**I recently celebrated 1 year and 6 months sobriety. I nicknamed it 547.5 days being PRESENT. This has been a journey of getting to know the real me. Not the drunk me. I already knew her and what she was capable of. But I didn't know what the sober me was capable of. I am revealing the tricks of the trade and one of those would be MOCKTAILS. In the beginning I was on a quest for the perfect SATURDAY NIGHT drink (my oral FIX). I did find it eventually. Then, surprisingly, I didn't need it. Enjoy!
6.28.25
Good morning. Happy Saturday. I'm off this weekend. I was up late looking at my google files and finding photos that mark time while on my sobriety journey from alcohol. If I had advice for someone going on a year journey, it would be to take more pictures. As I was going through everything, I realized I missed taking an actual photo of myself the day I hit 1 year sober. WTF?!! I go an entire year and not take one goddam picture on the day I had been working towards all year LOL. Too funny. Yes please. If you are embarking on this special get to know thy self, your unaided, unbridled, unaltered self...snap those selfies and toss in an edited version of the month you are at!!!!
I saw my confidence growing in so many ways. In the beginning you are still in the mindset that you need some sort of drink in your hand. I suppose it is similar to folks who quit cigarettes. I've heard some people keep pencils in their hand. I was obsessed with mocktails. If it was a Saturday night, I had to have some sort of mocktail in hand. Couldn't really put it into wine glasses because that was triggering. I switched my "drinking glass" to a pretty martini glass. I never drank martinis before all this. There was no mental associated with the look of the glass giving me undeniable pleasure. My brain didn't associate martini glass with euphoria. So, I ended up experimenting with all kinds of NA drinks.
I tried the brand Curious Elixirs. Got on their monthly program, where they deliver a variety to your home. Let's just say that subscription ended pretty quick when I realized I didn't enjoy most of them. They were expensive and to me just not worth the disappointment. I liked the #3 flavor, but it wasn't anything that I would search for on a Saturday night. I was on a quest though to find my Saturday Night drink. My brain was just still in that mode of needing some kind of oral fix.
I then went on to trying Aplos. This was a gift from my mom. I would say my experience with Aplos was one of the keys to my success. Those mixed drinks got me through many Saturday nights. I toyed around with lavender syrups, rose syrups, tonic water, margarita mixes, fancy ice-cube trays, edible glitter. This product at the time came in two different styles. One was called Arise. The other as called Calme. She bought me that twin pack so I could experiment. I went on their website for "functional cocktail recipes".
I loved Arise for the taste in NA margaritas. Delicious!! The Arise has many different herbs. It is an adaptogen infused NA functional spirit mixer. This one didn't really make me feel buzzy or calm. It just tasted good in a citrus forward NA drink. There are things like agave, lemon verbena, ginseng, and L-theanine in it. Check the website for the details.
The other product called Calme made me feel that nice chill factor. Calme has many different herbs added to it, along with non-THC HEMP. The taste is completely different than Arise. I paired that one with tonic water, lavender syrup, and orange blossom water. Probably my favorite NA drink so far. If they served my drink in a restaurant, I would be a very happy girl.
I dabbled in Hop Water, Heineken Zero, De Soi, Recess Mood. I didn't try any of the 0.5% NA beers until around 6 months abstaining. I read that drinking those can be too close to the drink you used to drink, and it may be problematic for some. But I didn't really feel that with the one I tried, which was Corona NA. I was just more disappointed in the taste LOL. I was an IPA lover, and it was missing that hoppy goodness.
Now that I am officially 550 days sober, I no longer really need that Saturday Night drink. I think in my mind..."oh an Aplos would be nice tonight". But then I just eat some food and call it good.
One night my husband was indulging in one of those THC infused drink and I thought “Hey, I will have one of my NA IPA's I just bought”. It was so good!!!! I was at Walmart and saw a brand called Athletic. The flavor was called FREE WAVE HAZY IPA. It had that nice grapefruit hop flavor I was looking for. But interestingly I only wanted one. One was enough. It is 0.5% alcohol, but you don't feel any effects of an actual beer. I don't have any pull towards them. It was just a nice impromptu social thing. Probably something I could bring to a party, but I wouldn't really need to. I am comfortable with water in hand.
Just understand that mocktails and NA beers/wine can be a tool for some folks going on this journey. Some folks like to have an elitist attitude and judge people trying these items. Don't let them make you feel bad for doing what you must to drop the bottle. There are sobriety coaches who support the idea of reducing your current consumption using the lesser of the evils. So, an example is someone going from drinking say 3 strong Double IPA beers each night (which is actually a lot of alcohol units), down to every Saturday night THC gummies. This is not a cookie cutter program. It takes a lot of tries to get this thing right.
I tried to moderate my drinking since 2018. It is 2025 and I am now 1.5 years sober, with the help from Aplos & Heineken Zero in the beginning. I branched out to doing other activities like reading, yoga, writing, dressing up and taking fun photos. I filled my cup in different ways so that I didn't need to fill my actual drinking cup anymore.
My brain is healing. The neurotransmitters are becoming regulated. I am proud to say I am in recovery. No program needed. Just the support of my fellow non-program people that selflessly donated their time to create books, podcasts, and Instagram posts. Thank you to you all!!!
That is all I have. Stay strong, brave, bold, and tenacious. Whatever suffering you feel will pass. This is all temporary. The best is yet to come. You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other each day together.
Love, Alimoon
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