🕒 11 min read

January used to be just another month, a time to reset, to reflect, to recover from the festivities of the holidays just a few nights and weeks before.

In the past few years however, there’s been a movement that’s taken hold: Dry January. Started in the U.K. in 2013, the practice commonly known as “Drynuary” with but one rule: “No alcohol from when you wake up on New Year's Day until 1 February,” has become so popular in North America, many believe it actually started here.

Mark the calendar

The idea of forgoing booze for the month to “reset your relationship with alcohol,” has since broadened to include other months. 

In Canada we have Dry February, which pairs non-drinking with raising money for cancer research.

It doesn’t stop there. Dry July, Sober for September and Go Sober in October (aka “Mocktober”) have since gained serious traction.

By the book

Laying off the sauce for a month isn’t a novel notion, but it certainly appears that way by the titles cramming store shelves these days, including  2018’s The 28 Day Alcohol-Free Challenge: Sleep Better, Lose Weight, Boost Energy, Beat Anxiety by Andy Ramage and Ruari Fairbairns - authors of the One Year No Beer blog - and The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control by Annie Grace released on New Year’s Eve 2018.

While it has been called into question whether a month-long abstinence has long-term effects, the momentum of the sober movement hasn’t slowed an inch.

In The Unexpected Joys of Being Sober by Catherine Gray, published December 2017, chapters include “Nature, Rather Than Nightclubs,” “Being Nicer,” and “Unplugging From the Alcohol Matrix.” There’s even a Teetotal Power Playlist (‘Hold On’ by Wilson Phillips and Nina Simone’s ‘Here Comes the Sun’, for instance). At a time where health and wellness concerns are leading the charge, eating less meat and meditation apps are on the rise, dialing back your alcohol consumption fits right in.

But when Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol by Ruby Warrington was released on December 31, 2018, it unleashed the notion that you didn’t have to completely stop drinking to enjoy the benefits. You could just dip a toe in and experiment. Like being a ‘Flexitarian,’ but with booze. It’s no wonder it became a bestseller - and now common catchphrase to refer to sometime imbibers.

Lest you think this is all a new thing, Joseph Bohling’s The Sober Revolution: Appellation Wine and the Transformation of France illustrates what occurred post-World War II. More recently, Sarah Turner and Lucy Rocca released their similarly titled tome, The Sober Revolution: Women Calling Time on Wine O'Clock in April 2014.

But “mindful drinking” has exploded (a Google search of the term garnered 24,600,000 results) like so many other wellness movements right now (mindful eating, CBD, cannabis, adaptogens, plant-based foods, gut health), so what better time to create non-alcoholic beers and spirits that evoke the same tastes and textures as the real thing, without any of the negative side effects? 

Better brewskies

Options have greatly improved in the non-alcohol suds department of the grocery store. While “near beers” by Budweiser, Coors, Labbatt, and Molson have long reigned the shelves, over the years, Krombacher, Bavaria, Grolsch, Hoegaarden, and Erdinger edged their way in.

Canadian indie Partake Brewing came onto the scene a few years ago, with their 0.3% alcohol iterations – Pale, IPA, Blonde and Stout - the first non-alcoholic craft brews available for in-store purchase that resembled real beer. Since then, innovators have created non-alcoholic brews that are winning over both non-imbibers and beer lovers alike.

Big Drop Brewing Co. out of the UK, landed in Toronto in October with Dark Noir (Stout) and Pale Blanche (Ale) that are reasonable facsimiles despite their 0.4% ABV. Ironically, here in Canada, they’re currently only available at the LBCO.

Also new to the scene, Grüvi just launched their 0% alcohol craft brewed IPA, Stout, and Sour, which arrive on your doorstep via Uber Eats. They’ve also created a zero-proof Prosecco, also available for purchase in-store at The Cocktail Emporium.

Buzz-free booze

As boozeless brew sales have continued to surge, so has the popularity of cocktail alternatives. Notice the absence of the word mocktail here. A few years ago, “mocktail” and “virgin” were emphatically stricken from the lexicon, and replaced with terms such as “low ABV” and “zero-proof” (The LCBO however, still uses the outdated term to denote their alcohol-free section). 

The new sans alcohol selections were a much-needed reboot of the sad, Shirley Temple-esque offerings that designated drivers, pregnant women, and non-drinkers have had to endure for decades. 

Seedlip took the industry by storm a few years ago by being the “world’s first distilled non-alcoholic sprit” on the market. UK Founder Ben Branson harvested natural and wild ingredients, then individually cold macerated, distilled, and blended them in a copper still, using a copy of The Art of Distillation as his guide.

It was the first time a commercially made product delivered the depth and complexity of a spirit, without a stitch of alcohol. That, combined with striking packaging, slick marketing (‘What to drink when you’re not drinking’® tagline), and partnerships with some of the top bars and mixologists across the globe, secured them as leaders in the field.

While they continue to nab much for the spotlight, at $50 a bottle, the price remains prohibitive (almost double the cost of actual booze), In the meantime other faux spirits have since joined the ranks and upped the game.

Audra Williams and Haritha Gnanaratna, co-founders Temperance Cocktails, have turned out evocative concentrates ($35 ea.) that once mixed with sparkling water, will please anyone on alcoholic furlough. Made locally in Roncesvalles, they currently offer four varieties, including Fortitude (lychee shrub, jasmine tea, lemon oil) and The Tower (tamarind, smoked tea, cinnamon, cardamom, lime, tonic). Each four-ounce bottle contains enough mix for two drinks.   

And Canada just got its first non-alcoholic distilled spirit, Lumette! ($30.48) - an alt-gin coming in at zero percent alcohol – and non-alcoholic gin, Sobrii 0 Gin ($35), created by Bob Huitema of DistillX Beverages Inc., with the help from experts at Niagara College’s Canadian Food & Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre, launched a few months ago.

Boozeless bevvies

Robin Goodfellow of the city’s top bars PrettyUgly and Bar Raval has led the charge with thoughtful, innovative “placebo” cocktails. At PrettyUgly, the current selections are showcased alongside their regular alcoholic lineup, using either Seedlip or housemade “Nomaro Classico” as the base.

Nomaro, according to Goodfellow is, “Basically a non-alcoholic reduction of dried and fresh herbs, and dried and fresh fruit, and spices created with a specific flavour profile in mind. We extract all flavours fully and then reduce the liquid to a third the original volume. It's basically a unique condensed tea that makes our Placebo drinks more complex than those with just juice, sugar and soda.” Enjoy it in luscious concoctions such as PrettyUgly’s Dark Dawn ($8) with horgeat and ginger, and The Bitty ($9) at Bar Raval, which combines Nomaro Classico with a herb “redux,” yuzu, bergamot, soda and Raval salt.

Other establishments around town offer non-tipsy tipples, including Project Gigglewater’s Rated PG trio ($8-$11) and even mainstream chains including The Keg, Earls King Street, and FAB Concepts who owns nine local pubs and taverns, including Dominion, Pogue Mahone and Pour House.

Sober bars and bartenders

Naturally, this lead to sober bars, which sounds like an oxymoron, but are definitely real, and are definitely on the rise. Just think how quickly natural wine bars popped up last year. Like that.

Montreal’s Mindfulbar is the first Canadian watering hole to be free of booze while promoting “non-alcoholic entertainment,” and Getaway, a booze-free bar opened in Brooklyn, New York earlier this year. And while Abandon Toronto isn’t a brick-and-mortar establishment yet, the monthly “non-alcoholic happy hour gatherings” has already garnered great interest. 

Sober bartenders are thus becoming more popular. And should you find yourself at a “regular” bar while steering clear of alcohol, there are sober pins you can purchase such as this one, to indicate that you’re not currently imbibing. Because awkward convos are so 2016.

Sober-ish 

Articles have been touting that millennials aren’t drinking - or at least not as much as previous generations - but in the last few years, people of all ages are cutting back or eradicating alcohol consumption altogether.

Whatever the reason [Take your pick: better sleep, switched to weed (smoking marijuana but abstaining from booze is called cali-sober), lose weight, improve mood, no hangovers, etc.], it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can dabble in drinking less, or opt out for awhile – or for longer. The good thing is, you’ve got options. Pretty delicious ones, in fact.

You might like: Elevated Zero-Proof Cocktails by Toronto’s Top Mixologists.

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