The Drink That Instagram Built

If you don’t know what Ghia is, you may not be as cool as you think you are. This past holiday season, the nonalcoholic apéritif seemed to be everywhere. In-the-know shopping and retail newsletters such as Gloria and Good Thinking suggested it to their readers. New York magazine and Bon Appétit recommended Ghia products, too. GQ called one of its sets a “reflection of good taste all round,” while the New York Times’ Wirecutter ranked it “one of the more complex, balanced apéritifs.”

“It’s a drink for the Instagram girlies—but it’s not, like, a Stanley Cup girl,” says brand strategist Chris Danton, distinguishing between chic influencers and more basic ones. The co-founder of the branding agency In Good Co., which publishes Good Thinking, says Ghia has “a much more design-forward, foodie, appreciates-a-good-cocktail, darker, kind of moodier” vibe.

Amid increasing competition within the nonalcoholic market, Los Angeles-based Ghia has been able to stand out by creating a product that’s viewed as not only unique but also simply hip. Ghia sells nonalcoholic apéritifs, which range from its original bitter flavor to canned “lime and salt” and ginger drinks, some carbonated, some not. That the brand plays so well online was aided by circumstance. Ghia founder Mélanie Masarin introduced Ghia in 2020, when the pandemic forced all promotion onto Instagram. This helped the company cultivate an aesthetic that went beyond its drink. “We were pretty limited in terms of how we could market it at the beginning,” Masarin says. Infiltrating restaurants was out of the question, as were tastings at wine shops and grocery stores. “Thankfully, people were glued to their phones,” she says.