Did you go dry for January? Me neither, I didn’t do Veganuary either. Some of my friends, even some in the booze business, did. Others have embarked on dry February – everyday counts, even in a leap year! One friend has decided to aim for a whole year without booze, claiming the benefits to her sleep quality and well-being are so great she might never go back, despite her love of wine. 

Breaking a drinking cycle can be an interesting way to test for, and tackle dependence. Taking a few days off can help to “reset” your tolerance level.

I’m more for moderation, (there a whole chapter about it in The Drinking Woman’s Diet) and I’ve written about my rule of two on this blog before-. I am for two booze free days a week, so I sympathise with those trying not to drink.

What to choose instead of booze? Not drinking in social situations can be tricky. Peer pressure is a powerful thing, and keeping to a limit is even more difficult if friends or partners are saying, “Go on, just have one.” Bear in mind this lack of support might not be about you. You cutting back might shine a light on a friend’s own issues with drinking. It’s not always an easy subject to broach.  A friends father, when he didn’t want any alcohol, reckoned that the more precise you are when ordering your drink, the less likely people would be to challenge your choice.  He would say something like “Ooh, I’d love a Slimline tonic with a lot of ice. But no lemon.”

So just what can you have to hand that will stop people commenting on your non-alcohol choice? A fizzy drink might look the part, you can always pretend it’s a mixed drink, but the last thing you want to do is replace alcohol with sugar – sugar is just as bad for your liver, not mentioning your waist line, so forget sodas. 

Slimline tonic could be an answer but I’m nervous of artificial sweeteners that aren’t great for your gut microbiome. Last year, Skinny Tonic launched a tonic with 100% natural ingredients, replacing artificial sweeteners with stevia .

Sparkling water also works, but it sounds a bit boring. A friend, whose identity I will protect, gets her husband on board when she is having an alcohol-free evening.  When she asks for gin and tonic in front of friends, he dutifully brings a sparkling mineral water with an ice and a slice and no one is any the wiser. 

The disadvantage of fizzy drinks, even water, is that bubbles of carbonic gas may increase the production of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite.  If you’re cutting back with the aim of reducing calories, that might not work for you! 

Kombucha is slightly fizzy and a healthier alternative thanks to its gut friendly bacteria. Alcohol is not always your gut micro biome’s best friend. Watch here to see the Liz Earle explain how to make you own. 

In the interests of research I have been trying some of the non-alcoholic alternatives. There are more and more on the market, reflecting the demand, or perhaps trying to create it?  Sadly, I can’t say I’m thrilled with what I’ve tried so far.  There are some great stories behind some of the products,  and I do love a good story but, I fear, there is often more style than substance. 

I had great hopes of Jukes Cordialities. I love the concept of little bottles you can take with you, it certainly looks the part, the packaging is very chic, and I was very excited by the ingredients containing gut friendly cider vinegar. I found them a bit sweet (in all fairness they are cordials). I miss the mouth feel that alcohol brings. They do look like wine though, both red and white, so will fool those trying to twist your arm to drink. 

In an attempt to mimic a Gin and Tonic, one of my favourite non-wine tipples, I tried both Seedlip, now so mainstream I even found it in a health food shop, and Ceders, a South African version using African botanicals. Both these products have a great back-story, and I do love a good story but again I was disappointed. They don’t really taste of much, and when mixed with tonic they didn’t really bring much to the party. 

I was also excited to taste Feragaia. Mimicking another favourite tipple of mine, whisky. It has a wonderful story and lovely packaging (another weakness of mine). It certainly has more flavour. It’s slightly medicinal, but not unpleasant, due perhaps to the seaweed botanicals. Despite its Scottish origins and looking like whisky once in the glass it doesn’t taste like whisky. It is sugar free though, so if you are cutting back on calories as well as alcohol it could be the drink for you.

At 70cl bottle of Seedlip costs about £22, more expensive than many good gins. Feragaia retails through their site at £28.00 for 50cl, so these alternatives are not cheap, but then, given their artisanal production, perhaps we shouldn’t expect them to be? 

My problem is that I’m looking at these drinks to replace an alcoholic drink and they are marketed as such. Perhaps they need to be considered as a category in their own right rather than an ‘instead of’.

I do miss the weight or mouth feel that alcohol brings to a drink, so in the interests of moderation I’m favouring cooler climate wines from Alsace or Germany for example, with a naturally lower alcohol. Although lower alcohol wines have been harder to find since the eighties when powerful reds were all the rage, recently wine makers seem to be, once again, embracing a notion of ‘elegance’ over power houses. A trend I thoroughly support and wines worth looking out for.

Or try  something completely different, I wrote about Mead sometime ago, it may be the oldest drink in the world but modern producers are now right on trend with lower alcohol versions. This January Gosnells launched an even lower alcohol version. It’s Low Alc Sparkling Mead comes in at just 0.5% abv. It even comes in an elegantly designed, party worthy can. 

I’m sticking to low rather than no.

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