Non-Alcoholic Drinks 101

The must-read NA drink guide for this holiday season

Happy Hump Day! I’m Tawny, an advice columnist better known as “The Sober Sexpert” and author of Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze. I’m here to empower you to find your *intrinsic* courage without booze—regardless of your relationship status—one date at a time.

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It’s that special time of year when people—sober or not—ask me about non-alcoholic (NA) drinks they can serve at their holiday gatherings. These thoughtful questions make me happy because it shows how far we’ve come as a society. I remember when the only NA options were bottles of O’Doul’s or cans of seltzer. Now, there are hundreds of delicious, booze-free drinks available to purchase online, in your local specialty market or big-name grocery store, at sober bars, or in non-alcoholic bottle shops. 

To give you all the info you need, I chatted with Laura Silverman, the queen of all things NA, to give you an easy-to-read NA Drinks 101 for this holiday season. She has a website called Zero Proof Nation with everything you need to know about non-alcoholic drinks. She even created a global map (!!!!) to help you find the drinks you want worldwide. 

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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Q: The non-alcoholic beverage market has exponentially grown in the past few years, which is great news for those of us in recovery and who are sober or sober curious. But some of the drinks list their alcohol content as 0.5%. While that’s not enough to get drunk by any means, some people are concerned about even this minuscule amount. What would you say to someone hesitant to try ready-to-drink (RTD) cans and bottles you’d find in a store? 

When it comes to non-alc, everyone is on such a uniquely personal journey. I understand this keenly from years of my own lived experience and recognize that while these are non-alcoholic beverages, they’re adult non-alcoholic beverages (e.g., beer, wine, spirit analogs). Just as often as consuming these beverages can be a tool for some, they can be a trigger for others, especially folks in recovery. So, I respect wherever someone is on their journey and meet them where they are. 

The Food and Drug Administration classifies a non-alcoholic beverage as one that can contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV). The same amount of alcohol content can be found in a ripe banana, a piece of bread, and fermented foods like yogurt or kimchi. But for someone who might be in recovery from alcohol use disorder, a ripe banana was never a delivery mechanism for intoxication. That’s why NA beverages like beer, wine, canned cocktails, and kombucha can fall into trickier territory because they’re liquids (and some can feel very analogous to the liquids that might have gotten someone intoxicated before). 

Consuming these [non-alcoholic] beverages can be a tool for some, but they can be a trigger for others, especially folks in recovery. - Laura Silverman

In my early days of non-alc experimentation, I dumped a lot of liquid down the sink because I just didn’t understand ABV or what it meant for me, and I didn’t want to mess with my sobriety.

I would recommend that everyone get to know themselves and where they are with their sobriety / sober curiosity, and then make a decision that works for them. The beauty of all of this is that it’s a process, and as humans, we get to grow and change. The days of pouring NA beer and wine down the sink are behind me, but I had to go through them to push myself to learn about ABV and to trust that I was drinking these beverages for the right reasons. 

And now, I’m a bit of an evangelist.

Q: The NA drink world can feel overwhelming to a newbie. What are some brands that you’d recommend to someone just starting out? 

It’s always like a celeb sighting when I see NA in the wild. Whether it’s a chain restaurant that has a whole “spirit free” menu, a fancy restaurant with a classy zero-proof cocktail section or NA wine selection, or a dive bar that has at least one NA beer available, I know we’ve come a very long way.

Here are some of my faves that I’m LOVING these days:

NA beer: 

• Athletic Brewing (Lodge Life, Cerveza Atletica), Partake Brewing (Oktoberfest), Wellbeing Brewing (Intrepid Traveler Coffee Cream Stout), Gruvi (Juicy IPA), RationaALE Brewing (Mexican Cerveza), Mash Gang (Vanilla Coffee Stout), Heineken 0.0, Hedlum Brewing, Go Brewing (Jab Jab Grapefruit IPA, Espresso Nitro Bold)

NA wine:

• Prima Pave (Rose Brut), Noughty AF (sparkling chardonnay), Sovi (sparkling white and rose blends), Surely (new red blend), Gruvi (sangria), Weekday Vibes

NA RTDs (ready-to-drink):

• Parch (spiced Pinarita), Ghia Le Spritz, Mocktail Club (Havana Twist), Bawi (Maracuya), Flyers (Bkln Gold), Bennu Uplift, Jas, Curious Elixirs No. 1, NOPE (mango margarita), CLEAN Cause (peach), HopLark hop tea (their “cola one” was amazing), Halmi, Bollygood, Dry Soda (vanilla and lavender), For Bitter For Worse’s Eva Spritz, Aura Bora and Spindrift seltzers :)

Botanicals / spirits:

• Tenneyson, The Pathfinder, Abstinence Spirits (epilogue), Ghia Aperitif, Lyre’s (coffee originale), Cut Above Zero Proof (mezcal), Monday (gin), Ritual Zero Proof (tequila), Wilderton Bittersweet Aperitivo 

• (Note from Tawny: Our new drink, Parentheses, falls under the botanical category.)

Bitters:

• All the Bitter (every single one but especially New Orleans), Hella Cocktail Co. (ginger, mexican chocolate), Hella Bitters + Soda (dry)

📸 Andrew J. Williams III, @bespokeagencydc

Q: For those who choose not to drink alcohol at the holiday table for whatever reason, it can often get awkward if you previously partook in any family or friend festivities that included boozy drinks. How do you recommend that people introduce the idea of NA drinks to their loved ones, whether they’re the only ones partaking or want to encourage others? 

It always helps to have someone at a party or gathering who’s on your side, whether that means someone who’s drinking non-alc with you or someone who supports you on your sober / sober curious journey. But if neither of those options is available, BYOB (non-alc, of course). Bring enough to share. 

You might think you’re the only one there interested in not drinking alcohol, but when there are options involved, many people find themselves gravitating toward alternating between alcohol and non-alc, or skipping the booze altogether. Plus, people can be curious (and sometimes nosy!) beings, and may want to know what you’re sipping on, so it’s a perfect time to let them in on this whole new world you’ve discovered.

That said, I’ve found that the only people who were threatened by the non-alc in my glass over the years were the ones who were facing their own problems and didn’t want a mirror held up to their behavior. 

Go in with an open mind, and if people ask why you’re not drinking booze, answer with whatever feels good for you (e.g. “I’m on a hangover-free kick these days” or “I’m taking the month/weekend/year/etc. off from booze”). Ultimately, it’s no one’s business but your own.

Additional Resources

• The Ultimate Holiday Mocktail Guide To Toast The Season by Abby Stern in The Zoe Report

• From the Stadium to the Skies: Booze-Free Brands Break New Ground by T.L. Stanley for AdWeek

• Minus Moonshine - my favorite NA bottle shop! You can even order online to support this queer-owned, Brooklyn-based business.

• Zero Proof: 90 Non-Alcoholic Recipes for Mindful Drinking by Elva Ramirez

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Which NA drinks do you plan on stocking this holiday season? Comment below!

Happy Humping,

Tawny

P.S. This issue was edited by

Irina Gonzalez