{"id":621376,"date":"2024-05-21T23:07:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T20:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/sober-nation-macleans-ca-3\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T23:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T20:07:29","slug":"sober-nation-macleans-ca-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sober-nation-macleans-ca-3\/","title":{"rendered":"#Sober Nation &#8211; Macleans.ca"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a41c737b436f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" 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srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_3182-2400x1600.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=80 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_3182-2400x1600.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;q=80 750w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_3182-2400x1600.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=80 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_3182-2400x1600.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=80 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_3182-2400x1600.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=80 1200w, 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font-lightmedium font-sans mb-10 \">Sexy mocktails, zero-alcohol beer and boozeless bars are everywhere. Why it\u2019s never been cooler (or easier) to go alcohol-free.\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"author whitespace-break-spaces text-xs leading-xs text-dark\">BY CAITLIN WALSH MILLER<br \/>\nPHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY VAN DER LAAN<br \/>\nNON-ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS MADE AND SHOT AT VELA IN TORONTO<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"max-w-[640px] mx-auto pb-20 laptop:py-20 px-20\">\n<div class=\"mb-8 flex gap-6\">\n<div class=\"relative inline-block\"><button aria-label=\"Sharing Button\" class=\"rounded-xl border border-grey-light px-12 py-6 hover:bg-grey-lighter transition-colors\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" fill=\"none\"><g clip-path=\"url(#share_svg__a)\"><path stroke=\"#121212\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" d=\"M2.419 15.525c1.286-1.37 4.661-4.275 9.458-4.275V15l6.25-6.25-6.25-6.25v3.75c-4.125 0-9.413 3.941-10 9.027a.313.313 0 0 0 .542.248\"\/><\/g><defs><clippath id=\"share_svg__a\"><path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M0 0h20v20H0z\"\/><\/clippath><\/defs><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"fixed laptop:absolute max-laptop:bottom-0 laptop:top-[calc(100%+20px)] left-0 right-0 laptop:right-auto w-full laptop:w-[190px] p-20 rounded-lg bg-white font-sans shadow-[0px_0px_10px_rgba(0,0,0,0.15)] invisible\">\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0\">\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>Copy Link<\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>Email<\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>X<\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>Whats<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a><\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<li class=\"border-b border-b-grey-light text-dark last:border-b-0 group\"><button class=\"flex items-center gap-10 py-7 group-last:pb-0 w-full font-light group\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/button><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"uppercase text-xs leading-normal font-sans text-grey font-lightmedium\">May 21, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>It used to be hard to find a decent non-alcoholic drink<\/strong> for grown-ups besides soda and juice. I became acutely aware of this during the summer of 2016, while on my fourth date in Montreal with Jeremy, my now-husband. He had been sober for five years, after a decade of drinking and drugs that culminated in an intervention, two months in rehab and well over 1,000 AA meetings. That night, when he asked about booze-free beverage options, our waiter looked shaken. \u201cSir,\u201d he said, \u201cthis is a <em>bar<\/em>.\u201d Retail options were no better. Once, before visiting my sisters in Toronto, Jeremy and a very-pregnant me ran around trying to track down non-alcoholic beer. I rejoiced when we finally located a case of Heineken 0.0 at Shoppers Drug Mart. (Of all the ginless joints&#8230;).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The times, they are a-changin\u2019. This spring, Jeremy and I left our two kids with a sitter and set out on a dry pub crawl. We started our evening with zesty non-alcoholic amaro mules at the one-year anniversary party of Ap\u00e9ro \u00e0 z\u00e9ro, a booze-free boutique in Montreal\u2019s Hochelaga neighbourhood whose name more or less translates to \u201cmocktail hour.\u201d After making some purchases\u2014including faux-margaritas-in-a-can from the Quebec brand Bluff\u2014we headed to Le Majestique, a spot known for its natural wine list and $23 hot dog, but that <em>should<\/em> be known for its hibiscus lemonade. We finished at Cicchetti, which had Italian tapas and no fewer than 10 non-alc items on the menu. I chose the Fumig\u00e8ne, a spicy-smoky tequila alternative, while Jeremy ordered the Fritz, a Negroni made with de-alcoholized vermouth. Now, <em>this<\/em> was a bar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Jeremy and I aren\u2019t the only ones revelling in the abundance of new zero-proof drinks. More and more Canadians are rethinking their relationships with alcohol, whether taking a night, a week or a month off\u2014or dropping it completely. According to a 2023 poll, a quarter of Canadian respondents aged 18 to 34 abstained from alcohol in the previous month, up from 17 per cent in 2018. Another survey by Tinder found that a third of respondents in the same age range planned to participate in Dry January this year. If you ask Gen Z, binge is cringe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">On the business side, hundreds of low- and no-alcohol products have recently flooded the market. International giants like Tanqueray, Corona and Guinness have released their own zero-proof offerings, but many others are homegrown\u2014and they\u2019re <em>good<\/em>. Domestic brewers like Libra and Harmon\u2019s make near-beers that approximate the real deal, while Proxies, a hip wine alternative out of Toronto, is set to debut a peppery red later this year. Alcohol-free online marketplaces, bottle shops, menus, bars and social clubs (many with their own merch) have emerged from Whitehorse to Halifax, meaning non-drinkers no longer have to hole up at home with La Croix. Sobriety is having a full-on moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>Canada\u2019s always <\/strong>been a pretty boozy country. Around 80 per cent of us drink\u2014a stat that\u2019s remained consistent since the \u201980s\u2014and we do so in volumes almost twice the global average. No surprise, then, that the sobriety fad didn\u2019t start here. Ironically, it kicked off in the pub-loving United Kingdom, where, by 2012, alcohol use had dropped by roughly a quarter from an all-time high in the early aughts. The reasons? Stricter laws around sales of booze to minors and rising immigration from majority non-drinking nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block \">\n<div class=\"inline-magazine-block ad-free-zone max-w-screen-desktop mx-auto px-20 tablet:px-40 py-20 tablet:py-40\">\n<div class=\"border border-dark border-b-6&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;flex flex-col-reverse tablet:grid grid-cols-[2fr_repeat(3,_1fr)] gap-0 tablet:gap-20 desktop:gap-40 items-center px-20 py-40 laptop:p-40&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;\">\n<div class=\"max-w-[400px] mx-auto text-center laptop:pr-20\">\n<h2 class=\"text-red\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Subscribe_Now\"><\/span>Subscribe Now<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><em>Maclean\u2019s<\/em> magazine offers something you can\u2019t get anywhere else: deeply reported, compellingly told longform feature stories on the most urgent topics in the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The birth of the modern non-alc market came in 2015, courtesy of Ben Branson, a teetotal marketing executive whose family farmed in the English county of Lincolnshire for centuries. After stumbling upon <em>The Art of Distillation<\/em>, a 17th-century book that details how apothecaries produced herbal remedies, Branson bought a small copper still and got to tinkering.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The result was Seedlip, the world\u2019s first non-alcoholic spirit, which Branson launched at Selfridges London. It caught on quickly with upscale bars and restaurants, star chefs like Gordon Ramsay, and spirit colossus Diageo, owner of Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. Within seven months of its debut, Seedlip became the first zero-proof brand in Diageo\u2019s 200-strong portfolio and 257-year history. (Today, it\u2019s the bestselling boozeless spirit in the U.S.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Social mores around drinking also evolved throughout the 2010s, the decade when wellness culture\u2014gluten-free diets, CBD-infused everything and meditation apps like Headspace\u2014really took root. Quit Lit, a new book genre best described as \u201cmemoir-slash-self-help\u201d and largely written by Gen X women, picked apart our collective obsession with alcohol and our suspicion of abstainers. In the Quit Lit classic <em>This Naked Mind<\/em>, author Annie Grace describes alcohol as \u201cthe only drug on Earth you have to justify not taking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide !max-w-[720px]\"><img alt=\"DRINK MENU: The no- and low-alcohol market, worth US$13 billion in 2023, is packed with non-alcoholic alternatives for rum, bitters and tequila (above at Bevvy\u00e2\u0080\u0099s bottle shop in Toronto)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=75 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;q=75 750w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=75 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=75 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=75 1200w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1920w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=2048&amp;q=75 2048w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 3840w\" src=\"https:\/\/macleans.ca\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN070.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\"\/><figcaption class=\"w-full text-left\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">At the same time, the very concept of sobriety was shifting from a binary to a full-blown spectrum. Suddenly, there were \u201cmindful drinkers\u201d (who check in with themselves before ordering), \u201csober-curious\u201d folks (who say no most of the time), the \u201cCalifornia sober\u201d (who say no to booze but yes to weed) and \u201czebra-s<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>ers\u201d (who alternate between mojitos and faux-jitos in a single night). Even the calendar changed: an Australian youth health organization launched Sober October in 2010, followed by Dry January in the U.K. in 2013. Dry Feb arrived in 2016, a creation of the Canadian Cancer Society.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Keen to cater to all manner of sober orientations, brands, big and small, pumped out new products. By 2019, the global no- and low-alcohol wine, beer and spirits market had surpassed US$8 billion, a fraction of the alcohol market (US$1 trillion), but not bad for a vertical that didn\u2019t meaningfully exist a few years earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">As zero-proof producers like Ritual, Drink Monday and Lyre\u2019s started giving Seedlip some competition, the boozeless buzz infiltrated Canada in the form of Sobrii and Lumette, the country\u2019s first spirit alternatives. Then came another 2019 milestone: Canada\u2019s count of drinkers hit a 25-year low. Disruption was in the air, even before a speed bump shaped like a coronavirus sent our consumption patterns spiralling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>I<em>t was always just there. <\/em><\/strong>That\u2019s how the people I interviewed for this story described alcohol, as a constant presence whether they were celebrating, commiserating or just existing. Got a new job? Drinks. Lost your job? Drinks! Made it to Thursday? Definitely drinks. (In Quebec, that\u2019s called <em>jeudredi<\/em>.) On special occasions, like a cottage weekend or even a child\u2019s birthday party, mimosas, Irish coffees and Caesars\u2014a Canadian invention\u2014are normalized if not mandatory. But if there was ever a time to re-evaluate \u201cnormal,\u201d the pandemic was it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">In COVID\u2019s first year, 22 per cent of Canadians drank less, mostly due to lack of opportunity. A few more of us (24 per cent) upped our intake. The more stressful, boring or lonely someone found the cataclysm, the more likely they were to imbibe, and boy, those who did, did some damage: enough booze was sold between 2020 and 2021 to serve every citizen of legal age nearly 10 standard drinks every week, or fill 1,272 Olympic swimming pools. Of the Canadians who reported drinking more, more were binging.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Cameron Penner, an Ottawa-based public and government relations consultant, was among them. In COVID\u2019s early days, he and his wife, Elizabeth, instituted a rule: no drinking from Sunday to Thursday. \u201cBut that seemed to justify having a lot on Friday and Saturday,\u201d he says. A couple of martinis to demarcate the end of another remote workweek, then wine with dinner, then beer or scotch\u2014they\u2019d wake up feeling not-so-great on Saturday, but it didn\u2019t feel like a crutch. Just a weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">A switch flipped in the summer of 2022, when Elizabeth caught an instalment of <em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hubermanlab.com\/\">The Huberman Lab<\/a><\/em>, the enormously popular health podcast by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, about the effects of alcohol on the human body. In Apple Podcasts\u2019 second-most shared episode of the year, Huberman explains how, as a water- and fat-soluble substance, alcohol permeates all of our cells and tissues. It gets metabolized by the liver, from ethanol to acetaldehyde to acetate, the last of which is harmless and gets excreted. Ethanol and acetaldehyde, however, slip past the blood-brain barrier and disrupt our neural circuitry. Thinking, planning and memory storage dip, while feelings of relaxation and disinhibition increase\u2014until they rebalance. (Hello, morning-after hang-xiety.) What most shocked Penner was how little was needed to wreak havoc. Seven to 14 drinks a week is linked to neurodegeneration, whether spaced out or downed all at once. \u201cWe were way over the limit of what was considered healthy,\u201d he says. \u201cThat blew my mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Here are some more neural circuitry\u2013disrupting facts: alcohol causes nearly 7,000 cancer deaths in Canada each year, along with approximately 15,000 preventable deaths and 90,000 preventable hospital admissions. It increases the risk of heart disease\u2014yes, even red wine. (Those \u201ca glass a day keeps coronaries at bay\u201d studies tend to be written by authors funded by Big Booze.) And every time we drink, a few liver cells die, which can eventually lead to life-threatening cirrhosis. Then there are the bar fights, intimate partner violence, sexual assaults and traffic accidents. In 2020, alcohol use cost the country nearly $20 billion in health care, criminal justice enforcement and lost productivity, more than the combined expense of tobacco and other psychoactive substances, including opioids and cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide !max-w-[720px]\"><img alt=\"WHAT ALES US: The fastest-growing segment of the no-lo market? Beer, the country\u00e2\u0080\u0099s unofficial national drink (pictured above, second and third shelves).\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=75 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;q=75 750w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=75 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=75 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=75 1200w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1920w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=2048&amp;q=75 2048w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 3840w\" src=\"https:\/\/macleans.ca\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN069.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\"\/><figcaption class=\"w-full text-left\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">A podcast may have had the biggest influence over the Penners\u2019 decision to cut down\u2014to one or two drinks, and still only on weekends\u2014but policy-wise, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction has the last word on responsible intake. The CCSA, an NGO made up of scientists, policy analysts and addiction specialists, is tasked with communicating the harms of alcohol and other drugs to the public and telling us how much we can safely ingest. From 2011 until last year, the CCSA\u2019s low-risk drinking guidelines capped women and men at 10 and 15 drinks a week, respectively\u2014numbers that seem positively bacchanalian in retrospect. Its report in January of 2023, funded by Health Canada, landed with a boom: no amount of alcohol was safe. If we <em>were<\/em> going to drink, two should be our weekly max.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The CCSA\u2019s new limit was tough for Canadians to swallow; at first, many of us literally didn\u2019t believe it. More than half of respondents to a March of 2023 Ipsos poll claimed the recommended limit was \u201cfear-mongering\u201d and so low that \u201cit lacked credibility.\u201d (Which stage of grief is denial?) \u201cWhat do I do after the first half-hour?\u201d asked one commenter on a viral TikTok of a \u201cheartbroken Ontarian man.\u201d He declared the guidelines not feasible\u2014not in this country. Other critics compared the CCSA to a modern-day temperance lobby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Still, the report marked a point of no return. Canadians could no longer write off their glasses of red as restorative. We couldn\u2019t unknow the dangers of drinking or say no one warned us. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria\u2019s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, or CISUR, helped author the new guidelines.\u201cAlcohol is losing its health halo,\u201d he says. The CCSA\u2019s report also called on Health Canada to suggest serving sizes and slap alcohol products with warning labels, as regulatory changes typically have more sway than doctor-to-patient advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">\u00a0As part of a 2017 pilot project, CISUR put warning labels on alcohol containers at a liquor store in Whitehorse. Sales of labelled products dropped by almost seven per cent, but the initiative was soon halted due to pushback. \u201cThe alcohol industry in Canada is very powerful and very good at lobbying,\u201d Naimi says. In a world of curbside and convenience store pick-up and \u201cbuck-a-beer\u201d political platforms (thanks, Doug Ford), if Canadians want to break up with our favourite vice, we\u2019ll have to buck the bureaucracy and do it ourselves. Many of us are already.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>I first noticed people<\/strong> talking about going off the sauce in my circle\u2014and on my social feeds\u2014a year and a half ago. I decided to write a short piece about it, but when I poked around for sources, I got three responses. This time, I received more than three dozen. I spoke with a high school friend who\u2019d just quit alcohol <em>and<\/em> weed and someone who quit after a disastrous booze-fuelled trip with an ex. I spoke to a bunch of nearly everyday drinkers\u2014a former colleague, a friend of a friend, a stranger who found me on LinkedIn\u2014who\u2019d cut down considerably. I even talked to my dad, who drank to excess for most of his life, then stopped abruptly after he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Everyone\u2019s story was different; everyone\u2019s story was the same. Almost no one identified as having an alcohol-use disorder, though some said they might\u2019ve ended up there. Many started with a sober month and just kept going. They had more time and energy (\u201cThe gym is open on Sunday mornings\u2014did you know that?\u201d). Some had more cash (\u201cIt\u2019s not just the booze; it\u2019s the DoorDash deliveries the next day\u201d). No one wanted to deal with two-day hangovers. And some compared sobriety to a superpower or, weirdly, a drug (\u201clike popping a pill\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Ditching drinking in your personal life is one thing. But for sober folks seeking to socialize with a like-minded community, until recently, Alcoholics Anonymous felt like the only <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> in town. The 12-step program has a lot going for it, namely that it\u2019s free and it\u2019s everywhere. It\u2019s saved countless lives, including my husband\u2019s. But AA hasn\u2019t evolved much since it was founded in 1935: the <em>Big Book<\/em>, its foundational text, still includes a chapter entitled \u201cTo Wives,\u201d because the program was designed by men, for men. There are now queer meetings and women\u2019s groups, but not everyone feels comfortable in \u201cthe rooms.\u201d Not everyone feels the need to quell their ego. Plus, it can all be kind of heavy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Thankfully, other sober (and sober-curious) socializing opportunities are springing up. Montreal\u2019s Le Sober Club was founded in 2022 by Katherine Caisse-Roy and Simon Charbonneau. The two first met 10 years ago\u2014in a bar, naturally. \u201cI was his bartender and thought he was cute,\u201d says Caisse-Roy. Charbonneau, a social drinker, quit alcohol in 2019 on doctor\u2019s orders after experiencing some abdominal pain. Caisse-Roy\u2019s path to sobriety was less clear-cut. After she was given her first sip of maple whisky at eight, she partied through her teens and 20s before sobering up in the fall of 2020, at the age of 32. Caisse-Roy found Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous useful, but felt out of place after a few meetings. \u201cSome people were just getting out of prison,\u201d she says. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t my reality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Caisse-Roy searched for more upbeat sober hangs and found groups like Sober Girl Society in London, No Booze Babes in the U.S. and, here at home, Sober Babes Vancouver. They organized book swaps, boxing classes, pottery nights and drag shows, and their bubblegum branding and relatable social media presences made not drinking look decidedly cool. Inspired, Caisse-Roy and Charbonneau launched Le Sober Club two springs ago. Their first event was a witchy afternoon of meditation in a Montreal park.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">In short order, the club has amassed a couple thousand Instagram followers, an active Discord community where members trade recipes and a monthly discussion group. \u201cIt\u2019s a place where we can talk openly about our sobriety,\u201d says Caisse-Roy. \u201cNo strict rules, no judgment.\u201d Jeremy and I attended a discussion group one Monday this past spring in an old Montreal garment factory. Eight of us chatted about cravings, hangovers and cocaine, but also kids, dating and A&amp;W sandwiches\u2014over some delicious de-alcoholized sparkling wine. Said one new joiner: \u201cMy people! Where have you been?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligndefault \"><img alt=\"SMART SERVE: Bars across Canada now offer abundant mocktail options, like the Placebo Maid (above), on offer at Vela in Toronto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=75 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;q=75 750w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=75 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=75 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=75 1200w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1920w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=2048&amp;q=75 2048w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 3840w\" src=\"https:\/\/macleans.ca\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F2437_0418_Macleans-AlcoholFree-Vela_2950.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\"\/><figcaption class=\"w-full text-left\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The answer, aside from \u201cat home,\u201d used to be: <em>white-knuckling it with tonic and lime at bars<\/em>. Now, that scene is becoming more sober-friendly, too, thanks to some industry mavericks. When Robin Goodfellow, the all-star Toronto bartender and restaurateur behind Ursa and Bar Raval, opened his cocktail joint, PrettyUgly, in October of 2016, he wanted to have a solid non-alcoholic suite. \u201cI have a lot of friends who don\u2019t drink because they\u2019re in recovery or for religious reasons,\u201d he says. \u201cBut they have good palates. I didn\u2019t want to just serve them Perrier.\u201d This was pre-Seedlip, so Goodfellow spent months developing bitters, non-alcoholic vermouths and liqueurs from scratch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Early in 2017, he launched PrettyUgly\u2019s Placebo Menu; the word \u201cmocktail\u201d was nowhere to be found. \u201cZero-proof cocktails were already the black sheep of the drinks list,\u201d Goodfellow says. \u201c\u2005\u2018Mocktail\u2019 just invites comparison, when these drinks are their own, fully realized things.\u201d At first, would-be customers popped their heads inside, asking, \u201cIs this the sober bar?\u201d in hushed tones. Some fought Goodfellow on his prices\u2014a Diet Coke cost $3, so why was his non-alcoholic martini worth $11? \u201cPeople complained, like, \u2018Why is this so expensive? It doesn\u2019t even get you drunk!\u2019\u2005\u201d Goodfellow says. \u201cCaviar doesn\u2019t get you full. Neither do oysters or A5 Wagyu beef. The price reflects the preparation\u2014and the deliciousness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">PrettyUgly became a hotspot for Toronto\u2019s sober-curious set before it was forced to close during the pandemic, but Goodfellow soon took his concoctions across the city to Vela, the Michelin-recommended restaurant he co-founded in 2021. His current six-placebo lineup is priced between $14 and $16 and includes the Amalfi Spritz, a summery fave made with zero-proof ros\u00e9. Goodfellow has noticed that patrons no longer quibble about cost. \u201cI think it\u2019s partly a health-consciousness thing\u2014not healthy like an a\u00e7ai berry, obviously,\u201d he says. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s just dollars for a tasty drink.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The most intriguing customer demographic might be Gen Z, even if roughly a third of them are still underage. If Gen X writers transformed conversations around sobriety, and a bunch of millennials caught on and cut down, Gen Zs are ensuring the global alcohol-free movement moves forward. Nearly 75 per cent of Canadians 15 to 19 years old drank in 2008. By 2019, it dropped to 46 per cent. In Europe, young people are spending less on booze, and in Australia, more are abstaining altogether. Of the Gen Zs I interviewed, most summarized their friends\u2019 reactions to their sobriety as a tolerant \u201cyou do you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Given that alcohol is an expensive toxin that messes with our insides, the zoomers\u2019 ambivalence toward it makes sense. There are other, more ephemeral reasons. Broadly speaking, members of Gen Z grew up with baseline mental-health literacy, they\u2019re more risk-averse and less financially secure than their predecessors, and they\u2019re the least likely generation to hang out in person, instead leveraging another powerful social lubricant: smartphones. If and when they do go out, this demo could use some new, alcohol-free ways of blowing off steam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Enter Jacques Martiquet, also known as \u201cThe Party Scientist.\u201d Martiquet, a sober 28-year-old UBC alumnus, has been hosting hyperkinetic boozeless gatherings in B.C. since 2015, the final year of his pharmacology degree. Throughout undergrad, Martiquet worked as a medic at campus parties and music festivals, where he witnessed countless examples of overconsumption. \u201cIt made me sad that one of the main ways we have fun is by drinking in a loud environment that\u2019s not designed for human connection,\u201d Martiquet says. \u201cI wanted to change that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">So far, Martiquet\u2019s sober outings have included playground hops, beach crawls and raves, which Martiquet organizes via an 1,800-member WhatsApp group. People show up by the hundreds\u2014non-<br \/>drinkers, adventure seekers, health nuts and tourists keen to do something different in Vancouver. Though his events are all-ages, and he missed the Gen Z cutoff by just a year, Martiquet believes this cohort, so used to bonding through screens, are prime candidates for new opportunities to socialize without leaning on liquid courage. \u201cAlcohol\u2019s good at reducing some people\u2019s self-consciousness,\u201d he says, \u201cbut there are so many other ways to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>Gen Z<\/strong><strong>s<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>aren\u2019t just the vanguard of this brave new non-alcoholic world\u2014they\u2019re also big fans of the merchandise. A 2023 report by the online alcohol marketplace Drizly found that nearly a quarter of zoomer and millennial respondents drank non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits often, compared to six per cent of Gen Xers and one per cent of boomers. With the no- and low-alcohol market valued at US$13 billion as of 2023\u2014and expected to grow by a third by 2026\u2014young Canadians might be the industry\u2019s best hope for continued buyers. And they\u2019re spoiled for choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Small-batch producers initially dominated the market, but now mega-brands are getting in on the alcohol-free action. Surely there\u2019s no greater sign of zero-proof going mass-market than White Claw\u2019s full-circle brand evolution. On January 1, the company that kicked off the hard seltzer craze introduced a non-alcoholic version. (<em>So, a seltzer<\/em>, you ask? No. It still tastes boozy.) Not ready for the White Claw revolution? There are now non-alc varieties from old standbys like Tanqueray and Captain Morgan\u2019s. Canada got access to Corona Sunbrew in 2022 and Guinness 0.0 last fall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">As chain retailers were figuring out where to put all that new non-alc product\u2014which stores did it belong in? Which aisle?\u2014online marketplaces flourished. When Quebec\u2019s Upside Drinks launched in early 2022, it was fulfilling orders from one of the founders\u2019 basements; they\u2019ve since upgraded to a 4,000-square-foot warehouse. Upside is now easily the largest online non-alc retailer in the country, but there\u2019s no shortage of smaller digital storefronts: Soft Crush, Sansorium, Dry Variety and Designated Drinks have all opened since 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligndefault \"><img alt=\"TOP SHELF: Bevvy's, a booze-free bottle shop, opened earlier this year in Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood. The shop's shelves are stocked with non-alcoholic options of all sorts: fancy sparkling waters, adaptogen-infused drinks, non-alcoholic wines and more.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=75 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;q=75 750w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=75 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=75 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=75 1200w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1920w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=2048&amp;q=75 2048w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 3840w\" src=\"https:\/\/macleans.ca\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.macleans.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FJUNE-2024_SOBER-NATION_BY-ASHLEY-VAN-DER-LAAN067.jpg&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\"\/><figcaption class=\"w-full text-left\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">For those who still prefer real-life retail, booze-free bottle shops are proliferating, like Bevvy\u2019s, near Toronto\u2019s Kensington Market, and Sobr Market in Winnipeg (and Toronto). In Vancouver, Drive Canteen, an elevated convenience store concept, has doubled its non-alcoholic shelf space since opening during the pandemic. This past March, an alcohol-free liquor store called Mocktails opened right across the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Perhaps the most promising way for Canada to go from non-alcoholic market laggard to leader is by focusing on what we drink best: beer, the fastest-growing segment of the no-lo market. Brewers like Coors and Becks had been selling booze-free beers since the \u201990s, but they weren\u2019t great. (For years, production involved brewing regular beer, then boiling off or filtering out the ethanol\u2014along with the flavour, aroma and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> beeriness.) In 2018, Athletic, a craft brewery in Connecticut, turned the market on its not-so-foamy head with a new proprietary method, resulting in a fully fermented, very beery drink that just happened to be incredibly low in alcohol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Bockale was the first Canadian NA craft beer to hit shelves in 2016, and other competitors are popping up\u00ad\u2014including one from Steve Abrams, co-founder of Mill Street Brewery. Abrams spent decades steeped in beer, but he was well aware of its health impacts, especially on brewers themselves. \u201cIt\u2019s not a great sign when a 20-year-old has gout,\u201d he says. Abrams did the odd abstinence stint, scratching the itch with available near-beers. But it wasn\u2019t until a 2019 family trip to San Diego that Abrams discovered the thriving non-alcoholic craft scene down south. To his surprise, booze-free beer was big business in Spain and Germany, too. \u201cCanadians are risk-averse, always a little late to the table,\u201d says Abrams. Non-alc beer, eh? \u201cA little lightbulb went off,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Back at home, Abrams enlisted Rob Doyle, Mill Street\u2019s former head brewer, to help him experiment with different strains of yeast. They met once a month at \u201cthe boardroom\u201d\u2014a Toys R Us parking lot in Etobicoke, Ontario\u2014for tasting sessions. Growler by growler, they edged closer to a product that captured the essence of a beer they\u2019d actually want to drink. Six months in: jackpot. Or rather, Jack Pine, a citrusy pale ale. By November of 2021, they\u2019d added a hazy IPA and a light lager to the lineup and were ready to sell their products as Harmon\u2019s, Abrams\u2019s mom\u2019s maiden name.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The first year of operations was slow going. Abrams says bars and restaurants were still skeptical, but Harmon\u2019s found a toehold in health food stores\u2014a boon, even if he thought buying beer where you get your granola was an unnatural fit. Everything changed in the fall of 2022 with Sober October, which was going mainstream in Canada. \u201cThe press really made hay,\u201d Abrams remembers. \u201cWe gave a lot of interviews.\u201d Suddenly, bars and restaurants were reaching out to <em>them<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">These days, Harmon\u2019s is stocked at Toronto hotspots like Canoe and the Horseshoe Tavern, as well as 500 grocery stores and food and drink establishments across the country. In January, Abrams invited more than a dozen other breweries to join the inaugural No-Lo Beerfest, the first of its kind in the city. The event skewed a little older\u2014people who like beer and grew up drinking it, with little kids and babies in tow\u2014but the venue was over capacity. \u201cIt felt like a proof of concept,\u201d Abrams says. If enough brews and entrepreneurs enter the scene, Abrams speculates that booze-free beer could one day represent five to 10 per cent of all domestic beverage sales. For now, he\u2019s encouraged by the shows of support for the non-alc community\u2014some of them quintessentially Canadian. For Beerfest, he says, \u201cThree hundred people came out in minus-12-degree weather.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap     undefined\"><strong>It will be interesting<\/strong> to see if another world-altering event\u2014another pandemic, another Trump term, or maybe something positive\u2014will fully pry Canadians\u2019 hands from their beer and wine glasses for good, and whether Gen Z will kill public drinking the way millennials killed top sheets. Whatever happens, I\u2019m optimistic that my kids, now three and five, will see that it\u2019s possible for adults to get together without alcohol, at inviting, actually cool sober spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">Canadians like Gail Lynch are working on it. During the summer of 2020, Lynch, a mixologist who\u2019s been sober for a decade, started slinging booze-free cocktails for friends and neighbours at a makeshift bar in her Toronto backyard. She doubted that her sober startup could ever become a full-time business\u2014like Goodfellow, she had to DIY everything, which was a time- and resource-sink. But the non-alcoholic market is nothing if not dynamic. Within a year, Lynch launched Zero Cocktail Bar, an alcohol-free pop-up and weekend bottle shop in the city\u2019s east end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">At her first event, Lynch served more than 1,000 drinks made with ingredients like makrut lime, guayusa and cinnamon\u2014flavours from her childhood in the Caribbean. Soon, Zero will have a permanent address in the city\u2019s Regent Park area, subsidized by the Daniels Community Commercial Program for community-benefiting businesses. \u201cEquity is important in everything we do, even what we eat and what we drink,\u201d Lynch says. \u201cAnd now I have 50 non-alcoholic gins to choose from.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"     undefined\">The <em>choice<\/em> of it all is what I\u2019m most optimistic about. The rise of bars like Zero (and Sobar and Bevees out in B.C.) ensure that drinking might not be our default outing activity for much longer. This, I\u2019m certain, will lead to more interesting dates. Back in my swiping days, so many men suggested the same Montreal bar\u2014literally called Bar Plan-B\u2014that it was astronomically exciting when Jeremy said he wanted to take me to the planetarium.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-core\">\n<p class=\"    endstyle undefined\">One of my sober contacts concurred. After she added the s-word to her dating profile, she got fewer but more compatible matches, who proposed more creative outings, like crazy golf or bowling, rather than the typical \u201clet\u2019s grab a drink.\u201d Other swipers are catching on: according to Tinder, the No. 1 date activity in Canada last year was hiking. It\u2019s not exploring the galaxy in one afternoon\u2014or faux-margs-in-a-can\u2014but it\u2019s their idea of a good time. I\u2019ll drink to that. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block \">\n<div class=\"ad-free-zone laptop:px-0\">\n<div class=\"max-w-screen-desktop mx-auto px-20 tablet:px-40\">\n<div class=\"wp-newsletter-signup max-w-screen-desktop mx-auto w-full py-20 my-20 tablet:my-40 tablet:py-80&#10;          border-t-3 tablet:border-t-[6px] border-dark bg-white\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col tablet:flex-row max-w-[800px] w-full mx-auto tablet:items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col tablet:w-7\/12 space-y-10 text-center tablet:text-left px-20\">\n<h2 class=\"text-red\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Get_the_Best_of_Macleans_straight_to_your_inbox\"><\/span>Get the Best of <em>Maclean\u2019s<\/em> straight to your inbox.<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"newsletter-subtitle font-sans text-sm leading-xm tablet:leading-smm font-lightmedium text-grey\">Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>, commentary, analysis and promotions. Join 80,000+ Canadian readers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/macleans.ca\/society\/sober-nation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sexy mocktails, zero-alcohol beer and boozeless bars are everywhere. Why it\u2019s never been cooler (or easier) to go alcohol-free. BY CAITLIN WALSH MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY VAN DER LAAN NON-ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS MADE AND SHOT AT VELA IN TORONTO Copy Link Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit May 21, 2024 It used to be hard to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}