December Newsletter: Big news on NA bevs, GREAT news for our brains and my SHE-ro Award!

Dec 6

Guinness 0.0 was smooooth with Sticky Toffee Pudding in London this week!

It amazes me that Festillant, an NA sparkler, is available in Paris at the equivalent of a Kroger grocery store, for just $4/bottle!! It's much better than FRE by Sutter Home and approximately 50% less sweet. It's about the same level of sweetness as the very popular NA brand called Eins Zwei Zero. I personally would like even less sweet, but I'm kind of unusual in that way and for most people I know, this would taste dry and totally do the trick! Why have you not heard of it? Probably because it's been around for at least 15 years, and therefore seems kind of overlooked by the current wave of new AF products! And because it's cheap (in Europe)! Anyway, I like it as well or more than some of the bottles I've had for 8 X the price! Cheers!

Game-Changers

You'll now be able to find NA beverages, including a personal favorite, Ghia as well as Surely Wine, Katy Pery's brand De Soi, and more, at Target!! Speaking of Ghia, founder Melanie Masarin just announced that after repeated and rigorous tasting trials, they are introducing their first non-bitter aperitif!

Even if you don't know who David Guetta is....you do! You know at least a handful of the irresistible mega-hit songs he has written and produced like Titanium (with Sia) and I Gotta Feeling (with the Black Eyed Peas)! A giant in the music industry, he earns up to $2 million a night to DJ/perform. And now he has partnered with Lyre's, the huge NA spirits brand based out of Australia but sold internationally! As their new Global Brand Ambassador, Guetta says he's out to change how the world drinks! (The company raised another $23 million in funding this summer).

You know who is advertising for Athletic Brewing? Mel Robbins, on her runaway hit-podcast. (Mel is very much sober-curious and talks about wanting to drink less or boot alcohol for good!). Athletic Brewing is a dedicated NA brewery, with investors such as Lance Armstrong, several NFL players, restaurateur David Chang and the founder of Toms shoes. If you have beer lovers in your life trying to cut back on alcohol, point them toward the Non-Alcoholic Beer Appreciation Society on Facebook where they can geek out over personal beer reviews, recommendations, fermentation science, etc!

From an article in Vogue...Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton isn't sure he'll drink again and is loving how he's feeling at 4 months sober. He recently launched an NA tequila brand called Almave after realizing that alcohol didn't square with his drive as an athlete to get that 1% extra edge. And he realized he felt pressure to drink when out with friends. "And I realized, how can I be feeling pressure at 38? Imagine young 18 year olds.”

She-ro Award!!! I've been meaning to give a shout out to another, and early, female-founded NA beverage brand called Figlia!! In terms of flavor and style, it's in the same "spirit" 🤣 as the product you've heard me mention many times, Ghia. And For Bitter For Worse's Saskatoon. Figlia (which means daughter in Italian) is delicious!! Founder Lily Geiger is so....young! And inspirational! And brave! Many brands don't want to mention or get up next to the words "alcohol use disorder," but Lily doesn't shy away from the fact that it's part of Figlia's DNA and origin story! Her story inspires me and makes me feel energized and proud of the young women leading the charge in this movement. Figlia ("For Moments You Want To Remember) has notes of bitter citrus, cassis berry, camomile and warming spice and would look festive with these dead-easy fancy ice cubes (I did something like this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit). Lily generously donates to environmental and addiction causes. Figlia now comes in cans and was just featured in a foodie gift guide from the New York Times, plus gift guides from Eater, Saveur, Men's Journal, USA Today, Nordstrom and more! Wow!*.
(* I don't have any affiliation, Lily has no idea who I am, and I don't benefit from your purchase! I just call it like I see it and taste it, and feel like she is a badass deserving of our support!)

Good News About Our Brains!
New research suggests more capacity for the brain to repair from drinking than previously thought!

And as hard as it is to imagine an enjoyable or hopeful podcast about Alzheimers/Dementia, here it is! Ten Percent Happier podcast host Dan Harris interviews Lisa Genova, a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard and the author of the novel that was turned into the movie Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore. Genova talks about how to prevent dementia, and the difference between normal forgetting and actual memory loss.

I'm in London this week, and even got to meet up with a fave This Naked Mind coach colleague, and am happy to find there are typically good NA options on menus, especially the excellent locally produced Lucky Saint. And I'm glad I thought to ask for a Guinness 0.0 to pair with my dessert of sticky toffee pudding!! It only became available on tap a few months ago and not many pubs have it apparently! Guinness is very exacting about the proper pour and pubs have to agree to install a special machine in order to offer it on tap! It's really very good and you can find it in cans in the US, or look for the NA version of Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon.

Following, Reading, Liking

I'm fascinated by a stigma-free trend of "casual sobriety" embraced by a younger demographic and factors contributing to it, explored in this article in Vice.

Nobu is offering an NA pairing! Sounds like way too much green-tea in one meal to me, but I like the spirit of this and I'm excited to see what top chefs will continue to offer as they realize how much fun they can have with a drinks pairing menu of their own in-house creation! As I've said before, given that beverages can be made of so many things, I think we'll eventually grow to think of wine-only pairings of the past as pretty limited!

Climate change and changing consumer habits are impacting wine producers worldwide!

In her book, Wine Witch On Fire, wine-writer Natalie Maclean shares how she developed an addiction and the specific beliefs she challenged to rewind the habit. (FYI, each of us makes our own path based on our physiology, risk tolerance, conclusions, etc. The book author chooses to moderate. Based on my research, experimentation, poking holes in old beliefs and thousands of hours of coaching, my conclusion is that alcohol adds no value to my life). The titles of her first two books are Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines. Those book titles probably wouldn't survive an editor's red pen today which just shows how much we were all steeped in a boozy culture and how attitudes are changing.

So much to savor here in London! Sunrise and swans in Hyde Park, a play starring Kenneth Branagh, the pulse of an international city, and EVERYTHING from Israeli-born British chef Yotam Ottolenghi (one of his cafes pictured here). I worked in London as a sales secretary in a 5-star hotel for 6 months when I first graduated from college, living in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment with two other girls - and I hadn't returned until last year - 33 years later! What are you reminiscing about or savoring this week? Let me know!

From my hometown of New Orleans to working with Food Network chefs, to the vineyards of Oregon...food, friends and flavor figured centrally in my life - and got ALL tangled up in alcohol! I didn't want a wine habit running my life, but I was scared that giving up wine meant living with a "glass half-empty." When I got certified as a sobriety/mindful drinking coach, trained in the neuroscience of habits and behavior and did a deep dive in the health benefits of cultivating joy, I realized I didn't have to give up places and rituals I had enjoyed! I could double-down on them! I invite you to visit my site and book a free call because
I believe you deserve a juicy life, not a dry one!

Martha Wright