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Sober-curious movement: Non-alcoholic drink options grow
- jurgenaut23 3y agoI don't drink alcohol at all and I have noticed this trend as well, at least where I live (Switzerland).
- dinkblam 3y agowhy would anyone waste calories on a non-alcoholic drink?
- Zambyte 3y agoIf this is a serious question, I advise some long and hard introspection.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- SonicScrub 3y agoWhy would anyone waste their physical and mental well-being by consuming poison?
- CoastalCoder 3y agoMany people enjoy the taste and/or effects of alcohol, and consider the tradeoffs acceptable. Also, in some places and times, moderate consumption of e.g. wine was/is believed to be healthful.
- tomjakubowski 3y agoTastes good, lets you drink socially if you don't want alcohol
- zach_miller 3y agoDo you eat?
- grumpyinfosec 3y agoYa it does seem kind of silly. If it doesn't have caffeine or alcohol might as well just drink water or something diet. Your not getting much for your consumption of (usually) refined sugar or high GI carbs. Maybe in a social setting to pretend, but mocktails have existed for years?
- lapetitejort 3y agoI rarely ever drink, but love the taste of fermented beverages. So I picked up a six pack of near-beer and enjoyed it. I planned to make it a regular occasion. Then I read the nutrition label. There's a reason why alcohol doesn't have nutrition labels. You'd see the hundreds of empty calories consumed in every drink. I decided coffee and tea were better choices.
- houseatrielah 3y agoA shot of vodka has 100 cals. So little volume and so many cals. HopTea is pretty good if you want to drink something beer-adjacent. https://hoplark.com/collections/shop-all/products/green-tea-one https://hoplark.com/collections/shop-all/products/green-tea-...
- frob 3y agoI've found kombucha also scratches the same itch for me. There's a wide variety from plain to floral to fruity to herby. It's also a nice bonus that it has the opposite effect on my gut than alcohol.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI switched from beer in the evenings to kombucha. I feel so much better the next morning.
- verall 3y ago100 cals in a calorimeter but your body isn't able to metabolize all of it. Especially if you are binge drinking, you overload how fast you can metabolize ethanol and some of it gets released in partially-metabolized states.
- houseatrielah 3y agoI wonder if there's anything that can pay the rent. Bars sell a lot of $7 beer and $10 cocktails. Can you make money with tea or another replacement? If bars diminish... will there be another establishment that people go to? or, more likely I fear, everyone will just stay home.
- kunalgupta 3y agoThese are really good and have become my only vice. Somehow they’re much better than the real drinks
- automatoney 3y agoHah interesting to hear I'm part of a trend. I drink occasionally, but I honestly have never liked the taste of alcohol and I pretty often will go out to bars/clubs and just not drink at all. The effects of alcohol are fun, but I'm also increasingly feeling like I don't need them to have fun chatting and dancing. And yeah for sure aside from the taste I'm definitely not into the health downsides.
- _chu1 3y agoI thought the article hinted towards the companies making drinks that don't pretend to be alcohol, and are just good-tasting drinks as an alternative to alcohol but I saw the opposite. I don't see why anyone would want non-alcoholic rum.
- giantg2 3y agoSome people might like the taste.
- _chu1 3y agoTrue but if it hints towards the younger generations not liking or trying alcohol at all, it seems a bit out of touch.
- Obscurity4340 3y agoI wonder what ever happned to Palcahol or like David Nutt's substitute? I think the fundamental issue is you wanna "get fucked up" so you basically have to either reproduce that or simulate in a way that can be easily ended on demand and won't make people behave just as badly as alcohol, reminds me of when kids get into something that isnt alcohol but the placebo affect or social pressure gets them all to play along as if it was.
- giantg2 3y ago"Sober-curious" I've always wondered how this is a thing. Aren't most people sober more often than intoxicated? Shouldn't most people know what being sober is like, at least from their childhood? Maybe the terminology is just odd to me.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tayo42 3y agoIf you include caffeine, probably not lol
- eindiran 3y agoThe word "sober" here is being used like it is used by eg NA/AA; "sober" = exclusively sober (excluding caffeine and nicotine).
- giantg2 3y agoI can see that point of distinction. I guess I'm still not getting how someone is curious about being exclusively sober if they are like most people - only drinking small amounts occasionally. It's basically the same as the days you're not drinking if you're going weeks or months between drinks. If dependant, then why switch in stuff that also has risks like kava or very sugary drinks? Just be sober, or don't, not like a real curiosity to me. I don't know. Maybe it's just not for me.
- nicoburns 3y ago> like most people - only drinking small amounts occasionally This probably depends on your location, but that it very much not most people in the UK. Drinking alcohol almost everyday would be considered normal here. And a lot of socialising is organised around pubs where it is customary to drink alcohol. So for many people, it may have been a long time since they have gone weeks without drinking alcohol. And they may be curious about what it is like. Of course, not everyone drinks this much (or at all), but perhaps it gives you an idea of the sort of context in which being "sober curious" make sense as a concept.
- elil17 3y agoTo me, these are a bandaid solution to a much deeper problem: it is, somehow, socially unacceptable to abstain from alcohol in some situations. Obviously if people are drinking these because they just like the taste, that's fine, but I think most people have these because it lets them look like they are drinking.
- syntaxless 3y agoI’ve never drank in my life and never had any issues abstaining. “No thanks,” is almost always enough and rarely do I have anyone question why or try to pressure beyond that. Even when I was in high school or college. It seems to me people who do drink, even if only occasionally, have a harder time justifying to themselves why they shouldn’t drink when the opportunity presents itself.
- grvdrm 3y agoYes - as someone with this problem, you are spot on. That says nothing about why they have trouble abstaining. One element of it: teasing, judgement. Sometimes you fear those reactions to your decision so you pick the easy path and avoid that type of interaction. I know it sounds silly. And you may also fear the broader possibilities when someone asks you why you are abstaining. Lots of people do.
- syntaxless 3y agoDoes teasing and judgement happen often? I live in Vegas where being inebriated is fairly accepted but I can’t think of a time where I’ve been teased or pressured. They may be silently judging but I don’t notice or care. I think a lot of it has to do with how you turn down a drink. I usually say, “No thanks,” or “I’m good, thanks,” and it rarely goes beyond that. When I hear people respond with, “I don’t drink,” or “I’m not drinking right now/tonight/this month,” that seems to invite discussion. Everyone’s experiences are different though and I’m painting with a broad brush.
- grvdrm 3y ago
- ortusdux 3y agoAbout a year ago I ran a seltzer water tap to the kitchen sink and it has been great. We go through 5 gallons of RO water carbonated to 35 PSI in about a week or two.
- nbf_1995 3y agoCan you elaborate on your system? What brand is it and what size CO2 container does it take? I have a RO system that I barely use and love carbonated water. I currently use a sodastream and despise constantly refilling the tiny CO2 bottles.
- ortusdux 3y agoI've brewed beer on and off for over a decade, so I was able to assemble everything from gear I had laying around. My setup is two corny kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank w/ regulator, in a chest freezer with a temp controller set to 1°C. I put everything in the basement under the kitchen and ran a line up. I like an aggressive carbonation, so I set the regulator to 35 PSI. It takes a few days to carbonate, so I swap back and forth between the two kegs. It's a bit overkill, but its the only way I know to get chilled seltzer at the tap. Other options: - Buy a 5lb CO2 tank and a sodastream adapter. - Buy a 5lb CO2 tank, regulator, and a soda bottle adapter. You can carbonate 2-liter bottles and store them in the fridge. - Buy a homebrew kegging kit and just fill it with water. Before you buy a CO2 tank, figure out where/how to get it refilled. I get mine at a welding supply store, and they only swap tanks, so I would be upset if I bought a nice new bottle and had to trade it for a beater.
- moribvndvs 3y agoThere’s an Airgas 10 minutes down the highway from me. It was like $170 or something for a 20 pound tank plus the first fill, and costs like $40 to refill. But it will last two or three years unless you’re a maniac
- ortusdux 3y agoI've been thinking about upgrading to a 50lb bottle. A swap on the 5lb bottle in my area runs $30, while a 50lb bottle is $40. I had a leak that cost me three 5lb bottles this year, but I could just refill the bottle myself with the 50lb. I also use the CO2 for apple preservation, which can eat up a fair amount.
- anononaut 3y agoOver the last few years, I've become deeply obsessed with a tea hobby. Specifically, with specialty and high end teas such as puerh and oolong. With it, I've observed how tea is perceived around the world. In China, especially Yunnan, tea is so engrained with socializing. Anywhere people interact, tea is served. I've found if you can sit down with a friend or acquaintance and spend the few minutes to few hours one might over beer, tea can be an equally social action. It's similar, but has some notable differences in that all parties can stay sober, level headed, and even energetic. At this point, I greatly prefer conversing over tea than over beer. It doesn't necessarily have to be about the tea, but people will naturally be curious. I couldn't recommend it more. It does require some knowledge of buying and serving high quality tea, both of which are pretty unknown in the West. I'm working on starting a importing/retailing business to share the love for that very reason.
- derbOac 3y agoI agree completely. I attended a conference one year, where for unusual reasons I have not seen replicated since, colleagues seemed to gravitate around coffeeshops and teahouses instead of bars and it was a revelation. I've been a long time tea drinker but had never thought about some alternate universe where everyone was up late in a different sort of setting. It was a small difference that turned out to not actually be small at all after all.
- moribvndvs 3y agoI’d love to get out of alcohol and into tea, but caffeine gives me heart palpitations, even low caffeine tea blends can mess me up after a couple of cups (and the low caffeine blends are usually pretty boring… anyone got a suggestion?)
- placatedmayhem 3y agoHave you tried any straight herbal teas? Some herbals are mixed with traditional tea leaves, so you have to read the contents to differentiate. I've run into this with mint teas -- some are straight peppermint leaves, others mix in black or green tea leaves.
- swasheck 3y agoadaptogen drinks have been heavily advertised on my social media as a way to get the "buzz" of an alcoholic beverage without the consumption of actual alcohol. i've wanted to give them a try, but they're quite expensive.
- rspoerri 3y agoWe started drinking 0% Wine when my partner started breastfeeding. Even with the little alcohol our daugther got indirectly from a glass of wine, she got hyper-active and could not sleep well in the night. Especially white wine can taste very similar, rose is ok as well, red wine is way to close to grape juice for my taste. We loved the whites in the summer mixed with soda or water. My Mother recommended the rum or campari without alcohol, she loves them because they make you awake, and you can easily drink them during the day.
- thelazydogsback 3y agoA shrub made with Pellegrino + syrupy Balsamic, or apple cider vinegar with a drop of two of stevia - herbs optional - delicious. (and butyrate producing to boot...)
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y agoI don't drink. I like thinking, so drinking is counter productive to that. Combine that with the fact that I drink mostly water (cold or hot based on what I want), exception made for milk, ginger and honey when my throat is sore and occasionally tea "for social reasons", makes life way easier. There is never a situation like "I'm too drunk to drive" I do like the taste of some alcoholic drinks, but between the heartburn, losing my mind and the high amount of calories, that's very low appeal. I'll happily eat something tasty in exchange