Will Nonalcoholic Cocktails Actually Help Me Drink Less?

Photo: lovelypeace/Getty Images/iStockphoto The first time I noticed people not drinking was at an Irish pub at a normal happy hour before the pandemic. I was on my second glass of Pinot Noir opposite a friend with whom I used to drink excessively. He used to tease me for being a lightweight. Then, as I ordered my third glass of wine, he diligently chewed the straw of his seltzer with lime, committed to cutting back.

These drinks sometimes feel marketed like a way to assert power, as a kind of girlbossery. The branding is aspirational: Abstaining from alcohol means creating a life so good you don’t want to escape it. Many of the companies rely on visual identities of high-end luxury: web pages that glimmer and drip with warm pinks and reds, Instagram squares of pregnant women with glittering bellies and dealcoholized wines, vintage fashion, and videos that evoke Mediterranean travel.

None of the nonalcoholic beverage brands whose founders I spoke with specifically market themselves to alcoholics, but they also don’t include any specific warnings on their websites. Kin Spritz $30 for 8 What it is: Founded by Jen Matchelor, who has a background in hospitality and wellness, and “kindred spirit” Bella Hadid, Kin Euphorics aims to turn drinking into an “act of conscious connection.” The branding is filled with warm, inviting colors and vaguely spiritual language, a cross between appropriated Ayurvedic speak and new-age neuroscience. I tried their two mainstays: Kin Spritz and Kin Lightwave.

How it feels: Of the products, the aperitif was the most fun. I liked uncapping the hard liquor–looking bottle and pouring streams of it in my seltzer. Ginger dominated the flavor profile, making for a drink that was plenty bitter, a little spicy, and tasted like something at the wellness juice bar of an unaffordable luxury gym. Ghia drinkers recommend pairing it with ginger beer and lime wedges or with club soda and orange slices.

$28 at Starla Buy SpritzISH $22 for 4 $22 for 4 What it is: Founded in 2018, ISH is a Copenhagen-based company that designs nonalcoholic liquor and cocktail substitutes for “mindful drinking.” The idea is to replicate familiar flavors of alcohol, and the company uses a wide range of botanicals and other natural ingredients to make them. I tried the GinISh substitute, as well as two canned nonalcoholic cocktails: an Aperol-like SpritzISH and a lime DaquiriISH.

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