Sober Curious, Mindful & Alcohol-Free Drinkers Podcast: Low No Drinker

#81. Powerful Mindset Shifts That Will Transform Your Experience with Low/No Drinks – pt2

• Denise Hamilton-Mace • Episode 81

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Come with me on part 2 of our mindset shifts discovery.

You can find part 1 at ep#79 


This week, we cover:
1:46 Shift 10 - They're not worth the price
3:52 Shift 11 - Changing my social identity
5:24 Shift 12 - This is just a trend
7:30 Shift 13 - Tried one, tried them all
10:23 Shift 14 - Limiting social occasions
14:03 Shift 15 - I won't enjoy my food the same way
16:37 Shift 16 - Limited options
20:04 Shift 17 - I don't know where to start


Best episode to listen to next:
#78 What no one tells you about your tastes when you start drinking low/no
#80. 12 Years in the Making: From Seedlip to Seasn to Sylva to Shandy with Ben Branson


Also mentioned:
sylvalabs.com
Guinness 0.0*
Heineken 0.0*
Peroni 0.0*
Gordons 0.0*
Tanqueray 0*

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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello and welcome to the Low-No Drinker podcast, the only twice-weekly podcast, helping you find, understand and enjoy the world of low-no and light drinks, drinkers and drinking. My name is Denise Hamilton-Mace and I'm the founder, editor and host of all things Low-No Drinker. In a previous episode I did for you part one of some of the essential mindset shifts that I think would really benefit you when it comes to stepping into the world of low, no and light drinks, whether that is for the first time, whether you are just visiting and you're not entirely sure if it's a place you want to be, whether you're just looking for some drinks to help with certain situations. Perhaps you've got to get up with the kids in the morning. It's on my mind, it's half term at the moment of recording the Easter two-week holiday. It's a long break. I love you kids, I do, but my goodness, it's a long break. You know whether or not you are training for a sporting event.

Speaker 1:

Whatever your reasons are for looking into the world of low, no and light drinks, it can be quite daunting. There's a lot to consider and there are lots of really valid excuses for not giving it a go, for just sticking with a pint of coke or for not going out, but I want you to go out, I want you to enjoy yourself, I want you to socialise with your friends. Deciding not to drink alcohol for any length of time doesn't mean that you also have to decide to give up your social life. So in a previous episode we did the first part of the mindset shifts and we looked at nine mindset shifts that can help you when it comes to embarking on this journey. So today we're going to finish that off and do part two, and I've got eight more mindset shifts for you to consider. So, without further ado, let's jump right in with the first one today, which I think is the most important. I always like to start with the biggest one first, and that is the mindset shift from the price of low-no drinks just aren't worth it. Two quality ingredients deserve quality pricing. This is so important. I've spoken about this topic on this podcast at length, and I'm sure I will continue to do so for quite some time as lots of new people enter Lono Nation. Hello, welcome, glad to have you here, but I need to stress to you that price is not the most important thing when it comes to these drinks. Now I could give you lots of reasons and lots of examples why, but the fact of the matter is that if you want a quality low, no or light alcohol drink, then you have to be prepared to pay for it.

Speaker 1:

Alcohol is the cheapest ingredient in your full strength drink. Okay, it is just a byproduct of fermentation. You cannot create the full strength drinks that you love without first fermenting them, and that produces alcohol. But it doesn't actually cost producers anything. Even if they're buying in base liquids to then build on, it's still the cheapest ingredient in your drink. So when you take away the cheapest ingredient, you've still got. So when you take away the cheapest ingredient, you've still got to make the drink for the low, no and light producers. And then you've got all the added costs. Whether that's things like de-alcoholization, so removing the alcohol afterwards for you, whether that is the fact that their production costs are going to be higher because they're making smaller batches, whether that is the fact that they have to go through extra processes, such as pasteurization, to make sure that they are going to be safe for you to drink.

Speaker 1:

There are so many costs involved in producing these drinks that I promise you that the price you're paying is worth it if you want to continue to consume quality, low note and light drinks and do not want to be saddled with the drinks of yesteryear. I won't mention any brands because I don't want to get in trouble, but you know what I'm talking about. Okay, our next mindset shift for today is all about how you feel about yourself when it comes to these drinks, and it's shifting from trying or drinking lowno means giving up my social identity, shifting to recognizing that this way of drinking is an expansion on who you are. It's not a limitation. It has never been my desire, my goal, my aim, my position to tell you that you should stop drinking. You do what you want to do. You're a grown adult. You know what's good for you.

Speaker 1:

What I would love to do with this platform is to help you recognize that, for those times when you decide that you do not want to have a drink, you still have options that mean that you can have a great night out or night in with your friends, with your family, with your loved ones, and drink amazing quality adult beverages that allow you to still feel like you're part of the occasion, whether that is a date night in with your other half on the sofa, whether you are going to the pub and you're having a pint with your friends. Whatever it is that you are doing, these drinks are not there to limit your socialising. They are there to expand it, to open up the possibilities for you, to open up the options to allow you to join in and do so still feeling like an adult, having adult flavors and an adult drinking experience. And it's really important that you hold on to that and know that this isn't about taking anything away from you. This is about giving you more options for the times when you choose that you want to have them.

Speaker 1:

Our next shift today mindset shift number 12, is going from thinking of low-no drinks as just a trend to shifting your perspective to realize that this is not just a fad. This is a culture shift. The way we are drinking is changing. This isn't just a fad. This isn't just a trend. This isn't just here for a little while and then it's going to disappear. This is millions of people looking at the way that they drink and thinking to themselves. I wonder if there's a way that I can do this better. That's not to say I'm going to change it completely, but I just wonder if there's a way I can do this better.

Speaker 1:

Yes, gen Z are the sober, curious generation and they are not consuming the way alcohol, the way that my generation did. I'm a Gen Xer and we partied hard in the 90s, in the noughties, in the in the 10s. You know, we were out, we were at it, we were not taking any prisoners, it was go hard or go home, and nobody went home. And Gen Z, for their wisdom, for their conscientiousness, for their realization that a good time doesn't just have to revolve around getting as leathered as possible, as quickly as possible, are definitely shouting loudest about this change. But it is the older generations as well. So lots of studies, lots of research which I've mentioned in previous episodes and I'm sure I will touch on again for you is showing that this is millennials, this is Gen X, this is is it boomers next? I always get confused with the generations, but you'll get the point.

Speaker 1:

My point is that this is not just happening in one small pocket of the world. This is a global change in the way that we drink. This is not to say that alcohol is going anywhere I don't believe that alcohol is going anywhere at all but the way that we consume it and how much store we put by it, when it comes to the way we socialize, is changing, and these drinks allow us to facilitate that, and I think that that's a wonderful thing. Mindset shift number 13 now, and this is one that gets my goat, honestly, and it is the shift from thinking that I've tried one alcohol-free drink. I didn't like it therefore, I don't like any alcohol-free drinks to recognizing that each brand, each drink, each iteration offers something unique, something new, something better.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I completely understand and I completely agree that if you were drinking low no beers or alcohol-free beers 15 years ago, if you tried an alcohol-free wine 15 years ago, it would have been pretty dire. Then 10 years ago probably still quite dire. Five years ago, we started to see a lot of change and things getting better. Now these drinks are phenomenal. Are they all phenomenal? No, some of them are terrible. I'll be completely honest with you. Of course some of them are terrible. But name me one industry where everything is perfect. It doesn't exist, and that's okay, because what you have now is option and you have multiple, multiple options.

Speaker 1:

So if you go and you try a low no drink and you don't like it, you don't need to write off the entire category, you might need to write off that brand or you might need to say, okay, I'm not having that type of drink from those guys again. But there is so much more out there to try. If you were to go out and have a pizza tomorrow night and it was a really bad pizza, would you write off pizza for the rest of your life? Or would you try a different one from a different place, with different toppings? And that's exactly what low-no and light drink producers are doing at the moment. They are playing with all the toppings. They are testing out your thin crust, your deep pan, your thin and crispy, whatever it is that you are looking for. There is a drink out there that serves your needs, and that's what's really exciting about it. So just because you might have tried one in the past that you didn't like and you didn't enjoy doesn't mean you need to write off the entire category. Keep looking, keep trying.

Speaker 1:

I always say, you know, think about your current favorite glass of wine. Perhaps it's an Argentinian Malbec, perhaps it's a Puy Fusay, perhaps it's just a glass of Pinot Grigio from your local. But how many bad glasses of wine did you drink before you found that favorite right? And I know if you've ever been for dinner in a curry house and had a glass of wine there, you definitely didn't enjoy it, yet you persevered until you found things that you really enjoyed. And it's exactly the same with low, no and light drinks. You are spoiled for choice at the moment, and if you can shift your mindset into realizing that this is about experimentation, it's about experience, it's about trying different things, then I promise you will find drinks that you can enjoy. Now, mindset shift number 14, which is taking us from thinking that low and no drinks means limiting our social options to realizing that drinking low and no actually opens up a whole range of new social possibilities.

Speaker 1:

Going out doesn't have to revolve around drinking the way that you did before. It can do, and you can take part in that, even if you're choosing to enjoy low, no or light drinks while you do it, absolutely fine. As I always say, it's your choice. But socializing doesn't just have to mean going out around drinking, and the fact that you might be happy and willing and surrounded by other people who are happy and willing to experiment and try with low-no and light alcohol drinks means that there are so many more things that you can do so. I'm going to give you an example now. It's an extreme example, I know it's not going to apply to many people, but just to show you the difference in possibilities that you can explore when you choose to drink less and to embrace the drinks that allow you to do that.

Speaker 1:

On a trip to Australia with some friends. It was a great trip. We traveled around and saw lots, and while we were there, one of my friends was turning 30 and her and her husband had decided that they were going to mark the occasion with a skydive, and it looked absolutely amazing. It's something I've always, always wanted to do. Actually, what I want to do is I want to jump out of a helicopter, but I don't know why. In particular, I just want to go in a helicopter so I can mix the two together. But anyway, my friend had decided that she and her husband were going to do this skydive to mark her 30th.

Speaker 1:

So we got to the venue and they had a bar on site and there were about five of us, so we decided we were going to have a beer whilst we were waiting for their turn to go up in the plane, and so we were sitting around waiting and as their turn came up, the chaps who were going to take them up in the plane came over, started talking, looked down on our table and saw that we had beers there, and they turned to my friends and said have you been drinking? And my friend said no, no, no, we haven't been drinking. And the guy said well, whether you say you have or you haven't, because you've got alcohol on the table, we can't take you up to do your skydive. And that was it. They lost their opportunity, they lost their money and they had to rebook in to do it at another time. In fact, I don't know if they ever did, because obviously that kind of thing isn't cheap to do. The point being here is that, because alcohol was involved in their situation, they actually lost the possibility to do something that they really, really wanted to do. They were so excited for it and we were so excited to see them do it, and we were absolutely gutted that they had lost this opportunity because we had beers on the table.

Speaker 1:

The point of the story is that having alcohol around isn't the only way that you can enjoy yourself, and removing alcohol isn't going to stop you from enjoying yourself. It's going to open up more possibilities, more options, places that you might otherwise have had to drive, to things that you have to be completely sober to enjoy Spending time with people in a way that allows you to stay connected to them and I don't know about you, but for me this was a big one to remember what happened when you were socializing with your friends. So don't look at low no drinks as taking away your ability to socialize. Look at them as adding something to your social experience and allowing you to grow it and expand it even further. Mindset shift now, number 15, and that is going from the thought process that you need alcohol to appreciate tastes when you're having a meal to understanding that your palate is more sensitive without it. Now I won't spend too much time on this one, because just a couple of weeks ago, I released an episode for you which was about how your taste buds change when you start embarking on a journey to reduce your alcohol intake. In brief, alcohol acts almost as a numbing agent within the mouth and it actually stops you from tasting things the way that they are naturally meant to taste, which is why you'll find that the heavier and stronger drinks that you taste, the heavier and stronger flavors you tend to eat as well, so know that, as I said in the previous episode about finding low and no drinks that actually compare really well with food, these drinks actually allow you to taste and appreciate food more as your palate becomes more sensitive as you remove alcohol from that eating and drinking experience. Right mindset shift number 16, and this is taking you from thinking about quality options as being limited to understanding that the selection and scale of low, no and light drinks is constantly evolving and growing and expanding. New brands are launching almost weekly and I would say probably actually weekly.

Speaker 1:

I have a column inside Low no Drinker magazine called New Kids on the Block and in it I share some news about the latest releases that have come across my desk that are available for people to drink. And I remember when I first started doing the magazine a couple of years ago and I introduced this column, it was a real struggle to find enough items to fill it out. In fact, when I first started doing it I only had a handful. I think there were two or three items inside each column. Now I have to struggle to limit myself to just eight to 10 for each magazine, for each issue to share, because there are just so many, and it doesn't matter what it is that you like drinking or what it is that you are looking for. There are new releases coming out in those fields all the time.

Speaker 1:

I had, um, the wonderful Ben Branson on the podcast, uh, in our last episode, and if you haven't heard it, I highly recommend you go and check it out, because he was so interesting to talk to. The reason I bring him up, though, in terms of talking about new drinks, is that not only did heard it. I highly recommend you go and check it out, because he was so interesting to talk to. The reason I bring him up, though, in terms of talking about new drinks, is that not only did Ben create Seedlip, which was the first distilled non-alcoholic spirit. He then created Season, which was a selection of alcohol-free bitters. He's now created a brand called Silver, which is a sippable non-alcoholic dark spirit, but the drinks that he's creating are one-offs. So he'll create a batch of a sippable non-alcoholic dark spirit, and once that batch is gone, he's already creating a brand new batch with a brand new flavor profile, with brand new ingredients, and he uses wood and trees and bark for his flavor profiles, and so every couple of months, he's creating brand new drinks like nothing before.

Speaker 1:

And that's just one person, that's just one brand. There are new releases all the time in ciders, in wines, in beers, in kombuchas, in functional drinks, in spirits, in ready-to-drink cocktails. So there is so much growing and it's only going to continue as more and more people demand more and more quality drinks. So it's really exciting for anyone who's interested in the low-no way of drinking now, because you can try so many different drinks. If I look behind me on my shelves, if you've seen any of my interviews on my YouTube channel, you'll know that I sit in front of shelves full of low, no and light alcohol drinks and what is behind me? They're probably at the moment I don't know 30, 40 different drinks there, and that's only a small fraction. If I was to look in my kitchen now, I've got maybe a hundred or so, and that's only a small percentage of what's out there. So your options are growing on a weekly basis. You are bound to find a drink out there that you like, and if you haven't yet, then just keep going.

Speaker 1:

Okay, our last mindset shift to close out part two of our mindset shift episodes. I still have to be really careful. How I say that is going from thinking that you don't know where to start and you don't know how to approach drinking low and low to understanding that you can start anywhere, and that is part of the journey. One of the things that I love the most about this category of drinks is that, because it's so new, there are no rules. You do not have to start in a certain place, you do not have to only try certain drinks, you do not have to follow a set path way to drinking the way that you want to drink. If there is a low, no or light drink that looks vaguely interesting to you, grab it. Grab it, chill it, pour it and enjoy it.

Speaker 1:

I would say that, if it helps you, you can start with familiar categories and familiar brands that you know. Most of the big alcohol producers out there and I'm not just talking about the brands, but the actual producers that own them have in their range now. In fact, all of them have in their range now alcohol-free options of some big name brands that you would have become familiar with in your drinking repertoire. So, whether or not you are a gin drinker and you like a Tanqueray or a Gordon's, perhaps you are a rum drinker and you like a Havana, or maybe you're a beer drinker and you like a Heineken or Guinness or a Peroni. Those brands all have zero alcohol versions of their full strength alcohol drink. So if you are nervous about where to start, my top tip is to go in with some of those big brands that you're already familiar with, because what they do very well is they have millions and millions and millions of pounds or dollars, depending on where you're listening that they can spend on replicating their original recipes so that their alcohol-free versions taste almost identical, and most of them do it really really well, really well, even if you listen in on episodes that I've done on the podcast, where I'm interviewing founders and I ask them at the end of every episode what they like drinking in the low, no space. Apart from their own brand, one of the most recommended drinks is actually Guinness Zero, because Guinness have spent millions and millions and millions of euros on making Guinness Zero taste almost identical to full strength Guinness, and the same can be said across the board for a lot of these brands.

Speaker 1:

Now, of course, not all of them get it right. As you know, I'm very measured in my approach. Let's be fair. Some of them are great, some of them are not so great, but they are really, really good starting point and from there you'll start to discover flavors that you like and can start to branch out from there. Another good place to start if you are uncertain is to speak to your bartender.

Speaker 1:

Okay, if you have a venue that you're going to and you've checked online and they've got some alcohol-free drinks, and you're going in, speak to the bartender, speak to the waiter and say, listen, I want to try some alcohol-free stuff tonight. What do you recommend? What's your favorite one? What do you think tastes good? And things are so different now.

Speaker 1:

When I was running bars, I can probably tell you, hand on heart, that most of my staff wouldn't have been able to answer that question. I wouldn't have been able to answer that question. But now things are really different. And now people are telling me that they're going into venues and they've got full menus that they can choose from, that the bartenders are happy to make them an alcohol-free cocktail, and I think it's a wonderful, wonderful place to be, that now we can have these conversations and we don't have to feel nervous and we don't have to feel embarrassed and we don't have to make up excuses.

Speaker 1:

You know you don't have to be on antibiotics to decide that you want to drink low and no in your favorite venue or wherever it is that you're going to. So speak to the bar staff, speak to the wait staff, speak to your friends. Get together and try different things. Know that drinking low, no and light opens up a whole new world of possibilities to you and you can try whatever you want, however you want, mix it with whatever you want and just see what you come up with. There you have it. That is the end of my second set of mindset shifts for helping you find your way through drinking low, no and light. As a newly sober, curious, mindful drinker, moderator, whatever it is that you call yourself, or even if you don't call yourself anything at all, I really hope that these mindset shifts help give you something to think about when it comes to these drinks and helps you to feel more comfortable and more confident in your choices to pursue a life less intoxicated. I'll catch you next time.

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Denise Hamilton-Mace

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