Dry. That word just sounds so sad. Makes me think of the perpetual state of my hands right now as a mom in the winter, or a tumbleweed bumbling across the desert, or a boring book or movie. Dry, dry, dry.

Obviously when it comes to wine, “dry” simply refers to a lack of sweetness, but here we are talking about the alcohol-free kind of dry.

Let’s talk for a minute about Dry January. For those of you who are unaware, Dry January is a concept of abstaining completely from all alcohol from January 1st – 31st, in the interest of starting a clean slate of health and possibly allowing one’s liver to recover from the overindulgence of November – December.

I think awareness around one’s health and personal threshold for alcohol is very important. But I do not think people should use Dry January as a virtue-signaling cheat to immediately stop binge drinking/overindulging and then hit the bottle again hard come February 1st. Extreme yo-yo-ing habits always bite you in the butt and are no way to live. Perhaps this is why there is a lot of annoyed hubbub over Dry January from winemakers and producers, which is understandable.

My tenet: enjoy wine as you wish, as you can, in moderation, year-round. It’s also important to remember alcohol serving sizes and numbers (different for men and women), and that individual factors like tolerance for different amounts/types of alcohol, whether it’s consumed with food, hydration levels, and temperament/stress level whilst enjoying play significant roles in alcohol metabolism for each person.

Anyway, enough philosophizing. I’ve been meaning to write a post on this particular beverage for a very long time, and I just haven’t gotten around to it until now. Dry January is the perfect opportunity to tell you about this product.

As a wine lover, it’s not often I try a non-alcoholic beverage and enjoy it more than the wine I’m consuming. Shocker. But it did happen! One afternoon out with my mom and kids at a wine bar, I ordered a glass of an obscure Italian varietal and my son ordered something off the non-alcoholic drinks menu that was effectively a soda pop. I sampled his pop and immediately was wowed. It tasted way better than my esoteric Italian varietal and compelled me with its elaborate layers and dimensions of flavors. It was called Casamara Club Onda. It reminded me of the Italian aperitif amaro, the florid combination of botanical herbs and citrus that I love. This drink did not feel AT ALL like drinking a coke or ginger ale or what have you. It felt sophisticated and very complex. So much to enjoy and explore in each sip.

So what is Casamara Club? It’s a business that crafts leisure sodas: “delicious, refreshing drinks… from unique botanical extracts, minimally processed in small batches. Each is thoughtfully blended into delicate, aromatic recipes inspired by far off places.” They have perfected the taste and impression of several cocktails from international vacation spots and reimagined them as dry incarnations. Lo adoro!

Onda is their “Sicilian style botanical soda with coastal amaro aromatics and an extra dry finish.” The ingredients listed on the back of the bottle include: sparkling water, lemon juice, demerara cane sugar, extracts of Italian lemon, sage leaf, rhubarb root, Italian chinotto, juniper berry, anise, Mediterranean sea salt. So even though it contains sugar, the sugar is standing in the background quietly bringing balance, not stealing the spotlight. Simple, pure, refreshment for grown-ups (or kids with sophisticated palates, like mine). 😉

I think it’s great that there has been so much innovation in the non-alcoholic beverage department. Why not? I’m all for humans being creative. Not unlike advances in vegetarian/vegan cuisine, there are so many wonderful and amazing flavors and textures to explore but without the use of alcohol or animal products. I don’t agree with completely replacing meat or alcohol but certainly to have options that mimic the best parts of those foods is admirable. I know all too many folks who cannot imbibe alcohol for various health reasons, and to let them have the option of something that is a change of pace from pop or sparkling water I’m sure is long overdue and more than welcome. In fact, it’s welcome even for those of us who maybe reach our quota for the time being but still want to enjoy something beside plain old water, or who want to forgo the enamel-scraping sweetness of pop.

Give this a try. I think you will be just as surprised as I was. ❤

Are you practicing Dry January, or are you unfazed by such silly trends? 😉 Do you have other tasty non-alcoholic beverages you would recommend? Comment below!