With about 1 in 5 adults participating last year, Dry January is a popular trend where people choose to abstain from alcohol for the month of January to reset their bodies and minds after the holiday season. If you're participating in Dry January but still want to enjoy the taste and ritual of a drink, non-alcoholic versions of beer, wine, and spirits are a great alternative. And with so many options on the market, finding the perfect cocktail mix or mocktail to satisfy your cravings has never been easier.
We did some sleuthing to find our 10 best places to shop for non alcoholic offerings this month that mimic the taste and experience of their alcoholic counterparts. From online retailers to specialty stores, these options will help you stay on track with your Dry January goals while still being able to enjoy a drink with friends and family.
The largest chain of non alcoholic bottle shops that we found, Boisson has 10 locations across the country, mostly concentrated in New York and Los Angeles. The stores are pristine, as you can see from the above photo of their newest San Francisco store, but they also have a great user experience on their online store. Boisson clearly puts a lot into the details and story behind the products they sell, and platforms they sell them in, resulting in some high quality non alcoholic finds and a nice shopping experience.
Sipple is a boutique bottle shop in Houston's Rice Village neighborhood. Founded by husband and wife team Helenita and Danny Frounfelker, who is also a sommelier, Sipple is a perfect place to discover lesser known yet higher quality non alcoholic spirits. They also provide tastings and small events regularly throughout the year to give the community great exposure to all the non alcoholic world has to offer, and even have a cute room in the back for just hanging out if you're looking to relax from a day of shopping.
Located in Chicago's Humboldt Park, Benediction is a funky team effort between this non alcoholic bottle shop and local florist Succulent City (a play on Second City...). This meeting of the minds between Dry January and houseplants makes Benediction a millennial playground, and we're here for it. Like Sipple, they offer regular tastings to try out all kinds of different cocktail mixers, non alcoholic wines, and zero ABV spirits.
Founder Douglas Waters found that the thing he loved most about alcohol was the human connection the ritual of enjoying cocktails together gave people, but didn't want the harmful effects that could come from it. He decided to take this into his own hands and launch Lower Manhattan's premier non alcoholic bottle shop - Spirited Away. In addition to the actual store, Spirited Away also runs Dry Atlas, a review site and blog for non alcoholic cocktails and products. If you're not in NY, check out Dry Atlas for curated lists of different drinks to try this Dry January.
A purely online bottle shop, Better Rhodes was one of the earlier entrants into non alcoholic cocktail e-commerce. Being fully online allows them to stock a seemingly endless selection of non alcoholic wines, beers, spirits and mixers, all available for delivery anywhere in the U.S. If you're looking for gifts this Dry January, consider one of their monthly beer or cocktail boxes that ship fun collections of non alcoholic offerings. They also have a non alcoholic wine club, which is a great way to discover new alcohol free wines.
After two years as a popup, The Open Road became truly open in March of last year with its brick and mortar location in Pittsburgh's Allentown neighborhood. They are a woman, minority and LGBTQ+ owned business that offers all the latest and hard to find products needed to mix non alcoholic cocktails during Dry January. They've been featured in a number of publications such as VinePair, Wine Enthusiast, and Thrillist - with well deserved praise for leading the non alcoholic retail landscape in Pennsylvania.
OK, you've likely shopped in or at least heard of BevMo already, but this wouldn't be a full list without mentioning how good non alcoholic offerings have gotten at BevMo over the past year. The OG liquor store on the west coast, BevMo has done a great job of adapting to low and no-alcohol customer needs by stocking a large selection of cocktail mixers, non alcoholic spirits, and other offerings for people looking for the ritual of drinking without the buzz. Next time you're in a BevMo, go check out these new offerings to see what we mean.
Billing themselves as Los Angeles' first non alcoholic bottle shop, we first discovered Soft Spirits on Instagram where they post fun staff reviews, tastings and some beautifully shot non alcoholic cocktail recipes. Soft Spirits has all your traditional alcohol substitutes for mixing cocktails during Dry January, as well as some whimsical non alcoholic canned drinks that feel right at home on Sunset Boulevard.
Rounding out our list is one more online-only offering - The Zero Proof. Similar to Boisson with the easy usability of its website, the selection of non alcoholic drinks here is deep and Zero Proof compliments product with information in the form of delicious recipes and a non alcoholic beverage themed blog dubbed The Distiller. We made their non alcoholic Negroni at the office, and it was on point.
