Ditching the booze for a month doesn’t have to be boring
Whether you had a hectic festive season or not, there are several benefits to giving Dry January a go – aside from no hangovers, your sleep quality increases, your energy levels rise and you save a bit of cash too. And there are plenty of things to do in London, from hitting the latest exhibitions to browsing the best farmers’ markets to catching a film at an indie cinema, that don’t involve alcohol at all.
Maybe you’re toying with the idea of going booze-free, maybe you’re off the sauce for good….either way you can still make abstaining from alcohol for thirty one days this January not just bearable, but actually taste good too. Many of London’s bars have solid alcohol-free cocktails on their drinks list and there’s great variety when it comes to alcohol-free beers too, so you don’t actually have to avoid the pub in January.
If you prefer to stay in, here’s what you need to drink less at home this January including bubbly teas, botanical spirits and grown-up mocktails. CHEERS.
Goodrays
These Goodrays drinks, infused with 30mg of CBD, taste good and do good. Made with sparkling water and natural flavours, like passionfruit, pomelo, elderflower and yuzu, they’re high in vitamin D and low in calories. The CBD also helps to ease stress, promote calm and improve focus, so you can stay hydrated and relaxed at the same time.
MOMO Green Mandarin Kombucha
MOMO Kombucha has teamed up with Natoora to create a zesty new flavour for winter. Carmelo’s Green Mandarin Kombucha is made with Tardivo di Ciaculli mandarins from Sicily, picked ahead of the fully ripe harvest to capture their vibrant and aromatic essential oils, which helps uplift the tangy notes of the kombucha. A proper winter refresher.
Borécha
Borécha is an Indian non-alcoholic brand that produces low calorie iced teas, green tea cocktails and kombucha seltzers, like this Berry Margarita. As well as being sugar-free and filled with gut-friendly kombucha culture, it’s got plenty of fizz and fruity flavour so you won’t get bored sipping on these softies.
Muri x The Four Horsemen
Founded by Murray Paterson (a former distiller at Empirical Spirits), MURI takes inspo from the gastronomic culture of Copenhagen, particularly its use of fermentation, to create progressive non-alc drinks. This collab creation with Brooklyn spot The Four Horsemen is a red wine alternative made with Stevnsbær sour cherry wine, ice-clarified tomato water, lacto-fermented beetroot, bay leaf, and green peppercorn water kefir.
Mother Root Ginger Switchel
If wine is usually your go-to, switchels are a fab alternative given that they have similar levels of acidity and are packed with flavour. But they’re also great as a mocktail, blended with ice and soda water, and the ginger switchel from Mother Root is one of the best on the market. Not made with booze, but with a short list of beneficial ingredients (organic apple cider vinegar, blossom honey, organic ginger juice, ginger extract and capsicum extract), this AF alternative tastes as good as it makes you feel.
Talonmore
If you’re partial to a hot toddy, you’ll want to stock up Talonmore this winter. The Scottish-based company makes a non-alcoholic, ginger-infused spiced spirit that’s a perfect whisky replacement, so you can use it for a booze-free toddy or Old Fashioned, serve it on the rocks, or lengthen it into a highball for something more refreshing.
Black Lines
Rather than try to substitute a spirit in its first non-alcoholic serve, Black Lines decided to create its own version of a classic mocktail – the Shirley Temple. With grenadine, ginger ale, raspberry soda, fresh lemon, blood orange and bitters, it’s fun, fruity and fresh, and as you’d expect from Black Lines, the label is on point too.
Wavelength
Cornwall-based Wavelength produces the world’s first fermented non-alcoholic spirits. The Ruby Aperitif, with hibiscus, lavender, wormwoood, pink peppercorn and pink grapefruit zest, is herbal and bittersweet, whereas the Amber Digestif, with lapsang, ginger, clove, vanilla, cacao nibs, gentian root and oak, is spicy and smoky, making the former great for a spritz and the latter perfect for a lowball or Old Fashioned.
French Bloom
Co-founded by model Constance Jablonski and Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger, French Bloom gives you everything you want from a fine wine, bar the booze. Le Rosé is 0% alcohol (they also do a Le Blanc) and is full of cherry, peach and wild berry flavours.
Botivo
Off the wagon has never felt so easy with Botivo. The premium aperitif-inspired drink contains five botanicals, apple cider vinegar and wildflower honey, which combine to create a complex liquid that’s herbal, citrusy and bittersweet with no alcohol, no flavourings and no preservatives. Mix with soda and enjoy as the day winds down and the evening draws in.
L.A Brewery
If you’re off the sauce you can still treat yourself a to bit of fizz with this Sparkling English Blush Kombucha from Suffolk-based non-alcoholic microbrewery L.A Brewery. It’s got fresh, floral notes of rhubarb and elderflower and great acidity, and as a bonus, it’s low in sugar and high in gut-friendly bacteria.
Crossip
All fans of dark and smoky spirits like rum and whisky need to have Dandy Smoke from Crossip on their radar. It’s got notes of lapsang souchong, pine, ginger, cinnamon, clove and chilli, making for a rich and complex flavour, and it’s ideal for shaking up into sour cocktails or mixing simply with soda or cola.
Counter Culture Try Dry Kombucha
If you’re new to kombucha, there’s no better place to start than with the official kombucha of Dry January. Try Dry, produced by Bristol-based brand Counter Culture, is bursting with zesty yuzu flavour making it super refreshing. And 5% off all sales of Try Dry are being donated to Alcohol Change UK to support their work in tackling alcohol harm, so you’ll be doing good by drinking this.
