I am not a doctor or a professional in the addiction space. I have not personally been through an addiction program for substance abuse. I did go through therapy for a relatively prolonged eating disorder as a child/teen, which is it’s own form of addiction with control-seeking, emotion-numbing and stress-coping roots. If suspect you have an alcohol use disorder, please talk to your doctor, find a support group or a mental professional who you feel comfortable talking to.

Why mention all this? Because alcoholic alternatives may not be for everyone. I don’t promote them as a way to cure addiction. Every person’s reason to cut back drinking or cut it out completely is unique to them, and therefore every person’s way of doing that will and should be just as unique.

In my personal case, alcoholic alternatives have been the key to significantly cutting back. Some people cut back to save calories or money- those are not my motivators. I love a tasty drink at the end of the day, I just don’t love how- when it contains alcohol- my brain gets wired to believe it’s a reward. I like to be able to let my brain decompress the stress or celebrations of the day with all neurons firing and let my body enjoy a beverage that isn’t hacking the mainframe.

The site will include recipes that are not meant to taste like booze, as well as those that are. In fact, one of my favorite non-alcoholic beverage recipes is actually pretty simple and tastes nothing like alcohol: A strong Ginger Beer, a fancy glass, and ice. Pour and Enjoy. Some items reviewed on the site, such as non-alcoholic beers and dealcoholized wines, will contain 0.5% ABV, which will be called out in the review.

If this journey isn’t for you, I honor you and wish you the best. If it is, I hope you find it useful in some way!