How to stay on the wagon long past Dry January with mocktails and other nonalcoholic drinks
Social studies
The Hong Kong Garden, a mocktail at Brick & Mortar in Cambridge’s Central Square.
We’re well into Dry January, when we try to cut back on the booze, drop a few pounds and be a bit healthier. Come spring break, that’s typically all going in the wastebasket – but maybe not so much this year, after U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy has released a sobering study that more directly links the use of alcohol to cancer, especially for women.
That study, the annual dry dash and trends among younger generations – Gen Z and millennials – looking to live cleaner and healthier lifestyles have mocktails and other nonalcoholic beverages on the rise in restaurants. Sales of nonalcoholic drinks nationally are up 67 percent since 2022, industry analysts say.
It explains the opening of Dray at 5 Columbia St. No. 10 in the Market Central complex in Cambridge’s Central Square: a wholly nonalcoholic bottle shop that opened its first storefront in Boston’s South End just a year earlier. “We were drawn to Central Square, given many of its terrific similarities with the South End neighborhood – inclusivity, forward-thinking and curious customers and a fantastic bar and restaurant presence,” owner Pat Dooling said.
The shop is between two more Central Square spots capturing the alcohol-free moment: Brick & Mortar, which is renowned for boozy mixology creations but just as committed to the nondrinkers, and Tracy Chang’s Pagu. Brick & Mortar just hosted a biotech event at which the split between alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages ordered by attendees was straight down the middle, a bartender said.
Dray has opened in Central Square, the second location for an all-nonalcoholic drinks shop.
Do mocktails really fill a void? During a recent pop-in at Brick & Mortar, where there are three featured mocktails, I tried the Hong Kong Garden: Seedlip agave (a nonalcoholic spirit), spicy ginger syrup, pineapple and mango juice, lime and bitters served over crushed ice. It is fruity and delicious, but not sweet. I felt like I was having a grown-up drink at a bar, not guzzling a Fanta. (At the end of the month, Brick & Mortar is rebranding as Acqua & Bocca, an Italian aperitivo concept that will still serve artisan cocktails and mocktails as well as pies and pasta. It’s a heartier food offering than the current finger food such as oysters and stuffed olives.)
Seedlip spirits also feature in a “dry tasting” with nonalcoholic beers and wines from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Pemberton Farms, 2225 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge.
At Pagu, Chang and crew have a killer mocktails slate – I liken the Pomo Rojo (pomegranate, chocolate bitters, hibiscus, lemon, rose water and soda) to a refreshing chocolate raspberry cake imbibed via a straw – and brew fermented kombucha in five flavors: hibiscus, oolong, pine, hojicha and spruce. The hibiscus is fruity and rich, while the oolong is almost alelike with its cloudy opaque texture and foamy head.
The Pomo Rojo mocktail at Pagu.
Chang says most of her teas are sourced from Taiwan and brewed in the restaurant for about 12 weeks – any longer and they start to become alcoholic. The effervescent drinks are served in stemmed wine glasses that highlight the sparkling teas’ earthy, almost fecund, aroma. The first sip delivers the pleasing, healthy chalkiness of a traditional tea, which fades quickly into the essence of its primary component.
Also on Chang’s low- to no-alcohol offerings is a kombucha from the Basque region in Spain, whose culinary traditions Chang has a deep affinity for. It’s like a cava in its composition and texture, and like most true sparkling beverages, can be had only by the bottle. (You can get Pagu’s brewed kombuchas through its online marketplace.)
Pagu sells a range of nonalcoholic sparkling teas.
Other notable nonalcoholic offerings include at Backbar in Somerville’s Union Square, which almost always has a rotating drink theme (next up is a “Lord of the Rings” slate), and Cambridge Common and the Lizard Lounge near Harvard Square in Cambridge’s Baldwin neighborhood. Music columnist Michael Gutierrez. who made it just over 10 days into a Dry January, talked with co-owner Holly Heslop there and learned their nonalcoholic IPA from Athletic Brewing was a big seller, like its January drink of the month, a mocktail called the Cherry Pie. Regular-menu mocktails include a Cinnamon Sour (with a orgeat syrup made from almonds, housemade sour mix and cinnamon) and a nonalcoholic Piña Colada.
Wherever you’re dining and drinking, any drink on the main slate that looks appealing can be requested without alcohol; most any bartender will be happy to oblige with an alternative recipe. People don’t request it enough. Often when I take my daughter and some of her friends to brunch or dinner they’ll ask the server about mocktails, have a brief conversation about what they’re interested in – and most always what shows up hits the spot. When permitted, I lean in for a sip and am just as often impressed.