Welcome to High Spirits
Welcome to the first edition of High Spirits, the Dry Atlas newsletter on all the latest happenings in booze-free!
It’s been an exciting week due to Melanie Masarin’s (of Ghia) appearance on Shark Tank Friday.
I’m not excited because I’m an investor in Ghia (I’m not). I like Ghia but Dry Atlas is about what you think, not what I think. It’s your product ratings and reviews that power this site. So why was I so excited about Ghia being on Shark Tank?
Because it represents an opportunity to invite more people, including those previously unaware of this industry, into our world of exciting, new, booze-free options. I felt like Melanie spoke for all of us on Friday and what she effectively said was, delicious, elegant, non-alc options exist and it’s ok, it’s normal, it’s cool to drink them instead of booze.
Here’s a brief clip that doesn’t do justice to how well she pitched Ghia and how much the sharks loved the products.
Speaking of cool,
Here’s an excellent piece in Vice on how alcohol lost its cool. I think there’s an element of truth to all of the reasons discussed in the article, but the ones that resonated with me most were the positive ones, like better mental health.
The state of the industry
Last week, our good friend Chris Becker of Better Rhodes stopped by Spirited Away in Nolita. We discussed the state of the industry and some of our favorite non-alc drinks of late including VandeStreek beers, Proteau aperitivi, Curious Elixirs, Phony Negroni, Al’s Beer and more.
A scientific understanding of alcohol’s effects
My friend Robby sent me this excellent podcast from Stanford Med neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman. It’s dense but it’s fascinating. The TL,DR probably won’t surprise you: even low-to-moderate alcohol consumption negatively impacts the brain and body in direct ways.
A few miscellaneous points to ponder:
Has not drinking become the new status symbol for tech elites?
@Toryverse is now 10 days into a 100 day no coffee + no booze experiment.
Will restaurant business models adapt to the growing non-alc movement and remain profitable?
How to decline alcohol in business meetings.
My friend Sarah is developing a new NA beverage and is trying to gather information with a short survey if you have a moment.
In closing:
Thank you for joining me on this journey, and for your support as we continue to build Dry Atlas. You can follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
