What To Drink When You Are Not Drinking

inspired this well a lot of things. I just attended Tales of the Cocktail, which is the largest gathering of bar tenders and spirits industry professionals from around the world. It was created in two thousand and three here in my new home of New Orleans, which is the birthplace of the cocktail and has it has some of the greatest cocktail bars in the world, and it is where the home of the Sazarak, the French seventy five, the Ramos,

Gin Fizz, Cafe Brulau, and other legendary cocktails. I have been attending Tales of the Cocktail with my husband David for many, many years. It is probably like my tenth but in twenty ten I was the only, probably the only teatotaler Tales because I attended after I had finished treatment for breast cancer and I was not drinking, and I remember that there was really not a lot of

great options for me. There was coffee, there was tea, there was soda, There was water and juice, and the juices all had too much sugar, and I remember lamenting the David, Gosh, there's just nothing for people who don't imbibe and consume alcohol, and I want better options now. We all remember when we were young and you go out with your mom and dad or I would, and they order you a Shirley Temple or a Tom Collins

so you feel sophisticated. And I still like a good Shirley Temple in Tom Collins, but I wanted more, I wanted better options. But here's the good news. Since then, and that was two thousand and ten, we're now in twenty twenty five. The no alcohol movement you can call what it is, but people who there's actually a thirty percent of the US population adult drinking age population, choose not to consume alcohol. Now it's actually at a higher

level than ever. Many people decided to stop consuming alcohol after COVID nineteen because maybe they were consuming a little bit too much during COVID nineteen. A lot of people are older like me. I'm over sixty, and I don't metabolize certain types of alcohol as well as I used to. And I also have, you know, middle age gain or actually senior age gay menopause belly, and I'm always trying to lose it, and consuming too much of anything seems to go straight to my belly. I do okay with wine,

that's a whole nother story. I do fine with wine. I drink it with food, It's fine. But vodka, tequila, gin who I can do I can become pretty weird on all those things and not very nice, so I have to cut back. So here's the good news. If you were in the same boat as me, Maybe you don't drink because you're pregnant, or you're trying to become pregnant,

or you don't are unable to metabolize alcohol. Maybe you had consumed a lot of alcohol and you have chosen to stop drinking to change your lifestyle and behavior because you liked alcohol a little too much. Maybe your religious beliefs dictate that you do not drink alcohol for religious reasons. Whatever your reason, it's your personal choice. And I absolutely hate it when somebody says to me socially, why aren't you drinking? Well, it's none of your business. Why aren't

you drinking? You should never say why aren't you doing anything? Why aren't you eating? Why don't you eat me? Why don't you drink? You never asked that question. Just say what would you like to drink? What can I get you? What are your preferences? And if you're entertaining at home, you should always have some really great non alcohol options for guests. This also goes whether you're doing a bra I shower, or a wedding or any kind of event. There should always be options that are good for people

who choose not to invite. You know, the last thing you want is for someone to over indulge and then go drive home, because I'm very much against drinking and driving and it's against the law. So you need to have options. But here's the good news. So I went to Tails of the Cocktail this year with the soul mission to find better low and low alcohol products. I did this last year as well, and boyit, there's some really great options out there. So I'm going to share

them with you. And I just want to say from the onset, I have no commercial relationship with any of these brands. I just happen to like them. I do have to check my notes, so if I'm looking down, I'm checking my notes for accuracy because it's a lot and I'll always remember everything. But these are just a few that I liked that I'm going to share with you, and hopefully wherever you are you can find them in

your market. I'll also provide you a handy source website where you can find all sorts of no and low alcohol products. I'm going to start with no alcohol and I'm going to start with what you just have at home. For people who don't like to drink water all the time, I mean, I don't know about you, but I get really tired of just drinking still water. And I drink at least eight glasses a day. So sometimes I'll add crushed cucumber or berries or oranges or lime and lemon

to spike up my water. And lately what I've been doing is I've been taking frozen fruit, like frozen strawberries and blueberries that we have for smoothies in the freezer, and I'll put them in my water so they're like little mini berry cubes to make my water taste better. Well, that's like level one. Level two is to go for fizzy water that has some flavor in it. I again no commercial relationship, but I went gaga over Topachka, which was one of the sponsors of Tails of the Cocktail.

They have all sorts of really great flavor with waters. Now. I like the blueberry met that was my absolute favorite. I like Topachica because the bubbles are very very fine, kind of like with the way I like my sparkling wines, like champagne, very fine bubbles. I like that because I have gastro esophagal reflux disorder and big bubbles make me burp. And the last thing I want to do, whether I'm talking to you or talking to anybody socially, is belch.

So I love the topuchico. They also make great mixers. I also think that tea is a great iced tea, herbal tea, green teas, those make great mixers. If you want to create an alcohol free cocktail. We don't call them mocktails because you're mocking something and we don't mock We just have true, non alcohol alcohol free whatever you want to call it, zero proof cocktails. Tea is a great bass. I like green tea, iced is a bass.

Another one is coconut water. I love coconut water mixed with other types of no or low alcohol products to create that layer and level that you want that creates balance, but lots of interesting flavors. And I have also discovered some really terrific sparkling coconut waters, so I always keep that in refrigerator. It's great for hydration. Also, the other product I recommend is if you can find vegetable juices or reduced sugar juices, they're great. I don't particularly like.

I like fresh juice period I'd rather squeeze my own and make my own then go buy bottle. But she usually has added sugar and sugar, and for me, sugar mixed with any alcohol is combustible in my brain, I don't do well. So those are some things you could have. There's also coffee if you want to make coffee drinks.

A little tip is when I go traveling, I take the little packets of nescafe that they have in my hotel and I'll take them home with me and I'll use those if I'm making people coffee drinks, coffee beverages, and I also use it as a scrub on my face with coconut coconut oil. So I often take all the packages of teas and sugar, teas and coffee so I can drink them later. So those are some basic products you can have that are no alcohol options that taste a little bit better than water, and you can

enhance with other products. So let's talk about that. As I said about thirty percent, which is almost ten percent, then it used to be of alcohol of adult age, drinking age adults or not consuming or choosing to consume less hard alcohol or any alcohol. So I'm going to explain non alcohol versus low alcohol. A non alcohol apperteef, for example, an aperteef is what you drink. You drink before meal to aparto open up your palate to prepare

for your meal. It's very popular in Europe. They have this what I call the mad hour where everybody gets their apperol spritzes, their Campari sprints. Is they're spritzes which are light low alcohol beverages and they have them before they have a meal, and it's great. Everybody should do that. A non alcohol operatife usually contains less than point five

percent alcohol by volume. Okay, point oh five percent. Let me clarify that point oh five percent okay, So you can look in the labels to see they're all required to list what percentage they have. In comparison, in alcohols and spirits have like forty to seventy percent alcohol by volume, depending on what it is, so it's a big difference. So low alcohol is usually in the spirit end around

twenty percent. Okay, So you've got o five for no alcohol or less oh five percent twenty percent eighteen to twenty percent lower alcohol, and then the regular forty to seventy percent for spirits wine just as an example, just so I bring that up. Wine on average is thirteen point five percent alcohol by volume. However, some of the great my favorite lower alcohol wines, Champagne, sparkly wine usually eleven percent to twelve point five percent alcohol by volume

versus thirteen to fourteen percent. Another one is dry reaslings Orvieto wines. The wines of Orvieto. I was just there tasting their gurkettos. They're amazing. Eleven to twelve percent. So many wines have lower alcohol. Here's a tip. If the wine is made in a cooler climate, okay, a cooler climate, higher altitude, there is likelihood it has lower alcohol by volume. Hotter climates tend to have higher alcohol. It's a rule of thumb. Of course, there's variations, but that's just a tip.

Vino Verity wines and Portugal rate lower alcohol all wines. Same with Albertino from Spain, white wines crisp and white, and the average alcohol by volume is eleven percent twelve percent. Okay, so that's the wine end of it. I went in down drink champagne, okay, eleven percent to twelve percent and a good brute has minimal residual sugar. So here's what I have found when I have been looking around for

no alcohol options. And I'm going to get to my little tip sheet here down here the first one which I love, and these were sent to me. It's called Amethysts. Okay, I love the name already because I love amethysts. You can see I have a beautiful purple painting behind me that is from my gifted cousin, Hunt Slonem look him up, Hunt Sloanem, and it's a beautiful purple painting that he gave my mother, the Purple Lady. So naturally I have a thing for amethysts. These are great. This is the bottle.

It's really attractive. It's got amethysts written on it, and there's four different kind So this is a no alcohol botanical beverage that you can mix with your coconut water, your tea, your sparkling beverage, or you can make it into a low alcohol apartef sprints it. It's no alcohol, it is botanical. There's about thirteen calories no sugar. Love that and it was started by two brothers who worked

in the Craft whiskey distillery. In Bluffton, South Carolina, beautiful place if you haven't been, and they wanted to create a no alcohol product because they had read that at the time, roughly twenty percent of the population had chosen not to consume alcohol. Now we're at thirty percent, so this is a big movement. So they created these organic brands called Amethyst. They have four blens i'll call them. One is blueberry ginger mint, and one watermelon lime, lemon

cucumber serrano. That one has a bit of a bite in the back, so watch it. And grapefruit basil. The one I have is the lemon cucumber serrano. That's got the bit of the bite. I tell you, this one is really good with tomato juice. Then you have a no alcohol bloody marry. Very good tomato juice are really really good bloody marry mix. This one is the grapefruit basil. I love this one. It's really good with juice or tea. I like the basil because I happen to love herbs

in my beverages. I think the more products should have herbs, and of course I love this blueberry ginger mint ginger. When I was going to chemotherapy, everybody told me to drink ginger tea. So ginger tea. I brew ginger, I drink ginger tea. I still love ginger. I think it's very soothing on the stomach. I love this combination of blueberry, mint, and ginger. Probably mixes all together and make a great cocktail. So they're called amethysts. The retail price suggested as twenty

nine ninety nine. They also provide on the website a recipe for turning these into freezer pops using fresh blueberries and a gaby and the botanicals and coconut milk. It sounds really great. Speaking of coconut milk is another great mixer if you want a creamier type of cocktail. So that's amethyst and on average thirteen calories in one point five ounces, so thirteen calories, no sugar, totally botanical. I love this product. I wish I did have an affiliation

with them. I think they're awesome. Okay, moving quite along, I also found I'm finding these interesting products that are like pint based and barley based. Actually, I'm going to pull this one up. This is one that came to me. It just came to me. It's called grass. I guess grassy like grass gra C g R A S S I. It's organic barley water with vitamin C D and zinc. This one is lemon, grass and ginger. I like it. There's also a cucumber mint. This one citrus ment. Here.

It's actually the one. I'm drinking citrus mint right here. Citrus mint. This is a little bit of sugar. It's got roughly eight eight grams of added sugar, so still low, but it has it. It's thirty five calories in a sixteen ounce serving. It's a little grassy tasting. My husband David said he tasted hey, but I actually like it. It's like water but enhanced with a little bit of herbaceousness in it. I think these are good though, and it was developed by people who wanted to have healthier,

functional beverages with lower sugar. So grassy organic barley water. I have no idea what the price point is. They were just sent to me and I'm still tasting them, and they're so good. I may have to have a sip right now because I'm thirsty. Young citrus mint mint is so amazing. So that's another fun product I've just discovered now, Pathfinder. I discovered this one it Tails with the Cocktail. Last year Tails with Cocktail thankfully started a

no and low bar. And I love going and trotting in there and tasting everything and beating all the people because you learn the most interesting stories and taste some products you like and some you don't. I like Pathfinder. It is a fermented and distilled hemp based liquid that can be used as a spread. So it's herbal. It's an herbal elixir, a herbal lickor like in tomorrow.

crafted Douglas fur. It's got very intense herbaceous character. I would drink this spritzed with just club soda or some topa Chica fizzy water. I would also probably try it with this grassy product. I haven't Yeah, because I don't have any, but I think it would be really interesting, so it's called Pathfinder. I also tasted a product at this year's Tales of the COCKTAILK Giffords g I F F A r DS. These are let me inclute my notes. These are syrups that are sweet, but they're not like

you know, high fruit dose corn syrup. They're derived. The sweetness is from French sugar beets, so it's gonna be sweet, but it's made from beees. These are French made products, lactose free, gluten free, and vegan. They have a three year self live. They're great for zero proof cocktails or low abb alcohol bove i Am creations. I liked the Pompeo Moose was my favorite. I also had a really great elderflower cocktail. I think the one that I liked

the most was pineapple. They had mixed it with coconut milk and some herbs, and it was the most refreshing cocktail with just the coconut milk or coconut cree maybe in pineapple, kind of like a no alcohol peanut colada. But then they added RBS to it, which is made it fabulous. Again. They have ginger as well. Gingers like the product of ginger and elderflower are like the end products right now, and mint and blueberry. I'm finding so that product is called Gifford's g I F F ar Ds.

They are distributed in the United States. I tasted all the other cocktails. I think they're just awesome. You would mix those. I think they make a great sprints Okay in the I like amorros and formose. Formoth is a great product if you want to have a low alcohol by volume. Sprits for moose are I'm still exploring these. They're a type of bitter. They're very you know driver sweet.

Formoth for mooth is used in Martini's. I've been trying them just on ice with a slice of lime, and once I did it with frozen grapes is my little ice cubes. It's really good. I'm still exploring these and learning. But some of the best for moose I've ever tasted, or from France, Italy and Spain just really awesome products. And I really would love to go over to France, Italy and Spain just drink for mouth and learn more.

So with that in mind, the other is the Amorrow's it's wonderful more digestives that are very popular, often as an after dinner drink, but I like them sprits to give that herbaceousness character to a low alcohol cocktail. Opious, not to be confused with opiom Opius from Opious Distillery,

is a no alcohol a type of amorrow. Okay, no alcohol, we're still It was found in twenty twenty by two quote restless cocktail enthusiasts who wanted to create a non alcohol option for those people who choose not to drink because it's a big market and a big marketing opportunity. They wanted something that had good quality, that was all

natural and really great flavor. They gave me a whole long discussion about how they do this alchemistic alchemy and reviving old recipes and batching and mixing all these different spices. It was very quite intense, but at the end of the day, it's all about the proof in what I tasted, and these are really terrific products. There's four styles. The first one's cold and this is a very new product, so I don't know if you'll see your market yet,

but hopefully you will. Opious. I tasted rubetto Rubetto has it's a lixer basically orange peel, Gentian shinato, which is a type of Italian orange. I had to look it up and rhubarb. This is like notes of orange and Gentian and a little bit of bitter. Really, I would just pop some pub soda or sparkling water in that and sip it as a spritz. Next one was called Amorrow. It was angelica, lemon, peel, coriander, and almond, my personal favorite because I love anything that has a nutty characteristic

to it. It was like lemony, nutty. Again, sprits it. The third one was called Negretto, made with sugar beets. Again, sugar beets. We talked about them in the Gifferts. French oak, roasted coffee beans. Okay, this one. If you wanted the aversion of an alcohol free espresso martini, this is your product. Find an alcohol free voga. Not going on this show because I didn't taste those, but I'm really delicious and sultry.

I got notes of toffee and French oak. I would actually just put it in my coffee and spike it up and make it really good, or pour it over ice cream because I think These would be really good over ice cream because you can cope with all these products, you know, pour them over pancakes. And the last one was called Albeto alb e do O. It was Fennel juniper Cardamin Clothes loved this product. I love Fenel based ani spased products. I've been a drinker of parano or

ricard and herb sent for years. I drink that as an app para teef, particularly when I'm in Falfa, France with some water, and I love that appeeling mouthfeel that is not sugary. Again, these are really great apt paratifs to open up your palate before dinner, or if you can enjoy them as digestives to relax and digest your mail and have that last sip of the night really delicious. Again, it's called Opious. I don't have the bottles here, but

they're beautiful, square and very elegant looking. Ritual is a type of alcohol free dark rum with notes of honey, banana, bitter orange, cinnamon, annis and really great for creating an alcohol free mohito or dakri, you know, so freeze it up. There are a lot of alcohol free options in the rum gin Scotch category. I didn't taste a lot because there was just so much, but I did taste ritual

mixed in the beverage. It was really good. Now Here was the last product I tasted in the alcohol free The Tales of the cocktail was also one of the most interesting. It's founded by a woman. It's called Tomo Tomo Tobala. It's a non alcohol distilled a gave spirit. Now, gave is what you have when you drink agave products like tequila, so margaritas and any kind of product like that. Agave is from Mexico. It's a plant. It takes years

to grow. It's this one is made from the one hundred percent rare Tobala agave, which is roasted in a pit oven.

So she said that she was developing coctos and cottaos in Toronto for many years and the pandemic took her out of the bar scene completely. So she went to Mexico. She said it was the only place opened during lockdown and she was desperate to find new purpose. So she stopped drinking completely in May twenty twenty one and moved to Wahaka, and there she started researching agave plants and trying to figure out a way to create an alcohol

free option. I think this product is terrific. It is the winner of the twenty twenty four International No Alcohol Spirits Competition for non alcohol Agavi of the Year. It is distilled with it's called pomono tomo or tomo. It's distilled with local botanicals including ginger, passilia mixe, chili, florida, cacao, basil, poleo, camamil, black cardamoen, nutmeg, cinnamon, hibiscus, rose, petal, lemon, grass, clothes, and smoked pineapple. Well, it's a mouthful. It tastes so

smoky and soft and smooth. It's delicious. I would probably put it in my coconut water and maybe try it in this grassy barley water. It smokes something up. I think it also be great for cooking. It had that amazing smokiness that I love. I tend to go herbaceous and smoky and bitter versus sweet and fruity, two dy fruity when I that's just me. I hope she does really a while, Amanda Chad. She was really sweet. She was pouring it herself. A lot of these are small

companies and they're just out plugging away. They travel around the country serving their product hoping somebody will talk it up. And I'm doing it for you, Amanda, and I think your product's awesome.

There's three flagship favors. One is citrus, ginger, all spice and cardamoen and then there's a garden flavor filled with herbs and English peas and another spicy one. These are really great for non alcohol martinis, spiking or boring this fizzy water whatever I liked it as is with sprits. Most of these are just spreads because if I just really want something simple and everybody else is drinking cocktails, I sprints it or I order my champagne. So it's

called seed Lip. I think it's widely available. I think some big company bought the brand. It's really awesome. The other one is which is there a little more syrupy. They're from Australia, but they're doing they're making inroads. It's called Liars l Yres. It's found in twenty nineteen by some Australians. They make a whole line of alcohol free cocktail ingredients from mixers and basically their goal is to create alternative non alcohol alternatives Suburban Gin, Triple Sac, Almaretto,

it's all zero proof. One of the most popular is the coffee liqueur, which they're all very popular and used frequently by restaurants who now should all offer alcohol free options for their customers that they use the coffee, the coffee option for espresso martinis, which are really popular. Years ago,

I did an article on the sessionable cocktail movement. Sessionable means they're lower alcohol or no alcohol, but usually lower alcohol, and that means you can drink a few more of them in sessions without just getting wasted, and I interviewed a lot of bartenders around the country. I think it was for seven to fifty daily. I'll pop it up

again on my substack Melanie fabulous. But the whole premise is that most establishments, dining bars, beverage should offer a fair, easy to find reason they'll be priced zero proof cocktail menu. I went to a seminar last year on this topic, and again, everybody on the everybody on the panel, they were all bartenders, and they all said, we don't use the word mocktail. We don't hide and tuck them way under in the back of the list. They should be

front and center. Much like vegetarian options should be front and center on the menu. This is important because everybody nobody wants to feel marginalized because they don't drink same way, no vegetans. When I go out and realize there's no food for them, it happens to me a lot. So I think this is really important because the whole idea is to make people feel welcome and comfortable wherever they are and whatever they choose to imbibe. So those are

some of the alcohol free options I have found. There's a really terrific website. It's called Know and Low, your online non alcohol bottle shop that you can check. Now, I'm going to touch on some other products that are low and also alcohol free. I'm gonna start with alcohol free, so this is kind of a new movement. I'll be honest with you. I'm still nervous about trying them because I had a bad experience once. But THHD beverages are all over the place here in Louisiana in my supermarket,

and we're legal. They are really making huge inroads and they provide an alcohol free option for people who still want to get a little bit of comfort or buzz when they can sume but they don't want alcohol. One here in New Orleans. I don't have a sample. It's called Louis Louie. It's made with something called delta nine, which I learned is the natural derivata for THHC, and it comes in different levels. On average is two point

five percent. I have friends who cannot drink alcohol for medical reasons who do drink the THHC products because they want that little bit of peaceful, easy feeling when they're social, and they love Louis Louis. I don't know if you can get it outside of Louisiana. But this is the one I tried it tails. It's called Wink Wink, and I met the founder. This is strawberry lemonade. It's ten milligrams of THC, so that's a lot. That's like three cocktails. And this is the smaller one, which is only two

point five milligrams in the mini container. And this one is tangerine wink. It's These are both seltzers. They're sparkling. I knows them. David tasted him. He said he liked the flavors quite a bit. The founder is interesting. He doesn't even smoke pot. He's just like a finance technology whiz who said he saw an opportunity to create a solution to a category, to get these products out and transported in the marketplace. And they're fairly new, they're very flavorful.

They were being introduced at tails.

that's not alcohol, that is an option for you. And there's a lot of those. Now this is a growing category. The THHC category is huge and growing. You're going to see more of it. You're probably going to see more conferences tied to this in category. So keep your ears and eyes open again, try these products in your home first, don't go out and do it socially. See if they work for you before you just go out and spend

your money and whatnot. Now, in the time we have left, I'm a still going to talk about some low alcohol, low ABV alcohol ba VYE products I really like.

And those are great options. Now, the product that really I just loved a lot and probably had to stop consuming because it was so good it tells of the cocktail was called low l O dash Fi Fi hi fi lo fi apartiefs. These are vermouths and amos using California wine. So just something to clarify here. A lot of spirits are grain based, Okay grain based vermouth and tomorrows are botanical and wine based Okay wine based with botanical, so big difference because they follow in a different category.

They really are spirits, but they're also wine based. I loved these products. I had them just with I think they had just water, sparklay water and mixed and they were just so refreshing. The vermooth one is infused with fenyl, coriander, elderflower. You've heard those. You've heard those ingredients before, a little spicy with notes of Gentian. You compare as a mixer to cut your the alcohol and a regular cocktail or you can mix it with as a spritz. I had

it with ice. They were serving these little carry these portable water carriers. I love so refreshing. So the vermooth one has citrus, elderflower and other spices. It's sixteen point five percent ABV. So that's low in the spirit category. If it was a wine category, it'd be high, because high is like to me, fifteen percent okay, really really good. The other one is called Gentian amaro citrus fruit ginger, heard that term before. Exotic flowers and spices with chinconi

bark and bitter roots. You got that bitters. Teen point five percent alcohol. Chinchoni bark, by the way, is what they make tonic from. The Historically, gin and tonic was created, believe or not, many years ago to help sailors not get sick when they were sailing from Europe to the Americas. So the gin was safer than water, and the tonic was better for your stomach. And that's how gin and

tonics were created. And the tonic was from the Chinchona bark, which is produced in South America and it's used as a tonic and herb to cure as a medicinal cure in Indian culture. So again that's why a lot of amaros are used as curatives or digestives at the end of Emio, because they had all these herbs and ingredients that are traditionally used in Indian and historic medicinal practices. So anyway, these were really good. Okay, So one I liked here it is. It was the Lo Fi Sweet

romooth with coconut water. Okay, David brought that to me. It was like nine that it was one hundred degrees the week of tails of cocktail. I was sweating. I was so hot, I was sick of water. He brought me two of those in those great little water bottles, which I'm gonna carry forever, and I was sucking it down. I'm like, you sure this doesn't have alcohol on it? You're sure this doesn't. It had alcohol, but not a lot, thank god, and I didn't get a buzz. I felt great,

and more importantly, I felt completely hydrated. I think coconut water is the ultimate hydration. So I loved that product. The other one that I'm going to sing praises to from here to the moon, and apparently a lot of other people do too. It's called La pertivo Nonino botanical drink. Okay. The Nonino family of the Freely area in Italy is known for their botanical made centuries old recipe used to make granpa grappa is you know, a really intense spirit.

Usually have it at the end of a meal. Pure Italian beauty. They came out with a product. It's all run by sisters and women. It's amazing. They're wonderful women. And they came up with the recipe that comes from an old, carefully guarded recipe created from Silvio and Antonio no Nina, the guardians of the family spirit tradition in

nineteen twenty eight. And they used to make these products for medicinal purposes because there was a lot of botanicals in them as then eventually they made them for pleasure drinks. They went from medicinal to pleasure and then long story short, the family is now run by Christina Antonella and ELIZABETHA. Nonino, just the nicest people, and they brought back this incredible apartivo that has many, many different botanicals in it. It's fruity, there's a lot of citrus notes, sens of berries, a

little bit of bitter. Twenty one percent alcohol by volume, So when you think that vodka is about forty percent alcohol by volume, whiskey forty to fifty, rum thirty five to sixty and gin thirty seven to fifty percent, so this is half the alcohol by volume. Then other spirits. So drink this, cut it with some soda water or topachico or something even a little bit of sparkling coconut water. Whatever, you get a great drink. I love this product. I don't have it here to show you because I'm out,

but it's a really pretty bottle too. Most of the bottles have images of women on them and they're very colorful. Again, the company is no Nino Nono. This product has one a zillion awards for its quality. Again total botanical, and you know my attitude is go for go for fresh, go for anything that's not artificially made. You know, read the ingredients, ask questions, do your homework. So those are my various discoveries that I'm bringing you. This one is

another example. It's not No Nino, but it's as pretty as No Nino. This isn't Tomorrow. I'm very Intomorrow's right now. This one is actually was given to me when I was in Florence at a beautiful restaurant called Jean's xi Ge. It's an incredible Asian restaurant in Florence, and it's by Santoni. It's an Tomorrow Santoni and Appartibo born in Florence, and it's got rhubarb root, iris flower, and olive leaf. And I love this product. It was given to me by

the bartender. He made a cocktail with me for it. I brought it home sixteen percent alcohol, BA volumes are very low. I sip this with just a little bit of little bit of sprits because I don't want too much, because I really want to joy all this but tannicle flavors. You can find many of these, probably at your not this one, but at your local wine store. You should go in and say I'm interested in trying some for Moose,

or some Amorrows or some low alcohol products. You probably will not find no alcohol products at a wine shop or alcohol shop because their job is to sell you alcohol. You also will not find THHC there, but you may find it at your supermarket or online. But you can ask for a low alcohol option and they will gladly suggest some wines. I've already given you some examples or some Amorrows over moose. But experiment, experiment and see what you like. See what makes you feel good, see what

you like. It's refreshing. I mean it all should appeal to your palette more than anything. And of course, if you find yourself getting a little too buzzy, One, start drinking more water. Two, make sure you always have food you're serving alcohol or consuming it, particularly when you're having people over. Always have nibbles. I always like salty nibbles and thinks that are a little more filling, But not sugar, because sugar just only adds to my woo woo if

I'm drinking. Always have no alcohol options. I've given you several wonderful things, from coconut water to fresh teas to some of these alcohol free drinks that I gave you. Always have options, and if someone is not feeling their best, call them a call them a car service to get home. Do not give them the keys of the car. Okay, we always if we know we're going out and consuming alcohol, we call an uber or a lyft. It's worth not doing anything that can get you in trouble or hurt

anyone else. So always consume alcohol in moderation with pleasure. Never question someone's choice as to why they're not drinking. It's only none of your business. It's the same as why aren't you eating meat? Or why aren't you married? Or why don't you have children. You should never ask anything that makes people feel uncomfortable. Okay, just say what would you like to have? What? What would you like to drink? What would you like to eat? Do you

have any preferences? And I ask people when you're having a dinner party, do you have any special requests or dietary restrictions. It's better to ask than to be not prepared. So in closing, I hope this you know helps. I gave you a site for the No and LO your online non alcohol bottle shop. Tails of the Cocktail had a list of tails Ofothcocktail dot org has a list of products. I'll pop these up on my step stack at Melanie Fabulous. I'm always looking for products. If I

like them, I'll talk about them. If I don't like them, I don't talk about them. So if you do have products you found, let me hear from you. You can message me at Melanie Fabulous at Instagram. As always, I like to close out this way. You have a choice to live life on your terms and not on other people's terms, and I hope you're considering that. Close out

the news that you don't want to hear. Don't listen to people complain, Try to keep things on the upbeat, because really the less stress in your life, the younger you'll stay. Hopefully, and of course, if you do follow your choices, always choose fearless and fabulous. Thanks for joining me, Have a great day.