Mocktail mania in Saudi, where dry January lasts all year

RIYADH - In Saudi Arabia's main cities, upscale restaurants are unveiling extensive virgin drink menus and seasoned mixologists are relocating from more freewheeling towns like Dubai and Berlin to pour for deep-pocketed customers, as mocktail mania takes root.

Saudis say the trend is consistent with a broader push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform his oil-dependent nation into a foreigner-friendly business, tourism and entertainment hub.

Yet the speed of the changes is surprising, said Abdullah Raslan, marketing manager for Blended by Lyre's, which recently partnered with a food hall in Riyadh's Kingdom Centre to serve mocktails including a spiced date sour and a "no-groni".

"I'm not going to lie to you, Saudi is a bit of a religious country, but we're seeing how it's becoming more adaptable with what's happening in the world," said Raslan, a native of the eastern city of Khobar.

"Have we had a lot of pushback in the past? Yes we have. Do we still need to educate a lot of people about these drinks?... Yes we do. But step by step, that's all we're asking for."

King Abdulaziz enacted Saudi Arabia's alcohol ban in the early 1950s, not long after an incident in which one of his sons got drunk and, in a rage, shot dead a British diplomat.

Prohibition has been the law of the land ever since, leaving most of the kingdom's 32 million people with few ways to imbibe.

Foreign missions serve drinks in Riyadh's Diplomatic Quarter. Some people make homemade wine. Others turn to the black market, where bottles of whiskey can go for hundreds of dollars ahead of holidays like New Year's Eve.

Beyond that, the only real option is to travel, whether by road to Bahrain or farther afield.

Under Saudi law, penalties for consumption or possession of alcohol can include fines, jail time, public flogging and deportation for foreigners.

The fast pace of recent social reforms -– including the introduction of cinemas and mixed-gender music festivals –- has fuelled rampant speculation that the alcohol ban might be lifted, or at least weakened with carve-outs in places like NEOM, a planned $500 billion futuristic megacity.

Successful bids to host Expo 2030 and the World Cup in 2034 have further stoked such rumours, though officials publicly maintain any policy change is a nonstarter.