I went to an alcohol-free office drinks party and this is what happened
Most of January is over, which means that sober-minded people in the Netherlands are almost allowed to get back to drinking. Until then, you still see 0.0 beers and alcohol-free bars everywhere. We wondered: is alcohol-free social drinking actually fun, and decided to put it to the test.
Alcohol-free office drinks
According to Jellinek, experts in addiction, I am a heavy drinker. This is someone who drinks more than 6 glasses at least once a week. The other 6 days of the week? Yes. I often drink something then too. So one thing people don’t invite me to is an alcohol-free drinks party. I really can’t imagine being able to entertain myself for hours in a festive environment with a Coke in my hand instead of a glass of wine or a cocktail. It just doesn’t feel natural.
Everleaf the alcohol alone
But still. Dry January is here, and at the editorial office we’re not afraid of an experiment. Recently, we drank the delicious alcohol-free Everleaf during dinner. We wondered whether we could build a party around it. This drink was developed by Paul Mathew, a conservation biologist, bartender and owner of Hide Bar in London, who was looking for a genuinely delicious alcohol-free alternative. He couldn’t find one, so he made it himself. From 18 different plants and botanicals. And you can make perfectly good cocktails with it.
So we rustled up a real bar, a handsome cocktail shaker (why are cocktail shakers always handsome?) and a DJ with cheesy music. The drinks party could begin.
This was actually pretty okay
And honestly: alcohol-free social drinking wasn’t so bad. Rephrase: it was actually really fun! Admittedly, it was a little awkward at first; people clung to a bowl of popcorn as if it were the Titanic’s lifeboat, and the looks on their faces—normally excited, Friday, weekend, drinking!—were anxious. But when the lights went out and the strobe light came on (see the do’s and don’ts below too) and the cocktails were shaken, everyone loosened up—ish. After my second drink, I caught myself moving my feet to the music; after my third, we were even toasting, and when I heard a glass shatter, the party suddenly seemed completely real. The darker it got outside, the better the strobe light worked—and I actually felt at ease.
It was a completely new experience to wake up the next day without a hangover and discover that nobody had gone into the bathroom together and that I hadn’t called several exes in tears.
Do’s & Don’ts
Would you like to organize an alcohol-free office drinks party at the last minute of Dry January too? These do’s and don’ts pave the way to success:
Do’s
- Make sure you have a (preferably sexy) bartender. No matter how hard Peter from IT or Bart from administration insists, don’t skimp on a real bartender (sorry Bart, this is going to cost you money too).
- Make sure you have perfect serves, so the drinks actually look appealing.
- Put on sultry or cheesy music—or even better: hire a DJ (again: sorry Peter and Bart!)
- Turn off the lights and switch on a strobe light. Or hang up a disco ball.
- Provide plenty of snacks. Crisps, popcorn, brown fruit, the works.
- The easiest way to make a killer-ish cocktail is with a non-alcoholic spirit, such as Everleaf. Build it up with herbs, spices, vegetable syrups and concentrated bitters. The latter do contain alcohol, but because you often use only a few drops, the alcohol percentage in the finished cocktail is negligible.
- Use a good mixer (no 7Up or other sugary rubbish; thanks to the craft-soda trend, more and more interesting brands are appearing on the market). Also try kombucha or other fermented drinks as a mixer.
- Optional: arrange a karaoke set.
- Make a cocktail menu so people can see what they’re drinking. The next day, people even asked for the recipes, which are included here!
Don’ts
- Don’t make drinks that look like cocktails but simply taste like fruit juice with a twist. You drink a cocktail for the taste experience, whether or not it contains alcohol. Just as with an exciting dish, it’s about the interplay between sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
- Invite your colleagues for drinks and leave the word ‘alcohol-free’ out of it. This is because of the deterrent effect.
- Don’t overcompensate. It may feel a little unfamiliar for people like you and me to stand at a drinks party with a mocktail. The reassurance of getting tipsy isn’t lurking—and it isn’t coming either. Don’t overcompensate by slurring “drunkenly” or dancing excessively—something that can normally be quite charming when you’re tipsy (or at least, that’s what you think then). When sober, it’s truly awkward. Don’t do it.
- An alcohol-free drinks party is fun, but only briefly fun. You drink considerably faster than when you’re knocking back gin and tonics, and you get full very quickly. That’s when the party is over (or you eventually reach for the booze after all…).
Alcohol-free elsewhere
No office drinks party, but still want to enjoy alcohol-free drinks? You can find Everleaf at Bar 0.020. Everleaf cocktails are also on the menu in Amsterdam at Pulitzer’s Bar, Vesper, Rosalia’s Menagerie, Flying Dutchmen and at The Stockroom in Groningen.
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