What is a sober drink?
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast:
Are sober drinks exactly what they sound like, or is there more to them? 5 Things Sunday Host James Brown and Paste BN wellness reporter Sara Moniuszko explore sober drinks and what they could mean for sober curious people. She says its complicated and it depends on your definition of sober.
For more on sober drinks, read:
How sober are these 'sober' drinks? And why are they so popular?
Taking an alcohol break? Giving it up completely? Here's how to be inconspicuous
Fun without alcohol? Sober bars offer social connections without peer pressure to drink
'Sober October': Seven non-alcoholic cocktail recipes to try at home
Last year's episode on alcholiday:
Sober curious for 2022? Here's what to know if you want to take an alcoholiday in January
Follow James Brown and Sara Moniuszko on Twitter.
If you have a comment about the show or a question or topic you'd like us to discuss, send James Brown an email at jabrown@usatoday.com or podcasts@usatoday.com. You can also leave him a voicemail at 585-484-0339. We might have you on the show.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here.
Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
James Brown: Hello and welcome to Five Things. It's November 20th, 2022. Go Bills. Every week we take a question, an idea, or concept, and go deep. And this week we're talking about non-alcoholic drinks. This is not the first time that we've discussed sobriety on Five Things. My colleague Shannon Green did an episode on it last Christmas with USA Today's Alia Dastagir. Alia says giving up drinking is not easy.
Alia Dastagir: It's what somebody that I interviewed for the story said to me so eloquently, I think, he said, "Not drinking is a really radical act."
James Brown: We'll link to that episode in the description. Today we dive into something that's bubbled up since. USA Today's wellness reporter Sarah Moniuszko and I will discuss a phenomenon called sober drinks. These drinks may not be sober after all. Sarah Moniuszko, welcome to Five Things.
Sarah Moniuszko: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
James Brown: No problem. I'm glad you're here. I would presume a sober drink is a drink without alcohol in it. Is this the same conclusion that you came up to?
Sarah Moniuszko: Yeah, so it's kind of complicated. There are a bunch of non-alcoholic drinks on the market, but what we're also seeing are products that are targeted towards sober curious people, or people who are trying out sobriety that have other ingredients that are kind of marketed as mood boosting ingredients. So I was curious, does that really mean that they're sober?
These are ingredients like CBD, THC, which are both cannabis derivatives, nootropics, adaptogens, all these kind of funky buzz words that maybe people aren't exactly sure what they are. And what I've learned from experts is that it really just depends on what your definition of sobriety is. So some of these drinks might work great for people who are sober curious, for others, maybe they're not the best alternatives, but it really just depends on what you're looking for in a sober, or sober, quote unquote, experience.
James Brown: Okay. You mentioned about four different terms. Let's go through them one by one. Well, I think we could put CBD and THC together.
Sarah Moniuszko: Right. CBD and THC both come from cannabis. One of them is CBD. It's used in a lot of products nowadays, but also, CBD is popping up in a lot of these drink alternatives. I spoke to a registered dietician who told me that CBD doesn't typically produce intoxication, but it is a psychoactive, whereas THC can be intoxicating. It can differ depending on the person using it, but it may interact with medications or medical conditions. So these ingredients are things that people should be aware of if they're looking into these sober or quote unquote sober alternatives.
And then the two others that I mentioned are nootropics and adaptogens, which I will admit I am not a scientific genius when it comes to all these terms, but from what I learned from experts is that adaptogens can kind of boost a calmness in you, whereas nootropics can help elevate mood or thinking. So when we're looking at these products, some of them kind of boast a mood altering effect that people may be interested in if they're looking for alcohol alternatives. So just some of the ingredients that we see popping up in products on the market today.
James Brown: When I saw nootropics in your article on this topic, I Googled it too, because it's like, what is this? And what I got was a pretty fuzzy thing. It's not FDA approved, as I understand.
Sarah Moniuszko: Yeah. So what I heard from experts is a lot of these beverages aren't super regulated. It's just like vitamins and supplements. Most of them aren't FDA regulated. So it's really on the consumer at this point to be aware of what they're consuming. What I heard from people is that they hope as this trend continues, as we're expecting to see this shift to sober curiosity and sober living become even more and more popular, that hopefully brands and companies will become more transparent with their marketing, and more transparent in the ingredients and blends that they're putting into their drinks. So yeah, it's definitely something that could use more regulation, and could use some more transparency on the brands end.
James Brown: Let's touch a bit more on the CBD THC side.
Sarah Moniuszko: Sure.
James Brown: That doesn't sound like a sober drink to me.
Sarah Moniuszko: So that goes all the way back to what I mentioned the beginning, of experts saying it really depends on what you consider sober. So if you're someone who's looking to cut out alcohol and just alcohol, then some experts would say the CBD or THC drinks can fit under your drink list, whereas if you're trying to cut out any sort of min altering ingredients or mood altering ingredients, you might want to ditch all of those drinks altogether.
James Brown: So it sounds like folks are trading one type of intoxicant for, not a different type of intoxicant necessarily, because you do have the nootropics and the adaptogens also, but sort of one type of mind or mood altering substance for another set.
Sarah Moniuszko: I think alcohol obviously has a different effect on everyone, and for some people they really are just choosing to skip alcohol because it doesn't sit well with them. During the pandemic, we obviously all had a very different relationship with alcohol. Some people stopped drinking altogether, because we weren't going out with friends. There was no socialization to be having cocktails at the bar at Happy Hour.
And then other people kind of had the opposite effect, and they were using alcohol as a coping mechanism for isolation and other things we were going through during the pandemic. And people started to realize, "Wow, maybe I don't have the healthiest relationship with alcohol." So just in general, everyone has kind of taken a step during the pandemic in general, like a health conscious step. At least that's the trend that we're seeing in looking into our health and wellbeing, and seeing what kind of changes we can make.
And for some people, alcohol was one of those changes that they wanted to make, both for physical wellbeing and even emotional wellbeing. I don't know if you've heard of the term hanxiety, but it's kind of this play on hangover and anxiety. So some people who drink alcohol suffer really horrible after effects, like horrible hangovers, the physical side of those hangovers, or the emotional or mental side, like having heightened anxiety after drinking. Some of these alternatives people are choosing instead, because they might not have those same effects that alcohol specifically has on them.
James Brown: Let's dive into this a bit more.
Sarah Moniuszko: Sure.
James Brown: This market seems to be flooded with celebrities.
Sarah Moniuszko: Yes. It's definitely not an underground trend. Sober alternatives or alcohol alternatives have really hit the mainstream. There are celebrity backed brands. In the piece I wrote, I mentioned Katie Perry has a brand called De Soi, which is described as a non-alcoholic aperitif. And Bella Hadid, the model, also has backed Kin Euphorics, which is another brand that's described as a mood boosting spirit.
And so none of these contain alcohol. They contain some other ingredients like we mentioned before, the natural botanicals or adaptogens. But yeah, it's hit the mainstream. It's gotten the attention not just of people looking at their relationship with alcohol, but big names too. So I think that's also helping this trend really moving forward is, it's not a small trend anymore. It's hit the mainstream and people are paying attention.
James Brown: Any sense of how big this market is?
Sarah Moniuszko: I don't have a number that I can give you off the top of my head, but from what I've heard from experts, Hillary Sheinbaum, who is the author of The Dry Challenge, she talks a lot about sober alternatives and is really in that space. She described the market as booming. Younger generations are driving this change. They still want to socialize. It's kind of like that camaraderie.
If you're someone who partakes in alcohol, there's kind of a camaraderie that comes with cracking open a cold one, or going out and having fancy drinks with friends at a bar. People still want that experience of socializing, they just don't want the effects, the after effects that alcohol bring. And so these sober alternatives or alcohol alternatives are a really good way to still have that sophistication feel without the after effects.
James Brown: Have you experimented with this at all?
Sarah Moniuszko: I have had a few mocktails, is another term. Mock cocktails, non-alcoholic. And have tried out a few different brands. And it's really interesting. It's not something that obviously I predicted going into the pandemic, but I'm definitely someone who during the pandemic, I didn't drink at all. I wasn't meeting up with friends, I was just alone in my apartment. And so I realized after the pandemic, and once we started being able to catch up with friends and go to the bar, that my tolerance had really dropped.
And that's something that I think a lot of people can relate to too, is just your changing relationship with alcohol maybe as you grow older, or as we all got through a pandemic for years. So yeah, it's been really interesting to try them out. I'm not someone who's completely sober, but I think it's great to have these options. If you're going to a bar and you're someone who's sober or sober curious, now there's availability to give these a try.
It's not just asking for a club soda at the bar. You can ask a lot of cocktails nowadays for a mocktail, or ask for a drink that they have, a product that they have that they're selling from one of these brands that we've mentioned. And so it just gives people the option and the opportunity to give it a try, which I think is really great.
James Brown: And I guess you're sober curious too.
Sarah Moniuszko: Yeah. I think it's always great to take a look at everything that you consume and see what it's doing positively or negatively for your body. And we know from research that alcohol can really have some negative impacts on you, and it's a good thing to keep in mind. Yeah, I don't love to take anything to the extreme myself, but I think it's great to be open-minded and try things out. And you never know what you're going to find by trying things out.
But I will say, always take some caution when trying out these sober alternatives. The experts I spoke with really highlighted this, and said there could be risks involved. If you're taking certain ingredients like we mentioned, CBD or THC, if you're on certain medication, or if you have certain neurological disorders, or any challenges that might interact badly with some of these ingredients, be mindful of and talk to a medical professional if you do want to partake.
James Brown: Any famous last words?
Sarah Moniuszko: I would just say too, on that note of being cautious whenever trying these products, another thing I wanted to just highlight was, these options may be not the best replacement for everyone. So it's obviously a big trend, and if you're someone who wants to boost your health or skip out on hangovers, then these types of swaps make perfect sense. But if you're someone who struggles with alcohol use disorder, or struggles with mental health challenges like severe anxiety, these might not be the best options for you. And they're not a replacement for professional health. So everyone stay curious, but stay cautious, and do what's best for you and your body.
James Brown: Sarah Moniuszko, thanks for joining me.
Sarah Moniuszko: Thank you so much.
James Brown: If you like the show, write us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. And do me a favor, share it with a friend. What do you think of the show, and are you sober curious too? Email me at jabrown@usatoday.com, or leave me a message at (585) 484-0339. We might have you on the show.
Thanks to Sarah Moniuszko for joining me, and to Alexis Gustin and Shannon Ray Green for their production assistance. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning. For all of us at USA Today, thanks for listening. I'm James Brown, and as always, be well.