Sober tips Part 2: What to read, listen to & drink

Plus where to make merry

Sober socialising: a total gas.

See also Sober tips Part 1: Stopping & staying stopped.

Greetings, comrades,

sober or dry-curious types may be thinking: “Whatever happened to those practical tome, pod and drink tips Betts promised us?” Well, here they are.

Non-sober and not remotely dry-curious types may be thinking: “Will she ever shut up about not drinking?” I will, I promise, and soon - but first this.

And, actually, why not give it a read ahead of the party season, when almost everyone drinks more than they’d like? No flash bribes or affiliated links here, not least as I have no idea whatsoever how such things work. Just the stuff I love, or have benefited from.

Don’t drink me: my ten-year sobriety coin.

1) Books, podcasts, apps, sites

Recovered Cast – my virtual home group: for $9.99 a year, gain access to its invaluable 1300-episode, topic-based back catalogue. This saw me through my first 18 months

Drinking: A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp, a writer first and a drunk second; her essays, The Merry Recluse, are also first-class

Reframe: the no 1 quit-drinking app - a science-backed programme to make lasting change. Over 90% of users report a significant reduction in consumption within three months.

TryDry: Alcohol Concern’s free, time-out of drinking tracker, with tips for Dry January and beyond (the money-saved tally delights many)

Soberistas: a global, online booze-kicking, self-help community

2) Betts bibliography

Offered not out of vanity, but because I’m so often asked. Here are a few articles from my non-boozing oeuvre, from The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and Substack. There are several more, including in The Mail should anyone subscribe.

When I was clearly thinking about sobriety

Three months sober

One year sober

Booze’s impact on the face / skin

Clothes sober / sober whackamole

Five years sober / drinking, parents & children

Drink & relationships

Ten years sober: me, my father & booze

10 years sober: The Story, The Times Podcast

3) Sober drinks

The market for sophisticated sober drinks has increased exponentially since I staggered my way onto the wagon. They’ve also lost their stigma since the days of Kaliber being the only option. I wince when I recall the complete lack of sober options at my 35th birthday. When challenged, I retorted: “Nobody’s preg.”

Bette / Betts.

Partly, this is Gen Z’s influence: one in four 18- to 24-year olds is teetotal, with rates of sobriety twice as high as in their parents’ generation. Others put the figure at 30%. Partly, it’s a new moderation in the wake of lockdown’s collective binge: post-Covid, alcohol-related deaths having risen 25% in three years to reach a record high of 10,048 people in 2022, according to the ONS.

The result is that, across the generations, people are actively limiting how often and how much they put away. The number of adults who have purchased alcohol-free drinks has nearly doubled since 2018, with one in three deploying non-alcoholic substitutes to moderate. Many of my drinking pals will keep zero-booze beer in the fridge to quench thirst, as a lunchtime treat, to kick off an evening, or judiciously swap in as the night wears on. The fact that they tend to be fewer calories, proves no less an incentive.

Mocktails & aperitifs

Mocktails tend to be sugary sweet. To my mind, the best sober cocktail is one that already existed as a drink, namely, the Spicy Virgin Mary. It will taste as if it has vodka in it anyway, while the spice will lend a hedonic high (thank you to the sommelier at The Bristol’s 114 Faubourg for this revelation).

In terms of the many botanical faux spirits about, I find they can cost a lot of money for a curiously Lemsip-like effect. The only one I’ve stuck with is psychopharmacologist Professor David Nutt’s naturally hedonic Sentia (£32, sentiaspirits.com).

Quoth the brand: “In the early 2000’s, while working as the chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor Nutt…realised that it could be possible to isolate the mechanism we associate with the desirable effects of alcohol—relaxation, increased sociability, improved mood—from the negative effects. Whilst initially focused on a purely synthetic alternative to alcohol, Professor Nutt and the team at GABAlabs decided to look for viable compounds in nature.”

Sentia’s GABA Red is the chill-out option: “powered by ashwagandha and passionflower to nurture relaxation and inspire social connection…Perfect for an evening of unwinding, after work drinks, or as a nightcap”. I’m a fan of both the taste and the effect. GABA Black is more of an upper: “powered by ginseng and gingko to fuel energy and hone focus without the caffeine crash. Perfect to boost your productivity, supercharge your workout, or to jumpstart evening plans.” I am yet to give Black a whirl, but must, being almost entirely energyless.

Some swear by Seedlip, the world’s number one distilled, non-alcoholic spirit, others by the convincing juniper and citrus tang of Tanqueray 0.0%. While I’m told that the modish, bittersweet aperitif Botivo (£28.95, drydrinker.com) is gathering ground, celebrated as “the new Crodino”.

The Telegraph’s wine correspondent, Victoria Moore, is very good on non-alcoholic pleasures for the sober and non-sober alike. See this cheering, extremely useful piece first published in January 2017, in which she and assorted experts offer ideas.

Alcohol-free beer

I didn’t go there with boozeless beer for my first couple of dry years, convinced that it might tempt me back to my evil ways, after hearing tales of drunks manically knocking back twenty at a time. I’m also bad at maths, and had yet to take on board that an alcohol content of 0.5% is the same as a ripe banana.

If the last time you gave AF ale a go was with a bottle of Becks Blue, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The market has moved on – big time.

As Anne Shooter wrote in this month’s Times: “The UK [alcohol-free ale] market [was] said to be worth a whopping £809.7 million in 2023. Sales of low or no-alcohol beer doubled in 2023, according to the analyst IWSR, and the UK was the fastest-growing market of 160 countries it looked at. One of the biggest alcohol-free beer producers in the US, Athletic Brewing Company, is a sponsor at Arsenal, and Ocado says searches for low-alcohol lager increased by 102 per cent between January 2023 and January 2024.” Her accompanying guide is comprehensive, although she does rate Becks Blue, which worries me rather. If it’s so natural - containing merely water, barley malt, hops and yeast – why does it taste so revoltingly chemical?

Still, it’s not as if I lack for other choices. (I haven’t provided links here as none are difficult to find.) Even my minuscule local Co-op sells more than one zero beer option, my local boozer offering the deliciously wheaty, frothy and substantial Erdinger Alkoholfrei, aka “the sporty thirst-quencher” (25 calories per 100ml) and Heineken O.O on tap (the top-selling, non-alcoholic lager, spookily similar to the original). Wherever I wander, I find a new lager or IPA to sample.

Our house beers are the various Brewdog AFs, albeit it took me years to realise that AF stood for “alcohol free” and not “as fuck”.

The two stylish Stephens in my life introduced me to Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% Beyond the Pale Ale, a weighty, craft English beer you would never imagine was boozeless so nectar-like is it. Last weekend, I tried Asahi Super Dry 0.0% and enjoyed its crispness immensely. While youngsters favour Lucky Saint’s excellent Alcohol-free beers. The brand boasts a range of dry drinks at its Lucky Saint pub in Marylebone.

Guinness 0.0 (hearty, yet half the calories of the original) is available on draught in over 1,000 pubs across Ireland, with owner Diageo working to make it 2,000 by the end of the year. In Blighty, you can catch it on tap at London’s Devonshire.

Some footballer moonlighting at The Devonshire.

Sober wine

Fizzy sham-pagnes can be a tad grape-juicy, but fun for a party, otherwise sober wine remains pretty lamentable. My late friend Rosemary always plied me with Freixenet 0.0% Alcohol Free Sparkling Wine (£5, sainsburys.co.uk) – small bubbles, gentle fizz, not insanely sweet. Claridge’s treats me to Wild Idol (£29.99, wildidol.com). Meanwhile, I’ve just discovered that Franciacorta makes a non-alcoholic version, which fills me with hope.

Tea, coffee & chocolate

I knock back the odd kombucha (and some are very odd), but don’t ignore good tea, coffee, and/or chocolate – now you’re not drinking money, you can afford to become a connoisseur. Fetishise the kit, as you once treasured your cocktail cabinet, and develop rituals.

Following the heinous loss of Twinings Lapsang, I allow myself Fortnum & Mason Lapsang Souchong Tea Bags (£6.95 for 25) for my morning pot, drunk slowly and savouringly, unsullied by food. Later, it’s Twinings Earl Grey, with its excellent Decaffeinated Earl Grey Tea Bags (now £2.50, ocado.com) after 4pm, not least post-dinner and in the tub.

As a sugar-sated drunk, I never used to like chocolate, despite boasting a grandmother who worked at Cadbury’s. However, one needs some sugar sans booze, not least come period time. Besides, I discovered Booja Booja. Try the Booja-Booja Gluten Free & Vegan Hazelnut Crunch Truffles (£6.95, waitrose.com) and be converted.

I’m also rather partial to Belgravia’s Rococo Chocolates. The drinking chocolate it serves really IS drinking chocolate of the dense, black, brilliant kind one finds at Naples’ Gran Caffe Gambrinus. While Hotel Chocolat’s Hazelnut & Ginger and Rose & Violet Crème Selectors are useful on the hop (both £5.45, hotelchocolat.com).

Retired drinker, m’learned Telegraph colleague Andrew Baker, is the paper’s chocolate authority, penning fabulous reviews. His guide, From Bean to Bar: A Chocolate Lover's Guide to Britain (£9.35, amazon.co.uk), is pure joy.

Tenth dry anniversary family portrait: hot chocolate & Paris-Brest at The Connaught Patisserie. 

4) Sober scenes

Pizza Express – Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% with a pizza is a basic human right

The Lucky Saint Pub, Marylebone (see beer above)

The Devonshire, Soho (see Guinness above)

The Club Soda Tasting Room, Covent Garden - a shop, sober cocktail and sampling bar, open until 9pm Thursday to Saturdays

UK-wide sober venues care of Dry Drinker: https://drydrinker.com/blogs/blog/alcohol-free-bars

The Connaught Patisserie – for glorious, rich, hot chocolate & energising Paris-Brest

Chinese restaurants – for green tea with food

Continental Europe – whether coffee culture, or no-alcohol beer (AF beer on tap in thrilling, two-pint Stein glasses in Berlin!)

5) Top pre-event / -performance / -party tip

Eat first – not drinking requires you to line your stomach every bit as much as drinking. Everyone else will be quaffing their calories. Pre-load with a bag of nuts and an apple.

Party-wise, the need is even more acute given boozers’ instant sugar rush. Carry a small bar of chocolate to give you “wings”. Pret’s Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt (£1.99, pret.co.uk) slips into the bag nicely, or go for its Dark Chocolate Salted Almonds (£2.25) for added protein.

Now, can everyone pile in with their hot takes?

CHIN CHIN,

B.

Next week: something non-sobriety based.