Curious Elixirs offers eight booze-free cocktails with daring, unusual flavor combinations. We think Curious Elixir No. 2 is the winner, with its approachable but complex, unique but familiar blend of pineapple, jalapeño, and lime. Curious likens the drink to a cross between a dark and stormy and a spicy pineapple margarita, and the beverage’s salt content provides a savory edge that we found delectable. We’d play on that by serving this tepache-like drink in a salt-rimmed glass to further tease out the margarita comparison.
Nonalcoholic wine
Additionally, I examine the way mental and physical health as well as our relationships with others impact the reasons people drink and their role in maintaining sobriety long-term. That being said, there are mild potency kava tea options on the market that really do have a gentle, calming effect. They’re great for moments you need to catch a breath or want to wind down before bedtime. One of the easiest things you can do to feel calmer right now is to sit down for a moment, clear your mind, and begin counting your breaths. Meditation has been found to reduce anxiety, and a long-term practice may even lead to permanent stress reduction.
A solid swing at negroni-ness, booze-free
The 8.4-ounce can of Cuba Libre clocked in at only 50 calories while trying to mimic the flavor of a rum and Coke — but the drink could have used more calories and sugar. Still, we’d bet many people will be happy to sacrifice a bit of flavor in order to be a bit healthier by drinking less sugar, so we can’t ding the company https://ecosoberhouse.com/ too much for the lack of sweetness. Nightcap is the only Three Spirit product that the company recommends drinking by itself on the rocks. It has valerian in it, which, according to WebMD, has sedative properties. It’s also pretty spicy, which could be from the ginger, black pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns in the recipe.
TRU KAVA Drinks
Wilfred’s packs enough of an alcohol-like sting and bitter edge to be compelling, and it has enough sweetness and spice to be balanced and welcoming. As a staff writer on Wirecutter’s kitchen team, Mace Dent Johnson has worked on multiple taste tests and written about soda makers, air fryers, food processors, other small appliances, and specialty consumables. Mace is a hydration enthusiast and a non-alcohol drinker—and is serious about special little drinks. The process begins with selecting and pressing apples to extract the juice. This juice goes through pasteurization to eliminate any bacteria or wild yeast, and the fermentation process is either stopped early or not initiated, resulting in a beverage with little to no alcohol content.
Try mindful, non-alcoholic coping strategies
In the short-term, small doses of alcohol are an anxiolytic, meaning they reduce feelings of anxiety. Alcohol does this by reducing activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that generates fear responses to threats. This is the same neural alternatives to alcohol mechanism that makes people feel more sociable and brave on alcohol. Many nonalcoholic beverages contain herbs or other active ingredients, such as adaptogens, that could interact with medications or may not be safe during pregnancy.
- We picked up notes of dried grass, chamomile, honey, and roots.
- I’ll continue to test new ingredients and formulations as the research emerges.
Alcohol Alternatives If You Want To Relax Without The Hangover
We tasted it in some plain seltzer and ended up putting about a dozen drops in our glass to get the full flavor. If we tried the same thing with Peychaud’s, it would have been hard to drink the results. The company says it uses a spinning cone to filter the alcohol out of the wine — though we suspect this filtration system also deprives the wine of flavor. After all, Fre products include grape concentrate and other flavoring in addition to the dealcoholized wine. Without bubbles to smooth things over, we could detect more of the grape juice character in the non-sparkling wines.
