Dry January: The Yorkshire low-alcohol spirit producer tipped to be the best in the world

Now, having been tipped by the likes of Tatler and Vogue as among the most delicious worldwide, co-founders Chris and Rose Bax have spoken of a more mindful lifestyle.

Gone are the days of a heady - and boozy - festive season for all, they said. Increasingly, more and more people are turning to alternatives.

"It's about giving people a choice," said Mr Bax. "And our relationship with alcohol is much healthier."

Supermarket giant Tesco has said a new record was to be set this festive season over sales for no-and-low alcohol drinks, following its strongest ever year of sales.

Demand has soared by more than 20 per cent for beer products, with alternatives to spirits seeing a 10 per cent uplift.

And even in June, through the first three weeks of the summer heatwave, demand was 25 per cent higher than it was for the first three weeks of Dry January 2023.

Shoppers have a "newfound confidence" in the quality of the drinks, Tesco believes, and a greater interest in health and moderation. There is also more choice.

Mr and Mrs Bax, with a background working with plant flavours spanning four decades between them, first drew up the concept for Bax Botanics back in 2018.

For them it had been more about geography than sobriety, living in the "middle of nowhere" they had always had to allocate a designated driver.

That person, said Mr Bax, always got "short shrift" when it came to selection.

"Why is that?", he asked. "We let alcohol have 'ownership' of occasion and celebration. That is really startling - there are so many times when we want to celebrate."

Bax Botanics was launched in January 2019. It was difficult timing, with lockdowns. Until then, founders had been advised to focus their efforts on hospitality.

"Initially, I didn't know how we were going to survive," said Mr Bax. There came a wave of people drowning their sorrows. "After three or four months, we were holding on in there.

"Then people started to think 'actually, I'm drinking too much'."

One challenge remains in a corporate drinking culture, Mr Bax maintains, driven until now by a lack of adequate alternatives. At a recent Downing St reception, he raised it. Even the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, doesn't drink. Tatler named the company among its best alcohol-free brands for Stoptober, while Vogue said it was "perfect" for Dry January.

Post-Covid, Mr Bax believes people's relationships with alcohol have changed.

"I don't think it's just drink," he added. "But a whole 'mindful drinking' thing has come out."

The first Dry January post-Covid was "huge". Then 2022, 2023, it appeared more of a "blip" than a "spike".

"We have this much more conscious lifestyle choice," he said. "Rather than giving up drinking for a month for charity, people were saying 'actually I feel really good."