Alcohol-free (starting the year), how do you keep it up?
Dry January. It is not for everyone and secretly more difficult than you think. So normal to end a stressful day with a drink or to celebrate with a nice glass of something. Starting the year without alcohol is something that many people do. Only to fail again at the first New Year's drink. How do you survive a month without drinking? Because - you won't believe it - even without alcohol you can still drink delicious drinks and do a lot of fun and taste delicious things.
So, we make it as easy as possible for you: a list of favorites, completely hangover-free.
Tasty – no lie – gin that is completely alcohol-free. Seedlip extracts the flavor of herbs, fruit and extracts from more normal ingredients such as lemon peel, rosemary and thyme. But also more unusual ingredients such as oak bark, peas and hay. No sugar and artificial junk. To make it even more exciting seedlip available in three flavors. Throw at that virgin gin a little more adventurous cocktail combos and you will get through the month.
Sometimes you just crave a beer. Nowadays several brands have a good alcohol-free or low-alcohol variant. But there are also some that still taste like an empty glass. Lowlander Bear – brewed from spices, herbs, fruit and even in winter from Christmas tree needles – has a delicious 0,00% beer. Brewed with used orange and lemon peels. The result is one tasty non-alcoholic wheat beer.
You can find other low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers in this list. A good tip for Amsterdam residents is also a visit to the Bierkoning on Paleisstraat. Worth a visit anyway, but they always have an extensive range of beers with very little or no alcohol. Located in the rack to the right of the cash register.
You're walking around
Did you first have a drink and now you don't want to? What then? Let's get going and go for a walk! Add a cup of coffee, tea or warm apple juice with cinnamon – you won't hear us complaining.
Nowadays there are still negative reactions ('a mockery', 'grape juice' and 'wasted money') to non-alcoholic wine, but there are also more and more positive ones. There are certainly real standouts (the Lussory Sparkling for example, huge fan). You can also find other toppers at the webshop Naked Grapes, a huge range of everything non-alcoholic: red, white, rosé, bubbles, pink bubbles, it's all there. There are also trial packages, extra nice to discover what you like. So they also have the relatively new thing column zero. Their white and red wine was tested by the NCR as the best non-alcoholic wine. Or the brand's Riesling Leitz (Eins Zwei Zero) was voted the best non-alcoholic wine by Hamersma
Another good alternative to an alcohol-free version is Vinada, a sparkling rosé and – according to a pregnant Bart at the time – simply delicious without fooling around. We are too Pas Du Tout (again with a bubble), Torres Natureo en Sangre del Torro (just for sale at AH). But if you have the tip for a really tasty non-alcoholic wine, let us know. Then we put it in front of our (pregnant) fellow human beings.
Of course, just because you don't want to drink doesn't mean that there's still plenty of tasty food to taste, come on. This way you can curl up under a blanket on the couch with half a liter of tea, sweet from a good bakery (check this pastry list in Amsterdam) eat or go all out with ordering. If you don't know where, we have plenty of inspiration in these two lists: Amsterdam en throughout the Netherlands have it delivered or picked up. Or treat yourself to it party menu from Daalder, also a very good idea. Tips for really not-so-difficult-but-very-delicious dishes (yes, even after the holidays, you still have time) can be found at these top chefs.
This booze-free month aka dry January is affecting everyone. The idea that you have to sit at home for a month and miss all the fun is terrible and, above all, unnecessary. Hello, it is (almost) 2022. Life should also remain fun, as often as possible anyway, and Madame Cyclette understands this. The saparista (the good version of the barista, really) is ready to make all kinds of different colored concoctions for you so that you don't notice that missing wine. A special bar has even been set up for this purpose, which looks good anyway, with shiny tiles and hanging glasses. It's in the middle of the store and you can't miss it when you enter: it's all right, you can immediately look at the saparista. And if you don't feel like having a juice, there is also kombucha, always good. It is tapped for you on the spot and is available in different flavors.
