Do you like mushrooms in soda? Try them, try them, and you may.
At the time I’m writing this, I’ve been sober for six months, 21 days and approximately 4.5 hours. But who’s counting? In all seriousness, I have no regrets about making the decision last October to transition out of the sober-curious life to being fully sober indefinitely. The only downside was the lack of beverage options beyond water or coffee…or so I thought.
I’ve never been a big fan of soda, and coffee past 3 p.m. is not suitable unless I want my quarterly bouts of insomnia to become permanent. My default drink became herbal tea — mostly peppermint or chamomile.
I so badly wanted this to be sufficient. Yet it did not quite quench the cravings I had many evenings for a proper adult libation. The divine powers-that-be could obviously sense my growing desperation, because a steady stream of new liquid refreshments has been popping up in the grocery aisle, as well as on a few cafe menus.
Drinks with adaptogens are one of the biggest trends these days. Adaptogens are plants and mushrooms thought to help the body respond to stress. A related term, nootropic, usually indicates that an ingredient is considered “cognitive enhancing.”
National cold-pressed juice and wellness brand Pressed Juicery released its nootropic beverages in March. The cold brew, coffee latte and matcha latte come ready to drink, infused with mushrooms like reishi, lion’s mane, and chaga. For me, they are a low-cal, caffeinated substitute to frothy, syrup-ladened oat milk lattes. Similarly, when I crave a chilled sip later in the day, MyMuse’s caffeine-free, “inspired soda” called Passion is my current hydration fix post-exercise — it contains a rejuvenating combo of electrolytes, zinc, potassium and magnesium.
Energy-boosting drinks are easier to find than those that mollify my nervous system. I’ve had luck at The Teasider, 823 E. East Johnson St., with its iced mate mugicha, a type of Korean barley tea that has an earthy taste and is a natural antacid. The pandan iced latte at Leopold’s Books Bar Caffè has a parallel effect. Ayurvedic properties have been attributed to the Southeast Asian herb pandan that the drink is named after, but I just like how its vanilla and coconut notes mingle on my palate.
Willy Street Co-op and Woodman’s both sell an assortment of probiotic sodas and tonics like GT’s Alive, infused with reishi, chaga and turkey tail mushrooms; its subtle flavor is more akin to kombucha than cola.
My taste buds and my gut seem to respond well to prebiotic “pop” such as Health-Ade’s SunSip sodas. It’s hard to miss the vibrant cans with logos radiating out from end caps at Whole Foods. My fave so far is the raspberry lemonade. Be forewarned that when you pop the tab on the root beer, it really smells like root beer (which I realize for some human somewhere will actually be an appealing attribute).
Whole Foods also sells mega-thirst quencher Local Weather, an upscale and more nutrient-dense version of Gatorade. The natural electrolytes come from coconut water and Himalayan pink salt. It has only six grams of sugar, much less than most other sports drinks (well more than 20 grams).
It turns out booze-free drinking is a “free-spirited” adventure I’m relishing, one pour at a time.
