Sober Nation

It used to be hard to find a decent non-alcoholic drink for grown-ups besides soda and juice. I became acutely aware of this during the summer of 2016, while on my fourth date in Montreal with Jeremy, my now-husband. He had been sober for five years, after a decade of drinking and drugs that culminated in an intervention, two months in rehab and well over 1,000 AA meetings. That night, when he asked about booze-free beverage options, our waiter looked shaken. “Sir,” he said, “this is a bar.” Retail options were no better.