How many of us make a resolution each year to eat healthier, drink mindfully and get into better shape? Some add vegan eating to reverse the indulgences of the holiday season, or simply try to reduce their caloric intake, but I’d suggest focusing on one of our guiltiest pleasures, drinking. You’ll have a lot of company this month as Dry January is now an acknowledged way to reinvigorate a healthy lifestyle. Abstain from alcohol for a month, and if it works for you, there’s no reason not to make at least some modification a permanent part of every month going forward.
To kickstart this “new you” process, I’ve put together some suggestions that will fill in the blanks with taste and variety as you venture into cleaner living. Are the rewards worth it? Take note of any improvements to your sleep, your mood and even your skin. I’m convinced.
Booze-free Bars and Mocktails
Bars throughout the US are jumping on the wellness bandwagon (not just for Dry January), tuning into our desire to scale back.
The Nixer (so)bar is Phoenix’s First NA Pop-Up Bar. Offering only non-alcoholic beverages, non-alcohol spirits like Kentucky 74, Ritual Gin Alternative, Amass Riverine, Ghia, Aplos and Bonbuz are used in all craft cocktails, providing adaptogens and nootropics that give you a buzz of sorts without any booze. (Adaptogens are components of herbal medicines said to help the body deal with mood support and stress release while nootropics are “smart” drugs that claim to improve mental performance).
Jacksonville has several creative bars catering to the NA set. Wildcrafters is the city’s first nonalcoholic bar serving kava, teas and booze-free craft cocktails. The Greenhouse Bar surrounds you with plants while you sip creative mocktails like “January Wedding” made with Ritual Whiskey alternative, housemade spiced chai, and a dash of cream, served hot in a coffee mug. If you prefer something chilled, “Snow on the Beach” features Ritual Rum alternative while “Eternal Sunshine” will please tequila lovers with Ritual Tequila alternative blended with blood orange and ginger beer. There are options for sweet tooths too, such as Prati Italia serving up homemade sodas infusing flavors of orange, cinnamon and vanilla.
North Carolina encourages a dry January at Dram and Drought in Greensboro. A menu of “Low to No ABV Cocktails” includes the delicious “Candy Crush,” made with verjus, bubblegum stock, strawberry, lemon and aquafaba.
Burnt Church Distillery in Bluffton, SC has created its own non-alcoholic spirit Amethyst, distilled and blended with fruits and botanicals giving the same mouthfeel as a full-bodied spirit. Pair a bite or two with their “Amey Sour,” made with Amethyst lemon cucumber serrano, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white. Garnish with a cucumber ribbon – it’s as pretty as it is healthy.
Louisiana joins the rush to include shrubs, either plain or in mocktails. At New Orleans’ Bywater American Bistro or BABs as it’s affectionately called, Chef Nina Compton serves up three spirit-free cocktails that will quench your thirst. Try the “Phony Negroni” from St. Agrestis Distillery in Brooklyn, or two refreshing sodas: “the Piedmont” made with Giffard Apertif, orange and lemon soda; and “the Tuscan Garden,” a tart mix of mint, basil, grapefruit lime and soda.
I’ve always found that an alcohol-free “Virgin Mary” or, as some call it, a “Bloody Shame” tastes pretty amazing given all its pickled vegetable, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and peppery ingredients. For a perfect Bloody that seems more like a meal than a beverage, ask the mixologists at the Blackwolf Run at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin to leave out the vodka in their Milwaukee-inspired version. With the spicy tomato juice base, cheese curds, jerky, pickle, bacon, olive and variety of other crazy garnishes that distinguish it, you probably won’t miss the booze. Or try a beverage from their “Zero Degrees” menu. I particularly love the “Cranberry Sparkler” made with Lyres Classico Non-Alcoholic Sparkling cranberry and muddled berries.
New York City invites you to dabble in innovative drink and flavor combinations as well. Brooklyn’s Bohemien Bar has curated a n/a cocktail menu with four creative choices. “Welcome to Paradise” blends fennel juice, indian tonic and pomegranate molasses. Using a base of Ritual Tequila alternative, “Roselle” adds bitter orange cordial, lime, and hibiscus to create a margarita-like alternative. “Golden Glow” and “Chrysalis” leave out the alcohol and the alcohol alternatives, substituting bases of coconut water and tea respectively.
AF Wines, Beer and Spirits
Using sustainably sourced botanicals from the Cape Floral Kingdom in Cape Town, South Africa, gorgeously packaged Abstinence introduces a line of non-alcoholic white and dark spirits, bittersweet aperitifs and spritzes. A perfect start to your non-alcoholic dinner, these small-batch beverages include Italian-style aperitifs in pineapple and blood orange flavors, available in both plain and carbonated spritz versions. For a more robust mocktail, Abstinence’s non-alcoholic Cape Citrus, Cape Floral, Cape Spice (rum alternative) and Cape Malt (whiskey alternative) can be served on the rocks or as a base for a traditional beverage recipe.
DRY Botanical Bubbly Reserve is perfect for any celebratory toasts you have. The sophisticated alcohol-free Champagne-like beverage ups the flavor game, too, with Rose Soleil, Lavender 75 and Spiced Pear, a N/A wine blend of pears, vanilla and cardamom.
Love California wines? Then you’ll enjoy FRE alcohol-removed wines. These wines are produced with traditional winemaking methods but with the alcohol gently removed with FRE’s spinning cone technology. You can vary your evening libations with their extensive line of Moscato, White Zinfandel, Rosé, Chardonnay, Merlot, Red Blend and Cabernet Sauvignon as well as a sparkling Brut. Drink them straight or invent a winter-perfect “n/a Mulled Wine” using FRE’s Cabernet Sauvignon as a base.
For a quick alcohol-free trip to Italy, Prima Pavé Alcohol Free Sparkling Wines are made with a mix of varietals, adding to their complexity and designed for harmonious pairing with food. Handcrafted in Italy with no sugar or chemicals added, Prima Pavé showcases terroir and a depth of flavor. Dealcoholized through a proprietary, all-natural process, the sophisticated bubblies come in four versions: Grand Cuvé, Rosé Brut, Blanc de Blancs and Rosé Dolce. And Prati Italia is another choice.
For beer lovers, Denver’s GRUVI offers creative brews like Mocha Moment, a non-alcoholic stout; Juicy Dayz IPA; and the popular Golden Era Golden Brew.
German brewery Clausthaler has been crafting non-alcoholic beers for more than 55 years. Their patented process makes “real” tasting beer that doesn’t create alcohol. You’ll want to enjoy their dry-hopped beers, IPAs, and, unusual grapefruit beer all year long.
Celebrating its ten-year anniversary, Bravus is North America’s first non-alcoholic craft brewery. Producing a line of flavor-filled, no-alcohol beers that span the range from IPAs and amber ale to dark peanut butter and oatmeal stouts, and also include a non-alcoholic sparkling rosé and Phil & Goode La Planta non-alcoholic tequila alternative, Bravus ensures a diverse menu for the entire month.
You’ll never run out of choices with BrewDog’s creatively crafted and creatively named non-alcoholic beers. The brewery has versions continually coming online, so you don’t have to limit yourself – buy a four-variety bundle and try the Cold AF pilsner, the Elvis AF and Hazy AF IPAs, or the best-selling Punk AF pale ale.
Now expanded to ten flavors, HOPWTR is a non-alcoholic brew of crisp, bold hops, sparkling water and mood-boosting adaptogens and nootropics crafted without calories or sugar. Pick your favorite in passionfruit, ruby red grapefruit, black cherry, classic, mango, blood orange, lime or peach flavors.
Wine Alternatives, Mixers and More
Tired of ordering cranberry juice and soda, or sparkling water with lime? Try these creative n/a beverages.
Foodies will enjoy the elevated collection from Kally, masters at creating non-alcoholic wine alternatives using the expertise of chefs and sommeliers. Created this year in collaboration with Sonoma County’s acclaimed SingleThread Farm-Restaurant-Inn, The Kally line’s Pear Verbena is a mix of verjus from organic grapes with pear juice, ginger and lemon verbena; Plum Shiso is verjus that mixes grapes with plum juice and yuzu.
Curious Elixirs are complex booze-free versions of your favorite cocktails, handmade in the Hudson Valley with all-organic ingredients. Instead of adding sugar, the drinks are infused with adaptogens. The nine-bottle series has updated versions of classic drinks like a Sicilian blood orange spritz, pomegranate Negroni, a smoked chocolate cherry Old Fashioned, a pineapple ginger margarita, a dark & stormy fusion, the juniper cucumber Collins, the cheekily named coconut pineapple painkiller, or a more refined Champagne-like cocktail that has a base of Chardonnay grapes.
If you’re a fan of Italian amaros, you don’t need to sacrifice the bitter taste of an after-dinner digestif during Dry January. Casamara Club is a club soda crafted like a cocktail, mixing amaro bitters made with botanicals with citrus, salinity and a touch of sweetness. The six flavors — Sera (like an Aperol spritz), Alta (like a Negroni), Como (like a traditional amaro with mint), Onda (an herbaceous lemon drink), Isla (like a rum and ginger ale) and Fora (a strawberry and spice mix) — are refreshingly different.
For a wide range of mixers that double as mocktails, AVEC Drinks offers five canned options: spicy marg AVEC ( jalapeño and blood orange), paloma AVEC (grapefruit and pomelo, vodka soda AVEC (yuzu and lime) mule AVEC (ginger),and cran vodka AVEC (hibiscus and pomegranate).
Shrubs, vinegar-based infusions, have been the rage on health-oriented drink menus for years. Now you can have them at home, too, with Shrubbly’s non-alcoholic beverages. Made with a shrub base, high antioxidant berries and a few bubbles, these wellness-forward drinks come in lemon/ginger/aronia berry and pomegranate/aronia berry versions.
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