By Adam Bloodworth
You can find alcohol free events across the capital this January, as more and more Brits continue to experiment with less alcohol and lower amounts of it
Whether you’re going alcohol free entirely for Dry January or just cutting back, there are plenty of opportunities to keep off the sauce next month.
Dry January raises awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol and it’s a message that seems to be reaching the mainstream: the percentage of British non-drinkers keeps rising. And alcohol free no longer means tasteless drinks, these days low-and-no choices have competing flavour profiles to alcoholic drinks, with bitterness, strength and complex mouthfeel.
Here are five alcohol free events in London this Dry January.
Go to London’s new alcohol free bar
Torstig – which already has an outpost in Brighton – is opening a London bar this January. From the 11th they will be serving the alcohol free cocktails that became popular in their seafront outpost. It is also one of the only places in the country to have zero percent alcohol free Guinness on tap – which is in our opinion one of the best booze free drinks on the market. 93 Kingsland Road until 20 January.
Or London’s first alcohol free bar
Club Soda in Covent Garden were early kickstarters to the alcohol free and low-and-no trends. They opened London’s first alcohol free bar in Covent Garden just over a year ago and they’re open throughout January with their typical mix of high quality cocktails. Try the espresso martini: trust us, it’s convincingly like the real thing.
Or find great alcohol free alternatives across London
Plenty of bars and restaurants across London are supporting Dry January with interesting cocktail and drinks creations. At NoMad in Covent Garden we like the sound of the Peter Piper, with pineapple, black pepper, passion fruit, lime and white balsamic vinegar.
The modern Palestinian restaurant Akub near Queensway has created the jallab nojito, with date molasses, fresh lime, mint and soda water, and the Swift cocktail bars in Shoreditch and Borough has the tempting-sounding The Tempest, with darjeeling kombucha, elderflower cordial, lemon sherbet and honey.
At Bossa in Marylebone we’ll be all over the Evergreen, a non-alcoholic gin sour with shisho leaf, lemon and shisho bitters and there is a special collaboration between the Westin London City hotel and Nunc, creators of an award-winning kombucha, who have created a food and non alcoholic drinks pairing menu to run throughout January. Their ‘champagne of kombucha’ is created with organic green tea and raw honey which supposedly lends a smoother and lighter taste.
And Stereo bar in Covent Garden has the Reversed Paloma, with grapefruit juice, red pepper, lime and grapefruit soda – and there’s late night dancing, to show that having a good time needn’t be reliant on alcohol.
