Daily Learnings: Sun, Dec 07, 2025
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. — Aeschylus
Learnings about Nonalcoholic Drinks
For my birthday my wife got me the great gift of learning about and engaging with a new hobby: mixing zero-proof / nonalcoholic cocktails (mocktails). I know it sounds a bit weird, but given I don’t drink alcohol, I’ve been interested in learning more about nonalcoholic mixology. This would help me to hopefully be a bit more confident ordering drinks at restaurants, as well as having a good drink at home.
My wife showed that she truly is an excellent gift giver. She bought me a 5 piece bar set, a host of nonalcoholic spirit alternatives to get started with, and two books:
- The Mocktail Club by Derick Santiago
- Mocktail Party by Kerry Benson & Diana Licalzi
I’ve started my learning with The Mocktail Club, and it’s been really interesting. To begin with, I had no idea that “zero proof” and “nonalcoholic” are often used interchangeably, but definitely do NOT mean the same thing. “Zero proof” means that there is literally 0.0 ABV in a given beverage. However, “nonalcoholic” can mean different things in different countries. For example, in the United States, anything up to 0.5 ABV is allowed to be called “nonalcoholic”. Further, when you get into which fermented foods contain trace amounts of alcohol, it gets really interesting.