13 of the Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks For Dry January

[Celerity]

Keep toasting the new year, hangover-free.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2021/01/non-alcoholic-drink-recipes-for-a-booze-free-month

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Another year, another new way to resolve. For those with alcohol on the “out” list—whether for this dry January, forever, or a couple days each week—certain hours in the day or particular circumstances (5 p.m.; social gatherings) may suddenly yawn open, devoid of a familiar ritual. Luckily, in recent years a host of alternatives have rushed in to fill that void and add more flavor to your dry January experience.

If anything, when met with such an embarrassment of zero proof riches, the real challenge is sussing out the true standouts. An unscientific polling of various enlisted taste-testers yields a consensus (one with which I, a non-drinker, concur) that the best non-alcoholic choices are typically not simply a dealcoholized version of an alcoholic spirit or wine—cue Jennifer Connelly’s repressed Home Depot meltdown in the 2009 rom-com He’s Just Not That Into You: “I don’t like the way it’s pretending to be wood; you’re not wood, don’t try and look like wood.” In the world of non-alcs, as in the world of love, there are a few exceptions to this rule, including non-alcoholic beer writ large (hops, which are nonalcoholic and derived from the Humulus hemp family plant, do a lot of beer-signaling flavor work) and a few other notables included here.

The biggest crowd pleasers tended to have certain traits in common, elevating them from the fancy sodas they essentially are into a more interesting, holistic drinking experience. The packaging, for one, must be attractive because that old adage stands: we drink first with our un-beer-goggled eyes. There’s also typically an ingredient that subs in for alcohol with either a bite (ginger, say), a bitterness (orange rind, acacia), or a slight funk (mushrooms, ashwagandha). And so, without further ado: Drink and be merry this dry January, for tomorrow you won’t wake up with a hangover.

Ghia Spritz, Lime & Salt

This is a fun drink, the kind of thing I wish I’d had as an alternative to the chic undergrad cocktail that was squeezing a lime into a plastic water bottle filled with tequila and seltzer. It’s bright and tangy, with an ingredient list that includes fig and yuzu juice, eucalyptus and orange extract, and sea salt; it pairs with taco nights, fish dishes, a rooftop hang huddled under heat lamps. Founder Melanie Masarin describes the flavor as the quaffing equivalent of taking a dip in the Mediterranean off the coast of Barcelona—and in the depths of winter, who wouldn’t want to evoke that?

Raising The Bar

For the Blue Apron set, a subscription service (which can also be purchased as one-offs), providing a monthly recipe box complete with everything one needs for a couple of mocktails—it’s a fun way to discover new brands in the zero-proof universe, and each month’s delivery is a cause for celebration.

Siren Shrub Co. Basil Sparkling Shrub

“Healthy!” was a common reaction to a first sip of Siren Shrub’s oeuvre, with further reactions tending to divide along a line of those who had or had not ever made a drink using apple cider vinegar. Target audiences of this women-owned, Wisconsin-based brand are those who enjoy trips to the local farmers market or food co-op, brew their own kombucha, are sort of disdainfully interested in Goop.com, and have gut health restoration on their New Years in-list. The fizzy drinks are sharp and refreshing on their own, or can be paired with spirit-esque bottles (Wilfred’s, Figlia, Aplos, etc.) for a quick, pretty mixed drink.

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[Wolf Frankula]

1. Water, Coffee, Pepsi, Milk, Gatorade

Those are the non alcoholic drinks I drink. And more of them than anything alcoholic.

Wolf

[woodsprite]

2. Fresca or iced tea are my go-to's! nt