What looks like a brand-new category is really a convergence of much older stories: sharbat, the temperance bar, the soda fountain, dealcoholization, the aperitivo, and the 2010s wave that braided them together. No single brand or country invented it.

Mocktail, nonalcoholic, 0.0, spiritfree. The words are not interchangeable. A look at what each one signals to a guest, and why the difference between "nonalcoholic" and "0.0" is more than pedantry.

A zero-proof cocktail with no liquor in it still costs fourteen or sixteen dollars, and there is a real reason. The alcohol was never the main cost of the drink, and removing it does not remove the cost of hospitality.

Alcohol does five or six jobs in a glass at once. Take it out, and you rebuild each one. A practical look at how good zero-proof drinks replace aroma, body, bitterness, length and the signal of a real cocktail.