13 of the Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks For Dry January

Another year, another new way to resolve. For those with alcohol on the “out” list—whether for this dry January, forever, or a couple days each week—certain hours in the day or particular circumstances (5 p.m.; social gatherings) may suddenly yawn open, devoid of a familiar ritual. Luckily, in recent years a host of alternatives have rushed in to fill that void and add more flavor to your dry January experience.

If anything, when met with such an embarrassment of zero proof riches, the real challenge is sussing out the true standouts. An unscientific polling of various enlisted taste-testers yields a consensus (one with which I, a non-drinker, concur) that the best non-alcoholic choices are typically not simply a dealcoholized version of an alcoholic spirit or wine—cue Jennifer Connelly’s repressed Home Depot meltdown in the 2009 rom-com He’s Just Not That Into You: “I don’t like the way it’s pretending to be wood; you’re not wood, don’t try and look like wood.” In the world of non-alcs, as in the world of love, there are a few exceptions to this rule, including non-alcoholic beer writ large (hops, which are nonalcoholic and derived from the Humulus hemp family plant, do a lot of beer-signaling flavor work) and a few other notables included here. 

The biggest crowd pleasers tended to have certain traits in common, elevating them from the fancy sodas they essentially are into a more interesting, holistic drinking experience. The packaging, for one, must be attractive because that old adage stands: we drink first with our un-beer-goggled eyes. There’s also typically an ingredient that subs in for alcohol with either a bite (ginger, say), a bitterness (orange rind, acacia), or a slight funk (mushrooms, ashwagandha). And so, without further ado: Drink and be merry this dry January, for tomorrow you won’t wake up with a hangover.