Alcohol free spirits. No duty or alcohol based tax - why are they as expensive as alcoholic spirits?

[Izzadoraduncancan]

Hi. I'm currently enjoying some of the alcohol free gin substitutes available. However, they are as expensive if not more so then many traditional gins. I know a significant portion of any alcoholic spirits price is a tax based on the percentage of alcohol - why then are these alcohol free alternatives still so expensive?
I am resident in Ireland - and we have I believe the highest rate of tax on alcohol in Europe.

I think they are possibly harder to make. Most spirits are made in simple processes in big distilleries and cost very little in terms of raw materials and labour. They are really industrial products, though they try very hard to make it look as though they aren’t. Having said that I don’t think that explains the whole cost.

One of the companies making them actually makes gin first then removes the alcohol, so the process is lengthy and expensive. The product is horrible though so I’ll stick to actual gin

It is quite technically difficult to remove all the alcohol, so if they do do that it would be expensive.

I honestly don't really see the point, but there must be a market out there for them, I just stuck to the fancy tonic waters without adding the gin, its almost as good!

@Chemenger

It is quite technically difficult to remove all the alcohol, so if they do do that it would be expensive.

This ^ Try flavoured tonic instead that's 30p -£1 a bottle (not dissimilar price in euros)