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What We’re Drinking to Keep Dry January Actually Dry

We might just extend this into Dry February.

a group of bottles and a can Monday, Brooklyn Brewery, Ghia

By Tyler Chin and Johnny Brayson

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In some circles, booze is losing its luster. In 2023, beer drinking in the US hit its lowest levels this century, as Gen Z hasn’t taken to alcohol as strongly as prior generations, so far drinking 20 percent less than Millennials. It’s now practically a given that some people you know will be participating in Dry January (or at least Damp January), and many will also take part in Sober October or even Dry July, too.

But that sober void isn’t being filled by nothing. Non-alcoholic alternatives have risen to fill the gap, with NA beers, spirits, wines and mocktails all vying to be a part of your sober or sober-curious lifestyle. The industry is booming, with hot bars around the world stocking up on “NoLo” beverages. Even Drizly, a site and app created for the sole purpose of delivering booze to your door, saw an 80-percent increase in non-alcoholic brands from 2022 to 2023.

Clearly, booze-free beverages are here to stay, not just for Dry January but for the whole year (and the next several). So to figure out where to start on your sober-curious journey, have a look at our favorite non-alcoholic alternative beverages below.

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Products in the Guide

st agrestis phony negroni non alcoholicSt. Agrestis

Best Overall Non-Alcoholic Drink

St. Agrestis Phony Negroni

St. Agrestis is a Brooklyn-based distillery that makes remarkably good local interpretations of amari like Campari and Aperol, along with excellent canned cocktails of cocktails containing those aperitifs. But increasingly, the distillery has turned its attention toward non-alcoholic offerings. It’s most notable is its “Phony Negroni,” a bottled NA negroni using its own booze-free “Amaro Falso” that tastes as good as it’s name is clever. The brand has also branched out with interesting plays on the form, like a Phony Mezcal Negroni and, new for 2024, a Phony Espresso Negroni.

For the past couple Dry January’s, WhistlePig has trotted out its 100% Rye Non-Whiskey — a whiskey-like spirit distilled from rye but containing no alcohol — in a bottled premade old fashioned. For 2024, the brand went a step further and added cannabis terpenes to the mix. But the drink won’t get you high. Instead, the terpenes add some nice aromas and improve mouthfeel, making for an all-around more enjoyable NA cocktail.

Acid League Proxies are not wine. Now that we got that out of the way, we can go on and rave about how this is an excellent wine alternative. Proxies bring the experience of opening a bottle of wine — from removing the wax to the actual uncorking — and give a new purpose to your wine glasses. Each bottle of Proxies houses a liquid that sort of looks like wine, but it’s actually filled with a mix of juices, botanicals and other flavorings. Every time you take a sip of Proxies, you’ll find yourself admiring the complexities of flavors just as you would real wine.

Amass is known for its botanical-infused spirits, particularly its takes on gin and vodka. The latest addition to its lineup is Riverine, a non-alcoholic spirit made from 14 botanicals, such as juniper, coriander and apple. We’ve been drinking this on the rocks with a splash of sparkling water, which helps to spread out the flavor so we can get a little hint of each botanical. I’m especially a fan of the use of sumac, which provides a tangy, savory and fruity flavor that makes us wonder why more spirits don’t use the spice.

A sip of Aplós is like taking an actual chill pill. The hemp-infused spirit supposedly helps regulate your mood, appetite and sleep. While we do feel a sense of calm after drinking it, we keep coming back to Aplós purely because it tastes really good. It’s citrusy on the forefront with a lingering herbal flavor.

When the craving for a beer hits, and I’m not in the mood for a buzz, Athletic Brewing is the way to go. The brewery is amazing at recreating beers that are full flavor with zero alcohol. Whether you want an IPA or a stout, Athletic has you covered. In fact, Athletic is so good at what it does that some breweries turn to it when they want to make a non-alcoholic beer option.

Bonbuz swaps out the booze for some mind-chilling natural stimulants. We can’t exactly verify how well it does with those stimulants, but Bonbuz is a worthy addition to the booze-free bar cart. It’s a punchy and citrusy spirit that pairs well with a simple combination of tonic water and a wedge of lime. Plus, there’s a bit of green tea-derived caffeine for a kick in the productivity.

Some say the sequel never lives up to the original. Brooklyn Brewery’s first Special Effects is a non-alcoholic hoppy ale that blew away the competition in the alcohol-free beer game. Its IPA is a much-appreciated addition to the Special Effects lineup. Resembling a West Coast-style IPA, this brew is fresh and bright with the right amount of bitter hoppiness and fruitiness that makes us question if we grabbed the right can out of the fridge every time.

Casamara Club makes something it calls “Leisure Sodas.” And that name nails exactly what these are. It’s not like Coca Cola, rather it’s like an amaro mixed with some bubbly. The low-sugar sodas come in a variety of flavor ranging from one that’s supposed to be reminiscent of a Negroni, the Alta, and one that’s like a sparkling natural white wine, Onda.

Figlia is a non-alcoholic aperitivo that’ll be the base of any non-alcoholic cocktail you make in the near future. It’s citrusy and bitter, and when the bottle of Campari doesn’t look appetizing anymore, Figlia is the bottle to take its place.

Campari has a new bright-red aperitivo to compete with. Besides being free of alcohol, Ghia also discloses all of its ingredients — which includes things like riesling white grape juice concentrate and yuzu juice — and has zero added sugar. On its own, Ghia tastes fruity and floral on the front with a pleasant bitterness that lingers on the tongue. It’s also endlessly mixable. The number of cocktails you can make with Ghia is almost unfathomable and helps to replicate the process of mixing a drink that one may miss when going dry.

Kin wants its beverages to make you feel better. Through its options like Lightwave and High Rhode, the drinks, as the brand claims, can help you do anything from “socialize, sleep, create, [to] chill out.” Either go for the spirit, which you can mix yourself, or (our preference) one of its ready-to-drink spritzes.

Sweet, sweet gin and tonics are still allowed during Dry January — only because Monday managed to make an alcohol-free gin that actually tastes like the real deal. I’m not sure how Monday does it, but this Juniper-flavored teetotaling tipple rivals a lot of the best-known gins out there.

Optimist’s non-alcoholic spirits are distilled, like a full-booze spirit, but without the alcohol. Each of its offerings is inspired by specific types of alcohol but with a twist: Its Bright is like a vodka, its Fresh sips like a gin and its Smokey brings the heat of tequila.

Think of your favorite cocktail. Great, now take out the booze and swap in some Ritual. The brand makes liquor alternatives that you swap out one for one in whatever cocktail you can think of (given the only alcohol in that cocktail is tequila, gin, rum or whiskey). These zero-proof libations will get you through Dry January, and if you’re always living the sober lifestyle, they’ll keep you satisfied.

Seedlip is an OG when it comes to non-alcoholic spirits. It’s not pretending to be gin or vodka or any clear liquor, and that’s what makes Seedlip taste so good — it’s doing its own thing. Spice 94 is perfect for replacing those warming brown spirits in the wintertime. With flavors of allspice, cardamom and citrus, it makes for a complex and delicious base for mocktails in place of whiskey, brandy and dark rum.

Yes, you can drink wine while living the sober lifestyle. Studio Null makes it possible with its non-alcoholic wines. How does that happen? Grapes, sourced from family-run vineyards, are turned into full-alcohol wine, but it’s then distilled further to remove the alcohol. Studio Null then goes back to the wine and alters it to adjust the acidity and balance. Each glass has 20 to 25 calories and between three to four grams of sugar, which helps with the acidity. The brand currently offers three wines — Sparkling Rosé, Blanc Burgunder and Prickly Red — each of which is worth trying and rebuying.

Don’t go into a can of Suntory All-Free expecting something to perfectly recreate a beer sans alcohol. While it’s made of hops and barley like beer, it tastes more like cereal-flavored seltzer. Odd as that sounds, All-Free does hit the spot when the beer cravings hit. Now, when we think about it, it kind of tastes like Bud Light.

When it comes to non-alcoholic spirits, some try to mimic a liquor, and others do their own thing. Tenneyson is the latter. There’s no alcohol out there that tastes like it, and that’s probably for the best. Its overwhelming flavor profile is a bright and spicy ginger, which sort of helps mimic the heat of booze, as well as lingering notes of citrus and floral. It also happens to be one of the few non-alcoholic spirits we could drink straight up.