SUMADORI Lets Every Cocktail Change Its Alcohol Strength

The signal: Guests choose the alcohol strength of cocktails—often 0%, 0.5% or 3%—and can further personalise flavour, turning alcohol level into a normal menu variable rather than a separate mocktail category.

The Concept

SUMADORI Meets changes one of the assumptions built into bar service: that a cocktail recipe comes with a fixed alcohol level. Its signature menu keeps the drink concept recognisable while letting the guest select 0%, 0.5% or 3% ABV. Rather than sending non-drinkers to a separate mocktail list, people with different preferences can order versions of the same drink and remain inside the same social experience.

The choice goes beyond strength. The venue describes around 180 possible combinations across its drinks system. A “SUMADORI Custom” format lets guests compose a drink by choosing colour and flavour elements according to mood, while diagnostic content helps people think about their own drinking style before ordering. Some evening Collection cocktails extend the strength range further, with versions at 0%, 3% and roughly 5–6.7% depending on the drink.

That makes the bar partly a personalisation interface. Alcohol becomes one adjustable parameter alongside flavour and appearance rather than the binary decision that normally splits a menu into alcoholic and non-alcoholic sections. The concept is also used as a platform for workshops and student collaborations. University students have helped develop menus and events, including programmes around low-alcohol socialising and different ways of enjoying nightlife.

Operationally, SUMADORI still looks like a normal bar: guests order prepared drinks and food from staff. The difference sits in the menu architecture. Recipes are designed in families that can survive changes in alcohol content, so a mixed group can order according to personal preference without changing venue, occasion or social identity. The restaurant therefore treats drinking flexibility as a product system rather than as a special accommodation.

What Is Actually New

Low- and no-alcohol drinks are now common, and many bars already offer mocktails. SUMADORI is more interesting because it changes the organising principle of the menu. Instead of building one alcoholic menu and a secondary alcohol-free alternative, it makes alcohol strength an adjustable variable inside the same drink concept.

That matters socially as well as technically. A guest choosing 0% is not pushed into a different product category from a friend choosing 3%. Both can order versions of the same cocktail, compare them and participate in the same ritual. The innovation is therefore not simply “more non-alcoholic options”; it is removing alcohol content as the boundary that divides the bar experience.

The second mechanism is structured personalisation. Around 180 combinations and the SUMADORI Custom format turn ordering into a guided choice of strength, colour and flavour rather than a long static list. The diagnostic content adds another layer by helping guests identify how they want to drink before selecting a product.

There are precedents for variable-strength cocktails and personalised drinks, so this should not be framed as a world first. What is distinctive is the consistency of the system: alcohol level, flavour choice, behavioural self-assessment and community programming all reinforce the same proposition. SUMADORI is effectively testing whether a bar can be designed around mixed drinking preferences from the start rather than retrofitting non-drinkers into a conventional alcohol-led model.

Why People Want This

The consumer benefit is easy to understand in a group. One person may want a standard cocktail, another may want only a little alcohol, and someone else may want none. Normally those preferences send people toward different menu sections and often different products. SUMADORI lets them choose the same style of drink at different strengths, which reduces the feeling that one person is receiving the “real” cocktail while another gets the substitute.

That creates control without requiring specialist knowledge. A guest can decide how much alcohol fits the moment, then use flavour, colour or the drinking-style diagnostic to narrow the choice further. The system is therefore personalised around intention rather than simply around ingredients.

It also gives people permission to change behaviour between visits. A customer does not have to identify as a drinker or non-drinker; the same venue works for a 0% afternoon, a 0.5% social drink or a stronger evening occasion. That flexibility is particularly relevant for groups where alcohol tolerance, health choices, driving, work schedules or simple mood differ.

The strongest word-of-mouth hook is concise: “you choose how alcoholic the cocktail is.” That is easier to grasp and retell than a long list of sophisticated mocktails. The guest experiences the innovation directly at the point of ordering.

WBC Verdict

SUMADORI clears the innovation threshold because it changes the menu logic rather than merely adding better mocktails. Treating alcohol strength as a customer-controlled variable creates a bar that can serve drinkers, light drinkers and non-drinkers through the same product architecture. The 180-combination system and drinking-style diagnostics deepen that idea without making technology the headline. The main test is operational: recipes must remain genuinely good across different ABVs, otherwise personalisation becomes choice without quality. If that works, the model is highly transferable to bars, hotels and restaurant groups trying to make mixed drinking preferences normal rather than exceptional.