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Zenzu
Culture

Sober-curious India is here to stay

Why younger Indians are quietly drinking less — and why that has nothing to do with abstinence and everything to do with options.

5 min read · May 2026

"Sober-curious" is a clumsy phrase. But what it points at is real.

A quietly growing share of young Indians are drinking less — not because of religion, not because of abstinence, but because the trade-off has shifted. Better sleep, sharper mornings, fewer empty calories, and a long list of social occasions where alcohol is no longer the default.

The drink itself has to keep up. Sugary mocktails feel like a punishment. So do ten-rupee soda-with-lime defaults.

What this generation wants is the same complexity, the same ritual, the same Friday-night theatre — on their own terms.

That is the brief Zenzu is built against.

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