Every October, half of the internet finds out what it’s like to be the one holding a club soda at a party.
Some of us have been doing Sober October for years. Twenty of them, in my case, with no days off. And I can report that the drinks have gotten a lot better since the O’Doul’s days.
I am not the person to tell you what to pour, though. I didn’t drink for the taste, ever, and I’ll get to that. The people to tell you are Kim Parsley and Justin Lamb, who hold down the Happy Every Hour section of this site. Kim covers NA spirits and cocktails. Justin covers NA beer, and he’s about 150 reviews deep. His top 10 non-alcoholic beers for fall from October 2024 still pulls readers every single week, which is why I made him come on the podcast and defend it.
Tamar and I got them both on mic for a Sober October roundtable. We called them Kim Possible and JJ Lammy. They allowed it.
Eye roll, gateway drug, or marketing?
First question, honest answers only: Sober October, Dry January, and the always forgotten Dry July. Excited, or eye roll?
Kim went first. “I’ll be honest, I do roll my eyes.” Before she quit, she thought if you need to quit, just quit. She called that naive, and it is, but it’s also what most of us thought before we understood the thing we were dealing with.
Justin, who is a therapist when he isn’t rating stouts, had the clinical take. The 30-day challenge is useful because of what happens on day 12. “That’s that first red flag of, oh, I’m negotiating with myself. I’m trying to cut back and unable to.”
So I asked if these months are the gateway drug to sobriety.
“Yeah, I’ll take that.”
He also called it marketing, and he’s right, and that’s fine. Mental Health Awareness Month gets people into his clinic. Sober October gets people onto this site. We can call a spade a spade.
Then Kim asked the question I’ve been avoiding for years: doesn’t it also give you an out? Make it 31 days, decide you’re fine, pour on Nov. 1.
Yes. It does. That’s rationalization. We are expert rationalizers.
Tamar used to do all of them, with rules carved out for the wedding this weekend and the pub night with friends, and never made it past a few days. Her take now is the one I’m adopting: if somebody quits two months out of the year and gets a little healthier and a little more aware, that’s not such a bad thing.
Why they write about this stuff
Kim got sober in the middle of her craft cocktail era. Old fashioneds, whiskey sours, big plans for gin. She felt sorry for herself for a while, and then she realized she had a whole new category to learn from zero. The bottles weren’t cheap. She bought them anyway.
Behind her on the Zoom is the piano bar. “My piano bar used to be full of alcohol, like three rows deep.” Now there are maybe four bottles with alcohol in the whole spread, and she’s tasted and mixed every other one on the shelf.
Justin came from the craft beer world: brewery visits, seasonal releases, the hunt for the mango habanero chocolate stout. He’ll admit part of the appeal was that a 12% beer is still a beer. When he quit, that hunt was the thing he missed, so he went looking for it in NA, which seven years ago barely existed.
Both of them landed in the category right as it exploded, with the knowledge they’d built in the old one. That’s the whole reason the section works.
The fall list, two years later
Justin printed out his 2024 fall beer article before we recorded. (He’s very organized in some ways. The reviews are numbered. He’s at 151.)
His honest read on it: some of those beers, and some of those breweries, are gone. He’s not laughing at anyone’s misfortune. He’s saying the NA space is doing exactly what the craft beer space did. Every brewery now has an IPA, a lager, a “dark” (legally they can’t always say stout). The limited releases are where the fun is, and there are a lot of NA Oktoberfests this year. But a small-town craft brewery can survive on locals. A niche NA brewery can’t, and if it can’t get big distribution, it has a good chance of failing.
He’s working on the updated list. I found out about it on the podcast, which is how I find out most things.
Kim’s version of the same story is spirits. Seedlip was the big name at the beginning. It’s still around, but it’s the brand sober-curious people know, and the people who’ve been drinking NA spirits for a while have moved on to Kentucky 74, Tanqueray 0.0, Ritual. Her one gap: wine. She was a white wine drinker, and she says there’s still room for improvement. Wine’s had a few thousand years of practice. NA will catch up.
“They don’t want recovered addicts”
Justin saw an interview with John Mulaney, who is sober and now fronts Years, an NA beer out of Chicago. Justin’s recollection: before that deal, Mulaney tried to partner with other NA brands, and they didn’t want him, because people in recovery weren’t the demographic. They wanted healthy people who just don’t drink.
“Story of my life, bro.”
Kim asked the only question that matters: “Isn’t there room for all of us at the table?”
You would think.
Here’s what I’ll say as a publisher. This site has sent more than a million people through the door, most of them sober five years or more. We review the drinks honestly, we don’t take alcohol money, and we have the readers these brands say they want plus the ones they’re apparently nervous about. If a brand doesn’t want to sit with us, that’s useful information too. Justin’s reviews are where you find out which ones showed up.
(Justin also wants it on the record that we may not need any more celebrity NA brands. “You could make a Marvel movie with the amount of people that have NA beverages.” Some are great. He won’t name the ones that aren’t here; that’s what the reviews are for.)
Drink as prescribed
A couple episodes back we had TOMONOTOMO founder Amanda Chen on, and Kim reviewed her Tobalá back in May. I asked her what it was like.
She liked it. In a cocktail. The brand says it’s good neat; Kim disagrees, and she said so, because that’s the job. Her rule for anyone trying NA spirits for the first time: “drink as prescribed.” Go to the brand’s website, find the cocktail they built the bottle for, and make that before you decide anything. She made the Paloma and the Killer Bee off TOMONOTOMO’s site, swapped what she didn’t have, and the smoke on the nose did the rest.
She also wants the story behind the bottle, and Amanda’s is a good one: Mexico during the pandemic, traditional methods, agave sourced from the region. A craft, not a celebrity vanity project.
On sipping neat in general, Kim’s verdict is that most NA spirits copying a gin or a whiskey are not meant for it. The exception is Pathfinder, which isn’t pretending to be anything but itself. Pathfinder on the rocks with an orange twist is perfectly fine. Tamar’s exception is Dromme Calm, a few drops of water, a ball of ice, orange peel. Justin’s exception was a tequila alternative that, in his words, is no longer with us.
What drink am I?
Then Kim did the thing I want her to do at every event we ever throw. She built Justin a drink on the spot: an NA Negroni with Pathfinder and Wilderton Earthen and a twist of orange, so the citrus hits first and the amaro-ish Pathfinder lingers against the earthy thing. Justin: “Sounds delightful.”
I asked what drink I am. She’d already made it. A pink Barbie Cosmo, shaken, in a coupe glass.
I’m not going to pretend I was anything but delighted.
The part where I confess
I didn’t drink for the taste. When I started The Sober Curator and realized the NA brands were going to start reaching out, my first thought was, oh no, I drink Diet Coke.
The first rum alternative I tried, during the pandemic, smelled too close. My body said no. Tamar had the same thing with an NA rum and Coke that tasted like the real deal; she’d stocked it at her own wedding before she realized it was a little too much like her previous drinking career.
Six years later, I’ll order something when I’m out, as long as someone who knows what they’re doing is making it. And I’m always a little stunned when one is enough, or I don’t finish it. This must be what normal people feel like.
If NA drinks aren’t safe for you, none of this is a test you’re failing. I’ll leave that there.
One drink for the rest of fall
Final round. You get one drink until winter, and coffee doesn’t count.
Kim: Joy’s Island Spice Sorrel Hibiscus Elixir, which she’s reviewing now, with grapefruit juice, tonic, and lime in a highball. Her husband makes a fall cocktail every year with cloves, hibiscus tea, and orange peel steeped on the stove, and this bottle does the same thing to the house. It says fall.
Justin: Best Day Brewing’s Galaxy Ripple, a double IPA with no alcohol in it, and Athletic’s limited mango habanero IPA, which he says scratches an itch. Pairing: chili and homemade cornbread, cornbread on top of the chili or chili on top of the cornbread, cheese, sour cream, onions, and a beer.
Tamar: An Oktoberfest, and specifically Best Day’s, which she likes better than Athletic’s for balance and a body light enough to have more than one. Justin put them on par and asked for a side-by-side blind tasting. I’m writing that down.
Me: Diet Coke. In a glass. With ice. I was told that’s not a cocktail.
Where to find Kim and Justin
Read Kim Parsley and Justin Lamb in Happy Every Hour, where every review is honest, even when a brand would prefer otherwise. Both of them wrote for the first two editions of The Sober Curator Mixtape, the Sober Snail Mail zine in a cassette case, which BACKSTAGE members get free with shipping. And if you have a drink we need to know about, send it. We’ll tell you the truth.
So tell me: you get one drink for the rest of fall. What is it?
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What are the best non-alcoholic beers for fall?
Justin Lamb, who reviews NA beer for The Sober Curator, picks seasonal Oktoberfests and darker styles for fall. On the podcast his current pours are Best Day Brewing’s Galaxy Ripple (a non-alcoholic double IPA) and Athletic Brewing’s limited mango habanero IPA; co-host Tamar Routly picks Best Day Brewing’s Oktoberfest. His full ranked list, “Discover the Top 10 Non-Alcoholic Beers for a Flavorful Fall,” is on The Sober Curator and is being updated for 2026.
Can you drink non-alcoholic spirits neat?
Usually not, according to Kim Parsley, who reviews NA spirits for The Sober Curator. Most NA spirits that imitate gin or whiskey are built for cocktails. Her exceptions are products that aren’t imitating anything, such as Pathfinder Hemp & Root served on the rocks with an orange twist, some NA amari, and ginger-based spirits.
What’s the best way to try a non-alcoholic spirit for the first time?
Kim Parsley’s rule is “drink as prescribed”: go to the brand’s website, find the cocktail the spirit was designed for, and make that first. NA spirits have different sugar levels and no alcohol to carry flavor, so they mix differently than the originals.
Is Sober October a good idea?
Justin Lamb, a therapist and Sober Curator contributor, says the value is in what you notice: if you set a 30-day limit and find yourself negotiating with yourself at day 12, that’s useful information about your relationship with alcohol. The hosts also note the risk of treating a completed month as proof that drinking is fine, with a binge on Nov. 1.
Are non-alcoholic drinks safe for people in recovery?
It depends on the person. Alysse Bryson, sober since 2006, says some NA drinks smelled or tasted too close to alcohol for her, and co-host Tamar Routly had the same experience with an NA rum and Coke. The Sober Curator’s position is that NA drinks are a choice, not a requirement, and that anyone for whom they’re a trigger should skip them without apology.
Who reviews non-alcoholic drinks for The Sober Curator?
Kim Parsley reviews NA spirits and cocktails and Justin Lamb reviews NA beer in the Happy Every Hour section. Justin has written roughly 150 reviews. Both appeared on Season 2 of The Sober Curator Podcast with hosts Alysse Bryson and Tamar Routly.
