Mindful Drinking: A guide to the art of less, but better

Mindful drinking. Dry January. Damp January. Zebra Striping. 

January has a habit of turning into a personality test. Are you virtuous enough to resist temptation? Or rebellious enough to mock it? 

Pick a lane, make it loud, post about it. Swing between the absolutes. Unless, like most people, you don’t want to live in binaries. You aren’t a glutton for punishment, and you have no intent on burning down the hospitality industry. 

You just want to take it easier after a season of encouraged excess. Sleep better. Think clearer. Mind the pennies.

The art of Mindful Drinking

‘Mindful drinking’ is an approach that has gained traction. It’s not quitting, but more about tuning down. Less volume, more value. 

This is where whisky, improbably, fits. A category long associated with heft, warmth, and evenings that stretch, now finding new relevance in moderation. Not as a loophole or a consolation prize, but as something worth engaging with on its own terms.

Mindful drinking is not about pretending alcohol does not exist. It is about recognising that the things we love – the flavours, the rituals, the atmosphere – do not have to vanish every January. In fact, they may even come into sharper focus. When you’re not strictly following rules, but acknowledging how you feel. 

The cultural shift: from cutting out to cutting back

Across bars and home kitchens, moderation has stopped being an annual project. Guests are ordering differently, alternating alcoholic and alcohol-free drinks, and expecting the same level of effort either way. Nobody wants a sticky-sweet afterthought.

Low-ABV whisky cocktails, alcohol free whisky drinks, and proper whisky mocktails require the same care as their full-strength counterparts. Structure matters. So does length. Texture, too, which is so often underappreciated. Alcohol brings heft, mirroring flavour alone isn’t enough. If a drink collapses halfway through the glass, it does not matter how worthy the intention was.

Fortified wines, teas, ferments, and modern non-alcoholic spirits have opened up new ground. But there’s room for whisky. “Less, but better,” has been a motto the industry has extolled internally for some time. It’s never quite reached terminal velocity in “the real world,” but it only gets there with a good push.

How bars are getting it right

The smartest bars are not trying to replicate whisky exactly when alcohol is removed. They are working adjacent to it. Think of it like learning the language rather than mimicking its accent. 

Mindful whisky drinking is not about denying pleasure. It is about redistributing it. Whether you are exploring low alcohol whisky cocktails, building out alcohol free whisky drinks, or simply alternating your rounds, the point is the same. Whisky and mindfulness do not clash. 

The best drinks, after all, are the ones you remember enjoying.

To see how that plays out in practice, we spoke to three bartenders who are shaping what mindful drinking actually looks like behind the bar.

Sam Nellis, head bartender at Silver Lyan

Sam has watched demand for low and no alcohol drinks grow steadily for over a decade. What has changed is not just the frequency, but also the expectation. Guests now want the same craftsmanship and narrative, regardless of alcohol content.

“Gone are the days of mixing every juice you have and topping it with ginger beer. For this reason, we offer four cocktails from our menu, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ as ‘boozeless’ versions where we try to offer our closest facsimile of the experience of the real thing.”

At Silver Lyan, the goal is not to trick anyone into thinking they are drinking a Whisky Sour. It is to deliver the emotional hit of one. Non-alcoholic spirits help, but they are not a silver bullet. Body and structure still need to be built, often through tannins from tea, nuts, oak, or chestnuts. These elements give shape and grip, the things alcohol usually supplies by default.

For low-ABV whisky cocktails, Sam reaches for fortified wines. An Adonis is a favourite. All the satisfaction of a Manhattan, without the aftermath.

Laurie Howells, head bartender at Archive & Myth

At Archive & Myth, mindful drinking is part of the rhythm of service. Guests move fluidly between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, not as a compromise but as a choice. Zebra striping, the act of alternating between alcohol and no alcohol, has become second nature.

Laurie focuses on mouthfeel and extension. Without alcohol, flavour still needs somewhere to go. Rice, starches, and a broad range of teas help build weight and length. When it comes to whisky-adjacent ingredients, adjacent is really the key word. “The goal isn’t to just replace whisky itself, but to work with the flavours you’d naturally find within it, things like oak, stone fruit, dried fruit, tropical esters or gentle smoke, depending on the style,” Howells explains. 

“Sherry in low serves is brilliant for bringing oxidative depth and dried fruit notes, and certain teas help create tannin structure and a long finish. Kombucha gives esters, acidity and that slight funk you’d associate with cask influence. Beyond those, we also use roasted barley for malt warmth, toasted rice for nuttiness, lapsang or smoked herbs for subtle smoke, verjus or oxidised apple for acidity and complexity, cacao husk for bitterness, and wood infusions like oak or cedar to add structure. These ingredients don’t imitate whisky, but they echo specific elements within it, allowing us to build depth and character in a non-alcoholic context.”

A standout low-ABV serve is Laurie’s take on a Mizuwari, using Japanese whisky lengthened with water, botanicals, and carbonation for lift. Light, crisp, and quietly expressive.

For alcohol free, the team developed a Whisky Sour that nods to the flavour profile of Macallan 12 Year Old without trying to impersonate it. Dried fruit, soft oak, gentle nuttiness, all delivered through non-alcoholic spirits, apple, dates, oak, miso whey syrup, and a dual foam that shifts as you drink. 

Mindful drinking, Laurie says, is permanent. Guests are no longer chasing intoxication. They are chasing experience.

Adam Montgomerie, general manager at Equal Parts

At Equal Parts, non-alcoholic cocktails sit alongside the main menu as standard, not as a sidebar. Adam has noticed guests increasingly switching between alcoholic and NA drinks across a visit. The desire is simple. Drink well, drink less.

Tea is his go-to for building depth, but it is far from the only tool. There’s something wonderfully British about how often bartenders are reaching for tea as the solution.

Shrubs, verjus, brines, honey, kombucha, and sodas also all play a role. The current wave of specialised non-alcoholic products, like Botivo and Pentire, has made balance easier to achieve, not harder.

For whisky-adjacent serves, Adam points to a favourite of mine. “I’m a huge fan of Whisky Highballs and love finding new and interesting sodas to mix with whiskies in highballs. We’ve recently been using Fig Leaf soda on our menu, and it pairs fantastically with whisky. Also, tea is an incredible ingredient to utilise with whisky, I’ve used lemon verbena, chamomile and green tea to mention a few and would highly recommend checking out the Rare Tea Company for inspiration.”

Mindful Drinking: a fixture in the future

Sam says mindful drinking is not going anywhere. Laurie reckons it’s permanent. Adam believes it’s here for good. 

They also all say that choosing not to drink alcohol no longer means choosing to drink badly.