Aspiring To Be Sober
Spoiler alert: I’m not sober. I still enjoy a glass of wine at dinner, I’m a sucker for a G&T, and I will let loose at a birthday party or evening out. I don’t judge those who drink, but I know there’s more of a movement towards a more sober lifestyle—’sober curious’ being a term we’ve likely all heard.
Now, bad news: Alcohol is bad for you. I’m not trying to spook you, it’s actual liquid poison (isn’t that the case with everything good in life?) and is linked to worse health outcomes if you consume it regularly. Recently they lowered the amount of “safe” consumption to 2 standard drinks per week, but still advise that zero is, of course, the best choice. To add to the devastating health impacts, more often than not, drinking now makes me feel like a heaping pile of garbage. Younger me could get sloppy drunk, sleep for 3 hours, and wake up bright and refreshed just to do it all over again. 34 year old me has two glasses of wine and gets a headache. Heaven forbid I get genuinely intoxicated, my entire next day is a complete write off as I wander the house tired, dehydrated, and generally grumpy about past me’s poor choices. I have a complicated relationship with it though because the joke that 'an introvert needs two drinks just to become a normal functioning human' isn’t a lie, it’s so much easier to be social, especially in a setting unfamiliar to me, with a gin and tonic poured down my throat.
These days I rarely drink at home, and never drink at home alone. During the lockdowns I got into a comfortable habit of a nightly cocktail. While sometimes I was simply enjoying a cocktail at the end of a long day, I wanted to check in with myself to make sure that it was still just a new habit I developed and not bordering on a need. I discovered a few things about myself during that month. First, I learned I actually felt better day to day without drinking. It’s annoyingly true that proper diet and exercise do improve your life—less alcohol, less nutritionally devoid foods, regular movement. Who knew! Second, it was ultimately less about the alcohol itself and more about the “fancy” vibe to the drink (the Covid cocktails were probably more about the alcohol if I’m being honest). I love a classic gin and tonic, but drinking sparkling water from a wine glass was almost as satisfying as having a cocktail. It turns out I really just wanted to add something a little special into my day to day.
Almost immediately after discovering this I went out and bought myself some ‘fancy’ glasses. Cute wine glasses, special shape/colour drinking glasses, proper coupe glasses. Since then I’ve opted to keep a few of my early pottery projects as drinking cups because anything that isn’t a standard drinking vessel feels extraordinary and ends up making my beverage feel extraordinary—even if the choice beverage is just a lime Perrier. Anytime I’m out and about now I keep an eye open for another fancy cup to add to the collection. It’s something I should’ve been able to identify earlier as every mug in our house is oversized, or strange, or graphically interesting.
The Perrier drinks are enough most days to add that special feeling without opening the liquor cabinet, but fundamentally to my personality, I desperately need some variety. The nice thing with alcohol is you can make a cocktail, and cocktails are often quite delicious, and extra fancy. The muddling, the garnishes, the complexity of flavours working together. Thanks to the sober curious movement we’ve been able to witness and enjoy the increasing popularity of mocktails, not only becoming more popular in restaurants, but there’s now a substantial collection of recipes to make at home that embrace the same complexity as their alcoholic counterparts. No more ‘add some Sprite to your orange juice’, it’s now a ‘get out your muddler and shaker’ type of party. We’re also witnessing a new wave of unique botanical inspired beverages in the development of adaptogenic beverages—”beverages infused with plant extracts that have a relaxing or euphoric effect when consumed”. We can see how demand is so quickly met when the market is there and supply then increases tenfold.
Over the last few years I’ve been putting intentional effort into finding delicious non-alcoholic beverages, as well as wading into trying botanical beverages that will substitute just as well. I’ll buy one here or there to try out, and then continue to stock my favourites. Worth mentioning now that my palette does not enjoy beverages that are overly sweet. I don’t take any sugar in my coffee, I drink my english breakfast tea with just a tiny splash of milk, I haven’t consumed actual soda in years. Flavours like lemongrass, lemon, lime, and grapefruit will likely be reoccurring. If you prefer a sweeter taste, it’s possible you will not enjoy the following recommendations as much as I have.
Here’s a few of my go to choices so far:
Leitz Einz-Zwei Zero Alcohol Free Rose
- I really like that this comes in bottles and cans, the single serve can is a favourite now for me.
Greenhouse Juice Co. Real Grapefruit Probiotic Sparkling Water
- This tastes more like rosemary than it does grapefruit. I had one of those moments like the meme where the girl tries the kombucha, and in the end I decided that I find the strange flavour enticing. I’ve purchased it many times since.
Collective Arts Brewing Botany Sparkling Water Lemongrass and Lime
- I tried this for the first time at the Stratford Theatre and really enjoyed the lemongrass flavour. I recently learned this is actually a local brewery, which is extra cool!
LOOP Mission Morning Glory Raw Cold-Pressed Juice
- This is indeed just juice, but its a fantastic clementine, orange, strawberry mix and for someone who typically doesn’t love drinking juice, the Loop blends are typically so much more complex that it makes them so good.
Gldn Hour Collagen Infused Sparkling Water - Grapefruit Cucumber
- This is infused with marine collagen and was a go to for me when I went a year as a pescatarian. The flavours are delicious and I even enjoyed the Peach Ginger flavour, even though I mostly despise peach beverages.
Blume SuperBelly
- I purchased these as a supplement while I am trying to get my gut health back to a good spot and discovered that it actually helps me to drink more water throughout the day so win/win. Pop it into a special glass and I’m extra happy.
The downfall of all of these options are they must be purchased, and with some of them like the Gldn Hour coming in at $4.79 each, it really doesn’t make it affordable as a regular purchase. I love having some of these options in the house, I especially love having a variety of them, and I will always opt for one of these over alcohol—especially the ones with added health benefits like the collagen or probiotics, but as the primary bread-loser in the house, I need to keep a lid on how much I’m spending on sparkling water.
It’s worth noting here before we go any further that I’ve tried quite a few pre-mixed canned mocktails and I’ve disliked all of them. HP Juniper Non-Alcoholic Cocktail Floral Gin & Tonic and ISH Lime Daiquiri were both terrible. I didn’t finish either one. Collective Arts Brewing makes some good sparkling water, as noted above, but I tried their Mojito and didn’t love that either. Proxies makes decent non-alcoholic wine, cans too which is great, but the flavour profiles I just don’t enjoy. There was a lot of peach involved. Because of these few really bad experiences, I’ve written off pre-made mocktails. I’ve also tried the Sobrii gin and it’s… not gin.
I have begun dabbling in ‘recipes’ and found those to be more successful. One delicious go-to drink for me was actually stumbled upon when we were at Boston Pizza. *Say what you want about Boston Pizza, their new-ish? option of ‘The Triple Play’ (the bandera bread, thai chicken bites, and cactus cut potatoes on one big platter) was a genius move and the only thing I ever need to order. But back to the drink. Not sure what they called it, I’ve been calling it “That mocktail I got at Boston Pizza”, here’s the ingredients:
3 oz pineapple juice
1 oz lime juice
1 pinch sea salt
4 oz sparkling pink grapefruit juice
That’s it. It’s delicious, it’s kinda fancy but not complicated to make, and it’s probably kinda good for you? Pineapple juice does have high vitamin C after all.
A few recipes I discovered via The Mindful Mocktail that I loved:
Strawberry Kiwi Basil - 3.5/5 (but it’s my own fault.)
I only mostly followed the recipe, so I suspect it might taste different if you actually follow the recipe. I swapped regular sparkling water for tonic water, which was good, but the many leaves of basil was a bit too much basil for me, so that was bad. The recipe is a keeper, but I would use less basil going forward.
Blackberry Fizz - 4/5
Again, I only mostly followed the recipe but it was still really good. It errs on tart with this aftertaste of sweetness from the honey, which is really pleasant! It calls for mint, which I opted to not include because I didn’t have any, but also I don’t like mint in my food. I’m sure the mint would add an extra layer of complexity I didn’t experience. I used tonic again, but I think I could love this more if I opted for a lime sparkling water or the lime lemongrass kombucha I have sitting in the fridge. I’ll definitely make this again.
I haven’t been able to find many drinks that aren’t carbonated that give the same feeling as a delicious cocktail, but then again all the cocktails I love also typically have carbonation. The closest true to alcohol experience is alcohol free wine and the remaining drinks are essentially fancy fizzy juice, which isn’t bad, but isn’t quite a cocktail.
During all this research and all the money spent and all the drinks I tried, I’ve really come to the conclusion that the illusion of ‘fancy’ makes the most difference over the actual beverage itself. Nothing has replaced a G&T, nothing will replace the kick and complex taste alcohol can offer to a drink, but putting your sparkling water or fizzy pineapple juice in a cool glass elevates the experience more so than the drink itself. I’ve invested in some really cool glasses, saved a few of my ceramics pieces, and even when I’m just rehydrating with a glass of water with lemon, it always feels more enjoyable in a glass covered in strawberries or something I made with my own hands.
Verdict? Buy yourself some cool glasses first, dive into the mocktails and adult beverage alternatives second.
