillist, I was also head of marketing for JackThreads, an e-commerce clothing company. I learned e-commerce and DTC marketing strategies at scale, taking JackThreads from a few million to $55 million in annual revenue. It was leaning into my strengths. Also, a retail-first strategy requires a ton of capital. In the early days, without raising money, we needed a capital-light approach. We needed to sell all our product, reinvest in the next production run, and keep going for years while refining our practices for efficiency.
Now, we're finally moving beyond the self-distribution we've done for 10 years. We're in a few thousand doors across the country. To get from 2,000 to 20,000 or 50,000 retailers, we'll need the best distributors in the business. That's a big part of the current and next few chapters for Curious: working with best-in-class distributors who care about craft, serve their customers well, and understand that this growing segment is not a fad; it's a seismic shift in how we consume beverages.
Knox: Are there any places in your current distribution footprint that you're most proud of or that would surprise people?
Wiseman: Some came to us organically, like Alinea in Chicago reaching out. The French Laundry, within our first couple of years, had a sommelier targeted by an Instagram ad who became a wholesale client. These things surprised us. Another inbound surprise was the Four Seasons on Oahu—we didn't have a broker pitching a high-end hotel; they came to us. I think that's because we've focused on making the world's best booze-free beverages, and the reviews speak for themselves. Being named Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks five years in a row by the New York Times or being the official non-alcoholic partner of the James Beard Foundation attracts these "wow, I can't believe we're carried there" moments.
But it's also the small ones. Not just the big names, but places like a local winery in Asheville, North Carolina. The fact that Curious does well there warms my heart because that's our mission: to transform how we drink socially. When your local craft brewery or winery carries Curious for an inclusive drink menu for friends who don't want alcohol, that's how we're changing culture. The more small wins we have, the more we change culture.
Knox: Your marketing and social media presence are built around the concept of curiosity and mystery. Why are those at the heart of your marketing strategy?
Wiseman: Because that's where it all started. Curious Elixirs began with the question: What would a high-class drink without alcohol look like? And then: What if that drink could make my body feel better than feeling awful the next day? Questions lead us down the path of progress. That's why it had to be baked in from the start.
Knox: How have you creatively brought that concept to life for consumers?
Wiseman: We do super fun stuff. For example, when we launch a new flavor, we always have a mystery pre-sale. We announce the number of the next elixir—it's clear we've been doing this for 10 years because we have Curious 1 through 9, and now Curious Zero for our 10th. The mystery pre-sale launches with no hints about the flavor, just some education on the function. For Curious Zero, we said, "This will lift your libido and boost your brain with adaptogens." Our diehard fans love it; they enjoy the unboxing moment where they don't know what they'll get.
Another fun, Curious initiative was the Great Curious Cocktail Party. This was our third year, and happened on May 14th, 2025. We host 100 parties in 100 cities on one night—a constellation of celebrations. It's wild to see the hosts' creativity. We put out a call for hosts, saying, "Tell us what you want to do, whether it's five people or 50." We've had everything from beach bonfires in San Diego to speed dating in Buckhead, Atlanta, to backyard concerts in Nashville, Bollywood movie nights, comedy nights, and ballroom dancing. People devise all sorts of ways to celebrate what being curious means to them. We host our own party at Club Curious, our sober speakeasy in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and have a toast across the country with over 100 parties going on simultaneously, celebrating life, because life is more interesting with less booze and more creativity.
Knox: For the Great Curious Cocktail Party, how does it work? They submit ideas, and then what's the brand's involvement beyond marketing and promoting?
Wiseman: We had about 400 people apply to be party hosts. Our marketing team approved just over 100, plus over 50 retailers, so we had 150 parties this year. We sent them a party pack with Curious hand fans, other party materials, and four cases of Curious Elixirs. We provided the drinks, they provided the people. We even had a Spotify playlist and did a live stream at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on May 14th. So, it's a lot of coordination from the marketing and wholesale teams working with retailers. We even had a webinar on how to throw a Great Curious Cocktail Party to help people understand how to serve them. Curious Elixirs are easy to serve: just flip it before you sip to remix ingredients, then pour over ice. Garnish with abandon—add whatever you like. We have suggestions, but we encourage people to tinker. That's how this all started, with me tinkering, and it's important for people to know it's okay for them to tinker too.
Knox: The brand has achieved enormous recognition. The category has changed significantly with many new competitors. How have you stayed at the forefront of brand awareness and remain the first choice for consumers?
Wiseman: We just focus on what we're doing. It's great that so many new non-alcoholic beverages have emerged; it validates that this category should exist. There should be many quality non-alcoholic options. How we've distinguished ourselves: A dozen years ago, I knew making Curious would change beverage culture. Taking that to its logical extreme means hundreds of options. If you focus on making the best version of your specific product, you don't have competition. You focus on yourself and your customers.
That also ties into why we don't have investors—we're only accountable to our customers. I read every review, good or bad, and listen to feedback to make our products as good as possible, while balancing factors like sugar content. One key learning is that customers want delicious flavor but not a lot of sugar, especially those seeking healthier lifestyles. We've found ways to balance natural fruit with bitter and herbaceous elements. We're obsessed with quality. No other brand gets blood oranges from Sicily for a spritz.
Our numbering system, Curious Zero through 9, is a nod to cocktail culture with famous drinks like Corpse Reviver No. 1 or Pimm's No. 1. It's an homage to the history of brewing, fermentation, distillation, and mixology that inspired me. When it comes to the non-alcoholic sector at large, we're just focused on making the world's best booze-free beverages, and we think it's great that many other players have entered the space.
A word of caution: just because something is non-alcoholic doesn't mean it's good for you. Many companies claim to be healthy while using carcinogens, preservatives, and other problematic ingredients. Always read your labels. It takes time and research, but it's crucial as the non-alcoholic industry evolves. We're obsessed with high quality, not using preservatives, natural flavors, or other shady stuff.
Knox: The business is 10 years old, and you just released Curious Zero, your 10th formula. Where does the business go from here? What do you envision for the next 10 years of innovation in flavor, distribution, and beyond?
Wiseman: There will definitely be more innovation in the non-alcoholic sector. People will become more curious about how they feel after drinking something and what supports their body. For Curious Elixirs specifically, you'll see us in more restaurants, performance venues, and regions. I can't predict the next 10 years exactly, but it's getting easier for Curious to get on shelves and behind bars. Bartenders and restaurateurs are realizing they can make more money by serving the most followed brand in non-alcoholic. It has a gravitational pull now, which will continue to help us transform our drinking culture as the years go by.